Release
The Virtual Boy was released on July 21, 1995 (1995-07-21) in Japan and on August 14, 1995 (1995-08-14) in North America with the launch titles Mario's Tennis, Red Alarm, Teleroboxer, and Galactic Pinball. It was not released in PAL markets. In North America, Nintendo shipped Mario's Tennis with every Virtual Boy sold, as a pack-in game. Nintendo had initially projected sales of 3 million consoles and 14 million games. At the system's release, Nintendo of America projected hardware sales of 1.5 million units and software sales numbering 2.5 million by the end of the year.
Nintendo extensively advertised the Virtual Boy, and claimed to have spent US$25 million on early promotional activities. Advertising promoted the system as a paradigm shift from past consoles; some pieces used cavemen to indicate a historical evolution, while others utilized psychedelic imagery. Nintendo portrayed the system as a type of virtual reality, as its name indicates; it was to be more than just another gaming console.
Confronted with the challenge of showing 3-dimensional gameplay on 2-dimensional advertisements, the company partnered with Blockbuster and NBC in a coordinated effort. American viewers were encouraged via television advertisements on NBC to rent the console for US$10 at a local Blockbuster. This made it affordable for a large number of gamers to try the system, and produced 750,000 rentals. Despite its popularity, the rental system proved harmful to the Virtual Boy's long-term success, allowing gamers to see just how un-immersive the console was. Taken as a whole, the marketing campaign was commonly thought of as a failure.
Nintendo had shipped 350,000 units of the Virtual Boy by December 1995, around three and a half months after its North American release.
Nintendo announced additional titles for the system at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in 1996, but these games never saw the light of day. The last official title to be released for the Virtual Boy was 3D Tetris, released on March 12, 1996 (1996-03-12). The Virtual Boy was discontinued in late 1995 in Japan and in early 1996 in North America. Nintendo killed the system without fanfare, avoiding an official press release.
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—John Jerome Rooney (1866–1934)