Nintendo Famicom and the secret of Nintendo's success

On July 15, 1983, the Famicom, or Family Computer, launched in Japan. Despite the name, the Family Computer was a game console, and it went on to shatter Atari’s record for the most sales worldwide by a game console. The Famicom remains one of the most successful and popular game consoles of all time, even if you know it better as the Nintendo NES, and even if it wasn’t as popular in Europe as it was in other parts of the world.

The inspiration for Nintendo’s Famicom

The Nintendo Famicom more closely resembled a conventional game console than the NES. But it was the same hardware inside both.

Nintendo’s Famicom drew inspiration from the Coleco Vision console, although competing consoles from Sega were far more similar to it hardware-wise. The Famicom had similar capabilities to the Coleco Vision, but used a completely different architecture and chipset to do it.

The heart of the Famicom is a pair of chips: a 6502 derivative manufactured by Ricoh that also incorporated sound circuitry, and a video processing unit. Sega, meanwhile, used derivatives of the same chips Coleco used.

The Famicom’s launch titles in Japan included Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong jr, and Popeye. This also clearly drew inspiration from Coleco, who included as many arcade hits as they could license in their launch title lineup. In 1983, Donkey Kong was still a favorite, and Donkey Kong Jr and Popeye were two newer hits. There was no Super Mario Bros at this point. That title came later.

Famicom vs NES

Famicom didn’t have to solve the same problems as the NES. The likelihood of Coleco launching its console in Japan and succeeding probably didn’t seem like a likely possibility, given Atari’s lack of success in Japan and Coleco’s financial instability. But it wasn’t completely out of the question either. And Sega could–and did–release a very similar console in Japan.

Both Nintendo and Sega had a reasonable library of arcade hits to draw on and the ability to create a ColecoVision-like experience for a Japanese audience. Nintendo did a better job of executing on that, especially at launch.

Adapting to North America

In the United States, Nintendo had to figure out how to sell a game console to an audience that had become hostile to the idea of game consoles. That’s why the North American NES had so many more gimmicks than the Famicom did, including the robot accessory and the light gun. Not to mention a limits-pushing launch title in Super Mario Bros.

Using the same hardware to launch consoles on either side of the Pacific with such a different countenance speaks to the talent of Nintendo’s product marketing department.

It’s easy to think of the Famicom as the Japanese NES, but the difference in strategy when marketing the same hardware worldwide shows why Nintendo stood the test of time. As situations have changed, they have done a good job of adapting, and they have found ways to rebound from disappointing console generations and ways to carve out a niche and remain profitable even when finishing third.

So just looking at the Famicom as the forerunner to the NES or the Japanese version of the NES misses the point. The secret of Nintendo’s success may not have been visible right away in the summer of 1983, but within 3 years, when they were taking it to an international audience, all of the signs were there. Reaching a worldwide audience took a lot longer before the Internet than it does now.

Success in North America vs elsewhere

The NES took the United States by storm. That makes it easy to forget it wasn’t as popular in the UK and Australia as the Sega Master System. Nintendo adapted and fared better internationally in subsequent generations. But one of Nintendo’s hallmarks was finding ways to be profitable even when it didn’t finish first. Nintendo ended up being better at that than Atari.

I notice a lot of consternation, even hate, toward the NES from Europe today. Nothing stops you from starting your own blog and recording your experience. Don’t worry if only 12 people read it. About 12 people read me, and that doesn’t stop 100 from commenting and complaining. I’m not a big NES fan either, but I grew up very near the population center of the United States in the 1980s. I saw what I saw, and I write what I experienced.

Atari and Famicom

Speaking of Atari, this story is pretty well known in the retro gaming community, but less known among the general public. Nintendo intended to bring the Famicom to the United States much earlier than it did. Even before they released the Famicom in Japan, Nintendo was talking with Atari about distributing the Famicom in the USA.

Atari and Nintendo were going to sign a licensing deal at the 1983 Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago in June. But when Coleco demonstrated its home computer with Donkey Kong running on it, Atari CEO Ray Kassar was livid and didn’t sign the deal. One month later, almost to the day, Kassar resigned under fire as Atari CEO. His successor, James J. Morgan, never revisited the deal, leaving Nintendo to go it alone.

Ray Kassar‘s overreaction to a home computer that only went on to sell 100,000 units changed the course of both companies. And it was all over Donkey Kong, one of the Famicom’s launch titles. Nintendo won the third generation of video game consoles handily over Atari’s offering.