Bergsala AB is a Swedish

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

company based in

Kungsbacka Kungsbacka () is a urban areas of Sweden, locality and the seat of Kungsbacka Municipality in Halland County, Sweden, with 19,057 inhabitants in 2010. It is a part of Greater Gothenburg Metropolitan Area. It is one of the most affluent parts of Sw ...

. It was established in 1976 and has operated as the agent and distributor of

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

products in the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

since 1981. Bergsala's administrative center and warehouse is in Kungsbacka, with local offices in Norway, Denmark, and Finland.

History

Bergsala was founded as a small electronics company by Owe Bergsten, Pierre Sandsten, and Lars-Göran Larsson on 20 April 1976 in

, Sweden. While on a trip in Singapore in 1981, the business partner saw one of the early ''Game & Watch'' LCD game at an electronic store and purchased one for the flight home to Sweden, having heard that LCD games would likely become popular. Realizing its potential, Bergsten found it was Nintendo that made the game, and sent a

telex Telex is a telecommunication Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communica ...

message to Nintendo's Japanese headquarters, pretending to be a larger distributor and seeking to resell their ''Game & Watch'' products in Sweden. After several months, Nintendo agreed to sell him 250 units, but Bergsten found these difficult to sell, as at that point, the Swedish population did not show much interest in video games. Within the year, a colleague returned from Japan and showed Bergsten the new color-based ''Game & Watch'' models. Bergsten decided to fly to Japan and speak to Nintendo directly about ordering these units. The trip had several mishaps that nearly caused the meeting not to happen, but by the end of the trip, Bergsten had secured the distribution rights to Nintendo products for Sweden. Initially he had purchased 30,000 units for Sweden but these sold slowly, until he found a watch distributor that saw the potential for the LCD games. By the start of 1982, Bergsten was selling 180,000 units a month. He made frequent trips back to Nintendo to obtain more orders including new versions of the ''Game & Watch'' hardware, and by January 1983, had sold over 1.7 million units in Sweden. Around that time, the Swedish market for games became saturated, and sales had significantly dropped. Bergsten continued to keep in contact with Nintendo over the next year as he was expecting them to release new products: at this point, the 1983 video game crash had decimated the North American market, while Nintendo was preparing to launch its

Family Computer The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the U ...

(Famicom) unit. Bergsten brought some of the Famicom units and

NTSC NTSC (from National Television System Committee) is the first American standard for analog television, published and adopted in 1941. In 1961, it was assigned the designation System M. It is also known as EIA standard 170. In 1953, a second ...

-compatible televisions back to Sweden after one trip to Nintendo, and from reactions of his staff and associates, believed it would be as successful as the ''Game & Watch'' in Sweden. He tried to convince Nintendo to release a compatible Famicom system in Europe, but Nintendo was wary of any television-based video game system due to the 1983 crash. Bergsten continued to urge Nintendo to release the system in Europe, and by 1985, Nintendo agreed to send him about 10,000 units, modified Famicom units with

PAL Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

output. This never happened due to Nintendo having a change of heart and bringing a redesigned Family Computer, the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on 15 July 1983 as the and was later released as the redesigned NES in several test markets in the ...

(NES), to the West: after Nintendo released the North American version, the company created a PAL-compatible version of the NES for release in Europe. Nintendo later founded

Nintendo of Europe is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

in 1990; however, Bergsala remained the authorised import partner and primary distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic countries. In addition, Bergsala was responsible for starting the first fan club for players of Nintendo's products, which would eventually become

Club Nintendo Club Nintendo was a customer loyalty program and magazine that was provided by Nintendo. The loyalty program was free to join and provided rewards in exchange for consumer feedback and loyalty to purchasing official Nintendo products. Members o ...

. Bergsala's club, ''Nintendo Videospelklubb'', launched alongside the NES release in Europe in 1986, had 450,000 members at the height of its success, and it served as a model for Nintendo of America's '' Nintendo Fun Club''.

Current operations

Bergsala's headquarters in Kungsbacka are located at Marios gata 21 (Mario's Street 21), named after the famous Nintendo character

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

. Early on, the company had constructed a statue with Mario on top of it outside of its headquarters, which generally was considered a poor rendition of the character and had been compared to

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until Saddam Hussein statue destruction, his overthrow in 2003 during the 2003 invasion of Ira ...

. In 2016, it replaced the statue with a more true-to-form version of Mario atop of a warp pipe. In December 2019, Bergsala, as well as other Bergsala Holding-owned distributors, were combined with Bergsala Holding's developer and publisher Thunderful to create the Thunderful Group. Within the Thunderful Group, Bergsala became part of the Thunderful Distribution branch.

References

External links

* {{Nintendo 20th-century establishments in Halland County Companies based in Halland County Kungsbacka Nintendo Online retailers of Sweden Retail companies established in 1976 Swedish companies established in 1976 Video game companies established in 1976 Video game companies of Sweden Video game retailers