Nintendo museum to open in Japan in old playing card factory

Not only is there now a Nintendo theme park in Japan but there’s going to be a museum too, called Nintendo Gallery.

Nintendo has not only been in the games business longer than any other publsiher it’s been around as a company for 131 years – that’s longer than some countries.

They started off making playing cards, before moving into mechanical and eventually electronic toys, at which point they began their crucial move into the nascent video games industry.

Whatever you think of their games, Nintendo has a fascinating history and now it’s due to be explored via its very own museum, built on the grounds of one of its former playing card factories in Japan.

According to Nintendo’s announcement, the old factory and surrounding land in Uji-city, Kyoto will be used as a ‘a new gallery to showcase the many products Nintendo has launched over its history’.

Nintendo has always been based in Kyoto, to the west of Tokyo, and the Uji Ogura Plant was built in 1969, initially to manufacture playing cards and more recently as a customer service centre for product repairs.

The museum has been given the tentative name of Nintendo Gallery and will be used to showcase ‘Nintendo’s historical products’ as well as host exhibits and ‘experiences’.

The current plan is for the museum to open at some point during Nintendo’s 2023 fiscal year, which runs from April 2023 to March 2024.

The announcement follows the opening (greatly hampered by the pandemic) of the Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan, with other similar attractions due to open elsewhere in Asia and the US in the future.

There’s no suggestion that there’ll be more than one Nintendo Gallery though, which is sure to become a favourite destination for fans in Japan and beyond.

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