For the Virtual Boy launch, Nintendo teamed up with NBC and Blockbuster Video to offer customers to rent a Virtual Boy with 3 games at the video rental chain Blockbuster for $9,99 for 3 days and also get a $10 coupon for buying a VB. Nintendo provided over 3,000 Blockbuster Video stores with 20,000 systems and 36,000 games, and such exclusive items like the hard case or the Mario’s Tennis US Box.
A great offer to the gamers, which was advertised with sweepstakes and magazine advertisements, brochures and even a TV commercial. But unfortunately, even this great, 4 and a half months long campaign, backed by a marketing budget of more than 5 million dollars, could not help the Virtual Boy very much…