History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
In the late 80s, Nintendo's dominance was threatened by newer, technologically superior consoles. 1987, NEC and Hudson Soft released the PC Engine, and a year later, Sega released the 16 bit Mega Drive. Both were introduced in North America in 1989, where they were respectively marketed as the "TurboGrafx-16" and the "Genesis." Facing new competition from the PC Engine in Japan, and the Genesis in North America, Nintendo's market share began to erode. Nintendo responded in the form of the Super Famicom ("Super Nintendo Entertainment System" in North America and Europe), the Famicom's 16-bit successor, in 1990. Although Nintendo announced their intention to continue to support the Famicom alongside their newer console, the success of the newer offering began to draw even more gamers and developers from the original NES, whose decline accelerated. However, Nintendo did continue support of the NES for about three years after the September 1991 release of the Super NES, with the NES's final first-party games being "" and "Wario's Woods".
History of the Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES was also released in Europe, albeit in stages and in a rather haphazard manner. Most of mainland Europe (excluding Italy, Portugal and Spain) received the system in 1986, where it was distributed by various companies. The United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand received the system in 1987, where it was distributed by Mattel. In Europe, the NES received a less enthusiastic response than it had elsewhere, and Nintendo lagged in market and retail penetration (though the console did see more success later on in its life). The NES did outsell the Master System in Australia, though by a much smaller margin than in North America.