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Ape Inc. was founded as an outlet for new talent in gaming, born out of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi's concerns that the video game industry was at risk of stagnating in its current form. This belief additionally influenced Yamauchi's decision to pitch the idea for the company to celebrity copywriter Shigesato Itoi, who he was fond of. Itoi previously became acquainted with Nintendo when he was tapped to help out with marketing the Famicom Disk System visual novel Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School, and used the founding of Ape Inc. as an opportunity to start work on Mother.