We all owe Nintendo a big THANK YOU

Where would we all be if it wasn't for Nintendo, for two very big reasons.

Let me take you back to yesteryear... It was 1983 and Atari had just buried E.T in landfill in Texas. I was out of work as the start-up I was working for had to shut down because the company that was going to buy them was about to file chapter 11. Thank you HES and Childware.

Image via CrunchBase

Out of nowhere, a small company that started out selling playing cards, released a game system and a game starring a little plumber with a red hat. It turned the world on to games and made it a must-have toy for Christmas.

But more subtly, those 9-12 year old kids... are now 32 years old and playing games ever since. And of course when I say playing, I really mean buying. And they grew up playing the Nintendo games, and then the SEGA games and now Playstation and XBOX. Which makes them the core gamers we always try to target.

But it gets better... Nintendo didn't stop bringing kids into the market. As a matter of fact, they bring in more every day. As those kids get older they buy more serious games. And Nintendo has even tried their best to bring girls into the market, but something happens about age 12 where most girls move out of games into something else... and as a man, I have no concept of what that is.

So thank you Nintendo for re-creating the games industry, and giving me a career. I'm sure I'm not alone as someone who can trace back their sales to Nintendo inspired love for gaming.

Now, what are girls doing?

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