Nintendo is one of the world’s largest video game companies by market capitalization. Founded on 23 September 1889, by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. Abandoning previous ventures in favor of toys in the 1960s, Nintendo then developed into a video game company in the 1970s, ultimately becoming one of the most influential in the industry and Japan’s third most-valuable company with a market value of over $85 billion. The company has created and released some of the best-known and top-selling video game franchises, such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon.