Nintendo Question Is Way Too Hard For Game Show Contestant

Let's be fair here: this woman is answering a question on a generalist quiz show. I bet there are plenty of you lot, even after reading stuff like this, who wouldn't have been 100% in answering this question.

So skipping was definitely the smart move. Come on, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. You might want to dial back the difficulty, just a little.

For the record, the answer was C: Baseball gloves. In the course of its 100-year history the company has indeed made instant rice, run taxis and even owned a love hotel.

[Neonridr]

I thought it was baseball gloves, but to be honest, it was a bit of a guess. I knew they dabbled in hotels before and maybe could have made a guess at the instant rice. I had no clue they were involved in Taxi services.

I hope this was a high level question and not like the $1000 question.

[NewMonday]

I went for Taxi services, this is one tricky question!

[InactiveUser]

Nintendo owns or did own the Seattle Mariners, so I would have thought they made a baseball glove at some point.

[Army_of_Darkness]

I said taxi service too because I could have sworn I seem a Mario baseball glove at the flee market!

[SilentNegotiator]

I thought instant rice because thinking back on what I read about Nintendo's early history, I couldn't remember reading anything food-related.

[RyuCloudStrife]

yeah that wasn't easy, I believe Nintendo was originally a trading card company (too lazy to check). That's all I know of Nintendo outside of gaming...

[NukaCola]

Yup Nintendo started as a card company in 1890s I believe. You ought to read GAME OVER How Nintendo Conquered the World. Really awesome book.

[admiralvic]

They were a hanafuda card company, which is a Japanese version of the playing card (you know, a deck of 52 cards).

[Ashunderfire86]

Yup and you actually learn this in game design classes when they show you the history. Did you know Sega was a US company first before it was Japanese? They called it Services Games, then took the SE and GA out which is now Sega. Look that one up. Its both America and Japan that created video games.

[moparful99]

@ashunderfire. Video games are a purely American born invention. Two engineers playing with a type of radar diplay and two knobs that controlled a signal frequency realized they could manipulate the sprite onscreen. With a little refinement a game was born that would be later refined by Nolan Bushnell and become Pong. Japan didn't get involved until after the video game collapse in the late 70's early 80's.. Nintendo launched the NES in 1989. Sega entered in the early 90's with the Genesis..

[bohemian 23]

@moparful the nes launched in 1985 for North America.

[Rhaigun]

Also, Sega had the Master System in the 80's.

[Retroman]

you are correct RYU
from weikipedia Nintendo originally started out as trading card co.1890 never mention baseball glove production nor rice.

im sure taxis was not call NINTENDO CABS if they had the service might have been called HANAFUNA back then.

[Studio-YaMi]

Glad I did a research on Nintendo from Wikipedia long ago,I already knew it was Baseball gloves,since Nintendo got into that card game business they also got into making instant rice,having "LOVE" hotels AND having a taxi business.

Such a long way to go before landing into the gaming business.(so glad they did though!) :D

[DeadMansHand]

Apparently, they randomize the dollar amounts to the questions so it could have been 100 or 25,000.

OT: I would have skipped as well. Taxis? Who knew?

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Didn't know about Taxi's and Instant Rice, but that's pretty funny and cool to know nontheless.XD

[EcoSos3]

Not just that they are the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners and they even tried love hotels but they drop it lol

[Chrono]

Nintendo were operating love hotels where the guest sleeps with prostitutes, no kidding.

[just-joe]

Not really, a lot of Japanese household live with their extended family (kids, grandparents and such). The hotels are for couples to have alone time... or business men to have affairs.

[KonsoruMasuta]

No, that's just a lie. The hotels were not for solely that reason, like everyone is claiming.

[iceman06]

Love hotels are not for prostitutes. Although I am sure that more than one has entered, much like any hotel. They are really for Japanese couples with larger families and smaller homes to get some quality time. When me and my family went to Japan (my mom was a teacher for the military kids) we accidentally stayed in one. They had themed rooms. Can't remember what our theme was because I was about 10 y/o and it was just for one night.

[Jamaicangmr]

99.9910 of us would've gotten that one wrong without dumb luck.

[Rayansaki]

not really. Even if you make a total guess you have at least 25% chance of getting it right...

[SilentNegotiator]

That's why he said "without dumb luck"

He clearly meant that 99% wouldn't KNOW the answer.

[Ohohoho]

Not really once again. I knew Nintendo dabbled in Taxi services and Love hotels, but I wasn't sure about baseball gloves or instant rice.

[Omar91]

which his why he said 99.9910 of the people wouldn't of gotten it right which mean there was still a percentage that would, you being one of them lol

[Double_O_Revan]

Dude I would take Nintendo Taxi service!

"Driver, can you take me to the airport?"

"A-Here-we-Ggooooo!" ;

[just-joe]

"And I need to get there fast."

*uses golden mushroom*

[PawnSacrifice]

HA! 😆
You made my day.
But also, instant rice! Seriously (hell! I'd still buy it) but seriously!

[MasterCornholio]

OMG what a tricky question.

[LetoAtreides82]

I guessed C but I honestly didn't know Nintendo made instant rice. I already knew about the love hotels and taxi service.

[deafdani]

Same here. I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable gamer, especially regarding Nintendo's history, bit this is still a pretty hard question. It must've been hell for that poor lady.

[RockmanII7]

I guessed Instant rice because Nintendo owns the Seattle Mariners, it would make sense for them to have made baseball gloves at one point.

[Goro]

I knew the answer, i remember googling when Nintendo was founded and i found out this information.

[deafdani]

I knew about the taxis and the love hotels, but that's it. I would've guessed that rice was the other business Nintendo tried, because rice is a very traditional food for asians, and Nintendo is an asian company.

(Insert "that's racist!" comment here).

So, I would've went with baseball gloves as the answer, and been correct out of dumb luck.

[Sarcasm]

that's racist!

[Angeljuice]

Its funny that if you say the word "Asian" to an American they generally think of China, Japan, Korea etc whereas if you say "Asian" to a British person they are more likely to think of India or Pakistan, I suppose it has something to do with our history in the region and immigration patterns of each respective country (although there are immigrants from all parts of Asia in both America and the UK).
Asia is such a diverse and interesting continent.

(totally off topic I know but oh well).

[Hakoom]

i would say
E) Next-Gen :p

[Angeljuice]

Very funny, bubble up for you.

[Ashby_JC]

I would of skipped also. I was a big nintendo fan but I would have gotten that question wrong....as im sure many gamers would have as well....so I wouldnt expect a non gamer to have a clue.

[Relientk77]

Yea, didnt know that, that's a hard one

although previously on Millionaire they had what does Nintendo mean, an easier question lol

It means "leave luck to heaven"

[troylazlow]

Such a hard question

[ziggurcat]

Wait... Nintendo has been around for 100 years?

[assdan]

This is a complete BS question. You can't expect anyone to know that.

[InTheZoneAC]

I guessed hotel chain

gloves=nintendo ceo owning baseball team, check

instant rice, japanase=big on rice so I just assumed they were related at one point, probably had mario on the box, check

taxi service, see relation to instant rice

hotel chain? from what I've read only one hotel had nintendo's name on it, so how is that a chain? was this the million dollar question?