P.M. BRIEFING : Nintendo ’90 Sales Set Record

SEATTLE — Video game giant Nintendo of America Inc. announced a record sales year for 1990 today, but it fell short of expectations because of a U.S. economic slowdown.

The subsidiary of Japan’s Nintendo Co. Ltd., based in Redmond, Wash., also confirmed it would release a long-anticipated 16-bit game machine in the second half of 1991, and said it plans a feature-length movie in 1992 on the adventures of its video heroes, the Mario Brothers, with Danny DeVito in a starring role.

Nintendo’s 1990 U.S. sales reached $3.4 billion, off from an earlier prediction of $4.1 billion. That was a 26% gain over Nintendo’s 1989 sales of $2.7 billion.

Nintendo sold 7.2 million units of its Nintendo Entertainment System last year. It had projected moving 7.5 million units.