It would be difficult to argue that Nintendo is not the most important and influential game company of all time. No matter what you think of its personalities, its business practices, or its products past and present, Nintendo has been the central player in the relatively short history of the industry.
Where other game makers enjoy a single era at most in which their products or philosophy were an unqualified success, only Nintendo has had three: The domination of the 8-bit era, the worldwide phenomenon of Pokémon, and the more recent blindside victory of Wii and DS.
