Read the history of Nintendo below. Complete the text using the words and phrases in the box.

 

advertising competitor  console  innovation  manufacture mass-produced   partnership  playing cards   sales  trade sold        cost

NINTENDO is one of the best-known brands in the world and a leader in interactive video entertainment – a multi-billion dollar industry. The company has a history which dates back to the nineteenth century.

 

1889 Fusajiro Yamauchi foundsa small company to manufacture traditional (a).......................................

1953 The company manufactures the first (b)...........................plastic playing cards in Japan.

1963 The company changesits name to Nintendo Co. Ltd. and starts to (c).......................................games in addition to playing cards.

1965 Boss Hiroshi Yamauchi hires Gunpei Yokoi – the engineer behind many of the company's most successful products.

1975 Nintendo formsa (d)......................................with Mitsubishi Electric to take advantage of their micro-processor technology.

1983 Nintendo developsa (e)........................... for use at home, the NES.

1989 Nintendo launchesGame Boy – the first console you could carry around in your pocket. The package includesTetris – one of the most addictive games of all time.

1990 Nintendo sales represent 10% of the (f)........................... deficit between Japan and the USA.

1994 Sony releasesthe Playstation, which worksas a CD player as well as a console. Nintendo facesa major new (g).......................................and sales suffer badly.

2001 Nintendo launches a sophisticated new console, the GameCube. Sales are poor but at the same time in the USA, the 'GameBoy Advanced' dominatesthe handheld market.

2004 With the disappointing (h)......................................of GameCube and the success of GameBoy Advanced, Nintendo decidesto concentrate on the portable market and release a new handheld console – the Nintendo DS (Dual Screen). The DS is popular but has to compete against Sony's new handheld, the PSP.

2006 Things lookbad for Nintendo, but once again, a brilliant (i)........................... savesthem from disaster – the 'Wii'. Its most brilliant feature is a 'wand' which allows players to physically move while they play a game of tennis on screen – there areno complicated controls and anyone can play with it. With a clever (j)...............................campaign (aimed at adult gamers) in a very short time it achieveshigher levels of sales than all its competitors.

2012 The WiiU is released. Its distinguishing hardware feature is the GamePad, a tablet-like controller which contains a touch screen that wirelessly streams a video output from the console. The Wii U features more-extensive online functionality than the Wii, it also allows video chat. The Wii U is met with low adoption, attributed by Nintendo executives with lack of third-party support, poor marketing of the system. However, some critics argue that the Wii U still has advantages over PlayStation4 and Xbox One, including its lower (k) ………………. and notable early exclusives such as Super Mario 3D World.

2017 The Nintendo Switch is released. It is a hybrid device that can be used as a home console attached to a television, or as a tablet-like portable console. It features two detachable wireless controllers called Joy-Con, that can be used individually or attached to a grip to provide a more traditional gamepad form. The Nintendo Switch has currently (l) …… 79.87 million units as of December 31, 2020, outselling the Wii U, GameCube, Nintendo 64, SNES, NES and 3DS within its first four years of launch.