Nintendo’s Heartwarming Gesture to a 95-Year-Old Japanese Grandmother Who Loves Game Boy
Gaming giant Nintendo is one of the leaders in the gaming industry, but they have never come up short when it comes to customer service. In Japan they are renowned as being “the best in the world” and are said to give their customers “God-Like” treatment. Since the creation of Nintendo they have willingly replaced parts for their consoles for a fraction of the price, helped children overcome obstacles in their lives like bullying, and one time even replied to a blind child’s letter completely in braille.
Recently however, there is another heartwarming story of Nintendo’s kindness that has outdone anything they’ve done in the past, and this time it’s a love letter to a ninety-five-year-old grandmother. Recounting her mother’s story in Asahi Shimbun (one of the leading newspapers in Japan) the 70-year-old daughter of the grandmother told them of a tale of Nintendo on February 21st.
An image of the story from Asahi Shimbun was recently tweeted and quickly went viral on social media reaching over 195,000 likes and 66,000 retweets. This letter began with Tsusaka recanting how much her mother enjoyed playing Tetris on the original Game Boy, and how she always kept it by her side. However, her mother had recently fallen ill at the age of 95, and her original Game Boy had finally stopped working at the same time. They attempted to have Game Boy fixed or replaced as they visited multiple stores, but everyone was either sold out of the system or they were unable to fix it.
The grandmother decided to take matters into her own hands and penned a letter to Nintendo and sent it in to them along with the broken Game Boy. Nintendo responded immediately within one week with a brand new Game Boy and letter wishing her a long and happy life. In the letter they explained to her that the reason the Game Boy wasn’t able to be repaired is because they no longer have the parts for it, but they just so happened to have a brand new one tucked away in a warehouse.
Obviously the grandmother was overjoyed and Tsusaka sent out a photo of her delighted mother to Nintendo as a thank you. Tsusaka believed that her mother, who was always just a happy person is still grateful for Nintendo’s “divine” customer even in heaven.
The story has left thousands of people touched on social media, they are leaving comments like,
“Omg I’d heard about the God-like nature of Nintendo’s customer service but this is truly amazing!”
“I’m speechless. Nothing but praise for a company that sends its last new Game Boy to a customer from their warehouse.”
“I can’t believe they sent her a new one!”
“I’ve always loved Nintendo but now I love them on a whole other level!”
“I am crying. What a heartwarming story.”
Such an act of kindness that occurred so many years ago, who’s to know how many times Nintendo has done something like this and stories have just gone untold. One thing we do know for sure is Nintendo hasn’t just solidified themselves not only in the gaming industry but also in our hearts.
