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How Nintendo Makes Money Beyond Video Games - Video học tiếng Anh
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How Nintendo Makes Money Beyond Video Games
How Nintendo Makes Money Beyond Video Games
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0:08
These characters like Mario and Pikachu, they're obviously Nintendo's
0:12
main IP franchises, because they are so recognizable, they have a mass appeal.
0:18
Nintendo has been able to um foster that Disney feel through this really
0:23
powerful harnessing of nostalgia and also I think accessibility.
0:27
The fact that you can go in and immediately engage with these characters without prior knowledge.
0:33
In 2017, the the company really transformed itself
0:37
internally. And I think it was around that time when the idea was born that,
0:42
you know, hey, we need to create more touch points. We need to create more
0:45
um revenue with our IPs and we need to get out there and get into the minds and hearts of people.
0:50
Nintendo's edge extends beyond hardware. It's in its characters,
0:55
worlds, and franchises they've nurtured for decades that span generations.
1:08
I'm Arjun Kharpal. In this episode of Built for Billions, I'm exploring the gaming giant's next
1:14
frontier. How it's turning nostalgia into an engine for growth by expanding its characters
1:20
beyond consoles and building a universe that stretches across screens, parks, and toys.
1:26
"Pikachu, I choose you."
1:29
Nintendo's characters have been woven into popular culture for nearly half a
1:33
century. And because they're family-friendly and instantly recognizable, they provide the company
1:38
with a unique and highly profitable advantage. Intellectual property that spans generations.
1:45
The first Nintendo game that I played was Duck Hunt that you could play on the NES. Um,
1:50
and uh I think uh around that time I also had a Game Boy with
1:55
Tetris and I was one of the cool kids in school because I had it.
1:59
I first engaged with um Nintendo with the original Game Boy. My mom
2:05
was a little bit obsessed with Tetris and uh Super Mario. It's always that
2:09
first interaction with a game or a or or a franchise that you cherish and remember.
2:14
It's a safe space. It feels like it's always going to be there for you.
2:18
When I was a child, my parents didn't play games. That wasn't the thing they did. And
2:22
so now we've got into this situation where the kids today have been brought up with
2:25
gamer parents who at least understand games if not necessarily play games.
2:29
First thing I got when I got a Switch 2 um is I showed it to my son. The joy on his face,
2:34
I wish I'd filmed it. It was just he was just so happy.
2:37
For me, the N64 was the height of nostalgia. It wasn't just about the games. It was the
2:43
controller. It was weird. It was bulky. It was like nothing else on the market. And
2:47
it was the perfect symbol of Nintendo's fun over fidelity ethos. A strategy that
2:53
prioritizes engaging experiences over realistic high-end gameplay.
2:59
But for Nintendo, nostalgia isn't just sentiment. It's a business engine. Characters that first
3:04
appeared on a pixelated Game Boy screen in the '90s are now the stars of billion-dollar
3:09
theme parks and global movie franchises. But this universe wasn't built overnight.
3:16
"Yo Yo. It's the Mario Brothers."
3:17
Nintendo first tested the waters beyond gaming in the late 80s, licensing its
3:22
icons for the Super Mario Bros Super Show. But a jump to the big screen in 1993 backfired.
3:28
"They're brothers. They're plumbers."
3:31
By trading the bright Mushroom Kingdom for a gritty dystopian setting,
3:35
the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie alienated its core audience and flopped hard.
3:40
The failed experiment made the company notoriously
3:43
cautious about Hollywood for the next three decades.
3:46
Through the late '9s and early 2000s, Pokémon evolved from a sleeper hit
3:51
into a global phenomenon. It became the blueprint for a new kind of business model.
3:56
Pokémon was probably one of the first sort of biggest transmedial
4:01
franchises to come out of Japan and sort of take over globally.
4:04
It started as a video game, became a manga,
4:07
then became an anime, and now its pretty much everywhere.
4:11
Even so, for years, Nintendo remained primarily focused on its own consoles. That changed in
4:17
the mid-2010s when the failure of the Wii U combined with the rapid rise of smartphone
4:22
gaming led to three consecutive years of financial losses, forcing a dramatic shift in strategy.
4:30
By 2016, the expansion was in full swing. Nintendo launched its first mobile games
4:36
and finalized a landmark theme park deal with Universal. The goal was simple but massive.
4:42
move beyond the screen and let fans step into these iconic worlds in real life.
4:47
Nintendo developed them themselves. You get wristband and you're supposed to complete a
4:50
series of tasks throughout the theme park and then you get to fight the boss at the end and
4:53
it's like a video game and that's how Nintendo approached these things. It connects to what
4:57
they do. It's authentic with what they create. Fans love it and it keeps that touch point going.
5:02
Super Nintendo World opened in Japan in 2021,
5:05
sparking a global expansion that has since landed in Hollywood and Orlando.
5:10
But Nintendo doesn't own the parks. Instead, they license their creative
5:14
world to Universal while maintaining creative control over the experience.
5:18
It's a Marvel style playbook that protects their
5:21
icons while letting the rest of the world build around them.
5:24
You get all of these recognizable features from the games in real life
5:28
and sort of fostering both nostalgia and that first sort of sense of wonder
5:32
that young children get with seeing these things on the screen at the first time.
5:36
So I think Nintendo very much can foster that element of of being social together,
5:41
having a playful experience into a theme park which is immediately recognizable but
5:46
so big and has all of these immersive elements that I think particularly children and sort of
5:51
more nostalgic adults um can really find themselves in and sort of interact with.
5:56
Other moves include the 2022 acquisition of Dynamo Pictures, now rebranded as Nintendo Pictures.
6:03
This gives the company direct in-house control over its animation pipeline,
6:07
ensuring their cinematic worlds match the quality of their games.
6:11
The 2023 Super Mario Bros. movie proved the power of this strategy. It wasn't
6:16
just a box office smash. It was a massive revenue driver for the games themselves.
6:21
Now, the stage is set for even bigger projects,
6:24
including the highly anticipated live-action Legend of Zelda film.
6:28
Beyond the screen, Nintendo is reinventing
6:31
how we play in the physical world. Their collaboration with LEGO is a good example.
6:36
Instead of a standard plastic set, they built an
6:38
interactive experience that bridges the gap between digital and physical play.
6:43
So, when they decided to work with Lego, they didn't just go, "Let's make me a Mario
6:47
um Lego set." They they made a game where Mario is a character and and you you move him around
6:52
the Lego set and he has a screen in his belly which you know you've got a coin and all this,
6:57
they didn't just make a Lego set they completely made something unique.
7:00
And in September 2025 Nintendo went further still,
7:04
launching its first dedicated Southeast Asian subsidiary in Singapore.
7:08
For decades Nintendo relied on third party distributors to operate in the region. But
7:13
this move changed that. It was the first major step in Nintendo taking direct control of its
7:19
destiny and its data in one of the world's fastest growing entertainment markets.
7:24
Nintendo's characters are everywhere now. Games, films, theme parks, toys,
7:29
and that's a big win for the brand, but it comes with risks. The more you build a universe,
7:34
the harder it is to keep that initial magic alive. Push too far and fans might feel their favorite
7:41
worlds are being defined for them rather than being a playground for their own imaginations.
7:46
It's not always necessarily the best idea to
7:50
um use those elements to tell new stories that already set in these worlds.
7:55
Trying to sort of over-canonize might be a problem for Nintendo where giving
7:59
too much backstory to certain characters might actually draw audiences away from being able to
8:05
identify them with on on a more personal level.
8:07
The the Super Mario movie did did this very well in the sense that the film very much focused on
8:13
all of the elements that we know from the games. The story wasn't necessarily anything new. Like it
8:18
was still Super Mario trying to save Princess Peach. We get these sort of good voice actors
8:24
that we know, Chris Pratt and Jack Black, which attracts audiences, but the story it
8:29
was telling wasn't necessarily new or expanding on anything that we weren't already aware of.
8:34
Nintendo's next chapter depends on more than just parks or films. They are now
8:38
playing to a global audience of over 3.5 billion people,
8:42
a demographic that is nearly half female and where the average gamer is now 36 years old.
8:48
Fans still expect innovation, new gameplay,
8:51
fresh worlds, and the surprises the company has long been known for.
8:54
But don't expect Nintendo to hand over the creative reigns to Generative AI.
8:59
The company's president, Shuntaro Furukawa, and legendary designer,
9:02
Shigeru Miyamoto, have taken a hard stance against the trend.
9:07
"There's always, always going to be a human touch and a human
9:10
engagement in how we develop and build our games."
9:13
Instead, Nintendo is focusing its tech on machine learning,
9:17
using it behind the scenes to boost graphics and frame rates for a new generation of hardware.
9:22
I think that Nintendo's um approach of of innovating good things that exist has
9:28
really benefited them over um over their history.
9:32
Nintendo at its core will always be a video game company,
9:35
but I think that their IP monetization strategy has probably just started.
9:40
I think you will see more theme parks, you will see more movies.
9:44
From its beginnings as a card company in 1889 to the global Nintendo world of 2026, the company
9:50
has proven that nostalgia, creativity, and iconic characters can power growth for over a century.
9:58
If Nintendo could come up with a new IP, with a new character,
10:01
I think that would serve them very well.
10:03
At some point in time, people could grow tired of the same IPs that Nintendo produces games around.
10:12
So Nintendo is sitting on a treasure trove of IPs,
10:15
but the top three are Zelda, Mario, and Pokémon. So right now, everybody is happy
10:21
with these IPs. But what about 10 years in the future or 20 years in the future?
