Forty years after the launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the name remains synonymous with worldwide gaming and technological innovation

When Nintendo released the Switch 2 on June 5, it marked the twelfth distinct console the video game company has sold in the United States. Its first, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), celebrates its 40th anniversary this month; it launched in , before launching in other cities, including Los Angeles, in 1986.

Although they are known primarily as a video game company, , when it was founded in Japan as a trading card company. The company did well enough to stay in business through World War II, but its true turning point was in 1959, when it obtained the license to include characters from the Walt Disney Company on its cards, opening the children’s market to Nintendo. The company ventured into toys in 1968 and introduced the two years later, which was an optoelectrical game in which players shot physical targets with light. Electronics giant Magnovox then hired Nintendo to create a the Odyssey, which came out in 1971.

Jared Bahir Browsh is the��Critical Sports Studies��program director in the ̽����Ƶ��Department of Ethnic Studies.

Like many toy companies making plastic toys, Nintendo struggled during the Oil Crisis of 1973-74, which led to increases in material costs. In response, Nintendo turned its attention to video games, strengthening its partnership with Magnavox to distribute the Odyssey in Japan and also contracting with the company to manufacture microprocessors for its own video game console, the . Nintendo was looking to profit from the growing video game market.

Video game consoles at that time were limited and only offered a small number of games, many of which were variations of games like Pong. The cartridge system had been invented in 1974 and licensed to Fairchild Camera and Instrument for its Channel F system in 1976. developers, helped improve the design of the cartridges, or “Videocarts,” for release of the Channel F. Unfortunately, the $170 price tag ($950 in 2025) for the system and the $20 ($110 in 2025) for each cartridge, along with limited marketing, led the system to quickly be surpassed by the which had a similar price point but more action games and arcade ports and a higher marketing budget.

Even as the home console market grew with advancing technology, the arcade market exploded, since arcade cabinets could contain more circuitry and computing power than their home counterparts. , with several space-themed games like Asteroids and Space Invaders leading both children and adults to spend quarter after quarter to beat these games. Arguably, the most popular game to emerge in this era was . The gameplay was not just addictive, but it was one of the earliest arcade games to feature a marketable character. Inspired by a pizza missing a slice, the little yellow protagonist became a pop culture phenomenon and inspired merchandise, an animated series and even a Top 10 song.

From Jumpman to Mario

Nintendo’s home console, and the company as a whole, struggled financially in the late 1970s. However, two significant events occurred in 1979 that helped the company reverse its fortunes in the electronics market. First, Nintendo opened its and began developing arcade games. Then, the following year, Nintendo released the Game & Watch, one of the first handheld video game systems using technology similar to that in handheld calculators. , and the introduction of Nintendo’s Sheriff (1979) and Radar Scope (1980) in Japan, pushed the company to invest more resources into electronic games.

After Radar Scope’s lower-than-expected U.S. sales, though, Nintendo needed a game to place in the unsold cabinets. In 1981, it released the first platform game in which the main character could jump as they made their way up the level. The game and characters were designed by and replaced the hardware in unused Radar Scope cabinets.

Jumpman, as the character was called at the time, climbed ladders and jumped over barrels thrown by a giant gorilla to save the damsel in distress, Pauline. What came to be known as , or non-interactive narrative scenes, that helped to advance the game story.

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Donkey Kong was groundbreaking because it featured cutscenes, or non-interactive narrative scenes, that helped to advance the game story and also introduced the world to Jumpman, who became the world-famous Mario. (Photo: Nintendo)

Donkey Kong not only went on to become one of the bestselling arcade games of all time, but when Jumpman was renamed Mario—after the warehouse landlord of Nintendo’s Washington state headquarters—Nintendo suddenly had found its mascot. The Donkey Kong spinoff Mario Bros. was released in arcades in July 1983, introducing the world to and other now-ubiquitous characters like turtles that were later renamed Koopas.

Less than two weeks after Mario Bros. was released in arcades, was released in Japan. Home consoles maintained their popularity in Japan even as the video game market crashed in the United States in 1983—largely due to the lack of quality control over the games made for consoles like Atari, causing a flood of badly produced games into the market.

One downward tipping point was based on the blockbuster movie that came out in the summer of 1982. Atari reportedly paid between $20-$25 million for the rights to “E.T.” and accelerated the production schedule from six months to less than six weeks to ensure it was available for the Christmas season. Atari manufactured 4 million “E.T.” cartridges, but 3.5 million were reportedly either unsold or returned by customers. The surplus was infamously buried in New Mexico.

Oversaturation of low-quality games, along with the introduction of home computers and stagnation in video game technology, led to a from more than $3.2 billion ($10.5 billion in 2025) in sales in 1983 to . Arcades also faced a decline in 1983 and 1984 but soon recovered as new technology entered arcades.

Surviving the market crash

Prior to the mid-1980s market slump, Sega introduced the Convert-a-Game system in 1981, which allowed for easier conversion of the game software in arcade cabinets, so that players could enjoy new releases without changing entire cabinets. The when it debuted in arcades in 1984, introducing the Famicom system to the U.S. market as Nintendo developed the console for the North American market. Games like Tennis and Excitebike debuted on the VS. system as Nintendo decided which games would be available for the U.S. launch.

After the dramatic video game market crash, Nintendo was aware of how retailers and consumers perceived video games, so it marketed the system as a toy rather than a game. Originally titled Advanced Video System, Nintendo altered the console’s design to feature neutral gray and black and altered the system from top-loading one to a , which made it distinct from earlier consoles like the Atari 2600.

To further separate the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the company heavily promoted optional accessories. The Beam Gun returned as a light gun, now named Zapper, and the Robotic Operating Buddy (R.O.B.) was added to further sell the NES as an advanced electronic entertainment system rather than a video game console. R.O.B. was short lived, Gail Tilden, advertising manager for Nintendo of America and one of the early female executives in the video game industry, coined the terms "Game Paks" for the cartridges and console for the "Control Deck," helping to separate it linguistically from the earlier industry.

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Originally titled Advanced Video System, Nintendo altered the console’s design to feature neutral gray and black and altered the system from top-loading one to a front-loading insertion system similar to a VCR, which made it distinct from earlier consoles like the Atari 2600. (Photo: Evan-Amos/Wikimedia Commons)

The consistent figure in Nintendo’s eventual domination of the video game industry in the 1980s was Mario. Miyamoto had envisioned Mario as Nintendo’s “go-to” character for various games, leading Mario to become a multimedia star—the video game industry’s Mickey Mouse. Mario has been featured in more than 200 games as well as various TV series, comics and films, including a blockbuster animated film in 2023 with a sequel scheduled for release in 2026.

Super Mario Bros. advanced game development and was ultimately the perfect game to introduce players to the NES and the company’s star. The first level, World 1-1, , acting as a tutorial for players familiarizing themselves with the game controls and new system. The game has sold more than 58 million copies to date across several Nintendo platforms.

Super for Nintendo

Nintendo’s rise has not always been without controversy, as video games have consistently faced criticism for perceived addiction among young players and the content of games. Nintendo as a business has also faced claims in the North American market of . To avoid the oversaturation of variable-quality games, Nintendo required approval of games and the that essentially locked out unlicensed games. Although this gave Nintendo oversight of game stock, it also limited outside innovation.

Nintendo’s success also gave the company tremendous power over retailers, blocking out other consoles through threats to remove its stock if retailers like Walmart granted space to other consoles. The company’s dominance further extended to the portable game market with the introduction of the Game Boy in April 1989, which included one of the .

Nintendo has weathered competition throughout its history, ultimately ceding some market share, but survived on the strength of Mario and its engaging library of games. Sega initiated the console wars that dominated the early 1990s video game market when it released the Genesis in North America in the summer of 1989. Sega struggled initially when the was released about the same time as Super Mario Bros. 3.

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The Nintendo Game Boy, released in April 1989, included one of the . (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

The competition heated up after Sega, following Nintendo’s approach, introduced its own mascot and go-to character, Sonic the Hedgehog, in 1991, through the eponymous platform game. Nintendo also launched its Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) the same year as the introduced 16-bit technology to the market.

, who made his name launching Flintstone Vitamins and worked with Mattel to revitalize Barbie, to battle Nintendo head on. He positioned the Genesis as the cooler system, rather than younger children. Sega’s in-your-face marketing also included targeting retailers who refused to cede space to a Nintendo competitor. The company launched a Sega store in Bentonville, Arkansas, Walmart’s headquarters, and an advertising strategy that included billboards on local highways to force

Ultimately, the competition from Sega—which for a short time won the majority of market share, partly because Sega leveraged controversy to market more mature and —pushed Nintendo to secure its niche as a family game maker while continuing to embrace new technology. This led to Sega’s downfall.

Kalinske had negotiated two separate opportunities for Sega to advance that Sega of Japan, which had a contentious relationship with the brasher Sega of America under Kalinske’s leadership, rejected. The to create a more advanced graphic chip, and the second opportunity was with . After Sega of Japan rejected these opportunities, Silicon Graphics partnered with Nintendo on the Nintendo 64 system while Sony went ahead and developed its own system, the Playstation. Both systems far outsold Sega’s next generation system, Sega Saturn, with Playstation becoming the best-selling console of all time after its release in 1994, only later surpassed by Playstation 2.

Meanwhile, world that Mario could explore, and he continued to star in some of the most popular video game series of all time, including Mario Kart, Mario Party and dozens of sports games including Mario Tennis and Mario Golf. Nintendo’s portable systems continued to evolve, adding color, dual screens and 3-D graphics over time, and following the Nintendo 64 with the disc-based Gamecube and then the interactive Wii. The portable and console systems combined in 2017 when the hybrid Switch was released, allowing both portable play and television docking.

Mario continues to be at the center of everything Nintendo does, and Mario Kart was the featured game when the Switch 2 launched in summer 2025. Now, fans of the plumber can also engage with him and the other members of the Nintendo Universe at Super Nintendo World, a themed land at Universal Studios theme parks, the latest of which opened in . Even after over four decades, Mario continues to be super for Nintendo.

Jared Bahir Browsh��is an assistant teaching professor of��critical sports studies��in the ̽����Ƶ��Department of Ethnic Studies.

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