Nintendo boosts marketing focus

Nintendo of America has announced that its marketing budget for the fourth quarter of 2002 is $140 million, up 25 percent from last year. Despite the company's reputation for concentrating on marketing to a younger audience, Nintendo plans much of this push to focus on teens and those in their 20s. This older focus fits with Nintendo's major holiday games: Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 0 .

"As our game library grows to 180 by New Year's Eve, Nintendo will have the largest concentration ever of games designed for players in their teens and older," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America. "By significantly boosting our fourth-quarter spending over last year, when we launched the Nintendo GameCube, it's clear Nintendo is serious about the serious gamer."

Nintendo of America spends 60 percent of its overall marketing budget in the fourth quarter, which is when game publishers traditionally rack up half of their yearly sales. According to Nintendo, the recently released Resident Evil 0 and Resident Evil 0 are selling quite well.