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(Birds trilling)

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(Traffic murmuring) (Cars beeping)

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- There's different translations,

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but roughly it means work
hard, leave luck to heaven.

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- Just super interesting,

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'cause I don't think a lot of people

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think about where the
name Nintendo came from.

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(Gentle music) (Fire crackling)

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- [Narrator] Greatness
always starts with an idea.

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The idea should remain malleable

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to create something of longevity.

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It is ever changing,

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and yet remains
faithful to its core values,

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to bring positive change,
to bring hope, to bring fun.

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(Uplifting music)

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- [Speaker] I have a
wonderful electronic invention

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I want you to see, it
looks something like this.

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- [Computer voice] 3, 2, 1, game begin.

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(Lively music)

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(Playful music)

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(Video reel rasping)

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- [Narrator] On September 23rd, 1889,

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Fusajiro Yamauchi began
manufacturing Hanafuda,

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Japanese playing cards of floral design.

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Fusajiro was born in Kyoto

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and it was here that he
established Nintendo Koppai,

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Koppai meaning playing cards in Japanese.

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During such time,

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a widespread ban on playing
cards swept through Japan

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due to their ties with gambling,

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foreign trade, and usage by the Yakuza.

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(Video reel rasping) (Gentle music)

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- Nintendo is one of the world's
biggest gaming companies.

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They're a Japanese company
and they've actually been going

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for well over a hundred years now.

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They started making playing cards,

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but they really reached their stride

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in the eighties and nineties,

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when they started releasing Arcade machines

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and then home consoles.

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And that was about the same time as well

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when we got introduced
to their biggest franchises,

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like "Mario and Luigi",
"legend of Zelda" "and Kirby".

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(Upbeat music)

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- As you can see,

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they're a bit smaller than
the western playing cards

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that we are used to,

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and they're printed with
beautiful flower patterns

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and scenes from nature.

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(Film reel rasping)
(Upbeat music continues)

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- Nintendo's earliest and best customers

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were the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza.

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They ran lots of illegal gambling dens

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and they needed playing cards.

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And because no one wanted cheating going on

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every game started
with a new pack of cards.

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So Nintendo had a great business early on

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because these gangsters would buy cards,

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they'd open the cards, play a game,

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throw 'em away, get new set playing cards.

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So it was a good business to get into.

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(Upbeat lively music)

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- [Narrator] Yamauchi found great success

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in his newfound company.

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Before long, he had
established a new shop in Osaka

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and began to develop

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a more comprehensive array of card games.

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It was in 1929 when
yamauchi decided to step down

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from the company, passing
the business to his son-in-law,

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Sekiryo Kaneda, who adopted
the name Sekiryo yamauchi

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in respect of the family.

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Fusajiro remained
uninvolved with the company

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for the remainder of his life,

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eventually passing away from a stroke

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in his home city of Kyoto,
on January 1st, 1940.

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- And the founder of the
company continued until 1929

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when his son-in-law, Sekiryo Kaneda,

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who took the name yamauchi as well,

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took over the company and
kind of professionalized it,

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improved the manufacturing processes,

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and started manufacturing
western style playing cards.

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- [Video narrator] War has struck again.

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(Airplane purring)

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(Lively music)

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- After world war ii Japan was in ruins.

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It was occupied most,
there wasn't much food,

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the buildings were flattened.

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I mean, the country had to
rebuild from absolute scratch.

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And from that came this kind of, you know,

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essentially a new start,

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it tried to move into
electronics and kind of,

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that was really kind of where
Japan found a new future

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post-war.

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(Video reel rasping)
(Lively music continues)

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- [Narrator] The years
following world war ii

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allowed Japan to further
its industrialization.

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Markets for electronics were established

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alongside the rise of
strip mills for iron and steel.

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Among such technological innovations,

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were transfer machines
for the automobile industry,

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automatic control systems
in new steam power stations,

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and catalytic cracking
in oil refining industries.

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(Video reel rasping)

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- Akihabara is an
electronics district in Tokyo,

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and it came like the
hub of electronics shops.

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You'd have these kind
of multi-story arcades

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and shops selling all kinds of electronics.

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It was really kind of very,
kind of geeky mecca if you like.

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You know, if you were into
electronics and you are in Tokyo,

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you're gonna make a beeline for that area.

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- [Narrator] After the death of Sekiryo,

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Hiroshi yamauchi, the grandson of fusajiro

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was ordered to step up

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and assume the mantle of company president.

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Being young and inexperienced,

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Hiroshi suffered some initial backlash

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from the company's employees.

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- In 1949, Sekiryo became ill,

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called up his grandson to his hospital bed

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and said, "okay, you
give up your law degree

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and take over Nintendo from me."

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That was Hiroshi yamauchi.

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And over the course of the next 50 years,

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he was destined to turn Nintendo

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into a multinational conglomerate.

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But at the beginning, it wasn't so easy.

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(Gentle music)

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- [Narrator] Strikes would take place

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to test the new president's
dedication to the role,

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and firmly Hiroshi would make a stand.

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He chose to fire a handful of employees

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and set his eyes on the future.

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With a traditional imperialist demeanor,

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Hiroshi ran the company

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intending to keep up
with the changing times.

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The first step,

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was to develop a new
style of plastic playing cards

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influenced by western markets.

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However, due to Japan's strict restrictions

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on unsanctioned gambling,

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the plastic and Hanafuda cards

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were now struggling to make a profit.

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Luckily, the company
now called Nintendo Kurata

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made a licensing deal with Walt Disney

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to merge the new plastic
cards into family oriented games,

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with a small booklet
outlining the many games

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one could play with the cards.

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The new product would
sell 600,000 units in one year,

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allowing Nintendo to
dominate the card game market

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in its own country.

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- They also had a deal with Disney

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that allowed them to
make Disney playing cards.

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- That had Disney characters on them.

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And so this sort of made Nintendo

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kind of take a little side step

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into manufacturing things for children,

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wherein they discovered
there's a lot of money to be made

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here.

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And so that was another stepping stone

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on the way to them creating video games,

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which at that time were
basically considered toys.

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- [Narrator] Once again, the
company name was changed

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to the Nintendo company limited,

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and the business was made public

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with Hiroshi yamauchi as its chairman.

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- So in the beginning,

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Hiroshi Yamauchii was only 21 years old,

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and the workers in Nintendo

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didn't necessarily take
him entirely seriously.

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He was really ambitious
and really ruthless.

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He fired anyone that disagreed with him.

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- [Narrator] Visiting
Cincinnati in the United States

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provided Hiroshi with some disappointing

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yet valuable information.

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He'd gone to examine

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the world's largest
manufacturer of playing cards,

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the us playing card company.

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However, on his arrival,

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a small office and factory greeted him.

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To Hiroshi, the scale of the facility

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represented the success
of the playing card industry,

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and there wasn't much to be seen.

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(Upbeat music)

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Concerned for the company's future,

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Hiroshi returned to Japan

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in search of new ways to
ensure the longevity of Nintendo.

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- After Nintendo had established themselves

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making these playing cards,

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they tried a bunch of different
things before they landed

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on what would eventually
make them so successful.

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So they tried a whole
range of different companies,

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including taxis and even love hotels.

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- He went into the food
business making instant rice,

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and he went into the taxi business.

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And that one seemed to go okay

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until there was a labor revolt,

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and that was the end of that idea.

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- So by the early seventies,
Nintendo was struggling.

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It spent a fortune trying
all these businesses,

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getting nowhere, and had a lot of debt.

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- [Narrator] The outlandish ventures

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proved unsuccessful for the business

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and were soon disbanded.

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The company was on the brink of bankruptcy.

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Desperately searching for ideas,

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Hiroshi spotted a factory
engineer called Gunpei Yokoi.

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(Upbeat music)

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- Around that time,

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Hiroshi visited one of the factories

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and saw Gunpei playing
with an extendable claw,

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a toy which he'd invented himself.

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And instead of telling him off for that,

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he was fascinated by this

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and asked him to put these extendable claws

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into manufacture.

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- [Narrator] The ultra hand was distributed

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and became a massive hit.

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Such simplistic ingenuity
spurred new ideas for the company.

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Soon a toy department was made in Kyoto,

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solely led by Gunpei who
would develop new concepts,

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such as the love tester and the light gun.

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00:10:03,263 --> 00:10:04,498
(Upbeat music)

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00:10:04,581 --> 00:10:07,727
♪ Love tester ♪

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00:10:07,810 --> 00:10:09,320
♪ love tester ♪

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- [Narrator] By the 1960s,

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Nintendo had solidified
itself as a significant player

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00:10:14,113 --> 00:10:15,410
in the toy market.

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The early seventies came rolling in,

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and with it the idea of a video game

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was being conceptualized.

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- Around that time in the early seventies,

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video games were
becoming a really big thing.

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"Pong" had come out in 1972

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and suddenly video games were cool.

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- [Narrator] Atari became
the first in the race,

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releasing "pong" in 1972.

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It was inspired by a game

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developed by physicist William Higinbotham.

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Atari leap towards mainstream distribution,

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giving the public a
groundbreaking discovery,

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which took America by storm.

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Nintendo had to react fast.

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Hiroshi hired employees
from sharp electronics

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00:10:55,093 --> 00:10:56,510
to develop a new system

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00:10:56,593 --> 00:10:59,720
that could compete with the
emerging video game consoles.

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Soon in cooperation
with Mitsubishi electric,

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00:11:02,923 --> 00:11:07,923
the TV color 6 was made
and distributed in June, 1977.

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00:11:08,288 --> 00:11:09,038
(Video reel rasping)

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- So after Nintendo had been
going for quite a long time,

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they really started to branch out

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00:11:13,543 --> 00:11:16,190
into the burgeoning gaming world.

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00:11:16,273 --> 00:11:17,023
So at the time,

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Arcade machines were
hugely popular around the world.

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Atari had already been
producing them for quite a while.

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00:11:22,843 --> 00:11:24,710
Classics like "pong" had been around

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00:11:24,793 --> 00:11:26,090
for a little bit of time,

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but they were really
starting to take off in Japan,

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in America, and in Europe.

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00:11:31,003 --> 00:11:34,790
So Nintendo decided that
they would try and get in on this

260
00:11:34,873 --> 00:11:37,370
really expanding market as well.

261
00:11:37,453 --> 00:11:38,510
And when they did,

262
00:11:38,593 --> 00:11:41,690
they really worked on how
they were going to make a game

263
00:11:41,773 --> 00:11:42,830
that would stand out.

264
00:11:42,913 --> 00:11:46,490
- But it wasn't actually meant
to be Nintendo's console.

265
00:11:46,573 --> 00:11:51,050
Mitsubishi had created it for
another company that went bust

266
00:11:51,133 --> 00:11:53,690
and decided to give Nintendo a call,

267
00:11:53,773 --> 00:11:55,880
see if they'd put it out instead.

268
00:11:55,963 --> 00:11:58,910
And that's how Nintendo
got into video games.

269
00:11:58,993 --> 00:12:01,130
- So Nintendo's very first console,

270
00:12:01,213 --> 00:12:03,710
games console was
actually the "color TV-game".

271
00:12:03,793 --> 00:12:08,793
It was a very, very simple
device, but it paved the way.

272
00:12:08,953 --> 00:12:13,953
I think Shigeru Miyamoto,
who would go on to make

273
00:12:14,503 --> 00:12:16,790
some of Nintendo's most important games,

274
00:12:16,873 --> 00:12:19,820
did actually work on the "color TV-game".

275
00:12:19,903 --> 00:12:22,310
I think he designed like the outer casing

276
00:12:22,393 --> 00:12:24,050
or something really random like that.

277
00:12:24,133 --> 00:12:27,410
So it paved the way for
one Shigeru Miyamoto

278
00:12:27,493 --> 00:12:30,200
to then go on to design "donkey Kong".

279
00:12:30,283 --> 00:12:31,033
(Upbeat music)

280
00:12:31,116 --> 00:12:31,880
- [Narrator] In response,

281
00:12:31,963 --> 00:12:34,820
Atari returned with the 2600,

282
00:12:34,903 --> 00:12:38,420
popularizing microprocessor
based hardware and games

283
00:12:38,503 --> 00:12:40,910
stored on swappable rom cartridges.

284
00:12:40,993 --> 00:12:43,640
It was the most popular
second generation console

285
00:12:43,723 --> 00:12:46,550
by a large margin
during the time of release.

286
00:12:46,633 --> 00:12:47,780
Nintendo would follow

287
00:12:47,863 --> 00:12:50,570
with four more iterations of the TV color,

288
00:12:50,653 --> 00:12:53,990
and soon both Atari and
Nintendo were being recognized

289
00:12:54,073 --> 00:12:56,330
as big fish in a huge pond.

290
00:12:56,413 --> 00:12:58,539
And competitiveness was on the rise.

291
00:12:58,622 --> 00:13:00,523
(Speaking in a foreign language)

292
00:13:00,606 --> 00:13:03,523
(Computer beeping)

293
00:13:05,623 --> 00:13:08,510
- [Narrator] In response to
America’s growing Arcade market,

294
00:13:08,593 --> 00:13:11,390
hiroshi expanded Nintendo into the us,

295
00:13:11,473 --> 00:13:14,067
releasing new titles such as "radar scope",

296
00:13:14,150 --> 00:13:16,400
"space fever", and "sheriff".

297
00:13:16,483 --> 00:13:18,440
Though effective in the Japanese market,

298
00:13:18,523 --> 00:13:21,620
the games weren't financially
successful in America.

299
00:13:21,703 --> 00:13:25,430
To counter this, hiroshi
turned to Shigeru Miyamoto.

300
00:13:25,513 --> 00:13:28,370
And upon deliberation,
"donkey Kong" was made,

301
00:13:28,453 --> 00:13:31,381
becoming a smash hit in both countries.

302
00:13:31,464 --> 00:13:34,131
(Playful music)

303
00:13:39,913 --> 00:13:41,480
- The Arcade machine that they came out

304
00:13:41,563 --> 00:13:42,530
with was "donkey Kong",

305
00:13:42,613 --> 00:13:45,560
which is obviously one of
their most famous franchises,

306
00:13:45,643 --> 00:13:48,292
and starred the main character of Jumpman,

307
00:13:48,375 --> 00:13:51,050
who was originally actually a carpenter.

308
00:13:51,133 --> 00:13:52,460
But he would eventually become

309
00:13:52,543 --> 00:13:56,450
our most beloved Nintendo character, Mario,

310
00:13:56,533 --> 00:13:58,430
who's actually a plumber now.

311
00:13:58,513 --> 00:14:00,920
But the idea was that
as he was a carpenter,

312
00:14:01,003 --> 00:14:04,610
the level was based
around kind of like a workman

313
00:14:04,693 --> 00:14:06,620
sort of environment,

314
00:14:06,703 --> 00:14:09,590
where he's dodging
barrels from a big gorilla

315
00:14:09,673 --> 00:14:11,900
also called donkey Kong.

316
00:14:11,983 --> 00:14:13,430
And this just took off across the world.

317
00:14:13,513 --> 00:14:16,520
It was a really fantastic Arcade machine,

318
00:14:16,603 --> 00:14:18,230
and kids loved to play it.

319
00:14:18,313 --> 00:14:19,730
And that was really the start

320
00:14:19,813 --> 00:14:22,580
of how Nintendo managed to
dominate the gaming market

321
00:14:22,663 --> 00:14:23,979
at that time.

322
00:14:24,062 --> 00:14:26,729
(Playful music)

323
00:14:34,582 --> 00:14:37,165
(Upbeat music)

324
00:14:43,813 --> 00:14:45,980
- So Shigeru Miyamoto

325
00:14:46,063 --> 00:14:51,063
is probably one of the most
important video game designers

326
00:14:51,433 --> 00:14:52,183
there's ever been.

327
00:14:52,266 --> 00:14:56,450
He is a producer, a creative director,

328
00:14:56,533 --> 00:14:59,450
a game developer, a game designer,

329
00:14:59,533 --> 00:15:04,190
and he created much of
Nintendo's early output.

330
00:15:04,273 --> 00:15:06,920
So he created "Mario",
he created "donkey Kong",

331
00:15:07,003 --> 00:15:09,080
he created "the legend of Zelda".

332
00:15:09,163 --> 00:15:12,020
So his contribution to the games industry

333
00:15:12,103 --> 00:15:13,970
really can't be understated.

334
00:15:14,053 --> 00:15:16,820
- He's kind of like the
Michelangelo of video games,

335
00:15:16,903 --> 00:15:17,690
if you like.

336
00:15:17,773 --> 00:15:20,990
He joined Nintendo out of art school

337
00:15:21,073 --> 00:15:24,050
and really bought kind of, you know,

338
00:15:24,133 --> 00:15:26,030
the whole Nintendo style as we know it,

339
00:15:26,113 --> 00:15:29,030
really kind of emerged
from him and what he did.

340
00:15:29,113 --> 00:15:34,113
And he always wanted to make
games that appeal to everyone,

341
00:15:34,243 --> 00:15:36,650
you know, they were never aimed at kids,

342
00:15:36,733 --> 00:15:38,930
they were never aimed purely adults.

343
00:15:39,013 --> 00:15:41,900
It was about games for everyone to enjoy,

344
00:15:41,983 --> 00:15:44,840
and games that were very
much about joy, you know,

345
00:15:44,923 --> 00:15:47,810
and happiness, it was
kind of a very kind of bright,

346
00:15:47,893 --> 00:15:50,240
optimistic kind of style, he brought.

347
00:15:50,323 --> 00:15:51,560
- [Narrator] Hiroshi instituted

348
00:15:51,643 --> 00:15:54,380
three separate innovation
and development facilities

349
00:15:54,463 --> 00:15:56,000
under the Nintendo banner.

350
00:15:56,083 --> 00:15:58,400
This unique method would
allow each department

351
00:15:58,483 --> 00:16:00,680
to outplay the other within the company,

352
00:16:00,763 --> 00:16:04,220
constantly guaranteeing
new innovative results.

353
00:16:04,303 --> 00:16:07,820
In 1979, Gunpei Yokoi conceived the idea

354
00:16:07,903 --> 00:16:09,410
of a handheld video game,

355
00:16:09,493 --> 00:16:12,440
while sitting on the bullet
train on a business trip.

356
00:16:12,523 --> 00:16:13,880
- So around 1979,

357
00:16:13,963 --> 00:16:16,250
the story goes that Gunpei was commuting

358
00:16:16,333 --> 00:16:18,620
and he saw on the train
Japanese businessmen

359
00:16:18,703 --> 00:16:21,350
playing with lcd calculators.

360
00:16:21,433 --> 00:16:22,730
- At that time you have to remember,

361
00:16:22,813 --> 00:16:24,860
there's not much entertainment
you can carry with you.

362
00:16:24,943 --> 00:16:28,430
You can have a newspaper,
a magazine, a book.

363
00:16:28,513 --> 00:16:29,630
If you don't have any of those,

364
00:16:29,713 --> 00:16:31,610
you can stare out the window.

365
00:16:31,693 --> 00:16:33,890
So there's not much choice of what to do.

366
00:16:33,973 --> 00:16:36,320
And he notices further down the carriage,

367
00:16:36,403 --> 00:16:38,536
there's this guy with a pocket calculator,

368
00:16:39,433 --> 00:16:42,859
which is, you know, pretty
high tech for the late seventies,

369
00:16:42,942 --> 00:16:45,726
and he's just playing
around with the calculator

370
00:16:45,809 --> 00:16:47,600
to pass the time.

371
00:16:47,683 --> 00:16:49,760
And so Gunpei kind of thinks, hang on,

372
00:16:49,843 --> 00:16:53,540
what if I took technology
of the pocket calculator,

373
00:16:53,623 --> 00:16:55,340
turned it into a game?

374
00:16:55,423 --> 00:16:56,990
That would be something people could take,

375
00:16:57,073 --> 00:16:58,970
and it could kind of help commuters

376
00:16:59,053 --> 00:17:02,060
on their boring journeys
have something fun to do.

377
00:17:02,143 --> 00:17:04,489
- And that's who created the game and watch.

378
00:17:04,573 --> 00:17:08,689
- Nintendo first entered the
kind of handheld gaming world

379
00:17:08,773 --> 00:17:09,979
with the game and watch,

380
00:17:10,063 --> 00:17:13,640
which was kind of an led games console,

381
00:17:13,723 --> 00:17:16,969
not even what we would
consider a console today really.

382
00:17:17,053 --> 00:17:20,090
Each of them was only
preloaded with one game,

383
00:17:20,173 --> 00:17:23,600
so you couldn't put multiple
games into that console.

384
00:17:23,683 --> 00:17:25,070
But it was still really popular.

385
00:17:25,152 --> 00:17:27,979
People liked having a
handheld gaming device

386
00:17:28,063 --> 00:17:29,582
to take with them.

387
00:17:29,665 --> 00:17:32,915
(Arcade games beeping)

388
00:17:37,243 --> 00:17:37,993
- [Narrator] The seventies

389
00:17:38,076 --> 00:17:41,120
would become known as the
golden age of Arcade games.

390
00:17:41,203 --> 00:17:42,860
People crowded around machines,

391
00:17:42,943 --> 00:17:46,160
placing coins on the
screen to reserve their turn.

392
00:17:46,243 --> 00:17:47,690
The eighties came rolling in,

393
00:17:47,773 --> 00:17:51,260
and with it a massive
advancement in gaming technology.

394
00:17:51,343 --> 00:17:54,200
But with it came many
more consoles manufactured

395
00:17:54,283 --> 00:17:56,570
to capitalize on the rise of gaming

396
00:17:56,653 --> 00:17:58,760
from "pong" clones to home computers,

397
00:17:58,843 --> 00:18:01,640
most of which weren't
functioning as promised.

398
00:18:01,723 --> 00:18:05,540
Before long the market was
saturated in off-brand consoles

399
00:18:05,623 --> 00:18:09,020
and choosing one which work
as intended became a minefield.

400
00:18:09,103 --> 00:18:12,110
This climate would be known
as the video game crash,

401
00:18:12,193 --> 00:18:14,780
aka the Atari shock.

402
00:18:14,863 --> 00:18:15,980
- In the eighties,

403
00:18:16,063 --> 00:18:19,460
video games felt like they
were just reaching new heights

404
00:18:19,543 --> 00:18:21,770
and just getting more and more popular.

405
00:18:21,853 --> 00:18:23,240
But then actually there was something

406
00:18:23,323 --> 00:18:25,340
that's known as the video game crash.

407
00:18:25,423 --> 00:18:27,200
What had happened was a lot of companies

408
00:18:27,283 --> 00:18:30,200
were just churning out
kind of lower quality games

409
00:18:30,283 --> 00:18:32,720
really quickly to try and hit that market,

410
00:18:32,803 --> 00:18:35,510
and make money out of it basically.

411
00:18:35,593 --> 00:18:37,250
So this led to a crash

412
00:18:37,333 --> 00:18:40,040
where people didn't really
have faith in video games

413
00:18:40,123 --> 00:18:41,420
for a little while.

414
00:18:41,503 --> 00:18:44,390
Nintendo introduced a
thing called the seal of quality,

415
00:18:44,473 --> 00:18:46,160
which just meant that
they were gonna guarantee

416
00:18:46,243 --> 00:18:47,990
that the games they were producing

417
00:18:48,073 --> 00:18:50,930
were gonna reach a
really high quality level

418
00:18:51,013 --> 00:18:52,880
and meant that people could have faith

419
00:18:52,963 --> 00:18:54,570
in the games they were buying again.

420
00:18:54,653 --> 00:18:56,210
(Upbeat music)

421
00:18:56,293 --> 00:18:59,840
- [Narrator] The year is
1983, summer in Japan.

422
00:18:59,923 --> 00:19:02,000
The video game recession is at its height

423
00:19:02,083 --> 00:19:03,650
with companies going bankrupt

424
00:19:03,733 --> 00:19:08,300
and global video game
stock depleting by almost 97%.

425
00:19:08,383 --> 00:19:11,420
After years of work,
Nintendo released a product

426
00:19:11,503 --> 00:19:14,360
which would change the
video game climate forever.

427
00:19:14,443 --> 00:19:16,280
It is called the Famicom,

428
00:19:16,363 --> 00:19:20,311
known to the west as the
Nintendo entertainment system.

429
00:19:20,394 --> 00:19:23,312
(Static rasping)

430
00:19:23,395 --> 00:19:26,062
(Lively music)

431
00:19:30,283 --> 00:19:32,720
- [TV speaker] Nintendo, a
quick loading cartridge system

432
00:19:32,803 --> 00:19:35,360
with over 60 of the hottest titles ever.

433
00:19:35,443 --> 00:19:37,790
Games like "Batman",
a life and death struggle

434
00:19:37,873 --> 00:19:41,780
to end the evil jokers reign of
terror and save Gotham city.

435
00:19:41,863 --> 00:19:43,610
Games like "super Mario brothers",

436
00:19:43,693 --> 00:19:45,620
a battle to rescue the mushroom Princess

437
00:19:45,703 --> 00:19:47,420
from the evil koopa turtles.

438
00:19:47,503 --> 00:19:49,100
Go for the joystick for extra control

439
00:19:49,183 --> 00:19:51,736
or go to infrared for remote control.

440
00:19:52,693 --> 00:19:55,550
The hottest games are on Nintendo,

441
00:19:55,633 --> 00:19:58,910
the world's number one games system.

442
00:19:58,993 --> 00:19:59,743
(Game beeping)

443
00:19:59,826 --> 00:20:03,110
- Nintendo had developed the
Famicom, the family computer,

444
00:20:03,193 --> 00:20:04,580
and this was a video game system

445
00:20:04,663 --> 00:20:06,200
that had more than just one game on it.

446
00:20:06,283 --> 00:20:08,210
You could actually swap out the cartridges

447
00:20:08,293 --> 00:20:10,280
and play lots of different games on it.

448
00:20:10,363 --> 00:20:11,900
So Japan was protected

449
00:20:11,983 --> 00:20:14,838
from this international
video game market crash

450
00:20:14,921 --> 00:20:17,780
because Nintendo was
doing really well in Japan

451
00:20:17,863 --> 00:20:20,740
with the Famicom from 1983 to 1985.

452
00:20:20,823 --> 00:20:24,410
- The Famicom console was
released in Japan originally

453
00:20:24,493 --> 00:20:26,300
and was called the Famicom.

454
00:20:26,383 --> 00:20:29,060
But it then came out
in the us and in Europe

455
00:20:29,143 --> 00:20:33,710
as the Nintendo entertainment
system, or the NES,

456
00:20:33,793 --> 00:20:37,310
that was their first really
popular at home console.

457
00:20:37,393 --> 00:20:39,620
It became the thing to
have across the world,

458
00:20:39,703 --> 00:20:41,090
especially for kids.

459
00:20:41,173 --> 00:20:41,923
- But at that time,

460
00:20:42,006 --> 00:20:44,540
the industry was very
skeptical of video games.

461
00:20:44,623 --> 00:20:46,190
This enormous market crash

462
00:20:46,273 --> 00:20:48,530
had damaged the reputation of video games.

463
00:20:48,613 --> 00:20:50,330
And so they went to great lengths

464
00:20:50,413 --> 00:20:52,340
to distinguish their new system

465
00:20:52,423 --> 00:20:55,370
from all of the video game
consoles that had gone before.

466
00:20:55,453 --> 00:21:00,350
At that time, 1985, vhs and
betamax videos were cool.

467
00:21:00,433 --> 00:21:03,080
And so they made the
Nintendo entertainment system

468
00:21:03,163 --> 00:21:07,955
look like a vhs, with cassettes
that went in sideways.

469
00:21:08,038 --> 00:21:13,038
(Upbeat music) (Speaking
a foreign language)

470
00:21:17,973 --> 00:21:19,370
- [Narrator] The NES became a staple

471
00:21:19,453 --> 00:21:22,070
for the development of video
games and their longevity

472
00:21:22,153 --> 00:21:24,410
in an otherwise uncertain climate.

473
00:21:24,493 --> 00:21:26,750
The system was affordable and reliable,

474
00:21:26,833 --> 00:21:29,570
being marketed with the
Nintendo seal of quality,

475
00:21:29,653 --> 00:21:32,206
countering concerns for potential faults.

476
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:36,230
(Playful music)

477
00:21:40,258 --> 00:21:42,020
With the release of "the legend of Zelda"

478
00:21:42,103 --> 00:21:44,900
and "super metroid"
Nintendo became synonymous

479
00:21:44,983 --> 00:21:47,270
with its characters and iconography.

480
00:21:47,353 --> 00:21:50,000
It also provided the
public with the zapper,

481
00:21:50,083 --> 00:21:53,300
the first widely distributed
light gun designed for games

482
00:21:53,383 --> 00:21:55,910
such as "duck hunt" and "hogan's alley".

483
00:21:55,993 --> 00:21:58,400
However, nothing would prepare Nintendo

484
00:21:58,483 --> 00:22:01,851
for what might have been its
most significant decision yet.

485
00:22:01,934 --> 00:22:03,057
(Video game beeping)

486
00:22:03,140 --> 00:22:04,872
"Super Mario brothers".

487
00:22:04,955 --> 00:22:07,705
(Playful music)

488
00:22:18,329 --> 00:22:19,550
- And really, I don't think you can mention

489
00:22:19,633 --> 00:22:21,890
all of those early Nintendo games

490
00:22:21,973 --> 00:22:24,530
without mentioning the soundtracks to them.

491
00:22:24,613 --> 00:22:29,613
Koji Kondo the composer to all
of those early Nintendo games

492
00:22:30,493 --> 00:22:35,450
is just a master, I think
at creating those sounds

493
00:22:35,533 --> 00:22:37,460
and effects and melodies

494
00:22:37,543 --> 00:22:40,482
that just get stuck in your head forever.

495
00:22:40,565 --> 00:22:43,232
(Playful music)

496
00:22:44,863 --> 00:22:48,560
- Nintendo's first big
success was "donkey Kong".

497
00:22:48,643 --> 00:22:50,753
It was a coin operated Arcade game,

498
00:22:50,836 --> 00:22:54,170
and that really made its name worldwide.

499
00:22:54,253 --> 00:22:55,760
It just became huge.

500
00:22:55,843 --> 00:22:58,880
It was one of the first
sort of platform games.

501
00:22:58,963 --> 00:23:00,710
Introduced the world to Mario

502
00:23:00,793 --> 00:23:03,350
or everybody knew him
as Jumpman at the time.

503
00:23:03,433 --> 00:23:06,530
And it was a big hit
everywhere in the world.

504
00:23:06,613 --> 00:23:08,900
It was big in Japan, it
was big in North America,

505
00:23:08,983 --> 00:23:09,920
big in Europe.

506
00:23:10,003 --> 00:23:12,140
So that really established Nintendo

507
00:23:12,223 --> 00:23:14,330
as a force in video games.

508
00:23:14,413 --> 00:23:16,010
And then a few years later,

509
00:23:16,093 --> 00:23:18,530
it brings out the Nintendo
entertainment system.

510
00:23:18,613 --> 00:23:22,310
It's first proper home video game console.

511
00:23:22,393 --> 00:23:25,457
And that has "super Mario
bros", which is, you know,

512
00:23:25,540 --> 00:23:29,480
a wonderful game even
now, huge at the time.

513
00:23:29,563 --> 00:23:31,220
And that really established Nintendo

514
00:23:31,303 --> 00:23:34,324
as the leader of the video game market.

515
00:23:34,407 --> 00:23:35,157
(Gentle music)

516
00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:37,160
- I mean, Nintendo became
so popular around the world

517
00:23:37,243 --> 00:23:42,020
because of how initially simple,

518
00:23:42,103 --> 00:23:44,600
but how gorgeously complex

519
00:23:44,683 --> 00:23:47,540
and gorgeously well designed its games are,

520
00:23:47,623 --> 00:23:49,550
I mean, you look at things like,

521
00:23:49,633 --> 00:23:52,970
let's take "super Mario",
you know, the level 1-1

522
00:23:53,053 --> 00:23:57,110
for example, I actually spoke
years ago to Shigeru Miyamoto

523
00:23:57,193 --> 00:23:58,820
about how he went about creating this.

524
00:23:58,903 --> 00:24:03,050
In level 1-1 a player will
encounter absolutely everything

525
00:24:03,133 --> 00:24:06,830
that they possibly need to
understand how the game works.

526
00:24:06,913 --> 00:24:11,540
And so in subsequent
levels, it's what they know,

527
00:24:11,623 --> 00:24:14,360
what the game can assume
that they already know about it

528
00:24:14,443 --> 00:24:17,330
is challenged, so the very first, you know,

529
00:24:17,413 --> 00:24:20,060
little bit that Mario runs
along and he jumps up

530
00:24:20,143 --> 00:24:22,910
and he hits the box and
the mushroom comes out,

531
00:24:22,993 --> 00:24:27,110
it's actually very hard for a
player to avoid that mushroom

532
00:24:27,193 --> 00:24:29,780
because the game wants you to run into it

533
00:24:29,863 --> 00:24:32,810
and discover Mario can make himself bigger.

534
00:24:32,893 --> 00:24:35,840
And that's one core mechanic
of the game right there

535
00:24:35,923 --> 00:24:38,000
that you've discovered
without, you know, any tutorials

536
00:24:38,083 --> 00:24:41,086
without being told, you've
just found it out for yourself.

537
00:24:42,043 --> 00:24:44,180
And that's the beauty of a Nintendo game,

538
00:24:44,263 --> 00:24:48,350
they want, I think at the core
of every good Nintendo game

539
00:24:48,433 --> 00:24:51,676
is the joy of discovery,
the joy of curiosity.

540
00:24:52,693 --> 00:24:53,900
And that is,

541
00:24:53,983 --> 00:24:56,960
I think that's inherently
Shigeru Miyamoto thing.

542
00:24:57,043 --> 00:24:59,630
You know, that's "legend of Zelda" to a T,

543
00:24:59,713 --> 00:25:00,890
it's all about discovery,

544
00:25:00,973 --> 00:25:02,570
it's all about going out into the world

545
00:25:02,653 --> 00:25:04,100
and seeing what you can find,

546
00:25:04,183 --> 00:25:05,630
and seeing what you can uncover.

547
00:25:05,713 --> 00:25:08,210
- In the late eighties, I
was living in America.

548
00:25:08,293 --> 00:25:10,790
I didn't have a Nintendo console myself,

549
00:25:10,873 --> 00:25:14,120
but after school I was so
excited to walk to Danny's house

550
00:25:14,203 --> 00:25:16,060
and played "duck hunt" with the light gun

551
00:25:16,143 --> 00:25:18,170
on his Nintendo entertainment system.

552
00:25:18,253 --> 00:25:20,450
There was nothing more exciting.

553
00:25:20,533 --> 00:25:23,390
And "super Mario brothers" blew my mind.

554
00:25:23,473 --> 00:25:25,820
- There's just so many fascinating elements

555
00:25:25,903 --> 00:25:29,990
to early Nintendo design,
I mean, Mario, right?

556
00:25:30,073 --> 00:25:33,440
Take for example, Mario,
Mario's got his blue overalls,

557
00:25:33,523 --> 00:25:35,270
he's got his red hat,
he's got his mustache,

558
00:25:35,353 --> 00:25:37,070
he's got a big nose.

559
00:25:37,153 --> 00:25:39,440
All of those things that make Mario, Mario,

560
00:25:39,523 --> 00:25:44,501
were done just because it
made him easier to animate.

561
00:25:44,584 --> 00:25:47,120
It was just cutting corners essentially.

562
00:25:47,203 --> 00:25:48,530
And he was blue and red

563
00:25:48,613 --> 00:25:53,240
so that he would stand out on
the background, number one,

564
00:25:53,323 --> 00:25:57,470
he had a hat so that they
wouldn't have to animate any hair.

565
00:25:57,553 --> 00:25:59,930
He had a mustache so that
you didn't have to see his mouth

566
00:26:00,013 --> 00:26:01,700
and he wouldn't have to talk or, you know,

567
00:26:01,783 --> 00:26:04,460
make signs or do anything like that.

568
00:26:04,543 --> 00:26:09,543
Every little thing about that
it's just very clever design.

569
00:26:10,543 --> 00:26:13,100
And that was, again, that was Miyamoto,

570
00:26:13,183 --> 00:26:15,770
that was early Nintendo to a T.

571
00:26:15,853 --> 00:26:16,603
I always remember

572
00:26:16,686 --> 00:26:19,160
you described goombas
as suspicious mushrooms,

573
00:26:19,243 --> 00:26:20,750
'cause you have the
mushrooms that you know,

574
00:26:20,833 --> 00:26:23,150
let you power up and
you've got one extra life,

575
00:26:23,233 --> 00:26:24,710
and then the goombas are suspicious

576
00:26:24,793 --> 00:26:27,260
'cause they're a little
bit shady and you know,

577
00:26:27,343 --> 00:26:29,160
I always find that very
funny 'cause it's like,

578
00:26:29,243 --> 00:26:31,070
"hmm, suspicious mushrooms.

579
00:26:31,153 --> 00:26:33,996
Okay, how does one go
about making one of those?"

580
00:26:34,079 --> 00:26:36,579
(Funky music)

581
00:26:49,653 --> 00:26:52,820
(Video game beeping)

582
00:26:54,776 --> 00:26:56,012
- [Narrator] In 1989,

583
00:26:56,095 --> 00:26:59,180
Gunpei Yokoi revealed his latest invention,

584
00:26:59,263 --> 00:27:03,140
the game boy released in
Japan alongside "Tetris",

585
00:27:03,223 --> 00:27:04,550
the game boy would birth

586
00:27:04,633 --> 00:27:08,517
the now $90 billion pokemon franchise.

587
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,350
(Playful music)

588
00:27:14,983 --> 00:27:18,050
This revolutionary console was a smash hit

589
00:27:18,133 --> 00:27:21,800
and began developing more
complex handheld consoles.

590
00:27:21,883 --> 00:27:24,140
- There were handheld video game consoles

591
00:27:24,223 --> 00:27:26,060
that allowed you to play
lots of different games

592
00:27:26,143 --> 00:27:29,090
by swapping cartridges,
like the Atari lynx,

593
00:27:29,173 --> 00:27:32,540
and the game gear and
of course, the game boy.

594
00:27:32,623 --> 00:27:34,940
The game boy was
different to its competitors.

595
00:27:35,023 --> 00:27:37,190
Its competitors had color screens.

596
00:27:37,273 --> 00:27:41,926
- So the game boy was,
even for 1989, quite primitive.

597
00:27:42,973 --> 00:27:45,796
It was black and white,
its rivals were in color.

598
00:27:46,662 --> 00:27:50,720
You know, it seemed
quite retro even in 1989.

599
00:27:50,803 --> 00:27:55,010
But because it was a
handheld and it was primitive,

600
00:27:55,093 --> 00:27:57,680
it could use less batteries.

601
00:27:57,763 --> 00:28:00,410
And that meant it was far
more portable and reliable.

602
00:28:00,493 --> 00:28:04,610
So basically, Nintendo beat
much more advanced competition

603
00:28:04,693 --> 00:28:07,295
by having something that
was much more practical.

604
00:28:07,378 --> 00:28:09,860
- Gunpei Yokoi's design philosophy

605
00:28:09,943 --> 00:28:13,250
was lateral thinking
with withered technology.

606
00:28:13,333 --> 00:28:15,770
And what that meant is
that he didn't want to design

607
00:28:15,853 --> 00:28:18,080
a cutting edge video game system.

608
00:28:18,163 --> 00:28:21,440
He wanted to use technology
that was already well used

609
00:28:21,523 --> 00:28:23,450
and already cheap.

610
00:28:23,533 --> 00:28:25,820
And that has been
Nintendo's most successful

611
00:28:25,903 --> 00:28:27,657
design philosophy ever since.

612
00:28:27,740 --> 00:28:30,500
- [Narrator] "Super Mario"
became loved by millions

613
00:28:30,583 --> 00:28:34,160
and slowly but surely sealed
itself as the brand mascot

614
00:28:34,243 --> 00:28:35,660
for the company.

615
00:28:35,743 --> 00:28:37,940
When Nintendo was dominating the market,

616
00:28:38,023 --> 00:28:40,670
a new competitor joined the scene, Sega,

617
00:28:40,753 --> 00:28:43,283
with the release of the sg-1000.

618
00:28:43,366 --> 00:28:44,630
- It's quite expensive though,

619
00:28:44,713 --> 00:28:49,391
and it's better then watching TV I think.

620
00:28:49,474 --> 00:28:51,852
- I'm addicted to it, "street fighter".

621
00:28:51,935 --> 00:28:54,380
- I like fighting and adventure.

622
00:28:54,463 --> 00:28:56,510
- Sega's got more better games,

623
00:28:56,593 --> 00:29:00,043
but Nintendos more sort off fantasy games.

624
00:29:04,123 --> 00:29:05,090
- [TV reporter] British market alone

625
00:29:05,173 --> 00:29:08,030
is worth over £500 million a year.

626
00:29:08,113 --> 00:29:11,120
Video games outsell music cds,

627
00:29:11,203 --> 00:29:13,160
and so far there seems to be room

628
00:29:13,243 --> 00:29:16,498
for more than one Victor Ludorum.

629
00:29:16,581 --> 00:29:17,331
- In the nineties,

630
00:29:17,414 --> 00:29:20,240
Nintendo were right at
the top of their popularity.

631
00:29:20,323 --> 00:29:21,767
The game boy was out,

632
00:29:21,850 --> 00:29:24,320
the Nintendo entertainment system was out,

633
00:29:24,403 --> 00:29:26,630
but Sega were also hot at their heels

634
00:29:26,713 --> 00:29:29,720
trying to really recapture
some of that market.

635
00:29:29,803 --> 00:29:33,590
So while Nintendo had Mario,
the friendly Italian plumber,

636
00:29:33,673 --> 00:29:38,270
Sega had Sonic the hedgehog,
a cool blue hedgehog.

637
00:29:38,353 --> 00:29:40,910
And the contrast was that Mario games

638
00:29:40,993 --> 00:29:43,970
were often kind of seen
as more family friendly,

639
00:29:44,053 --> 00:29:46,610
more kind of cuddly in a way.

640
00:29:46,693 --> 00:29:50,270
And they were quite slow
paced compared to Sonic,

641
00:29:50,353 --> 00:29:52,940
which really sold itself on speed.

642
00:29:53,023 --> 00:29:56,060
So the Sonic games
really positioned themselves

643
00:29:56,143 --> 00:29:59,600
as quite edgy, and that really
spoke to a lot of teenagers

644
00:29:59,683 --> 00:30:00,980
and kids at the time,

645
00:30:01,063 --> 00:30:02,810
which meant that Nintendo and Sega

646
00:30:02,893 --> 00:30:05,630
ended up kind of battling
it out with their mascots

647
00:30:05,713 --> 00:30:07,606
for console supremacy.

648
00:30:08,623 --> 00:30:10,640
- [TV narrator] Danita
Stokes, president of H.A.G.

649
00:30:10,723 --> 00:30:11,480
- It's bad enough

650
00:30:11,563 --> 00:30:13,670
that Sega Genesis has
the most 16-bit games,

651
00:30:13,753 --> 00:30:15,440
but this new "Sonic the hedgehog",

652
00:30:15,523 --> 00:30:17,840
oh, he really dusts my doilies.

653
00:30:17,923 --> 00:30:19,790
They say he's incredibly fast.

654
00:30:19,873 --> 00:30:22,250
Well, what's the hurry, Mr? Hmm?

655
00:30:22,333 --> 00:30:25,310
And about his attitude, smarty pants.

656
00:30:25,393 --> 00:30:27,641
Why can't he be more
like that nice boy Mario?

657
00:30:27,724 --> 00:30:29,106
(Lips sputtering) Oh.

658
00:30:29,189 --> 00:30:30,689
(Wind whooshing) Little brat.

659
00:30:31,573 --> 00:30:33,530
- [TV speaker] Now get "Sonic" free

660
00:30:33,613 --> 00:30:35,210
when you buy a Sega Genesis system

661
00:30:35,293 --> 00:30:38,090
at its new price of 149.99.

662
00:30:38,173 --> 00:30:41,510
- The rivalry between Sega
and Nintendo was aggressive.

663
00:30:41,593 --> 00:30:43,400
They really were going for it at that time.

664
00:30:43,483 --> 00:30:45,980
Like they just wanted to corner the market.

665
00:30:46,063 --> 00:30:49,555
So Sega had a slogan on their advertising

666
00:30:49,638 --> 00:30:52,070
that was pretty pointed.

667
00:30:52,153 --> 00:30:55,850
It was, "Sega does what nintendon't."

668
00:30:55,933 --> 00:30:57,980
- It is what we call eyeballing the kid

669
00:30:58,063 --> 00:30:59,990
and actually going up to
him saying, "this is Nintendo,

670
00:31:00,073 --> 00:31:00,950
this is what it does.

671
00:31:01,033 --> 00:31:02,990
Go on, have a go, what do you think?"

672
00:31:03,073 --> 00:31:04,040
And of course, added to that,

673
00:31:04,123 --> 00:31:06,620
there's the imagery of
Nintendo, which is very important,

674
00:31:06,703 --> 00:31:08,300
which the kids also find important.

675
00:31:08,383 --> 00:31:09,770
It's a kind of a badge brand

676
00:31:09,853 --> 00:31:12,410
because there's a
playground battle out there,

677
00:31:12,493 --> 00:31:13,640
Nintendo v Sega.

678
00:31:13,723 --> 00:31:15,683
And it's important to us that
most kids in the playgrounds

679
00:31:15,766 --> 00:31:17,463
are talking about Nintendo.

680
00:31:17,546 --> 00:31:18,296
(Static rasping)

681
00:31:18,379 --> 00:31:19,730
- Really what we have here is a format war,

682
00:31:19,813 --> 00:31:22,190
just like vhs and beta in video.

683
00:31:22,273 --> 00:31:25,580
And of course every Nintendo
sold from our point of view

684
00:31:25,663 --> 00:31:29,150
is one person out there
not buying Sega software.

685
00:31:29,233 --> 00:31:31,700
And this market is all about
razors and razor blades,

686
00:31:31,783 --> 00:31:32,660
if you like, in other words,

687
00:31:32,743 --> 00:31:33,860
we make the money on the software

688
00:31:33,943 --> 00:31:35,210
rather than on the hardware.

689
00:31:35,293 --> 00:31:38,240
So it's important that we get
as big a user base out there

690
00:31:38,323 --> 00:31:39,357
as possible.

691
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,607
(Upbeat funky music)

692
00:31:48,043 --> 00:31:50,390
- So Sega during the eighties

693
00:31:50,473 --> 00:31:53,930
was always the number
two console manufacturer,

694
00:31:54,013 --> 00:31:57,800
and by number two, it
had 10% at the market,

695
00:31:57,883 --> 00:32:01,370
Nintendo had 90%, so
you know, it is not even,

696
00:32:01,453 --> 00:32:04,430
it's number two, but the gap is enormous.

697
00:32:04,513 --> 00:32:08,630
So as the nineties began,
Sega gets ready it's new console,

698
00:32:08,713 --> 00:32:11,210
the mega drive or the Sega Genesis,

699
00:32:11,293 --> 00:32:15,020
and decides it's gonna
fight again and try and win.

700
00:32:15,103 --> 00:32:17,510
And it launches a couple of years ahead

701
00:32:17,593 --> 00:32:19,610
of the super Nintendo.

702
00:32:19,693 --> 00:32:23,900
And basically markets
itself at older teenagers,

703
00:32:23,983 --> 00:32:26,120
and with the helper
Sonic, it breaks through,

704
00:32:26,203 --> 00:32:27,437
it sells a few million

705
00:32:27,520 --> 00:32:31,340
before Nintendo has even
released its own console.

706
00:32:31,423 --> 00:32:34,670
So certainly it's gone from
this kind of distant number two

707
00:32:34,753 --> 00:32:36,681
to an actual serious force.

708
00:32:36,764 --> 00:32:40,400
And so the early nineties
were this kind of power struggle

709
00:32:40,483 --> 00:32:43,070
between Nintendo and Sega.

710
00:32:43,153 --> 00:32:46,100
Sega kind of aiming for
a slightly older audience.

711
00:32:46,183 --> 00:32:49,069
Nintendo aiming for a
slightly younger audience.

712
00:32:49,152 --> 00:32:52,259
In the end, Nintendo won out.

713
00:32:52,342 --> 00:32:55,940
Nintendo eventually
managed to outsell Sega.

714
00:32:56,023 --> 00:32:59,670
But you know, it was close
run for a good couple of years.

715
00:32:59,753 --> 00:33:04,753
(Lively music) (Video game chattering)

716
00:33:07,273 --> 00:33:08,300
- [Narrator] The nineties began

717
00:33:08,383 --> 00:33:11,450
with the release of the super
Nintendo entertainment system

718
00:33:11,533 --> 00:33:14,900
and super Famicom
transcending from 8-bit game play

719
00:33:14,983 --> 00:33:16,280
to 16-bit.

720
00:33:16,363 --> 00:33:19,280
The new console found
great success across seas

721
00:33:19,363 --> 00:33:22,790
and competed with Sega’s
new console, the Genesis.

722
00:33:22,873 --> 00:33:25,310
It was here that both Nintendo and Sega

723
00:33:25,393 --> 00:33:26,930
were considered at war

724
00:33:27,013 --> 00:33:29,870
with Sega releasing the new
hit, "Sonic the hedgehog".

725
00:33:29,953 --> 00:33:30,703
- Gotta go.

726
00:33:30,786 --> 00:33:32,150
Hey guy, you're the first serious gamer

727
00:33:32,233 --> 00:33:32,983
I've seen all morning.

728
00:33:33,066 --> 00:33:35,870
Check this out, brand
new 16-bit super Nintendo

729
00:33:35,953 --> 00:33:38,195
with "super Mario world", wow.

730
00:33:38,278 --> 00:33:39,028
- [Customer] What's this one?

731
00:33:39,111 --> 00:33:41,840
- Oh, this is "Sonic the
hedgehog" from Sega Genesis.

732
00:33:41,923 --> 00:33:44,688
Hey, look at these radical colors, huh?

733
00:33:44,771 --> 00:33:46,220
- [Customer] Wow, Sonic's fast too.

734
00:33:46,303 --> 00:33:47,870
- No, overhear.

735
00:33:47,953 --> 00:33:49,907
- [Customer] I like Genesis
and it costs a lot less.

736
00:33:49,990 --> 00:33:51,230
- But kid, that game there...

737
00:33:51,313 --> 00:33:52,918
- [Customer] I'll take Sonic and Genesis.

738
00:33:53,001 --> 00:33:54,117
(Person chuckling) - I knew that.

739
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:55,760
- [TV speaker] "Sonic the
hedgehog", more action,

740
00:33:55,843 --> 00:33:59,764
more speeds, Sega Genesis,
it's a whole lot more for less.

741
00:33:59,847 --> 00:34:02,514
(Lively music)

742
00:34:09,943 --> 00:34:12,443
- [Narrator] With "super
Mario 64", "golden eye",

743
00:34:12,526 --> 00:34:15,559
and "the legend of
Zelda: The ocarina of time"

744
00:34:15,643 --> 00:34:19,700
the Nintendo 64 saw the
threshold made by the SNES

745
00:34:19,782 --> 00:34:23,166
and hiroshi looked to surpass
it in a grandiose fashion.

746
00:34:23,249 --> 00:34:25,550
It was a statement for 3D gameplay

747
00:34:25,633 --> 00:34:27,650
and character maneuverability.

748
00:34:27,733 --> 00:34:29,990
However, though Atari had beaten Nintendo

749
00:34:30,073 --> 00:34:33,710
in the race for dynamic 3D
gameplay, Nintendo discovered

750
00:34:33,793 --> 00:34:36,800
how to flawlessly execute
the newfound dimensions

751
00:34:36,883 --> 00:34:38,450
and utilize vector models

752
00:34:38,532 --> 00:34:41,180
to enhance the gameplay experience.

753
00:34:41,262 --> 00:34:42,012
- When I was a kid,

754
00:34:42,096 --> 00:34:45,680
I didn't really even know that
the job of game Dev existed,

755
00:34:45,762 --> 00:34:48,470
but I've always been someone
who loved to play games.

756
00:34:48,553 --> 00:34:50,090
When I was younger,

757
00:34:50,173 --> 00:34:53,660
we actually at home weren't
allowed to have a Nintendo 64

758
00:34:53,742 --> 00:34:55,099
or the PlayStation 1,

759
00:34:55,182 --> 00:34:57,526
which were the massive
consoles at the time.

760
00:34:58,513 --> 00:35:01,130
But I had friends who
did have those consoles

761
00:35:01,213 --> 00:35:04,040
and I would constantly go
over to their houses to play them.

762
00:35:04,123 --> 00:35:05,360
We also had a PC at home

763
00:35:05,443 --> 00:35:08,090
where I could play really chuggy games

764
00:35:08,173 --> 00:35:10,520
on our not very good computer.

765
00:35:10,603 --> 00:35:11,420
- In the mid nineties,

766
00:35:11,503 --> 00:35:13,640
gunpei Yokoi was still working for Nintendo

767
00:35:13,723 --> 00:35:16,670
and he wanted to develop
a virtual reality system.

768
00:35:16,753 --> 00:35:18,680
This was way ahead of its time.

769
00:35:18,763 --> 00:35:21,800
He developed what eventually
became the virtual boy,

770
00:35:21,883 --> 00:35:23,180
but it didn't go as planned.

771
00:35:23,263 --> 00:35:25,460
Nintendo didn't give
him enough time to finish

772
00:35:25,543 --> 00:35:26,660
the development,

773
00:35:26,743 --> 00:35:29,750
and the final product he
wasn't happy with it at all.

774
00:35:29,833 --> 00:35:32,150
In the end, instead of
being a portable headset

775
00:35:32,233 --> 00:35:34,370
like gunpei Yokoi had envisaged,

776
00:35:34,453 --> 00:35:36,140
it was actually table mounted,

777
00:35:36,223 --> 00:35:37,970
and you played it by
kind of leaning forward

778
00:35:38,053 --> 00:35:39,811
and looking into this lens.

779
00:35:39,894 --> 00:35:42,650
And you could see these 3D graphics,

780
00:35:42,733 --> 00:35:44,780
it was only one color, everything was red.

781
00:35:44,863 --> 00:35:47,600
Playing the virtual boy gave
you massive headaches,

782
00:35:47,683 --> 00:35:50,227
the games were awful, it was a total flop.

783
00:35:50,310 --> 00:35:52,640
Gunpei Yokoi was really upset about this

784
00:35:52,723 --> 00:35:55,340
because this was not the
system he had imagined.

785
00:35:55,423 --> 00:35:57,080
And as a kind of apology,

786
00:35:57,163 --> 00:35:58,640
he developed the game boy pocket

787
00:35:58,723 --> 00:36:00,560
before leaving Nintendo to go off

788
00:36:00,643 --> 00:36:03,226
and start his own product
development company.

789
00:36:04,123 --> 00:36:05,747
- [Narrator] In march, 1997,

790
00:36:05,830 --> 00:36:08,360
the Nintendo 64 launched in Europe

791
00:36:08,443 --> 00:36:11,870
and sold 2.3 million
units in the first year.

792
00:36:11,953 --> 00:36:14,120
Nintendo introduced the rumble pack,

793
00:36:14,203 --> 00:36:17,180
which enabled players to
feel the realistic vibrations

794
00:36:17,263 --> 00:36:18,650
contained in the game.

795
00:36:18,733 --> 00:36:22,250
In the early 2000s,
Nintendo began its expansion,

796
00:36:22,333 --> 00:36:25,370
establishing offices all around the globe.

797
00:36:25,453 --> 00:36:28,400
The following years saw
the release of the game cube,

798
00:36:28,483 --> 00:36:32,480
building upon the technical
prowess displayed by the N64.

799
00:36:32,563 --> 00:36:35,210
The game boy would
continue to undergo upgrades,

800
00:36:35,293 --> 00:36:38,570
and soon there would be six
more iterations of the console,

801
00:36:38,653 --> 00:36:40,636
each possessing unique qualities.

802
00:36:41,653 --> 00:36:44,540
- So after the game boy
had been so successful,

803
00:36:44,623 --> 00:36:46,220
they released the game boy color,

804
00:36:46,303 --> 00:36:47,600
which was kind of a step up.

805
00:36:47,683 --> 00:36:51,920
It was smaller, it allowed
you to play games in color,

806
00:36:52,003 --> 00:36:54,860
which was obviously really exciting.

807
00:36:54,943 --> 00:36:55,880
And then after that,

808
00:36:55,963 --> 00:36:57,710
they also released the game boy advance.

809
00:36:57,793 --> 00:36:59,570
So they'd been kind of
on the game boy model

810
00:36:59,653 --> 00:37:00,440
for quite a while,

811
00:37:00,523 --> 00:37:01,940
and they really knew what they were doing

812
00:37:02,023 --> 00:37:03,560
with handheld consoles.

813
00:37:03,643 --> 00:37:06,230
- [Narrator] Not long following
the release of the game cube

814
00:37:06,313 --> 00:37:09,590
hiroshi yamauchi stepped
down as president of Nintendo.

815
00:37:09,673 --> 00:37:12,020
After an incredibly successful run,

816
00:37:12,103 --> 00:37:14,450
instigating the company as a household name

817
00:37:14,533 --> 00:37:15,680
for tech development,

818
00:37:15,763 --> 00:37:18,740
hiroshi would be replaced by Satoru Iwata.

819
00:37:18,823 --> 00:37:20,660
Iwata's succession would mean the end

820
00:37:20,743 --> 00:37:23,780
of the yamauchi family's
long-running ownership.

821
00:37:23,863 --> 00:37:27,590
- In the early 2000s, Satoru
Iwata made some changes

822
00:37:27,673 --> 00:37:29,240
to the way that Nintendo was run.

823
00:37:29,323 --> 00:37:31,550
Hiroshi yamauchi had always created

824
00:37:31,633 --> 00:37:33,500
a very competitive atmosphere,

825
00:37:33,583 --> 00:37:36,530
but Satoru iwata's approach
was completely different.

826
00:37:36,613 --> 00:37:39,440
He created a very collaborative atmosphere.

827
00:37:39,523 --> 00:37:41,390
Satoru iwata's business style

828
00:37:41,473 --> 00:37:44,630
was very influenced by
the blue ocean strategy.

829
00:37:44,713 --> 00:37:45,950
He didn't want to compete

830
00:37:46,033 --> 00:37:47,900
with all of these video game consoles

831
00:37:47,983 --> 00:37:50,600
that were at the cutting
edge of graphic technology.

832
00:37:50,683 --> 00:37:52,760
He wanted to create a new market,

833
00:37:52,843 --> 00:37:54,569
he wanted to do things differently.

834
00:37:54,652 --> 00:37:55,730
(Gentle music)

835
00:37:55,813 --> 00:37:58,700
- [Narrator] In 2013, hiroshi passed away.

836
00:37:58,783 --> 00:38:01,096
His legacy, however, would live on.

837
00:38:04,633 --> 00:38:06,380
Retaining a similar presentation

838
00:38:06,463 --> 00:38:08,240
to the original game and watch,

839
00:38:08,323 --> 00:38:10,100
2004 brought the release

840
00:38:10,183 --> 00:38:13,070
of Nintendo's highest selling console ever.

841
00:38:13,153 --> 00:38:14,720
The Nintendo DS.

842
00:38:14,803 --> 00:38:16,820
- When the Nintendo DS came out,

843
00:38:16,903 --> 00:38:19,550
it had two screens and kind of flipped.

844
00:38:19,633 --> 00:38:22,160
And this meant that you were
able to use the bottom screen

845
00:38:22,243 --> 00:38:25,160
as kind of a touch screen
and the top screen could show

846
00:38:25,243 --> 00:38:26,810
something completely different.

847
00:38:26,893 --> 00:38:28,400
So you had the same kind of controls

848
00:38:28,483 --> 00:38:30,020
that you did on the game boy,

849
00:38:30,103 --> 00:38:32,180
but you were able to do a lot more.

850
00:38:32,263 --> 00:38:34,010
Game designers were able to make games

851
00:38:34,093 --> 00:38:36,230
that really utilized this new tech

852
00:38:36,313 --> 00:38:38,810
and that was incredibly popular.

853
00:38:38,893 --> 00:38:41,990
A lot of shops sold out of the Nintendo DS

854
00:38:42,073 --> 00:38:43,730
when it first came out.

855
00:38:43,813 --> 00:38:46,280
And around the same console generation,

856
00:38:46,363 --> 00:38:47,900
the Nintendo Wii came out.

857
00:38:47,983 --> 00:38:50,540
- So the Wii was really like,

858
00:38:50,623 --> 00:38:52,040
I don't know if anyone expected it

859
00:38:52,123 --> 00:38:53,720
to be as successful as it was.

860
00:38:53,803 --> 00:38:54,590
The funny thing about the Wii

861
00:38:54,673 --> 00:38:59,000
was it wasn't the franchises
that Nintendo was known for,

862
00:38:59,083 --> 00:39:01,400
that were the reason for its success.

863
00:39:01,483 --> 00:39:03,740
I think the real reason for the Wii success

864
00:39:03,823 --> 00:39:05,780
was things like Wii sports.

865
00:39:05,863 --> 00:39:09,530
It was the games that
your granny could play,

866
00:39:09,613 --> 00:39:12,321
you know, the people that
had no gaming knowledge

867
00:39:12,404 --> 00:39:14,570
or vocabulary whatsoever,

868
00:39:14,653 --> 00:39:18,826
they saw this really fun, silly thing.

869
00:39:19,933 --> 00:39:22,130
You know, waggling the
Wiimotes and stuff like that,

870
00:39:22,213 --> 00:39:23,000
like instantly, you know,

871
00:39:23,083 --> 00:39:26,180
you don't have to have
any gaming language at all

872
00:39:26,263 --> 00:39:28,250
to know how to play that.

873
00:39:28,333 --> 00:39:32,416
And so it opened up gaming
to a whole new audience.

874
00:39:34,453 --> 00:39:35,930
You know, it didn't last long

875
00:39:36,013 --> 00:39:39,560
because the Wii U was
horribly marketed and you know,

876
00:39:39,643 --> 00:39:42,980
it couldn't really get that
lightning in a bottle effect

877
00:39:43,063 --> 00:39:44,150
that the Wii had.

878
00:39:44,233 --> 00:39:48,320
But for a moment, yeah, the Wii was huge.

879
00:39:48,403 --> 00:39:50,420
Everyone wanted to
play it, literally everyone.

880
00:39:50,503 --> 00:39:52,340
- If the Nintendo DS was popular,

881
00:39:52,423 --> 00:39:56,330
the Nintendo Wii was
wildly popular at launch.

882
00:39:56,413 --> 00:39:58,940
I actually worked in a
game shop around that time

883
00:39:59,023 --> 00:40:02,060
and we were constantly
sold out of Nintendo Wiis,

884
00:40:02,143 --> 00:40:05,270
they really managed to corner
the market on family gaming,

885
00:40:05,353 --> 00:40:07,550
which is something
Nintendo's always been good at.

886
00:40:07,633 --> 00:40:09,590
But they released a lot of titles

887
00:40:09,673 --> 00:40:13,070
that were aimed at the
whole family and not just kids.

888
00:40:13,153 --> 00:40:16,490
So they had things like
Wii fit and Wii sports,

889
00:40:16,573 --> 00:40:18,890
which had a really low barrier to entry

890
00:40:18,973 --> 00:40:21,590
and adults were often a
little bit more interested in

891
00:40:21,673 --> 00:40:23,510
than the classic Nintendo games.

892
00:40:23,593 --> 00:40:25,790
And I think that meant
that a lot of families saw it

893
00:40:25,873 --> 00:40:27,500
as a real great investment

894
00:40:27,583 --> 00:40:29,180
and something that
they could get for the kids,

895
00:40:29,263 --> 00:40:31,820
but which the adults would play as well.

896
00:40:31,903 --> 00:40:34,340
- [Narrator] The DS Rose to
the top of the gaming world

897
00:40:34,423 --> 00:40:36,470
as the most popular portable console,

898
00:40:36,553 --> 00:40:39,020
thanks to games suitable for everyone.

899
00:40:39,103 --> 00:40:42,687
Players all over Europe made
"animal crossing: Wild world",

900
00:40:42,770 --> 00:40:44,300
"new super Mario brothers",

901
00:40:44,383 --> 00:40:47,180
and "metroid prime hunters" bestsellers.

902
00:40:47,263 --> 00:40:49,940
Including "nintendogs" also boosted sales

903
00:40:50,023 --> 00:40:51,680
as it allowed experimentation

904
00:40:51,763 --> 00:40:54,260
with the new voice recognition software.

905
00:40:54,343 --> 00:40:57,440
Games like "Wario ware:
Smooth moves", "endless ocean",

906
00:40:57,523 --> 00:40:59,990
and "big brain academy:
Wii degree" for the Wii

907
00:41:00,073 --> 00:41:02,090
invited everyone to dive into the fun

908
00:41:02,173 --> 00:41:04,280
regardless of previous experience.

909
00:41:04,363 --> 00:41:06,710
While the arrival of "super Mario galaxy"

910
00:41:06,793 --> 00:41:08,810
and "metroid prime 3: Corruption"

911
00:41:08,893 --> 00:41:11,810
brought cherished Nintendo
franchises back into being,

912
00:41:11,893 --> 00:41:15,440
with the addition of new
features only possible on the Wii.

913
00:41:15,523 --> 00:41:17,270
With the new consoles in place,

914
00:41:17,353 --> 00:41:20,540
the time was right to fall back
from inventing new products

915
00:41:20,623 --> 00:41:22,970
and refining what was already made.

916
00:41:23,053 --> 00:41:26,720
The DS had many upgraded
versions such as the DSi

917
00:41:26,803 --> 00:41:31,216
and eventually the Nintendo
3ds released in 2011.

918
00:41:32,083 --> 00:41:35,960
- The next console that Nintendo
came up with was the Wii U,

919
00:41:36,043 --> 00:41:39,530
a much more powerful console
with high definition graphics.

920
00:41:39,613 --> 00:41:41,810
Nintendo couldn't compete
with these other systems

921
00:41:41,893 --> 00:41:43,970
that had phenomenal graphics.

922
00:41:44,053 --> 00:41:46,100
Also the name Wii U,

923
00:41:46,183 --> 00:41:48,320
people just thought it was
an extension of the Wii,

924
00:41:48,403 --> 00:41:51,110
they didn't realize it was
an entirely new beast.

925
00:41:51,193 --> 00:41:53,780
So the Wii U did not sell well.

926
00:41:53,863 --> 00:41:58,863
- Yeah, the Wii U was
Nintendo's worst selling console.

927
00:41:59,023 --> 00:42:02,060
It was pretty much a disaster financially.

928
00:42:02,143 --> 00:42:05,029
It came off the back of the Wii,

929
00:42:05,112 --> 00:42:08,360
but people didn't really
understand it was a new console.

930
00:42:08,443 --> 00:42:12,560
The idea was to kind of
combine an iPad like tablet

931
00:42:12,643 --> 00:42:14,570
with a games console.

932
00:42:14,653 --> 00:42:17,480
And when they were developing it, you know,

933
00:42:17,563 --> 00:42:19,400
that idea was ahead of its time,

934
00:42:19,483 --> 00:42:22,130
by the time they released
it, it was a bit dated.

935
00:42:22,213 --> 00:42:26,510
It looked like a kind of
Fisher-price version of an iPad.

936
00:42:26,593 --> 00:42:28,880
It never really quite gelled.

937
00:42:28,963 --> 00:42:31,130
It didn't really know what it was.

938
00:42:31,213 --> 00:42:32,607
And consumers looked at it went,

939
00:42:32,690 --> 00:42:35,480
"I dunno what that is or what it's about."

940
00:42:35,563 --> 00:42:39,860
So it was a handy step on
the way to Nintendo switch,

941
00:42:39,943 --> 00:42:41,240
but as a console on its own

942
00:42:41,323 --> 00:42:43,550
it just never quite clicked with anyone.

943
00:42:43,633 --> 00:42:44,960
- [Narrator] Though the
new version of the Wii

944
00:42:45,043 --> 00:42:46,580
underperformed in sales,

945
00:42:46,663 --> 00:42:50,150
it provided a massive step
up in graphic capabilities.

946
00:42:50,233 --> 00:42:52,010
An asset that went under the radar

947
00:42:52,093 --> 00:42:54,350
as it didn't attract the
same broad audience

948
00:42:54,433 --> 00:42:56,600
the original we had done previously.

949
00:42:56,683 --> 00:42:59,900
The Wii U, however, was
the most powerful console

950
00:42:59,983 --> 00:43:02,780
on the home market
before the release of the ps4

951
00:43:02,863 --> 00:43:04,220
and Xbox One.

952
00:43:04,303 --> 00:43:06,080
The game pad was a new idea,

953
00:43:06,163 --> 00:43:08,660
which brought the handheld
advantages of the DS

954
00:43:08,743 --> 00:43:12,500
to a home console and paved
the way for what was to come.

955
00:43:12,583 --> 00:43:17,215
In 2017, we were introduced
to the Nintendo switch.

956
00:43:17,298 --> 00:43:20,465
(Upbeat funky music)

957
00:43:39,814 --> 00:43:41,570
- So the switch is huge.

958
00:43:41,653 --> 00:43:45,200
I mean it was such a success for Nintendo

959
00:43:45,283 --> 00:43:49,760
because Nintendo took
everything that it had learned

960
00:43:49,843 --> 00:43:53,240
from the console market,
from handheld, you know,

961
00:43:53,323 --> 00:43:54,740
from all its handheld expertise,

962
00:43:54,823 --> 00:43:56,600
everything that it had
learned from the game boy,

963
00:43:56,683 --> 00:43:59,750
from the DS, from the 3ds from everything.

964
00:43:59,833 --> 00:44:02,870
And it was like, why
don't we take both of these

965
00:44:02,953 --> 00:44:05,840
and make a console
that literally does both?

966
00:44:05,923 --> 00:44:08,510
And that was just, I mean,
it's just a master move.

967
00:44:08,593 --> 00:44:10,387
Like, and that's what
I love about Nintendo.

968
00:44:10,470 --> 00:44:13,820
Nintendo doesn't really
see itself as a competitor

969
00:44:13,903 --> 00:44:16,340
to PlayStation or Xbox.

970
00:44:16,423 --> 00:44:20,090
All Nintendo is interested
in is interesting innovation,

971
00:44:20,173 --> 00:44:23,930
experimentation and
making games that are fun.

972
00:44:24,013 --> 00:44:27,020
- Nintendo is so known for
innovating with their hardware

973
00:44:27,103 --> 00:44:28,730
and the switch was no different.

974
00:44:28,813 --> 00:44:30,890
All of the big console companies

975
00:44:30,973 --> 00:44:32,810
were coming out with innovations,

976
00:44:32,893 --> 00:44:36,410
but none of them were quite
as different as the switch felt.

977
00:44:36,493 --> 00:44:39,047
It felt like a bit of a natural
progression from the Wii

978
00:44:39,130 --> 00:44:43,520
and the DS, but also
completely new at the same time.

979
00:44:43,603 --> 00:44:44,810
So the thing about the switch

980
00:44:44,893 --> 00:44:47,510
is it can both be a handheld console

981
00:44:47,593 --> 00:44:51,470
or you can put the
handheld screen into a dock

982
00:44:51,553 --> 00:44:53,330
that attaches to your TV

983
00:44:53,413 --> 00:44:55,520
and then use the controllers on the side.

984
00:44:55,603 --> 00:44:59,199
So it's like a home console
and a handheld at the same time.

985
00:44:59,282 --> 00:45:02,720
And that came out with
fantastic games at launch as well.

986
00:45:02,803 --> 00:45:05,107
- I'm a massive fan of Mario games.

987
00:45:05,190 --> 00:45:07,970
I never really played Zelda
much when I was a kid,

988
00:45:08,053 --> 00:45:08,937
but I have to say,

989
00:45:09,020 --> 00:45:13,340
"Zelda: Breath of the wild" is
my favorite game of all time.

990
00:45:13,423 --> 00:45:17,630
It's incredible and that
really helped to sell switches.

991
00:45:17,713 --> 00:45:19,280
- Does the Nintendo switch hold up

992
00:45:19,363 --> 00:45:20,900
in terms of graphical capability

993
00:45:20,983 --> 00:45:25,430
when put alongside the
PlayStation 5 or the Xbox series x?

994
00:45:25,513 --> 00:45:28,700
No, but is it unbelievably fun?

995
00:45:28,783 --> 00:45:29,533
Do people love it?

996
00:45:29,616 --> 00:45:32,432
You know, do people
take it everywhere they go?

997
00:45:32,515 --> 00:45:34,940
Absolutely, it has a, you know,

998
00:45:35,023 --> 00:45:37,040
it doesn't really suffer all that much

999
00:45:37,123 --> 00:45:39,980
for the amount of games
that it has access to.

1000
00:45:40,063 --> 00:45:41,480
Nintendo's third party support

1001
00:45:41,563 --> 00:45:43,220
has actually never
been better, I don't think

1002
00:45:43,303 --> 00:45:44,240
than with the switch.

1003
00:45:44,323 --> 00:45:46,460
Traditionally, I don't think Nintendo

1004
00:45:46,543 --> 00:45:50,750
was a very friendly third
party development platform.

1005
00:45:50,833 --> 00:45:52,160
It was just a bit more difficult

1006
00:45:52,243 --> 00:45:54,350
to get games onto Nintendo consoles

1007
00:45:54,433 --> 00:45:57,950
than it was for PlayStation and Xbox.

1008
00:45:58,033 --> 00:46:01,340
But the switch is
just, it's just fantastic.

1009
00:46:01,423 --> 00:46:04,790
You know, you can slot it
into its port or to its dock.

1010
00:46:04,873 --> 00:46:06,440
You can pick up where you left off

1011
00:46:06,523 --> 00:46:09,020
seamlessly from where
you were out and about.

1012
00:46:09,103 --> 00:46:10,910
You can transition from being out,

1013
00:46:10,993 --> 00:46:13,550
playing your console
on the train, or wherever

1014
00:46:13,633 --> 00:46:15,830
to going indoors, slotting it in

1015
00:46:15,913 --> 00:46:18,740
and there it is exactly
where you were before.

1016
00:46:18,823 --> 00:46:20,360
It's the perfect console I think,

1017
00:46:20,443 --> 00:46:22,580
for a lot of kids and adults alike

1018
00:46:22,663 --> 00:46:25,460
because if you don't have the time

1019
00:46:25,543 --> 00:46:28,910
or the inclination to
sit down in front of a PC

1020
00:46:28,993 --> 00:46:31,490
or a console in front
of a TV in the evening,

1021
00:46:31,573 --> 00:46:33,410
you want to just, I
don't know, get into bed

1022
00:46:33,493 --> 00:46:36,650
and play your switch, that's
absolutely a thing you can do.

1023
00:46:36,733 --> 00:46:38,330
- [Narrator] The switch was an amalgamation

1024
00:46:38,413 --> 00:46:41,030
of everything Nintendo
had achieved thus far,

1025
00:46:41,113 --> 00:46:45,170
merging the idea of a home
console with a handheld device.

1026
00:46:45,253 --> 00:46:47,480
The system was versatile, ergonomic,

1027
00:46:47,563 --> 00:46:49,400
and capable of handling the stories

1028
00:46:49,483 --> 00:46:51,250
the company wanted to tell.

1029
00:46:51,333 --> 00:46:52,340
(Upbeat music)

1030
00:46:52,423 --> 00:46:55,727
- Nintendo has always been
a pioneer in the gaming world.

1031
00:46:55,810 --> 00:46:58,580
One of the things that
they do that is fantastic

1032
00:46:58,663 --> 00:47:01,850
is they have a real focus on family gaming

1033
00:47:01,933 --> 00:47:04,280
and that's allowed them
to stand out from the crowd

1034
00:47:04,363 --> 00:47:06,410
sometimes when the other companies

1035
00:47:06,493 --> 00:47:08,360
are doing something a little bit different.

1036
00:47:08,443 --> 00:47:10,940
They're really invested in
making games that are fun

1037
00:47:11,023 --> 00:47:13,400
and creative and that everyone can play.

1038
00:47:13,483 --> 00:47:14,630
And the other thing they do

1039
00:47:14,713 --> 00:47:17,330
is that their consoles and their hardware

1040
00:47:17,413 --> 00:47:19,790
is always new and always interesting.

1041
00:47:19,873 --> 00:47:23,090
Sometimes it doesn't land
as well, but when it does,

1042
00:47:23,173 --> 00:47:25,460
it absolutely blows everything else away

1043
00:47:25,543 --> 00:47:27,350
when it comes to innovation.

1044
00:47:27,433 --> 00:47:29,270
- It was really satoru Iwata,

1045
00:47:29,353 --> 00:47:32,360
professionalized Nintendo's
merchandising arm

1046
00:47:32,443 --> 00:47:34,670
and expanded into other areas,

1047
00:47:34,753 --> 00:47:37,460
and created an Nintendo
theme park in Japan.

1048
00:47:37,543 --> 00:47:39,440
And there's now another one in America,

1049
00:47:39,523 --> 00:47:41,300
and of course the "super
Mario brothers" film,

1050
00:47:41,383 --> 00:47:42,847
which I'm very excited about.

1051
00:47:42,930 --> 00:47:47,930
(Playful music) (Photographers chattering)

1052
00:47:52,243 --> 00:47:54,440
One of the reasons I
really love Nintendo games

1053
00:47:54,523 --> 00:47:56,330
is that all of the games
on the other consoles

1054
00:47:56,413 --> 00:47:59,270
really focus on guns
and violence and crime.

1055
00:47:59,353 --> 00:48:01,130
And I mean, these games look fantastic,

1056
00:48:01,213 --> 00:48:02,630
I would love to play them,

1057
00:48:02,713 --> 00:48:04,940
but actually I don't want to get involved

1058
00:48:05,023 --> 00:48:06,200
in all of that violence.

1059
00:48:06,283 --> 00:48:08,480
I love that Nintendo don't do that.

1060
00:48:08,563 --> 00:48:13,100
- Nintendo was a pioneer of
video game quality in consoles.

1061
00:48:13,183 --> 00:48:13,933
I mean,

1062
00:48:14,016 --> 00:48:17,330
it essentially rewrote the video
game console business model

1063
00:48:17,413 --> 00:48:20,480
and saved the video
game industry by doing so.

1064
00:48:20,563 --> 00:48:24,410
It was a pioneer in game design.

1065
00:48:24,493 --> 00:48:29,493
It's attention to the feel
of video game mechanics

1066
00:48:29,714 --> 00:48:32,836
really kind of upped the quality bar.

1067
00:48:33,823 --> 00:48:35,900
You know, game designers
back in the eighties

1068
00:48:35,983 --> 00:48:37,190
were not that great.

1069
00:48:37,273 --> 00:48:40,172
You know, they would make
these punishing games that,

1070
00:48:40,255 --> 00:48:42,920
you know, would make
children cry they were so hard.

1071
00:48:43,003 --> 00:48:45,590
Whereas Nintendo is like,
no, a game should be fair.

1072
00:48:45,673 --> 00:48:48,607
And it seems very obvious to us now

1073
00:48:48,690 --> 00:48:51,050
that a game should be enjoyable,

1074
00:48:51,133 --> 00:48:52,550
not punishing, but you know,

1075
00:48:52,633 --> 00:48:55,880
that's not how people were
making games back then.

1076
00:48:55,963 --> 00:48:59,510
It was a pioneer in broadening
out the video game audience

1077
00:48:59,593 --> 00:49:01,100
with the Wii and the DS.

1078
00:49:01,183 --> 00:49:04,280
Nintendo created the
handheld, you know, game.

1079
00:49:04,363 --> 00:49:07,845
We play iPhone games and Android games now.

1080
00:49:07,928 --> 00:49:10,820
But you know, before
smartphones came along,

1081
00:49:10,903 --> 00:49:13,100
we were playing on Nintendo portables.

1082
00:49:13,183 --> 00:49:16,100
But it's a company that's
really defined video games

1083
00:49:16,183 --> 00:49:17,510
throughout its history.

1084
00:49:17,593 --> 00:49:21,410
It's had an enormous
shaping influence on it.

1085
00:49:21,493 --> 00:49:22,940
And it's still going strong today.

1086
00:49:23,023 --> 00:49:27,140
It's still setting the tone
for a lot of companies.

1087
00:49:27,223 --> 00:49:30,130
Valve steam deck is quite clearly modeled

1088
00:49:30,213 --> 00:49:33,200
on the Nintendo switch in lots of ways,

1089
00:49:33,283 --> 00:49:35,300
you know, there's no escaping it.

1090
00:49:35,383 --> 00:49:37,520
- I think Nintendo brings
up feelings of nostalgia

1091
00:49:37,603 --> 00:49:40,610
because, well, first of
all, I think it, you know,

1092
00:49:40,693 --> 00:49:41,660
it's been around longer

1093
00:49:41,743 --> 00:49:45,170
and when Nintendo was in its early days,

1094
00:49:45,253 --> 00:49:47,540
it was marketing games for children.

1095
00:49:47,623 --> 00:49:49,850
But even now, you know, kids,

1096
00:49:49,933 --> 00:49:52,760
their first console is very
often an Nintendo console.

1097
00:49:52,843 --> 00:49:57,020
I mean, my nephews, they
all have Nintendo switches,

1098
00:49:57,103 --> 00:50:00,800
so they, weirdly, their
nostalgia will extend to Mario

1099
00:50:00,883 --> 00:50:04,160
as you know, plenty of
older gamers does as well.

1100
00:50:04,243 --> 00:50:06,130
But I think it's because, again,

1101
00:50:06,213 --> 00:50:08,750
at the heart of every Nintendo game

1102
00:50:08,833 --> 00:50:12,920
is that childhood childlike
curiosity and wonder

1103
00:50:13,003 --> 00:50:16,280
at the world that's really
what makes their games sing.

1104
00:50:16,363 --> 00:50:18,440
- Well, particularly for people of my age,

1105
00:50:18,523 --> 00:50:20,870
we grew up with Nintendo.

1106
00:50:20,953 --> 00:50:23,330
I'm the perfect age to have been swept up

1107
00:50:23,413 --> 00:50:26,147
by Nintendo's ascendancy in the 1980s

1108
00:50:26,230 --> 00:50:30,140
and it's absolutely an
indelible part of my childhood.

1109
00:50:30,223 --> 00:50:30,973
- I think

1110
00:50:31,056 --> 00:50:34,250
because it's tied into that
feeling of childhood fun,

1111
00:50:34,333 --> 00:50:36,560
it really just evokes
a feeling of nostalgia

1112
00:50:36,643 --> 00:50:39,380
in a lot of people, and
especially people my age.

1113
00:50:39,463 --> 00:50:41,270
- Nintendo's most important legacy

1114
00:50:41,353 --> 00:50:44,086
is saving the video game console industry.

1115
00:50:45,433 --> 00:50:47,109
After Atari’s collapse,

1116
00:50:47,192 --> 00:50:51,466
it was possible that game
consoles would not come back.

1117
00:50:52,693 --> 00:50:54,560
It did look like home computers

1118
00:50:54,643 --> 00:50:56,656
would be where people played games on.

1119
00:50:57,883 --> 00:50:59,000
Nintendo changed that,

1120
00:50:59,083 --> 00:51:01,940
Nintendo said, no, there
is still room for consoles.

1121
00:51:02,023 --> 00:51:04,490
If Nintendo hadn't come
along when they did,

1122
00:51:04,573 --> 00:51:07,426
we'd probably all be
paying on pcs at this point.

1123
00:51:08,658 --> 00:51:10,400
(Upbeat music)

1124
00:51:10,483 --> 00:51:13,280
- [Narrator] Nintendo has
a remarkable philosophy

1125
00:51:13,363 --> 00:51:16,640
to put smiles on the faces
of everyone they touch.

1126
00:51:16,723 --> 00:51:18,170
To this remarkable company,

1127
00:51:18,253 --> 00:51:20,300
which started from humble beginnings,

1128
00:51:20,383 --> 00:51:21,980
making consoles isn't about

1129
00:51:22,063 --> 00:51:24,350
how much processing power they possess,

1130
00:51:24,433 --> 00:51:26,870
it is about the stories themselves.

1131
00:51:26,953 --> 00:51:28,280
It is about the characters

1132
00:51:28,363 --> 00:51:30,830
and open-mindedness of all who play.

1133
00:51:30,913 --> 00:51:34,040
To Nintendo it is all about fun.

1134
00:51:34,123 --> 00:51:36,517
Nothing more, nothing less.

1135
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:40,100
(Upbeat music continues)