Japan-based Nintendo Co Ltd on Wednesday said that they are going to open a gallery where they will be showcasing its products on a renovated factory site in the south of the city of Kyoto in the games maker’s latest effort to diversify beyond its core console business. Nintendo also said the gallery will be displaying the firm’s products along with other exhibits and experiences.
Highlights
- Nintendo to open a gallery to show products on a renovated factory site
- It is targeted to be completed in the FY ending in 2024
- Read on to know more about Nintendo Gallery
Nintendo Gallery, which the company was aiming to complete in the financial year ending in March 2024, was previously used to manufacture playing cards and was also used as a customer service center. During a press conference, Nintendo’s representative director and president Shuntaro Furukawa disclosed that the site of the tentatively named Nintendo Gallery is going to be the Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant in Kyoto. They further added in a Press statement “Nintendo is also discussing the possibility of building a gallery so that we can share Nintendo’s product development history and philosophy with the public.
The Nintendo Uji Ogura Plant will also be renovated so that the gallery can be accommodated. This decision reached after taking into consideration The City of Uji’s plan of re-developing the nearby Ogura Station area.
To remind, Manufacturing both playing cards and Hanafuda cards was Nintendo’s only business when it was founded in 1889 before the Kyoto company expanded it into video games in the 1970s. It will be built at the site of a plant which is located in Kyoto’s Uji City. It was built in 1969 and made Western-style playing cards as well as the Japanese playing cards which were called “hanafuda” and they were Nintendo’s original bread and butter.
The plant was also serving as a video game console repair center, but in 2016 operations were transferred elsewhere, and ever since then Nintendo had been brainstorming ways to use the plant.
The Super Mario Bros. games which were launched in 1985, just after two years the company started to began selling its Nintendo Entertainment System console.
The company’s first theme park, Super Nintendo World opened in March after months of delays due to the ongoing pandemic. This theme park is part of the Universal Studios Japan complex in Osaka and it features a Mario Kart ride with a real-life Bowser’s Castle. In recent years, the plant also operated as a customer service center for repairing products. It is expected that The Nintendo Gallery will be completed in Nintendo’s 2023 fiscal year, which is ending in March 2024.
The development also following other real-world expansion by Nintendo, with a Super Mario-themed area launching at Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan in March and a Tokyo shop opening two years ago. There are also reports that they are planning for Super Nintendo World Orlando to open in 2025, which would be two years later than planned.
