“Anyone who grew up playing any type of Nintendo game or console, anyone who had that in their childhood, they would definitely become emotional having a look at everything here,” remarked Junna Faylee, a video game content creator from London, as she snapped up armloads of merchandise.

Analysts say that Nintendo’s roots as a toy company contribute to their focus on gameplay. Instead of making hardware with the fastest processors, or the highest resolution graphics, it instead concentrates on making software and games that are easy to learn, and addictive.

“In the end, everyone mistakenly believes that they play Nintendo games because they want to, says Asia University professor Akihiro Saito. “But the games themselves are designed to make people want to play.”

Saito directed Nintendo’s Pokemon game. He explains Nintendo’s game design through a theory he calls “gamenics.” He says Nintendo games carefully calibrate how players are challenged and rewarded. Players learn game rules not through manuals or tutorials, but by observing.

Huge console controllers loom over displays of Nintendo's games and products. Nintendo/Nintendo hide caption