Perfect Dark - Marketing and Release

Marketing and Release

Rare announced in mid-1998 that their follow-up to GoldenEye would appear at that year's E3 as Nintendo's lead game, and claimed that the game, using the same engine as its predecessor, would be available by Christmas 1998. The release date gradually slipped but the game continued to be heavily trailed in magazines, with Nintendo Official Magazine predicting that it would be "the best shooting game this century". A working version of the game appeared at the European Computer Trade Show 1998; N64 Magazine described the preview as having "the kind of attention to detail that had everyone who saw drooling". Shortly before release, Rare unveiled a number of websites for companies in the game's universe, such as datadyne.com, to promote interest in the game's storyline.

The first release of the game came on May 22, 2000 in North America. Nintendo arranged a number of publicity stunts to promote the release, including hiring model Michele Merkin, who appeared as the lead character Joanna Dark in commercials and in-store promotions for the game cartridge. Unlike GoldenEye 007, the game received an M (Mature) rating due to its graphic content and adult language. This caused some controversy, as Nintendo has a reputation for family-friendly games like Mario and Pokémon. Total sales for the game reached 1.3 million copies in the United States. The European release followed on 30 June, and finally the game was released in Japan on 21 October. The Japanese launch was a success, with the sale of 35,000 copies in the first week, and 77,000 in total. Worldwide, Perfect Dark sold 2.5 million copies. As a result, a Player's Choice edition was released in 2001.

A separate Game Boy Color game set in the same fictional universe, also titled Perfect Dark, was released shortly afterwards in August 2000 to help promote the Nintendo 64 game. Although its storyline is different from the Nintendo 64 title, the game features a compatibility mode that allows certain features within the Nintendo 64 game to alternatively be unlocked, via a Transfer Pak. On the other hand, a double soundtrack album, titled Perfect Dark: Dual CD Soundtrack, which features the complete score of the game, was released on November 15, 2000 exclusively through Nintendo Power magazine.