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Nintendo is best known as a gaming company, but you could soon be seeing the familiar logo on everything from restaurants to healthcare devices.

The Japanese company plans to update its Articles of Incorporation at a shareholder meeting to be held on June 29, with a view to diversify its business interests. If approved, Nintendo will expand the "purpose of the company" into new fields, including:


Development, manufacturing and sale of medical devices and health devices

Development, manufacturing and sale of computer software

Management of and investment in eating establishments, stores and entertainment sites

Licensing of intellectual property rights

There's quite a bit to unpack from those changes, the most curious one being the addition of "computer software". This entry is distinct from video games (likely covered by Article 2 (7) of its purposes, "Production, manufacturing and sale of contents such as games, images and music"). It probably doesn't mean that Nintendo is planning to port Zelda to PC, but rather that the company may increasingly look at PC software development - probably of the 'boring' kind, given the existing Articles 2 (11) and (12) account for "Information processing and providing services using computer networks, etc." and "Electrical communication business and development and sale of communication-related technology".

Nintendo

Medical and health devices, meanwhile, could be Nintendo's long-rumoured 'Quality of Life' initiatives coming to fruition. Announced in 2014, Nintendo had plans for sleep monitors and, before that, vitality sensors that promised an array of potential health and lifestyle benefits. The sleep tracker was put to bed in February, but the proposed additions to the Articles of Incorporation could indicate there are still related plans. Don't expect much, if any, connection to gaming though.


That leaves "eating establishments" and IP rights. The latter is no surprise - Nintendo has been planning a wider use of its characters and properties for a while now, and we're already starting to see the results. Its much-vaunted step into mobile gaming is underway, with Miitomo out now and Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem planned, while feature length animated movies could be in cinemas by 2019. Expect to see much wider use of Nintendo icons away from conventional games in the coming years. Eating establishments could even tie in here, particularly in Japan where game-branded restaurants (such as the Final Fantasy-themed Eorzea Café) are common.

Of course, to gaming historians, Nintendo operating outside of games is no great surprise. Despite helping create the modern video game industry, Nintendo itself has rarely defined itself as a games company; rather, it's a company that happens to make games. It was founded in 1889, making Hanafuda cards, and over the decades has had its fingers in everything from toys and arcade machines to Japan's infamous love hotels.

Whether Nintendo follows through on its new business categories or if it's simply adding them to cover bases for loose plans remains to be seen. However, with the still-secretive Nintendo NX to be revealed later this year and launch in March 2017, it's shaping up to be an interesting time for the House of Mario.