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Nintendo Takes Over America

7th April 2003, 4:57pm
Riding the crest of three hit product launches, Nintendo of America Inc. currently claims the best selling console game, the best selling portable games, and the best selling hardware system in America.

Since coming to market within a week of each other in late March, The Legend of Zelda(R): The Wind Waker(TM) for Nintendo GameCube(TM), Pokemon(R) Ruby Version and Pokemon(R) Sapphire Version for Game Boy(R) Advance, and the new flip-top, front-lit Game Boy(R) Advance SP portable system have leaped to the top of their respective sales charts.

The new Zelda game set a Nintendo record with more than 600,000 copies pre-sold to consumers before its March 24 launch date, and retailers now are quickly burning through the entire initial North American shipment of 1.1 million games. In the same period, sales rates for Nintendo GameCube hardware have jumped 20 percent.

With more than 4.4 million copies of Pokemon already shipped in Japan, more than 2.2 million games have now moved through to North American retailers, showing conclusively Pokemon is back with an exclamation point. The companion Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire titles have dominated portable software since their launch on March 17.

Finally, 800,000 Game Boy Advance SP units have blown through to North American retail, matching equally raucous receptions in Japan and Europe.

"While no one will know the champion of this season's college basketball tournament until next week, the winner of this spring's video game tournament is Nintendo," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc. "Game Boy Advance SP, Zelda and Pokemon represent a three point play that players and retailers dream about."

"At what is traditionally a slow time of the year for video games, Nintendo has seized the sales initiative," says Richard Simone, video game buyer, Toys "R" Us. "With their blockbuster products Game Boy Advance SP, The Legend of Zelda and Pokemon, they're a big part of why video games are one of the truly bright spots at retail."
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by Greg Laspatzis