Nintendo of America - The Next Innovation

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In 1986, they start rolling out more metros throughout the US. Can you imagine this today if they rolled out the switch, like city by city? Right. They sell a million units throughout all of 1986. 1987, it's officially available nationwide. They sell 3 million units in 1987 and 10 million game packs. So at this point, they're already basically coming close to parody with Japan,. which is incredible given that the whole industry was dead two years ago in America. Yep. The strategy and how they roll out to retail is brilliant.

You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!

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