Nintendo

<p>You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.</p><p>The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried!</p><p>ACQ2 Show + LP Program:</p><ul> <li><a href="https://pod.link/acquiredlp">Subscribe to the shiny new ACQ2!</a></li> <li> <a href="https://acquired.fm/lp">Become an LP</a> and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more.</li> </ul><p><br>Sponsors:<br>Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get:</p><ul> <li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredpilot23">Pilot: 20% off your company’s first six months of service</a></li> <li><a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta">Vanta: $1,000 off any compliance audit product</a></li> <li> <a href="https://bit.ly/acquiredtiny">…in touch with Tiny!</a> (just tell them Ben &amp; David sent you) </li> </ul><p><br></p><p>Links:</p><ul> <li><a href="https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/atari-with-nolan-bushnell">Our Atari episode with Nolan Bushnell</a></li> <li><a href="https://vimeo.com/148909578">Video of id Software’s legendary PC “port” of Super Mario Brothers 3</a></li> <li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/11N6jjXkUpCoB2-8EQM3mYeJpr6X_A8NVgrlwYqX8ji0/edit">Episode sources</a></li> </ul><p><br></p><p>Carve Outs:</p><ul> <li><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6710474/">Everything Everywhere All At Once</a></li> <li>Michael Lewis <a href="https://tim.blog/2020/05/01/michael-lewis/">on Tim F