Nintendo Co., Ltd. (NCL):
Former Japanese Hanafuda playing-card company turned videogame giant. Founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi in 1889, and now led by Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's third and current president, Nintendo is one of the largest companies in Japan and was instrumental (if not the sole catalyst) in re-creating the videogame market in the U.S. in the mid 1980s.

Nintendo's hardware creations include the Game & Watch, GameBoy, NES (Famicom in Japan), Super NES (Super Famicom), Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance and GameCube.

In addition to a number of second-party and affiliate development houses, game development is primarily handled by Nintendo's respected EAD department. EAD stands for Entertainment Analysis & Development. Headed up by famed game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, this internal software development team has created many of Nintendo's most successful titles, including the Mario and Zelda franchises.

NCL is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

Nintendo of America (NOA):
Founded in 1980 by Minoru Arakawa, the Redmond, WA based NOA is the US division of Nintendo, Co., Ltd. In addition to handling publishing duties for United States, NOA also operates internal development studio NST.

Nintendo of Europe (NOE):
European branch of the Nintendo empire. Headquartered in Grossostheim, Germany.