Nintendo Is Founded 133 Years Ago Today

Each day, Benzinga takes a look back at a notable market-related moment that occurred on this date.

What Happened: On this day in 1889, NINTENDO LTD/ADR NTDOY was founded.

What Else Was Going On In The World: In 1889, the Pemberton Medicine Company, which would become Coca-Cola Co KO, was incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia. The first issue of the Wall Street Journal was published. A dozen eggs cost 21 cents.

Nintendo’s Long Journey: Today’s investors know Nintendo as one of the largest and most successful video game companies in the world.

Nintendo actually got its start about a century before video games gained mainstream popularity in the U.S.

Nintendo Koppai was founded as a playing card company by Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889 in Kyoto, Japan.

Nintendo became the first Japanese company to successfully mass-produce plastic playing cards in 1953, and its success led to the company going public on the Second Section of the Osaka Securities Exchange and on the Kyoto Stock Exchange in 1962.

A year later, the company changed its name to Nintendo Co., Ltd., which remains its name to this day. It wasn’t until 1977 that Nintendo launched its first home video game machines, the TV Game 15 and TV Game 6.

For the next several decades, Nintendo had hit after hit with both games and gaming systems, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Switch.

Today, Nintendo’s market cap has grown to $50 billion.