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Record Pace, Boosts Hardware Sales
Distributed by
NintendoPosted: September 6th, 2002.
The world’s favorite plumber has returned with a bang! During its first 10days of availability in the US, Super Mario Sunshine (for Nintendo GameCube)is already a smash hit, selling through more than 350,000 games. This is atotal not achieved by any competitor, including Xbox’s popularHaloor Playstation 2’sGrand Theft Auto 3until a month or more on store shelves.
The immediate popularity of Super Mario Sunshine, which chronicles the chubbyplumber’s attempts to clean up a lush tropical island, is also creating asignificant demand for its host system. During its first week, Nintendo’sretail partners cited jumps in Nintendo GameCube hardware sales averaging 50percent, with some accounts reporting that system sales had more than doubled.
“This launch is historic-promising to break longstanding records,” saysPeter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc.“So far, sales rates for Super Mario Sunshine are running 36 percent aheadof even Super Mario 64 – six years ago – and that game went on to sell morethan 10 million units worldwide.”
Super Mario Sunshine is already one of the 15 top selling console games forall of 2002, but will face stiff competition from other eagerly anticipatedNintendo GameCube titles through the remainder of 2002. While Mario’s recordof more than $7 billion in worldwide game sales knows no limitations in demographicor national appeal, older Nintendo GameCube fans will have a particular feastof choices throughout the fall.
In the first half of November, both Resident Evil Zero and Metroid Primearrive exclusively for the console, along with Star Fox Adventures later thismonth. These will be accompanied by a host of companion teen- and mature-ratedtitles before the holidays, including: Medal of Honor: Frontline and James Bond007: Nightfire from Electronic Arts; Turok Evolution and BMX XXX from Acclaim;Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee from Infogrames; Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4from Activision; Bloodrayne from Majesco; Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance fromMidway; and a long list of sports, racing and other extreme sports titles.
As the worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment,Nintendo Co. Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware andsoftware for its popular home video game systems. The systems include Game Boy(r),Nintendo(r) 64, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo GameCube. Since the release ofits first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 1.6 billionvideo games worldwide, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario(tm) andDonkey Kong(r) and launching such franchises as Zelda(tm) and Pokémon(r). Asa wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash.,serves as headquarters for Nintendo’s operations in the Western Hemisphere.
Click ontoNintendo.comfor all of the most up to date official information on Nintendo.
News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2002.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.