When I learned of the passing of a personal hero of mine last week, I was disappointed, not simply because I was sad to have to say goodbye, but also because I feel that so many people my age don’t comprehend the enormous cultural impact this man had.
Hiroshi Yamauchi was a visionary businessman born in Kyoto, Japan in 1927. In 1949, he took control of his grandfather’s business: an obscure playing card company that had been around since 1889. Taking advantage of the newly booming post-World War II economy in Japan, Yamauchi saw an opportunity to expand. Such products as board games and plastic toy guns, however, did not prove as profitable as he had hoped.
Then, Yamauchi seized on the new craze of the 1970s: electronic entertainment. He bet that he could expand the size of the market beyond anyone’s wildest imagination by commissioning his head video game designer to come up with a new arcade game that could appeal to audiences across the globe.
The name of that company that Yamauchi led for over 50 years is Nintendo. And the name of that arcade game he had designer Shigeru Miyamoto create was “Donkey Kong.” The game took the world (and kids’ allowances) by storm. But Yamauchi did not stop there. In the early 1980s, successful home video game systems were rare. They were far too expensive, and most consumers thought that companies like Atari were well on their way out. Yamauchi, however, envisioned a world in which nearly everyone would have one of his game systems in their houses.
What is perhaps most striking about this former CEO is that he never had any formal instruction in computer science or video game design. What he did have was a strong intuition for what would be successful. In the early days of the Nintendo Entertainment System, Yamauchi had to personally approve which games would be released.
That’s not to say that Yamauchi’s record was unblemished. In the early 1990s, he cancelled plans to work alongside Sony to develop a CD-based Super Nintendo system, leading Sony to develop the Playstation on their own and become Nintendo’s strongest competitor.
Nevertheless, Yamauchi charted an unstoppable new path in the electronics market. The handheld Nintendo Game Boy was one of the most popular systems ever released. Additionally, in the 1990s, a survey showed that Mario was more recognizable to American children than Mickey Mouse.
Video games are so ubiquitous nowadays that it’s easy to think the market must have always existed. Just last week, “Grand Theft Auto V” made over $1 billion within three days of sale. But without Mr. Yamauchi’s vision, video games might never have become anything more than a niche market for the most avid of collectors. So please, pop in a new pair of batteries to that aging Game Boy Color, dust off an old Pokemon cartridge and give it a play. I could hardly think of a better way to pay this great man tribute.
Bub is a senior majoring in English, political science and history.
