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Pokemon Rocks, Game Boy Advance SP Rolls
Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen Hit 1 Million in Sales
Price Drop of Game Boy Advance SP Sends Sales Soaring
REDMOND, Wash.--Sept. 30, 2004--Two of the video game industry's iconic names -- Pokemon(R) and Game Boy(R) -- are recording booming sales -- again!
Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen, both released Sept. 7 for Game Boy Advance SP, combined to sell more than 1 million units in North America within the first 21 days of its availability. Since its Sept. 2 price drop to an MSRP of $79.99, Game Boy Advance SP sales are up 70 percent.
"The key to success in our industry is no secret," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "When you offer great interactive entertainment at a great price, players respond in droves."
Part of the impressive sales success of these two new games can be attributed to the inclusion of the new Game Boy Advance Wireless Adapter, with wireless communication technology from Freescale Semiconductor, which lets players trade and battle their Pokemon or simply engage in a wireless chat. Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen also includes cross compatibility with Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire, as well as Pokemon Colosseum for Nintendo GameCube(TM), allowing players to trade and battle more than 300 Pokemon.
Pokemon USA, Inc., a subsidiary of The Pokemon Company in Japan, manages and oversees the property outside of Asia, which includes licensing activities, brand promotions, publication of the trading card game, TV animation, home video entertainment, the official Pokemon.com Web site, operation of the Pokemon Center NY in Rockefeller Center and pokemoncenter.com, an e-commerce site. Nintendo of America manages marketing and distribution of Pokemon video games and the Pokemon trading card game in North America.
Pokemon was launched in Japan in 1996 for play on Nintendo's Game Boy(R) and has evolved into a global cultural phenomenon. Pokemon was introduced in North America in September 1998 and has since generated more than $15 billion in worldwide retail sales. More than 40 million Pokemon video games have been sold in the United States, including Pokemon Ruby and Pokemon Sapphire, which were the No. 2 and No. 3 best-selling video games of 2003, according to the NPD Group. The trading card game, fueled by organized play programs around the world, has spurred global sales of more than 13 billion cards to date, while the Pokemon animated series on Kids' WB!, now in its sixth season, consistently ranks within the top three shows for boys ages 6 to 11. For more information, visit
www.pokemon.com.The worldwide leader and innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its popular home and portable video game systems. Each year, hundreds of all-new titles for the best-selling Game Boy(R) Advance and Nintendo GameCube(TM) systems extend Nintendo's vast game library and continue the tradition of delivering a rich, diverse mix of quality video games for players of all ages. Since the release of its first home video game system in 1983, Nintendo has sold more than 1.9 billion video games and more than 170 million hardware units globally, creating enduring industry icons such as Mario(TM) and Donkey Kong(R) and launching popular culture franchise phenomena such as Metroid(R), Zelda(TM) and Pokemon(R). A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere.
For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at
www.nintendo.com.
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