Nintendo

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 任天堂株式会社 Hepburn: Nintendō Kabushiki gaisha?) is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Nintendo is the world's largest video game company by revenue.[8] Founded on September 23, 1889,[2] by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards.[9] By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as cab services and love hotels.[10]

Abandoning previous ventures in favor of toys in the 1960s, Nintendo then developed into a video game company in the 1970s, ultimately becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan's third most valuable listed company with a market value of over US$85 billion.[11] Nintendo of America is also the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team.[12]

The word "Nintendo" can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven."[13] As of March 31, 2014, Nintendo reports historically cumulative sales of over 670.43 million hardware units and 4.23 billion software units.[4]