Next-Gen looks at the company's history in the last 25 years. The company has been characterised by an eagerness to take risks, and yet it is the world's most profitable game company. How does Nintendo do it?
The real Nintendo hallmark has never been the Seal Of Quality, or Mario's moustache, or Miyamoto's cheesy grin: ever since the launch of the NES it's been the yen.
The one, unshakable constant in Nintendo's quarter-century of videogame production has been profit. In the decade after the launch of the company's first console, its share of the gaming market topped 90 per cent, and its profits rose inexorably to supply Game Over author David Sheff with his famous estimate that it earned $2 million for each and every employee.
