2. Nintendo Sold Playing Cards
Nintendo is best known for its pioneering influence on the video game industry during the 1980s, but the company was actually founded back in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi.
With the invention of the microchip years away, what was it that the company sold?
Playing Cards, obviously.
Before the days of Super Mario and Donkey Kong, the company sold playing cards called “Hanafuda” in Japan.
The cards were hand-painted on tree bark and became very popular around the world.
By the 1950s, the company tried to expand into different markets, including a taxi service, a tv network, and even a food company.
Having failed at all of these new endeavors, the company tried one more time to reinvent itself before going bust and started selling children’s toys.
The rest, as they say, is history.