page_title: Nintendo
section_title: 2010–2016: Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and mobile ventures
hierarchical_section_title: Nintendo / History / 1973–present: History in electronics / 2010–2016: Nintendo 3DS, Wii U, and mobile ventures
caption_attribution_description: English: A Nintendo 3DS in Aqua Blue, photo taken during the 3DS launch event in NYC.
context_page_description: Nintendo Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company headquartered in Kyoto. The company was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of business during the 1960s and acquiring a legal status as a public company under the current company name, Nintendo distributed its first video game console, the Color TV-Game, in 1977. It gained international recognition with the release of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985.
  Since then, Nintendo has produced some of the most successful consoles in the video game industry, such as the Game Boy, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has also released numerous influential franchises, including Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Splatoon, Super Smash Bros., and Pokémon.
  Nintendo has multiple subsidiaries in Japan and abroad, in addition to business partners such as The Pokémon Company and HAL Laboratory.
context_section_description: Following an announcement in March 2010, Nintendo released the Nintendo 3DS in 2011. The console is capable of producing stereoscopic effects without the need for 3D glasses. By 2018, more than 69 million units had been sold worldwide; the figure increased to 75 million by the start of 2019. In 2011, Nintendo celebrated the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda with the orchestra concert tour The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses and the video game The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
  The years 2012 and 2013 marked the introduction of two new Nintendo game consoles: the Wii U, which incorporated high-definition graphics and a GamePad controller with near-field communication technology, and the Nintendo 2DS, a version of the 3DS that lacks the clamshell-like design of Nintendo's previous handheld consoles and the stereoscopic effects of the 3DS. With 13.5 million units sold worldwide, the Wii U is the least successful video game console in Nintendo's history. In 2014, a new line of products was released consisting of figures of Nintendo characters called amiibos.
  On 25 September 2013, Nintendo announced its acquisition of a 28% stake in PUX Corporation, a subsidiary of Panasonic, for the purpose of developing facial, voice and text recognition for its video games. Due to a 30% decrease in company income between April and December 2013, Iwata announced a temporary 50% cut to his salary, with other executives seeing reductions by 20%–30%. In January 2015, Nintendo ceased operations in the Brazilian market due in part to high import duties. Although this did not affect the rest of Nintendo's Latin American market due to an alliance with Juegos de Video Latinoamérica, in 2017, Nintendo reached an agreement with NC Games for Nintendo's products to resume distribution in Brazil.
  On 11 July 2015, Iwata died of bile duct cancer, and after a couple of months in which Miyamoto and Takeda jointly operated the company, Tatsumi Kimishima was named as Iwata's successor on 16 September 2015. As part of the management's restructuring, Miyamoto and Takeda were respectively named creative and technological advisors.
  The financial losses caused by the Wii U, along with Sony's intention to release its video games to other platforms such as smart TVs, motivated Nintendo to rethink its strategy concerning the production and distribution of its properties. In 2015, Nintendo formalized agreements with DeNA and Universal Parks & Resorts to extend its presence to smart devices and amusement parks respectively. In March 2016, Nintendo's first mobile app for the iOS and Android systems, Miitomo, was released. Since then, Nintendo has produced other similar apps, such as Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Mario Kart Tour and Pokémon Go, the last being developed by Niantic and having generated $115 million in revenue for Nintendo. The theme park area Super Nintendo World is set to open at Universal Studios Japan in 2020. In March 2016, the loyalty program My Nintendo replaced Club Nintendo.
  The NES Classic Edition was released in November 2016. The console is a redesigned version of the NES that includes support for the HDMI interface and Wiimote compatibility. Its successor, the Super NES Classic Edition, was released in September 2017. By October 2018, around ten million units of both consoles combined had been sold worldwide.
caption: Nintendo 3DS
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