Nintendo versus Sony: The Race Between the Consoles
At Doodle, we value the collaboration and ideas that come from great meetings. That’s why we do what we do. We also think healthy competition has contributed to great innovations in life. In this series, we explore some of the most exciting technology rivalries in history.
There are friendly rivalries that look like games, and there are games that can turn into real rivalries. This is the case of Sony and Nintendo, two giants in the family entertainment industry, who have been competing for our free time for decades. To see how that competition unfolded will inevitably bring some sweet memories, like arguing over who will be Player One (though we all know it’s always the older sibling). But is there a Player One in this rivalry? Let’s CLICK START and see.
Gambling? Love motels?
As a company that’s typically associated with video games, Nintendo has a surprisingly long history. It started in 1889 in Kyoto, Japan (57 years before Sony was established) and was first producing hand-painted playing cards. Were those cards associated with families spending their evenings together, you ask? Not exactly: they were primarily used for gambling. The company officially entered the realm of family entertainment in 1959, after signing a deal with Disney, which allowed Nintendo to promote its cards for a wide range of games.
Yet while visiting the US, even before striking the deal with Disney, the then president of Nintendo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, noticed that even the biggest playing card companies in the US just weren’t that big. He thought it was time Nintendo expanded its scope. And it did, going for a rather eclectic variety of ventures, from a taxi company to — some interesting trivial here — love motels. Since we don’t see Nintendo love motels around, you can guess that these projects didn’t go as well as planned.
The brilliant mind of Gumpei Yokoi
What put Nintendo on track of becoming one of the world’s leaders in family entertainment was the inventiveness of Gumpei Yokoi, one of its employees who was noticed by Yamauchi himself. Yokoi’s creativity saw little limits, and soon Nintendo embarked on its journey to millions of households in Japan and the US. From Ultra Hand, one of its projects before its consoles, in 1966, to its iconic Game&Watch in 1980 and Game Boy in 1989. For many, the timeline of Nintendo’s consoles and games itself is a beautiful ride down the childhood nostalgia lane, finding Mario Bros and Donkey Kong on the way. If that road starts later, it might include Wii and all our dance moves that we perfected (hopefully without breaking any lamps or knocking over furniture).
Nintendo’s story is a fascinating story of change, innovation and attentive listening to its fun-loving audience. Was each of its projects equally successful? Not really, yet the company never gave up and will celebrate its 130th birthday next year. “On my business card, I am a corporate president. In my mind, I am a game developer. But in my heart, I am a gamer” — this is how Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s beloved CEO, who passed away in 2015, described his work. Maybe this attitude is what has kept the company constantly innovating?
Yet Nintendo wasn’t the only company bringing entertainment to millions of households around the world. Just like Mario had to jump over Goombas, Nintendo had to be constantly jumping over its own competitors.
Competitors like who? Well, does PlayStation ring a bell?
In our next piece we will see what Nintendo was up against, and how the race on the screen reflected the race between two Japanese technology giants.
By Justina Poskeviciute
Justina is an awesome writer living in Budapest.
