Today in Video Game History (October 18th, 1985): Nintendo Releases the Nintendo Entertainment System in America!
Jay B
Nintendo completed negotiations to sell a re-designed and rebranded Famicom in the North American markets as the Nintendo Entertainment System (or NES). The NES was released on October 18, 1985. It sold for a price of $179 and was sold with Super Mario Bros. - which became the best-selling game on the console. The NES was released in the midst of a troubling time for the U.S. video game market. The United States had been suffering from the infamous Video Game Crash of 1983 since 1983, which was when the video game market was flooded with a number of unreliable consoles which broke the consumers trust. NES sales were slow at first, due to this.Nintendo knew that something had to be done to boost sales. Nintendo decided to bundle the NES with a friendly robot toy named R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy), for a short time to prove that the NES was a reliable console to buy. Nintendo sold nearly 62 million units of the NES by the time of its discontinuation in August 1995, making it one of the best-selling video game consoles of all time!