Nintendo

Nintendo was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards, for use in a Japanese playing card game of the same name. Over the years, it became a video game company and one of the most powerful in the industry. Nintendo is the longest running company in the history of the video game console market and historically the best known console manufacturer. Nintendo manufactures the Nintendo 64, the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and DSi and the present GameCube and many different handheld consoles, including six versions of the popular Game Boy. Nintendo has the Nintendo e-shop, players top up an account from which they purchase digital products from the online store directly from their games consoles. Nintendo has announced that its next console, the Wii U, will be NFC enabled - it is expected to launch at the end of 2012.