Nintendo: The Company and its Founders - Sharyland ISD

ENTER SHIGERU MIYAMOTO
Skipper. To succeed, Yoko and Mino had to
understand what kinds of games were making the
most money in the United States. The couple spent
long hours in arcades, watching kids play the games.
The Arakawas eventually hired groups of kids and
young adults to come to their warehouse, where
they paid them to test arcade games of all kinds. The
couple also hired a sales staff who convinced hotel
and bar managers to let them set up Nintendo arcade
games in their lobbies and lounges.
However, NOA was still struggling to get a
start. It did not help that Yoko and Mino had begun
their US launch in the midst of an overall collapse of
the video game industry in the United States. No one
was buying video games anymore. Would Nintendo
products even get a chance in this climate?
Mino ordered a large shipment of Radarscope
games from Japan, but they took months to arrive in
New York. He was deeply worried that the buzz he
and his sales team had been able to create around the
company would fade before it even got a chance. All
video game sales were slow, but Radarscope had done
well in Japan and was expected to do just as well for
Nintendo in the United States.
51