History of Nintendo card business reached its saturation point. Japanese households stopped buying playing cards, and the price of Nintendo stock fell from 900 yen to 60 yen. In 1965, Nintendo hired Gunpei Yokoi as a maintenance engineer for the assembly line. However, Yokoi soon became famous for much more than his ability to repair conveyor belts. Nintendo struggled to survive in the Japanese toy industry; it was still small at this point, and dominated by already well-established companies such as Bandai and Tomy. Because of the generally short product life cycle of toys, the company always had to come up with new
Product line extension Product line extensions help companies identify and tend to the needs of refined target markets. If applied appropriately, their advantage within the intended market. Practically, when brands apply a product extension strategy they can often benefit from the new addition or additions. This is as extending their product line enlarges their product portfolio and as a result provides the consumers with more variety to choose from. This is positive, as consumers tend to enjoy being able to have choice and through expanding a brands product line, the brand is providing this choice. Investing in this approach is commonly pursued by