Nintendo Games

Nintendo Games
Type	Division of Nintendo
Founded	1964 (staff members reassigned in 1970)
Headquarters	Kyoto, Japan
Key people	Gunpei Yokoi, designer
Industry	Toys
Products	Toys
Number of people	Not disclosed
Website	http://www.nintendo.com/

Nintendo Games (任天堂ゲーム, Nintendo Gēmu) was the first game development department within Nintendo. This development group focused on the development of toys. When the focus shifted to the Beam Gun light gun line in 1970, employees were reassigned to Nintendo Research & Development 1.

History

In 1963, as a result of the plan by then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi to expand, “Playing Card” was removed from the name of Nintendo Playing Card Co., Ltd., and the company became Nintendo Co., Ltd. They expanded beyond card games by buying companies in a variety of industries, including becoming the principal operators of the Daiya taxi firm, buying a food company that sold packets of instant rice, buying a television network, and buying a chain of love hotels. The latter were hotels that offered privacy to their guests by not keeping a record of names, akin to the “no-tell motels” in North America. All of these ventures failed, the companies owned by Nintendo dissolved, and Nintendo's stock fell to its lowest recorded value of 60 yen in 1964.

To turn the company around, Hiroshi Yamauchi formed Nintendo's first research and development department, the Nintendo Games Department, and entered the Japanese toy industry in 1964. Their first toy released was named “Rabbit Coaster". A maintenance employee named Gunpei Yokoi, who was interested in creating toys during his spare time, was moved to the Games division. In 1966, Gunpei Yokoi designed Ultra Hand, a toy that had an extending arm that could be operated like scissors to pick up objects. Ultra Hand became the highest-selling toy in Japan, resulting in Nintendo expanding in 1968 when a manufacturing plant was opened in Uji, a city on the outskirts of Kyoto. Yokoi developed another hit toy when he designed the “Love Tester”, a toy that would determine how much two people loved each other. This toy was an even bigger hit than the last, and Nintendo began selling the Love Tester outside of Japan as well. As a result, in 1970, the listing of Nintendo stock was changed to the first section of the Osaka Securities Exchange.

In 1970, Nintendo entered an agreement with Sharp to use Sharp light sensor technology in toys. To develop their light guns, which would be known as the Beam Gun line, Nintendo Research & Development 1 was formed, and employees of the Nintendo Games department were reassigned to this new game development division.