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You may think you know the Nintendo story: a plumber named Mario, a princess named Zelda… and didn’t they buy the Seattle Mariners at some point? We thought we knew it too. And then we started researching and were blown away.

The lovable Disney-like Nintendo that we know today is a 130 year-old a playing card company (i.e. gambling), forged in the shadowy world of the Yakuza and shaped by a four-generation cycle of bitter family betrayal. And its unlikely transformation into a global multi-billion dollar media monopoly was led by an iron-fisted patriarch who — amazingly — never played a video game in his life! Get ready for one of our favorite stories Acquired has ever told — we couldn’t make this one up if we tried.

ACQ2 Show + LP Program:

• Subscribe to the shiny new ACQ2!
• Become an LP and support the show. Help us pick episodes, Zoom calls and more.
  
  

Sponsors:

Thanks to our fantastic partners, any member of the Acquired community can now get:

• Pilot: 20% off your company’s first six months of service
• Vanta: $1,000 off any compliance audit product
• …in touch with Tiny! (just tell them Ben & David sent you)
  
  

Links:

• Our Atari episode with Nolan Bushnell
• Video of id Software’s legendary PC “port” of Super Mario Brothers 3
• Episode sources
  
  

Carve Outs:

• Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Michael Lewis on Tim Ferriss and on CSPAN