Nintendo is one of the leading manufacturers of Gaming systems in the world. With its headquarters in Japan, Nintendo has its operations worldwide. As per the website softwaretop100.org, Nintendo ranks among the top 10 largest software manufacturers in the world. Nintendo's official Press Release of October, 2008 states that till date Nintendo has sold over 470 million game consoles and over 2.7 billion video games.

Since the late 1970s, Nintendo began producing a variety of home and portable video game units.

HOME CONSOLES: Nintendo's first home console called the "Color TV Game" was launched in 1977. Then the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), also known as the "Family Computer" (Famicom) in Japan, was introduced in 1983. Its improvised version, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) came out in 1990. 1995 saw the advent of "Virtual Boy", and the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996. The most advanced version of NES, the Nintendo GameCube was introduced in 2001, and finally, in 2006 Nintendo came out with its most current and most popular gaming console with wi-fi capabilities, known as the "Wii". This console directly competes against Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

PORTABLE CONSOLES: This line of hand-held video games was launched in 1980 with "Game and Watch". In 1989, the company came out with the immensely popular and successful "Game Boy", and its advanced version came out in 1991 as the "Game Boy Advance". Thereafter, Nintendo made further great advancements in the hand-held console business, and produced "Nintendo DS" with dual-screen technology. The most recent innovation to the DS has been named the Nintendo DSi, which has been introduced recently in the Japanese market, and will be showcased before the rest of the world around mid-2009.

NINTENDO COMPANY POLICIES ON SOFTWARE (GAMING CONTENT)

Among all the major game manufacturers in the world, probably Nintendo is the one that aspires to be most ethical and conservative in its content quality, the profitability concerns notwithstanding. For most part of its history, Nintendo has followed a strict policy of avoiding sexually explicit graphics in its gaming software. Eventually, the approach went even one step further to prohibit religious profanity, bloody or graphic violence, drugs and politically hued games as well.

NINTENDO'S LICENSING GUIDELINES TO ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS

Nintendo maintains strict guidelines for its licensees so that they may produce games in accordance with the parameters laid down by it. One of the tough guidelines was that a single licensee could not produce more than 5 games for Nintendo in any given year. This was Nintendo's way to show responsibility towards the gaming industry by not over-heating the market with excess supply.

NINTENDO CONSOLES: SALES, POPULARITY AND GLOBAL POSITION

Ever since the launch of Nintendo's latest home video gaming console "Wii", the world sat up and watched as the popularity of the Wii soared sky-high, leaving top-notch competitors like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 far behind. Since the launch in late 2006, almost every month the Wii has continued to clock higher sales than its closest rivals across the world. By 2008, Nintendo Wii has overtaken Xbox 360 in terms of aggregate sales, even though Xbox 360 was launched a year earlier.

SUMMARY: In terms of hardware as well as software, Nintendo has proved to be a world leader with millions of satisfied users across the globe. Nintendo's technological innovations have contributed to the growth and transformation of the global video gaming industry