in early 1994, nintendo signed a licensing agreement with wms industries, midway's parent company, which enabled midway to develop and market games using the early arcade-based version of the ultra 64 platform (later to become a home console and then be renamed to nintendo 64) and formed a joint venture company called williams/nintendo to market nintendo-exclusive home conversions of these games. "killer instinct" was announced as the first of these games. the announcement came at a time when nintendo was still known for its stance against violent video games. to avert speculation that "killer instinct" would not be as violent as the title suggests, nintendo's director of marketing george harrison stated that "williams would not have entered into this deal if they thought their hands would be tied. we won't restrict them in any way." he added that nintendo believed that an industry-standard ratings system, which was expected to be in place by the time the home version was released, would make their stance against violent games no longer necessary.