News - Nintendo Celebrates Famicom's (NES) 20th Anniversarry
Posted by
Samuel Altersitz
at 12:00:00 AM EST on 7.14.2003.
The year was 1983. Video games were seen as all but a lost and forgotten fad after the great Video Game Collapse. But, there was one comapny who thought the industry was still viable; one company who figured a new console could save the dying home video game market.
That company was Nintendo.
On July 15, 1983, Nintendo launched the Famicom in Japan. The Famicom was an 8-bit home video game console that was priced affordably for Japanese families. The name Famicom comes from what Nintendo decided to market it as: a "Family Computer", or something the whole family could use and enjoy.
Later, Nintendo brought the Famicom to North America as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
However, the Famicom wasn't originally showcased as just a video game console in North America. North America was still very stigmatized by video games after the fall of Atari, Intellivision, and others. Thus, Nintendo had R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) added to the Famicom for its North American launch, and advertised the NES as more of a toy than a video game console in North America.
This was only temporary, however, since only 2 games ever used R.O.B., and Nintendo wisely used him to just get a foot in the door.
Today, the video game industry is a $20 billion a year industy. And, if it weren't for Nintendo and the Famicom, we might not be seeing this today.
July 15 is the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Famicom. And Nintendo is celbrating it in style.
Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo of Japan, is going to give the key note speech at the Tokyo Game Show this year, even thought Nintendo themselves won't have a booth at the show. Iwata's keynote speech will focus on the 20 years since the Famicom's release, and where the video game industry can go in the future.
Nintendo is also holding a contest for an extremely limited edition GameBoy Advance SP model that resembles the original Famicom's controllers. This edition is limited to only 1000 units, and each unit will be given away as a prize in Japan. You can see the contest
here, at the official 20th Anniversary of the Famicom's website. The site is in Japanese, however...but the GBASP model is pictured, and looks way cool.
Source:
GamesIndustry.biz
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