NES Vs. Master System Sales - Rest Of World

[mr_me]

In the late 1980s, we would justify the investment in a computer because we knew the games were essentially free/pirated; compared to the fortune you'd pay in NES cartridges.  But it was really about the diverse types of games you were seeing on computers.  By the late 1980s 15-20 million computers were selling annually (much of that for business).  The best year for the nes/famicom was about ten million consoles.  Even the C64 consistently sold about two million units per year in the late 1980s.   Considering the attention game developers gave computer platforms, the market was considerable.

 

Regarding atari having a sizeable chunk of the small UK console market.  It's believable.  In the early/mid 1980s there was a common myth that the atari 2600 was the superior gaming platform but far too expensive.  So I could see it selling reasonably well in the UK in the later 1980s as a budget system.

Edited July 17, 2019 by mr_me

[Lost Dragon]

The 2600 Jr was still very prominent in the Home Shopping Catalogues etc for as long as i can remember from that era and there were (again magazine) claims Atari gave UK dealerships a free 2600Jr for every ST system they bought (that would need to be independently verified mind).

 

I can easily see the 2600 being the dominant player in the UK console market at the time due to it's low price and ideal entry level system for young kids.

 

I just very much doubt the 7800 itself had a large role in making up much of that 50% market share,  having limped out when it did.

[Austin]

2 hours ago, mr_me said:

By the late 1980s 15-20 million computers were selling annually (much of that for business).  The best year for the nes/famicom was about ten million consoles.  Even the C64 consistently sold about two million units per year in the late 1980s.   Considering the attention game developers gave computer platforms, the market was considerable.

Right, we know that computers sold a lot throughout the '80s, but my original statement was specifically in regards to the North American market and how the average consumer went with a game console for gaming rather than a computer. Yes, the Commodore 64 sold a lot worldwide, but a majority were not USA sales. The same link you shared a few posts ago, https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Third_generation_of_video_games, specifically states 2.1 million lifetime USA sales (10 million elsewhere). Later 16-bit computers (Amiga, Atari ST) fared even worse in the USA. IBM PC compatibles may have picked up in sales, but they were expensive and generally not purchased for gaming purposes (nor were they in many cases even particularly good for it until the early '90s). We could try to split hairs and figure out the total USA sales numbers for Apple's various computers, the Atari 8-Bit line, Texas Instruments (and if anyone was even still using them by the late '80s), but it's honestly not even worth it in the context of this conversation.

 

On the flip side, going no further than 1991, we have nearly 32 million NES USA sales, 2 million Sega Master System USA sales, at least a million 7800 units according to that link, nearly 2 million Turbo Grafx USA sales by 1991, and who knows however many Genesis and SNES consoles moved in their early days from 1989 and 1991 respectively. This isn't even considering handhelds like the Game Boy, Game Gear and the Lynx.

 

The point is, most kids living in North America in 1988 weren't talking about the Commodore 64 on the school playground (or other computers for that matter). Computers dominated the Euro market, but they were far from doing the same in the North American market. Yes, computers obviously sold in the USA. Yes, some people in the USA used computers for games. Most did not have one specifically for that purpose, as the numbers show.

 

This isn't a slight towards computers of the '80s, but an effort to keep things in perspective. As someone who grew up in the States during that time, I find the completely different gaming landscape in Europe to be very interesting and I enjoy hearing about it.

[mr_me]

I'm not saying the size of PC gaming in North America was anywhere comparable to console gaming, only that it's not "a tiny drop in the bucket".  And the attention given to computer platforms by north american game developers at the time shows this.

 

I'm sure kids on the playground were talking about their NES, but I can tell you at least in my high school nobody talked about nintendo in 1987/88, not publically anyway.  I wouldn't expect most parents to buy their child a computer in the 1980s.  The year 1988 was actually when PC sales started to grow exponentially. That source for C64 sales is low by about 50% compared to other sources and none of them include the five million commodore 128.

[Lost Dragon]

The UK seemed to have rumours and press coverage that went into more depth at times than the US coverage or so it seemed.

 

We had rumblings of the ST console, then later more press coverage on the Panther. 

 

We had the brief but bitter war of words between Sir Clive with the Sinclair QL and Atari UK with the ST.

 

Previews of things like 7800 Chronicles of Cute.

 

Bizarre souped up 8 bit hardware trying to compete with the emerging 16 bit home micros (The SAM Coupe and Amstrad GX4000).

 

From my own experience, nobody i knew was remotely interested in the XEGS or 7800.

 

A few parents bough a NES for their kids.SMB 3, Mega Man, Duck Hunt having the appeal prior to the Turtles craze.

 

The Master System fared better with Virgin especially doing a lot of magazine advertising and of course Sonic did wonders for the system.

 

But people of my age group had eyes firmly on the ST and Amiga and bought consoles like the Mega Drive, Lynx, Game Gear to compliment them.

[Lost Dragon]

Another UK point and one that historical features in the UK Press never seem to cover...

 

Story of the Cash And Carry group buying up (the remaining? ) stocks of unsold 7800 consoles and games and offloading them during the mid/late 1980's for clearance prices.

 

A console with Ballblazer for a mere £9.99.

 

A 5 game pack, including Food Fight for only £4.99.

 

I would love to know if these stories are true and just how many units they bought from Atari UK and how many they sold.

 

At those prices they must of been a boost to UK sales.

 

But every 7800 feature i have read focused on aspects such as Europe and North America. .

 

It outselling the Master System in N.A

 

The Tramiels

 

It's best games.

 

I'd like to see new features look at sales in the region's you never seem to hear of.

[DJ Clae]

I remember seeing 2600 and 7800 games for sale in a dollar store (the ones they used to have in malls liquidating unsold products) in the early 1990s. I don't think it means sales were boosted in the US.

[high voltage]

18 hours ago, Lost Dragon said:

Another UK point and one that historical features in the UK Press never seem to cover...

 

Story of the Cash And Carry group buying up (the remaining? ) stocks of unsold 7800 consoles and games and offloading them during the mid/late 1980's for clearance prices.

 

A console with Ballblazer for a mere £9.99.

 

A 5 game pack, including Food Fight for only £4.99.

 

I would love to know if these stories are true and just how many units they bought from Atari UK and how many they sold.

 

At those prices they must of been a boost to UK sales.

 

But every 7800 feature i have read focused on aspects such as Europe and North America. .

 

It outselling the Master System in N.A

 

The Tramiels

 

It's best games.

 

I'd like to see new features look at sales in the region's you never seem to hear of.

I used to buy the 5 game pack for £5, but I got it from Macro.

And, Argos had the TV Boys, they sold well.

Edited August 4, 2019 by high voltage

[Lost Dragon]

Fantastic.

 

So the stories are true.

 

Would be very interested to know just what sort of numbers were involved in terms of the actual numbers involved. 

 

Appreciate you confirming the claims. 

[Halfbaked]

On 9/8/2010 at 8:00 PM, kool kitty89 said:

On 9/8/2010 at 8:00 PM, kool kitty89 said:

No, the NES was reasonably popular in Europe as a whole, just not as popular as the SMS,

The NES outsold the Master system 8.5 million units to 6.2 in Europe.

[Halfbaked]

On 5/13/2015 at 3:11 PM, oky2000 said:

I am personally only interested in sales in UK (western EU at best) because my understanding is Harrier Attack on Spec/Amstrad/C64 sold more copies (250,000+) than most NES games in the UK and it's a horrible early 8bit game.

I can't speak for EU residents in the 80s but in the UK price was king as was a belief consoles were toys and computers were educational. It's more likely a parent would buy their kid a £299 ST with £9.99-£19.99 RRP games than a backwards step of 8bit console for £150 and inferior games on the whole of £50-60. Commando, Ghosts n Goblins, Defender of the Crown, Rocket Ranger, Gauntlet etc were salivated over on ST/Amiga only. NES was just background noise here, a curiosity.

OTOH SEGA was well known in the UK for arcade gaming and Mastertronic/Virgin were also well known in the 80s and with cheaper games than NES it took the lion's share of a very small potential piece of the home computer tape based gaming market with some slick advertising. Rad Racer on NES was great but I never knew it even existed!

However as my friend pointed out to me there is a single load tape game on C64 that is better in every way than NES Zelda and cost £50 less (Times of Lore). People outside the UK scratch their head why before SNES/GB Nintendo were also rans in the UK but then the Spectrum increased market share by 10% after second generation 64 games like Beach Head started coming out. Maybe in Germany/France/Spain etc price wasn't such an issue but I never met an NES owner once in the 80s and 90s.

I can tell you that Julian Rignall certainly wasn't aspiring to the NES.....because I had a quick go on R'Type on NEC PC ENGINE at a show where he was and that was the Japanese console he wanted to see in the UK he said whilst showing me the system.

More people would remember playing Sonic on Megadrive than SMB3 on NES at the time over here probably. The Megadrive did do well here but what do you expect with such badly programmed Amiga arcade ports like Outrun/Afterburner/Powerdrift I'd rather pay £25 more for Megadrive Outrun too haha

The SMS and NES library is limited and expensive and this hampered their sales in the UK where BMX Kidz on 64 was 95% as good as NES Excite bike but cost £2!!!!!!!!!!!!

(sorry for lack of facts)

The NES was more than a curiosity. I had computers and consoles back then, I knew many NES owners. Computers dominated in the UK because the games were cheap and they had the legacy in the UK, but one you played the best games on the NES (like Zelda, the C64 had nothing like it, the comparison to ToL is hilarious) the games on the NES were yugely expensive yes, but the best ones just outshone the best C64 games. I had an Amiga as well and the games on there had lovely graphics, but the gameplay on PC games was usually behind consoles.

I can recall going into a Toys-r-us and there being a while lane of Nintendo stuff, with some Sega too.

[Halfbaked]

On 9/8/2010 at 8:00 PM, kool kitty89 said:

No, the NES was reasonably popular in Europe as a whole, just not as popular as the SMS, let alone several home computers, but it greatly depended on region. In the UK it did rather poorly, not particularly well in France either iirc, and was poorly marketed to Spain from what I understand. However, it was the dominant game console (ie excluding computers) in Germany and parts of Norther Europe (Scandinavia, Holland, Denmark, etc), and then you had the Dendy Clones in Eastern Europe, but that's a different issue as there wasn't an open market and those clones (and some computers) were the only video game consoles widely available prior to the fall of the iron curtain.

)

The NES was more popular, 8.5 million to 6.2. Also by the end of their lives, the NES had caught up to the Master system with 1.5 million units. France had 1.4 million sold.

[Halfbaked]

On 7/26/2010 at 9:28 PM, high voltage said:

Sega did excellent advertising in Europe, especially in the UK, whilst Mattel (distributor of the NES in UK) did basically ....not a lot. Ads in ZZAP!64, yeah, that'll do....not

SMS games where also cheaper than NES games, many titles, as already stated 29.99 GBP, NES games were like 50.00 GBP and up.

Later, when NES was discounted to 49.99 GBP, Star Wars was still 69.99 GBP. Yeah, sure, parents buy that for the kids for Chrissy.

 

Also, during the late 80s, ST and Amiga ruled in UK and Germany, nobody wanted to go back to 8-bit gaming consoles at those prices. SMS yes, possibility, but NES, with bad graphics, no way.

Games for the ST/Amiga came out on a weekly basis for affordable prices from many UK based software houses. Actually, many of those software houses were also able to support the SMS, whilst the NES, they could not, due to Nintendo's license restrictions.

 

Many were wondering why USA was so (NES mad), even in Computer Gaming World (US computer magazine) NES games were never reviewed favorably, actually the console section in CGW didn't last long at all, and they continued to review more 'in-depth' games for PCs, Amiga, Apple ][.

 

malducci....UK gaming magazines always had far more humour than US gaming magazines

Only the top end NES games were £49.99, like Zelda (I have vivid memory of asking for this game and my mum quibbling the price). £34.99 to £39.99 was the most used price range I think. I had forgotten that Sega games were priced 'cheaply' though.

[Halfbaked]

On 12/14/2010 at 5:32 PM, mbd30 said:

A

 

 

The biggest problem were the games. Most games were released in europe 3-4 years after they were released worldwide. Most great games (Mega Man 3-4, Super Mario Bros. 3, Castlevania 3 and others) were released in 1992 (In the case of Mario, SMB3 was released months after SMW and the SNES were released)

It was just way too late, by then nobody cared for the NES anymore, it was all about the Mega Drive and the SNES started to get big (and Master System was still really popular)

 

 

The UK release of Mario 3 was post the Japanses release of Mario World, but in line with UK releases. I played Mario 3 and then a year later I played Mario World. The import game was big in magazines (almost bought a PC Engine myself) but it was practically non existent for the general gamer. By that time Nintendo had gotten their act together and I was happy to wait, but looking back it is annoying that so many great NES games came so late.

[+Black_Tiger]

17 hours ago, Halfbaked said:

The NES was more popular, 8.5 million to 6.2. Also by the end of their lives, the NES had caught up to the Master system with 1.5 million units. France had 1.4 million sold.

Keep in mind that console sales aren't a definitive measure of popularity. There are many factors and scenarios where this can be the case and a good example is Nintendo's 8 & 16-bit consoles.

 

After the i itial release of the Famicom, Nintendo showed up late to each generation, in order to continue gouging third parties and consumers.

 

The Mega Drive/Genesis was still going strong when Sega decided to more or less shelve it in favor of the Saturn. In Europe the SMS was still going strong when its market got split by the introduction of tge Mega Drive. Yet it was still so strong when the Saturn came out tgat they discontinued it so that the Saturn market wouldn't also get split.

 

Meanwhile Nintendo just continued selling only SNES software and cheap consoles until the Nintenfo 64 finally showed up.

[Halfbaked]

35 minutes ago, Black_Tiger said:

Keep in mind that console sales aren't a definitive measure of popularity. There are many factors and scenarios where this can be the case and a good example is Nintendo's 8 & 16-bit consoles.

After the i itial release of the Famicom, Nintendo showed up late to each generation, in order to continue gouging third parties and consumers.

The Mega Drive/Genesis was still going strong when Sega decided to more or less shelve it in favor of the Saturn. In Europe the SMS was still going strong when its market got split by the introduction of tge Mega Drive. Yet it was still so strong when the Saturn came out tgat they discontinued it so that the Saturn market wouldn't also get split.

Meanwhile Nintendo just continued selling only SNES software and cheap consoles until the Nintenfo 64 finally showed up.

I know. Up until recently I only had my memories, but after watching youtube videos of my old games and reading some comments, I looked into it more. wanting just the stats. It is interesting see how Nintendo (for the most part) got behind a machine for half a generation and then pushed the next one. Sega seemed to release a machine every few years, when one looks at the Mark 1 all the way up to the Dreamcast. I had forgotten that the Master system2 was still a bargain bucket machine in the UK up until the mid 90s which helped its numbers.

I think 'showed up' late is an inappropriate way of seeing how Nintendo allowed programmers to utilise the machine and allow gamers to enjoy the hardware for a sufficient amount of time, as opposed to the alternative of releasing hardware regularly to have the punter shell out for it.

[kool kitty89]

On 3/26/2020 at 3:16 PM, Halfbaked said:

The NES was more popular, 8.5 million to 6.2. Also by the end of their lives, the NES had caught up to the Master system with 1.5 million units. France had 1.4 million sold.

Yes, not to get into grittier details, but I was mistaken with that old post (actually about the first year I really got into the retro gaming/computer community/discussion scene online too), and I've learned a lot since then.

 

However, as far as I've come across in recent articles, research, and discussion, Sega never released complete, let alone detailed sales figures for the Master System or Mega Drive, and the fragmented evidence and figures available for the SMS are sparser than those used to approximate MegaDrive/Genesis sales.

 

For that matter, I recall some of Nintendo's own figures being slightly vague in some respects and also lacking complete breakdowns by region and year (also the issue of fiscal year vs calendar year and different regional fiscal years).

 

Atari Corp's 7800 sales figures are among the most detailed I've seen, and I think they use US fiscal years and not calendar years for their dates. (and are for the US, I think or was it all of their North American market? ... I'm not sure how Canadian sales were handled or if those were all imports made by local non-Atari distributors or mail-order, and included in US sales)

 

And honestly, the 7800 sales figures in the US vs apparent (approximate) Master System sales and market share are some of the more interesting comparisons to consider.

 

That and also bear in mind something I overlooked back in 2010: the PAL 7800 arrived very, very late, basically when the platform was dying in the US (and really in need of a successor) and extremely dated for a new release, especially in the UK and continental European markets that were saturated with 8-bit and increasingly inexpensive home computers. The Atari ST was past its prime by that point, too, and on the verge of being problematic even as a good budget PC/game console option (taking both hardware and software prices into consideration).

 

Wikipedia lists 1987 for the 7800's release in PAL regions for some reason, and maybe the PAL version of MARIA was ready that year, but I'm pretty sure the 1989 date is correct for the actual release, as RFGeneration has, along with the publishing dates on PAL game cartridges.

http://www.rfgeneration.com/PHP/gethwinfo.php?ID=U-032-H-00010-A

 

Atari also kept supporting/publishing software in PAL markets after US distribution had stopped, and I think some of the very latest publication dates of any 7800 games (homebrew aside) were for European releases in 1991.  Sentinel maybe have been the last and was a PAL exclusive prior to ResQsoft's 2002 release for NTSC.

 

 

A lot of people are surprised and dubious of the SMS vs 7800 sales, but it makes sense to me, as does the confusion.

The 7800 had 3 things going for it, the Atari name, the big back library of 2600 games (and some new ones), and the low price of the console and games (both the discounted 2600 games and new games).

 

The biggest weak point was probably not making the difference between 2600 and 7800 games clear enough and somewhat confusing labeling/marketing on that front. (the actual technical limitations and Atari's monetary or in-house software investment constraints come after that, same for the confusing release and market position of the XEGS in 1987, and I'm leaving out Nintendo's own licensing contracts and market manipulation as a separate category altogether)

 

The 7800 was fairly consistently priced in the $85-90 range, cheaper than the NES, and moreso the Master System. And the NES's price advantage over the SMS was also probably a major issue, though I'm less sure of the exact dates and price changes. You also only really had 1987 and 1988 as the SMS as full years of it being Sega's front-line competitor in North America. The Genesis released in north America August of 1989, and by that Christmas sale season, they had Michael Katz's management and marketing campaign styling influencing things, though I think 1990 is when that hit full force.

 

(he'd been the one handling Atari Corp's game/entertainment division as President from 1985 to late 1988 and left the company on an -intended- extended vacation from the industry shortly after Atari and Sega's negotiations for Mega Drive distribution fell through and also before Jack Tramiel stepped down as President and CEO; Sega's David Rosen convinced Katz to join Sega of America's team as President, and jump back into the game earlier than Katz had planned)

[Lost Dragon]

@kool kitty89:

 

Yep, the potted 7800 history as far as the UK goes has been mentioned before, but it's basically this:

 

Atari annouce the 5200 to replace the aging 2600, then after the US crash annouce it's been cancelled. 

 

 

The 7800 is showcased by Atari at a London trade event, hardware and software annouced,along with expected release dates and prices.

 

We wait...

 

Bob Gleadow comes back from the USA and annouces he's convinced Atari that the XE GS is more suited for the UK market and that gets launched. 

 

 

Atari then go ahead and release the 7800, describing it as the flagship 8-bit console.

 

At this point A)Atari UK has 3 8-bit, cartridge based machines all competing for the same limited UK market share:The 2600 Jr, The XE GS and the 7800 and they've already saturated the 8-bit Atari market by offloading unsold 800 XL machines to UK High Street stores and B) The 7800 is looking very dated, software wise next to the likes of the NES with SMB III and the Sega Master System with Wonderboy:Dragon's Trap.

 

Darryl Still has stated the 7800 sold ok via home shopping catalogues and to low affluent families. 

 

It's low price making it an attractive option.

 

But i have never seen him or any Atari UK person give any actual sales figures for it.

[Halfbaked]

I've enjoyed your posts here koolkitty. I found this place when my interest was sparkled on data of sales. I've done quite a bit of youtube video watching recently and watched a fair few game comparison vids. NES/Master System and others. I read a lot of (mostly moronic tribal) posts at youtube and amongst the retroactive gibberish was that the NES wasn't popular in the UK and it didn't sell well, which wasn't how I recall things at all, so I started looking into it. :D

 

Anecdotally, I cannot recall the 7800 at all, it was invisible. Vague recollection of the XEGS (which I had to look up), AMstrad GX4000 and other smaller machines.

[CatPix]

5 hours ago, Halfbaked said:

Anecdotally, I cannot recall the 7800 at all, it was invisible. Vague recollection of the XEGS (which I had to look up), AMstrad GX4000 and other smaller machines.

It's ironic because the GX4000 sold 10 times less in the UK than the NES.

 

I think it's important to get things "in context"

 

In pure numbers the NES sold poorly in the UK (about one million units) but that's only one indicator. First we know the UK market was saturated with 8 bits computers, unlike the US or Japan where cheap computers weren't so much of a thing.

Second it's important to consider what thos sytems sold before; simply because people back then wouldn't have bought a console as easily as today.

 

On paper, the Atari Jaguar outsold the GX 4000 (sketchy figures for both systems but we're apparently talking about 250 000 VS 150 000 ); now, let's take other numbers :

The GX-4000 was sold for about 6 months and was mostly/only avaiblable in the UK and France.

The Atari Jaguar was sold for 3 years and was available in the US and Western Europe (and Japan apparently but come on...).

If I divide the Jaguar sales by 6 (3 years : 6 semesters) then the Jaguar sold 41 667 systems every 6 months.

Also, Population of France+ UK in 1990 : about 80 millions.

Population of the USA+ Western Europe... 248 millions + 350 millions (approx) 598 millions.

So with those figures the GX 4000 sold 1875 units per million

And the Jaguar sold 6.967 systems per million.

So mathematically the GX4000 was way way more successful than the Jaguar

(before people check m figures and all : it's a joke, it's mostly to show that you can use figures to make they say what you want... but it doesn't mean it's meaningful)

 

So yeah compared to other countries the NES didn't sold vastly, but it would be interesting to see what market share the NES had, that one would be a much more siginficant figure.

Even if the NEs "only" sold a million units in the UK, if the NES was taking 60% of the market then it was succesful. Just not "as successful in the UK than in othre countries".

Edited March 30, 2020 by CatPix

[Halfbaked]

37 minutes ago, CatPix said:

It's ironic because the GX4000 sold 10 times less in the UK than the NES.

I think it's important to get things "in context"

In pure numbers the NES sold poorly in the UK (about one million units) but that's only one indicator. First we know the UK market was saturated with 8 bits computers, unlike the US or Japan where cheap computers weren't so much of a thing.

Second it's important to consider what thos sytems sold before; simply because people back then wouldn't have bought a console as easily as today.

On paper, the Atari Jaguar outsold the GX 4000 (sketchy figures for both systems but we're apparently talking about 250 000 VS 150 000 ); now, let's take other numbers :

The GX-4000 was sold for about 6 months and was mostly/only avaiblable in the UK and France.

The Atari Jaguar was sold for 3 years and was available in the US and Western Europe (and Japan apparently but come on...).

If I divide the Jaguar sales by 6 (3 years : 6 semesters) then the Jaguar sold 41 667 systems every 6 months.

Also, Population of France+ UK in 1990 : about 80 millions.

Population of the USA+ Western Europe... 248 millions + 350 millions (approx) 598 millions.

So with those figures the GX 4000 sold 1875 units per million

And the Jaguar sold 6.967 systems per million.

So mathematically the GX4000 was way way more successful than the Jaguar

(before people check m figures and all : it's a joke, it's mostly to show that you can use figures to make they say what you want... but it doesn't mean it's meaningful)

So yeah compared to other countries the NES didn't sold vastly, but it would be interesting to see what market share the NES had, that one would be a much more siginficant figure.

Even if the NEs "only" sold a million units in the UK, if the NES was taking 60% of the market then it was succesful. Just not "as successful in the UK than in othre countries".

Context is important, I mentioned the GX4000 as an example of an incredibly poor selling console, which still eclipsed the Atari. It was only taking into account consoles sales. I was an avid reader of media, like all my compatriots, so we were on the ball with regards to consoles and what was out and what wasn't (I recall really wanting that Konix). The NES sold 1.5 million and I think it was successful for the 'UK market' (as was the Master system). Sinclair and Commodore were the big names in the early 80s, then that became Atari and Commodore. By 1990, consoles had become as large presence as they could have been for the UK market, and Sega and Nintendo were as prevalent on the lips of kids in the playground, but the Atari ST and the Amiga still pushed the 'school-work' angle heavily, which was rubbish, we just wanted them for games.

One shouldn't compare UK figures to other countries as the computer industry was so strong, with £1.99 games and codes where you could write your own games, but even so, the big two did make a considerable dent into that market.

 

[Lost Dragon]

Going purely off very hazy memory,  Mattel might have been the original UK distributor for the NES and spent a huge amount on a TV advertising campaign which failed to generate anything like the expected sales.

 

Nintendo then dropped them and set up their own UK distribution? 

 

 

It was all reported in the UK press at the time.

[Halfbaked]

2 minutes ago, Lost Dragon said:

Going purely off very hazy memory,  Mattel might have been the original UK distributor for the NES and spent a huge amount on a TV advertising campaign which failed to generate anything like the expected sales.

 

Nintendo then dropped them and set up their own UK distribution? 

 

 

It was all reported in the UK press at the time.

It was Mattel, I still have my Mattel box behind the settee.

[Lost Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Halfbaked said:

It was Mattel, I still have my Mattel box behind the settee.

Appreciated. 

 

I knew it was Airolasoft who were replaced by Mastertronic even before the Master System hit the UK, but wasn't 100% sure it was Mattel who failed to deliver on Nintendo expectations. 

 

I can't remember any UK NES TV adverts, double page adverts for the system and single page and double page adverts for it's games in the magazines yes (Ocean used to advertise NES and GB titles quite heavily, as did Konami). 

[jhd]

On 3/30/2020 at 2:50 AM, kool kitty89 said:

Atari Corp's 7800 sales figures are among the most detailed I've seen, and I think they use US fiscal years and not calendar years for their dates. (and are for the US, I think or was it all of their North American market? ... I'm not sure how Canadian sales were handled or if those were all imports made by local non-Atari distributors or mail-order, and included in US sales)

 

While the 7800 was purportedly sold in Canada, it is safe to assume that sales were sufficiently small as to be negligible in the grand scheme of things. 

 

"Grey market" imports by third-parties would be counted as American sales, of course. There may have been mail-order sales, but I certainly do not recall any retail presence when the system was new, nor have I ever seen any systems on the secondary market (i.e. thrift shops and used game stores).