Video
games has had a long standing relationship with advertising through
print and television, in addition to other forms of product
placement. It enhances and connects video games to the wider world
and brings non-video game players and enthusiasts deeper into the
cultural and social sphere of video games (C. Murphy, 17).
In
the West, sports, going to the theatre, movies, music, watching TV
has always been the most dominant tools of communication. Yet in
Japan things are very different, as games and playing video games
occupy as the main tool of communication over sports due to the lack
of space (169). It was seen as something that was embraced positively
in Japan and by the 1980s, the Japanese gaming culture underwent a
major shift.....
About Nintendo
Nintendo's origins stem during 1889 when the company produced and marketed Hanafuda cards. Hanafuda cards are playing cards in Japan and when they became more and more popular, the founder of Nintendo Fasajiro Yaumachi then hired more workers to mass-produce more cards, in order to meet consumer demands.
The
Hanafuda deck consisted of 48 playing cards divided into 12 suits.
Each suit represented each of the 12 months of the year.
In
1949, Sekiyo Kenada, who was then Nintendo's second president,
suffered a stroke and as a result, called on Hiroshi to replace him,
which he did. He became the new Nintendo president and no sooner did
he began firing workers and managers, so that they would not be able
to question his authority. Hiroshi changed the name Marufuka Playing
cards to Nintendo Playing Cards.
In
1959, Nintendo collaborates with American giant, Disney to
produce playing cards featuring Disney characters. The idea was so
successful, it sold over 600,000 packs during that same year. 4 years
on, Nintendo sold instant rice (yes rice) but unfortunately, it
didn't work. After that, they went into the love hotel business. They
were also a taxi company. But after several attempts, Hiroshi
realised Nintendo's asset was not in hotels or the food industry, but
the Hafuda playing cards. After the success of the playing cards,
their next journey would take advantage of that and to go into the
toys and games business.
And
with that, Nintendo shifted their focus towards video games.
In
1983, the year of the video game crash, the Kyoto – based company
which made playing cards, toys and released arcade games, introduced
the Famicom. The Famicom was an abbreviation of Family Computer, and
it became Nintendo's first real entry into the console market
(Kinder, 89).
Easily
beating rival systems of Sony (years before the launch of the
Playstation) and Matsushita in Japan, the Famicom sold 2.1 million
units in its first 18 months since its release.
Costing
between $80 and $150 to produce and manufacture, the Famicom was an
8-bit games console that had the same microprocessor used in Apple's
IIC and Commodore 64 PCs (Kinder, 92).
Nintendo
arrived in the United States in 1985, in an attempt to revive the
video game craze and spent around $30million on advertising to
persuade consumers to purchase the Nintendo Entertainment System,
I.e, NES for short. The NES was the West's version of the Japanese Famicom. In 5 years, Nintendo controlled 80% of
the market share. With total sales heading towards $5 billion, it
gave them 20% share of the entire US toy market. To make matters more
interesting, by the end of 1989, it was revealed that 1 out
of every 5 households in America owned a NES (Kinder, 89,
90).
A
year later, Nintendo claimed that close to 50% of its players were
over 18 years of age and 36% of them were female. Video games were no
longer toys, it was a hobby, a lifestyle. The cutesy graphics and
designs of the characters were appealing enough for young girls to
take an interest in games and to play as Mario and Link.
Mario
and The Worldwide Impact of Nintendo
Mario's
influence and impact goes beyond video games making him a (unlikely)
cultural icon.
Rovio's
Peter Vesterbacka, whose company develops Angry Birds even said Mario
was influential;
'Mario is a great character. But it's not just about him – it's the whole world that Nintendo has built, with the other great characters and the stories told through its games' (Soteriou, 2012).
Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario
is to Nintendo, the same way Mickey Mouse is to Disney; he is the
main driving force behind the company's success. When you think of
video games and of Nintendo, the first immediate thing that springs
to mind is, Mario. He is everywhere and his cultural impact, since
the days of Mario Bros on the NES, has put him ahead of other gaming
mascots such as Pacman and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic became
Mario's arch rival during the Genesis vs Super Nintendo days of 1991,
up until Sega quit the hardware business and thus, rebranded itself
as a third-party software developer and publisher in 2001.
With
3 animated series, an awful Hollywood movie starring Bob Hoskins,
countless merchandise and toys and numerous appearances in spin-off
games and such, the fact that more children during the 1990s
identified with Mario and preferred Mario over Mickey Mouse, tells
you something about Nintendo's effect outside of video games and
within society and culture (Super Mario Bros HQ).
The
original Super Mario Bros is arguably still the best selling video
game of all-time with over 40 million copies, sold worldwide. Mario and
his brother, Luigi have become a cultural phenomenon and one would
argue they are also the most recognizable video game siblings as
well.
Nintendo
found their secret weapon to their success; they knew that in Mario
he had that cross-over appeal that would interest people of all ages, both
male and female, all around the world, as well as it would enable the
company to generate more income.
In
2009, a research company going by the name of Smarty Pants,
who focus on child-related brands- questioned 4, 700 kids aged
between 6-12 for a study titled ''Young Love'. They
were asked out of all the major brands, which one was their
favourite. Nintendo was the number 1 choice, with the Wii,
followed by the DS in second (7, Firestone). These 2
products, Wii and DS games consoles beat out Mcdonalds,
Nickelodeon, and Disney. This statistic alone demonstrated
the massive impact video games has had on people of all ages, but
that also the image of the traditional video games player, had
changed. No longer was this past-time for young boys and teenagers
and geeks- video gaming was a hobby that everybody, male and female,
young and old all embraced and could participate in.
Samus Aran & The Birth of A New Female Gaming Hero
As
well as Mario and Link from The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo also thanks
to Gunpei Yokoi, -creator of the Gameboy, which went on to become one
of the biggest selling hand- held systems, ever-, during 1986
unveiled their first main female gaming protagonist, named Samus
Aran. The game was titled: Metroid.
In Metroid,
the objective of the game is to aid female bounty hunter Samus Aran
in finding and destroying Mother Brain & saving the universe. A
plot that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Aliens movies
starring Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley (Kinder, 107). One of the
interesting things about Metroid is given the main protagonist is
female, one would be forgiven in thinking that as Samus is a woman
and the hero and not some damsel in distress, her heroism and bravery
in the face of evil, would encourage more female video game players
to play Metroid games and see Samus Aran as a some kind of role model
for women.
When
in fact, the interest in Metroid and its cult status as a sci-fi
action-adventure series has prompted more male players to take an
active interest in the franchise. Probably because a) it is a sci-fi,
action game and b) Samus shoots people with her arm cannon, not just
because she is female.
Additionally,
Samus Aran's impact and cultural status amongst gamers and Nintendo
fans, has led to the creation and arrival of other female video game
characters by other creators and developers. Most notably that of
Jill Valentine of Resident Evil, Chun Li of Streetfighter, Sega's
Bayonetta and Tomb Raider's Lara Croft.
The success of Nintendo led to the revolution of the entertainment industry and by the 1990s, it made more profit than many of the U.S film and TV studios such as Paramount, Fox, NBC. Nintendo became a home entertainment giant and were finally taken seriously (12, Firestone).
As of today, Nintendo have released a total of 7 home consoles, including the recent Wii U and 6 hand-held consoles including 7 iterations of the Gameboy and 4 iterations of the DS (Dual Screen). With total hardware sales surpassing 600 million and software sales over 4 billion to date, in addition to the DS being the biggest- selling 7th generation handheld console and the Wii as the biggest selling 7th generation home console, Nintendo, in the face of ongoing constant (& mostly undeserved) criticism, media and press attacks and the urge by their detractors to leave the hardware business and focus on making games for mobile devices & rival consoles, are still here, still fighting. And still proving that there are still people that prefer to play games on consoles, as well as still love Mario, Kirby, Link and Samus.
In
other words, Nintendo aren't going anywhere.
(Continued
in part 3)
Sources:
- Playing with Power in movies, television and video games: from Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Marsha Kinder, 1993
- Nintendo's Mascot: From Donkey Kong to Super Mario Lovers, Helen Soteriou, BBC News, 4 June 2012
- Super Mario Bros HQ, 1997-2013
- Nintendo: The Company and its Founders, Mary Firestone, 2011
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