Nintendo: The Company and its Founders - Sharyland ISD

NINTENDO
Yamauchi’s instinct told him the Ultra toys
would be a success. These instincts came into play
regularly. He gave Yokoi suggestions, and Yokoi
would go off to tinker and come up with something
he thought would
please Yamauchi.
YAMAUCHI’S EXPERIMENTS Yokoi claims that
Before Yamauchi settled on
Yamauchi never asked
entertainment and games for Nintendo, he
changed the company name from Nintendo what others thought
Karuta, which meant “Nintendo Playing of his choices of
Cards,” to Nintendo Company Ltd. He also
products to develop;
took the company public, which gave him the
financial resources he needed to expand into if Yamauchi liked it,
different product types.
it was developed and
One of these products was a type of
marketed.
instant rice, which was sold in individual portions.
The product was a failure. Yamauchi Yokoi had earned
also started a taxi business, which he named Yamauchi’s faith. Soon,
Daiya. This was a successful venture, but he
sold it when struggles with the driver labor he started tinkering
unions made the business too expensive to with electronics, and
run. Another business idea of Yamauchi’s was eventually he came up
something called a “love hotel.” Most hotels
rented rooms by the night, but love hotels with a device called
rented rooms by the hour. Yamauchi was a the Love Tester. It
married man, but he was known for his many
was meant to reveal
infidelities. It is said that he was one of the
love hotels’ best customers. This business also how much two people
came to an end, as Yamauchi decided that the loved each other. The
company should continue its historic focus on
Love Tester had two
entertainment and games.
handles, and each
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