Short answers, pulled from the story.
Nintendo was founded on the 23rd of September 1889 by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The company originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards, which were popular in Japan partly because most forms of gambling had been banned but hanafuda was tolerated.
The meaning of Nintendo is uncertain. It is commonly assumed to mean "leave luck to heaven," but this interpretation lacks historical validation. Even descendants of founder Fusajiro Yamauchi do not know the true intended meaning of the name.
Shigeru Miyamoto designed Donkey Kong, released in 1981. He had been assigned the project to help redeem a large overstock of unsold Radar Scope arcade cabinets. The game generated $280 million for Nintendo of America between 1981 and 1983 and sold 4,000 new arcade units per month in America.
As of May 2025, Nintendo's game consoles have sold over 860 million units worldwide. More than 5.9 billion individual games have been sold for those consoles.
The Nintendo Switch 2, the successor to the original Switch, was released on the 5th of June 2025. It supports 4K resolution at 60 Hz when docked and 1080p at 120 Hz in handheld or tabletop mode. By the 10th of June 2025, it had sold more than 3.5 million units, making it the fastest-selling console in history.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, released on the 5th of April 2023, grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide. It set records for the biggest worldwide opening weekend for an animated film and became the highest-grossing film based on a video game.