Nintendo started as a playing card company
Nintendo, now a gaming giant, started in 1889 as a playing card company, even trying love hotels before revolutionizing video games decades later.
Before Mario and Pokémon, Nintendo began in 1889 making handmade hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. The company, whose name means "leave luck to heaven," spent 86 years exploring ventures like instant rice and love hotels before entering video games in 1975.
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