Nintendo reasserts U.S. market dominance; Nintendo 64 sales shoot to No. 1 position.

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 1996--The U.S. launch of the Nintendo 64 video game system has cemented Nintendo's leadership in the North American game market, with the company shooting to a more than 62% market share in the "next-generation" category of entertainment.

The market share determination is based on independent sales data tracking (TRSTS) over the past eight weeks, showing Nintendo's share rose to more than 62% in the six weeks since the Nintendo 64 debuted on Sept. 29.

Speaking from "Shoshinkai," a Japanese trade show dedicated to Nintendo products, Nintendo of America Chairman Howard Lincoln announced the Nintendo 64 has dwarfed the initial U.S. sales rates of any competing next-generation platform, reaching U.S. sales of more than 750,000 units just eight weeks after launch.

"The consumers have spoken. And what they're saying -- loud and clear -- is the future of home video games belongs to 64-bit technology," Lincoln says.

His comment comes on the heels of Time magazine naming the Nintendo 64 as the "1996 Machine of the Year," outdistancing all other consumer electronics products: the Nintendo 64 "has done to video-gaming what the 707 did to air travel," the magazine says.

At the trade show, Nintendo is demonstrating nearly 40 new Nintendo 64 games for the Japanese market, including third-party titles like "Mission Impossible" and "Turok: Dinosaur Hunter." They will join first party Nintendo titles like "Star Fox 64" and "Mario Kart 64" -- two of at least 10 mega-hit quality games to be introduced to the U.S. market in the first half of 1997.

Nintendo also is displaying a prototype of the 64DD magnetic storage accessory for Nintendo 64, which will allow players for the first time to significantly customize their characters, environments and game play mechanics. The 64DD will increase the storage capacity of N64 cartridges by a factor of eight, and also deliver data to the processor at two to three times the speed of rival CD-equipped game machines, allowing full-speed, and truly seamless game play.

"The phenomenal response to Nintendo 64, with more than 2 million machines sold in Japan and North America in less than six months, demonstrates that game players care more about quality games than the medium on which they're stored," adds Lincoln. "But 64DD will open even a new realm of excitement and challenge by allowing players to, in effect, become the `co-designers' of their games by writing information to the magnetic disks."

Also appearing at the show is Shigeru Miyamoto, the most popular and prolific video game designer in history. Miyamoto is known for such historic games and game characters as Donkey Kong, Zelda, and the Nintendo 64 flagship title, "Super Mario 64."

Nintendo Co. Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, is the leader in the worldwide $15 billion retail video game industry. Nintendo and its international subsidiaries have sold more than 1 billion video games worldwide. As a wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Washington, serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western hemisphere, where more than 40 percent of American homes own a Nintendo system.

For more information about Nintendo 64 or any other Nintendo product, log on to "Nintendo Power Source" on America Online (Keyword: NINTENDO) or Nintendo's World Wide Web site on the Internet (HTTP://WWW.NINTENDO.COM).

CONTACT: Golin/Harris

Alison Holt, 818/286-2067