I never thought they made this first.
Nintendo is one of the biggest and most successful gaming companies in the world. In fact, the company founded by Fujisaro Yamauchi in 1989 was not originally a game producer. Throughout its history, Yamauchi and Nintendo have tried various businesses, from taxi companies to love hotels. But unfortunately, all the business ended in failure.
Well, here we present a little business trip from Nintendo before finally becoming one of the biggest gaming companies in the world. Come on, let’s keep going!
Playing cards
Believe it or not, before becoming a game producer, Nintendo also ran playing cards, you know. That was when Nintendo was founded. Their main customer at that time was the Yakuza group.
Apart from playing cards, they also produce various gambling games. The Yakuza will use these cards and gambling equipment to be used in some of their illegal casinos.
You could say that at that time Nintendo also played a role in this illegal business. However, they cover this forbidden business by making cards for traditional Japanese games as well as various children’s games.
This business was quite successful and even made Nintendo the biggest card maker company in Japan. The success continued until in 1959 they won a tender to become a supplier of playing cards for Disney.
Even though they seem big and successful, in fact, the profits they get are very small. However, until now Nintendo is still running this business and usually, the cards produced are part of their game items such as Mario Bross or Pokemon.
Instant Rice
The Yamauchi family seems very thirsty and ambitious in business. After feeling that making playing cards was not profitable, they made another innovation by making instant rice.
This innovation was made after Yamauchi saw many people buying instant noodles at supermarkets. So, when he saw that, Yamauchi was immediately intrigued to make innovation by presenting instant rice.
At that time, Yamauchi hoped that his instant rice would be liked by people like instant noodles so that his company could make a profit. But unfortunately, this hope seemed to be just hope because his instant rice products did not sell at all. Even the company has to suffer losses due to large scale instant rice production.
Love Hotel and Obscene Playing Cards
When asked when was the worst time for Nintendo in running its business, the answer is the 1960s. The reason is that during this period they plunged into negative business.
This gloomy period was also the result of the change in leadership abilities from Fujisaro Yamauchi to his grandson, Hiroshi Yamauchi. His lack of experience left him with wild and seemingly random ideas for Nintendo’s future.
One of his ideas was to get into the Love Hotel business and manufacture playing cards with naked women in them. Now, to launch this crazy idea, Hiroshi even fired all the staff who dared to oppose his idea and replaced them with people who were willing to comply.
This quite extreme change actually had a bad impact because Nintendo did not benefit at all due to the lack of enthusiasts. Lately, there are even rumors that say that his policy was made so that he could use the Love hotel for free!
Taxi company
Previous failures didn’t seem to make Nintendo shaken and give up. Finally, Nintendo made a fortune after deciding to enter the taxi service business.
By using the name of the Daiya subsidiary, Nintendo managed to reap a sizable profit. But unfortunately, this success was short-lived. Two months after officially entering this business, Nintendo finally collapsed.
How come?
The reason for the collapse of the taxi business that Nintendo runs is very trivial and even ridiculous. Companies do not want to pay decent wages to the taxi drivers they employ. In fact, taxi drivers are required to work nearly 24 hours to meet the high market demand.
It is clear that the heavy workload which is not balanced by sufficient income makes the drivers barely able to make ends meet for a month. In the aftermath, the drivers run to other companies that dare to pay them more.
So, since the drivers left, the Nintendo taxi business collapsed in an instant. It was only recently discovered that the reason for the company’s reluctance to pay more taxi drivers was due to massive corruption committed by Nintendo officials.
The Love Testing Machine
Believe it or not, Nintendo has penetrated into this business, you know. The love testing machine is one of the most profitable innovations Nintendo has ever made. This machine was first launched in 1969.
The way this love testing machine works is actually very, very simple. People who want to test their love only need to attach some kind of electrode strap to their hands while holding and looking into their partner’s eyes.
At that time they were also asked to express their feelings of love. If they are truly in love, then the machine will give a signal through the sound and the light is on. Vice versa.
Is this tool accurate?
You could say this love testing machine is quite accurate because this machine is actually a heartbeat detector, something like a lie detector.
When people are caught lying, their heart rate will speed up. That is the indicator of this sophisticated tool.
Basically, this tool only detects whether someone is lying or not when expressing feelings to their partner. Very simple, right? However, the idea deserves thumbs up!
Because of his brilliant idea, this love testing machine has succeeded in penetrating the world market. This tool was even produced back in 2010 and sold quite well.
If you often see lie detector challenges that are scattered in cyberspace, it’s actually a new version of the love testing machine launched by Nintendo.
Those are the five unique and strange businesses that the Nintendo company has been involved in. One of the many lessons we can take is not to give up easily and keep trying to create innovations that can benefit many people.
You guys have to try this games