October 28th, 2002 (12:00am) - Animal Crossing is becoming the talk of the town!
The first-of-its-kind, real-time communication game, where consumers live out a virtual life in a small town, is infiltrating American culture. Now a new element is introduced, offering additional entertainment and providing yet another way to engage existing and new Animal Crossing fans. Animal Crossing-e, collectible trading cards for use with Nintendo’s e-Reader accessory for Game Boy Advance, has already sold nearly five million card packs in Japan. The first series of this game enhancing card set launches today at an MSRP of $3.29 per pack.
Still in its first four weeks out, Animal Crossing already is establishing a growing population of insatiable fans:
-- Sales for the Animal Crossing video game have surpassed 100,000 in just four short weeks, landing the game in the Top Ten for September and climbing ahead of more than 100 other new video game launches during that month
-- In its initial month, the Animal-Crossing.com Web site has become a hot online destination with more than 5 million page views and nearly 700,000 unique visitors, in addition to 60,000 entries into its Animal Crossing Sweepstakes
-- Demonstrating support for the game, the Animal-Crossing.com web site is generating 60,000 codes for Nintendo Entertainment System Soccer and currently is adding Donkey Kong Jr. The site is updated weekly with new hints, tips and item codes
-- As another sign that the Animal Crossing civilization is spreading through American society, the rock band, Weezer’s, official Web site (www.weezer.com) has a posting on its message board with directions on how to incorporate a snippet from the song "Buddy Holly" into the video game
-- Hundreds of fans have visited eBay’s Web site to get new game additions and materials to alter and enhance the content of their game
"Exceeding our expectations, Animal Crossing has quickly built an amazingly strong fan community," says Peter MacDougall, executive vice president, sales and marketing, Nintendo of America Inc. "Animal Crossing’s popularity is driven by its innovative game premise and engaging real-time interaction, proving that video games are not always about competition and violence."
Animal Crossing also has garnered attention from video game reporters. Gamers.com notes, "... This is a game I know I’ll be playing for months to come." Computer and Video Games writes, "Crammed full of some of the neatest touches included in a current game, and bearing the absolute blessing of Nintendo legend Miyamoto, the title has become a platform definer for Nintendo GameCube."
Animal Crossing is a virtual existence in real-world time, allowing fans to create a friendly village of animal neighbors, where all the decision are made by you in lockstep with the real world. Nighttime outside is also nighttime in your game; holidays and special events all occur inside Animal Crossing just when they do on your wall calendar for the next 30 years. The immediate excitement of this new genre of video game crosses demographic and reality lines to impact mainstream consumers’ day-to-day lives. Fans of all ages strive to stay in tune with the ever-evolving world of Animal Crossing.
"Nintendo’s Animal Crossing is an instant hit with a diverse customer base," said Jerry Madaio, vice president, merchandising, Electronics Boutique. "We’re seeing consumers young and old buying this real-time game, that unfolds as their lives do."
With Animal Crossing-e, players can get special letters from other players, along with items, songs and patterns by swiping them through the exclusive e-Reader accessory on the Game Boy Advance. The cards themselves are collectible and offer new information on the Animal Crossing characters. Each Animal Crossing-e character card has two passwords, one printed on the card and one in Dot Code. Users can either swipe the Animal Crossing-e character card or enter a password while playing the NINTENDO GAMECUBE game to receive an item or information immediately. The cards also offer another way of gaining access to the coveted classic NES games.
