The name may not mean much to most readers, but Hiroshi Yamauchi helped change the way everyone plays computers games. He was one of the key people responsible for evolving Nintendo from a small company focused on producing Japanese playing cards to one of the most successful and creative gaming companies in the world.
Yamauchi took over Nintendo in 1949, replacing his ill grandfather. At the time, Yamauchi was still in his early 20s, and was forced to leave university to take over the position as head of the company. He would remain there for 53 years. After expanding and diversifying the company in the 1950s and 60s - including the production of Western-style playing cards (including Disney branded ones) in a move away from the Hanafuda cards the company had traditionally made - it was during the 1960s and 70s that the company started developing electronic toys.
The company started producing arcade games such as Laser Clay Shooting System and Radar Scope. Yamauchi set up three research & development units, the teams dedicated to individual projects (a similar but larger scale model exists at Nintendo today). One team produced the Game & Watch - the iconic wrist-worn handheld gaming devices that became one of the company’s first major consumer successes. A little arcade game called Donkey Kong became their first major international hit, and remains a favourite of competitive gamers worldwide, as immortalised in popular documentary King of Kong.
NES
Yamauchi hedged all his bets on the production of the Family Computer or Famicom - the console that would be redesigned for the European and US markets as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The rest is very much history, the console ultimately selling over 60 million units worldwide.
It has often been said that Yamauchi alone chose the games for the company’s consoles until well into the 1990s, many of which are still considered the best games of all time. He directly supported designers like Shigeru Miyamoto - the creator of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. Yamauchi was also an early advocate of the role of artists in designing games, not just technicians - a design philosophy that helped change the way both companies and players approached games.
Yamauchi remained head of Nintendo until 2002, having overseen the creation of the SNES, N64 and Gamecube, as well as the Gameboy. As all those devices illustrated, he remained committed to the idea of game consoles as game consoles alone, steering the company away from competitors’ increasing drift towards consoles as multimedia devices.
Although he retired in 2002, he remained on the Nintendo board of directors until 2005. He refused a pension worth millions as he felt the money could be spent throughout the company. Not that he needed the pension, because he remained a major shareholder until his death, earning huge dividends from Nintendo’s financial success with the Wii and the DS. He was one of the richest people in Japan with a fortune valued at over €1.5 billion. However, his fortune suffered in more recent times as a result of the low share prices that followed the disappointing performances of the 3DS and Wii U.
Hiroshi Yamauchi passed away as a result of pneumonia. He was 85.
