Metroid Prime is the first console appearance for that wildly successful franchise in eight years. Along with Rockstar’s Vice City, Metroid Prime has all but dominated online fever concerning upcoming, older content games, and we’re backing it with our largest, game-specific budget in over three years. As just one example, beginning November 1st, moviegoers in 6,000 theatres nationwide will start “getting primed”’ with a one-minute spot on the big screen; at the same time, TV viewers will be seeing the same one-minute spot on their not-quite-so-big screens at home.

Closely preceding Metroid Prime is the launch of Resident Evil Ø. This is the franchise that has already proven there’s an eager audience thirsting for mature content on Nintendo GameCube. In April, Capcom launched its first Resident Evil exclusive. Within weeks, it sold through to one out of every six Nintendo GameCube owners, and remember, this for a strictly limited mature audience. Undoubtedly, older Nintendo GameCube fans are out there just waiting to be served.

As good as these two hits are, they are only part of a much larger story. All told, we are featuring dozens of new releases here in the latter part of the year with particular appeal to older gamers. Every major publisher, every hit franchise is represented and we’re communicating with older players this fall in new and more focused ways. Here are a few examples:

• We're about to move to market limited supplies of our platinum version of Nintendo GameCube hardware, which promises very strong appeal to older players

• Exclusive Nintendo Cube Clubs will run in urban storefronts in 15 cities, featuring live music and extensive hands-on game play

• We’ll be distribute 3.5 million DVDs featuring over 80 minutes of game play from two dozen new titles

• We’re sponsoring the U.S.S.A. Snowboarding Grand Prix

• We're running promotional partnerships with companies like Heineken

• We’re conducting numerous out-of-home programs in schools, malls, college campuses, airports, and nightclubs

Make no mistake, Nintendo is right in the middle of this game! We’ll let older players know Nintendo GameCube is a great place to be. Overall, our marketing spend in the second half of this year is up 25 percent over the similar period last year and that was for the launch season for Nintendo GameCube. Certainly, within that increase, older players are a specific target but understand, this outreach is an expansion of our marketing efforts, not a strategic redirection of our mission.