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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
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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
189:
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
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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
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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.
265:. 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
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The original Mario statue that stood outside
Bergsala's offices since the 1980s until 2016, when it was replaced with another statue more faithful to the character's modern design
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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.
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239:, 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
208:-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
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221:(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.
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In
December 2019, Bergsala, as well as other Bergsala Holding-owned distributors, were combined with Bergsala Holding's developer and publisher
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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
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In addition, Bergsala was responsible for starting the first fan club for players of
Nintendo's products, which would eventually become
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in 1990, however Bergsala remained the authorised import partner and primary distributor of Nintendo products in the Nordic countries.
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Bergsala's headquarters in Kungsbacka are located at Marios gata 21 (Mario's Street 21), named after the famous Nintendo character
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Bergsala was founded as a small electronics company by Owe Bergsten, Pierre Sandsten, and Lars-Göran Larsson on 20 April 1976 in
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since 1981. Bergsala's administrative center and warehouse is in Kungsbacka, with local offices in Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
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to create the Thunderful Group. Within the Thunderful Group, Bergsala became part of the Thunderful Distribution branch.
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output. This never happened due to Nintendo having a change of heart and bringing a redesigned Family Computer, the
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message to Nintendo's Japanese headquarters, pretending to be a larger distributor and seeking to resell their
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Within the year, a colleague returned from Japan and showed Bergsten the new color-based
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269:. In 2016, it replaced the statue with a more true-to-form version of Mario atop of a
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had decimated the North American market, while Nintendo was preparing to launch its
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142:. It was established in 1976 and has operated as the agent and distributor of
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403:"Nintendo's Swedish Distributor Replaces Terrible Mario Statue"
204:(Famicom) unit. Bergsten brought some of the Famicom units and
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328:[Nintendo Sweden (Bergsala AB) turns 40 today].
435:"Super Mario is now a part of the Thunderful Group"
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326:"Nintendo Sverige (Bergsala AB) fyller 40 idag"
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1242:Symphonic Legends – Music from Nintendo
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453:from the original on 29 September 2020
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382:from the original on December 21, 2019
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1284:Swedish companies established in 1976
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1279:Retail companies established in 1976
370:"The Lie That Helped Build Nintendo"
213:units, modified Famicom units with
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401:Benson, Julian (August 26, 2016).
368:Skrebels, Joe (December 9, 2019).
338:from the original on 27 April 2021
324:Hegevall, Petter (20 April 2016).
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1294:Companies based in Halland County
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305:from the original on 15 June 2018
297:Mikael Söderlind (23 June 2013).
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998:Platform Technology Development
488:from the original on 2020-09-29
1269:Video game companies of Sweden
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299:"SĂĄ kom Nintendo till Sverige"
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1022:Nintendo La Rivista Ufficiale
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219:Nintendo Entertainment System
1108:Nintendo World Championships
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116:Bergsala Holding (2012–2019)
16:Swedish distribution company
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917:Nintendo Tumbler Puzzle
237:Nintendo Videospelklubb
224:Nintendo later founded
1103:Nintendo PowerFest '94
975:Nintendo Switch Online
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59:; 48 years ago
1088:Iwata Asks interviews
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198:1983 video game crash
1299:Video game retailers
1224:Nintendo Space World
1150:Super Nintendo World
779:Hidemaro Fujibayashi
415:on December 10, 2019
611:Nintendo of America
446:. 30 January 2020.
235:. Bergsala's club,
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1083:World Championship
985:Software divisions
564:Nintendo Co., Ltd.
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249:Current operations
226:Nintendo of Europe
84:Lars-Göran Larsson
57:20 April 1976
19:
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1166:Nintendo MĂ©gadĂ´me
1140:Nintendo New York
1015:Nintendo Fun Club
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835:Hirokazu Yasuhara
684:Yasuhisa Yamamura
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624:Tatsumi Kimishima
601:Shuntaro Furukawa
595:Tatsumi Kimishima
571:Fusajiro Yamauchi
242:Nintendo Fun Club
138:company based in
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1219:Nintendo Selects
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965:Nintendo Account
952:Nintendo Network
864:
863:
734:Yoshiaki Koizumi
679:Tadashi Sugiyama
664:Shigeru Miyamoto
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630:Reggie Fils-Aimé
583:Hiroshi Yamauchi
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512:Official website
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481:Thunderful Group
476:"Our operations"
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443:Thunderful Group
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411:. Archived from
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210:Game & Watch
191:Game & Watch
186:Game & Watch
178:Game & Watch
165:Game & Watch
148:Nordic countries
146:products in the
120:Thunderful Group
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1098:Nintendo Direct
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820:Hirokazu Tanaka
810:Masayuki Uemura
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749:Hiroyuki Kimura
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504:External links
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334:(in Swedish).
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267:Saddam Hussein
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1007:Publications
879:mobile games
830:Gunpei Yokoi
825:Satoru Okada
805:Genyo Takeda
704:Hideki Konno
589:Satoru Iwata
490:. Retrieved
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455:. Retrieved
441:
429:
419:December 10,
417:. Retrieved
413:the original
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384:. Retrieved
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307:. Retrieved
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136:distribution
131:
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92:Headquarters
78:Owe Bergsten
34:Company type
1114:NES Edition
1074:Camp Hyrule
970:My Nintendo
912:Love Tester
891:Controllers
874:Video games
867:Video games
784:Bill Trinen
774:Aya Kyogoku
769:Risa Tabata
739:Eiji Aonuma
636:Doug Bowser
632:(2006–2019)
626:(2002–2006)
620:(1980–2002)
597:(2015–2018)
591:(2002–2015)
585:(1949–2002)
579:(1929–1949)
573:(1889–1929)
386:December 9,
342:24 February
331:Gamereactor
132:Bergsala AB
48:Video games
20:Bergsala AB
1258:Categories
1145:Shigureden
922:Ultra Hand
896:Characters
669:Koji Kondo
557:Presidents
492:2021-04-27
284:References
278:Thunderful
160:Kungsbacka
140:Kungsbacka
97:Kungsbacka
64:1976-04-20
38:Subsidiary
1214:Marketing
1207:Data leak
1133:Operating
1126:Locations
408:Kotaku UK
271:warp pipe
1289:Nintendo
1236:Bergsala
1175:Upcoming
1079:Classic
940:Services
886:Consoles
859:Products
550:Nintendo
486:Archived
484:. 2020.
457:27 April
448:Archived
380:Archived
336:Archived
303:Archived
169:LCD game
144:Nintendo
72:Founders
44:Industry
1202:History
1195:Related
1159:Defunct
309:15 June
154:History
62: (
54:Founded
1081:Tetris
1067:Events
798:Former
657:Active
650:People
109:Parent
102:Sweden
451:(PDF)
438:(PDF)
263:Mario
174:telex
905:Toys
459:2021
421:2019
388:2019
344:2021
311:2018
206:NTSC
375:IGN
215:PAL
1260::
478:.
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352:^
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346:.
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66:)
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.