Some manufacturers originally announced that DVD players would be available as early as the middle of 1996. Delivery was initially held up for reasons of copy protection demanded by movie studios, but was later delayed by lack of titles. The first players appeared in Japan in November 1996, followed by U.S. players in March 1997. Now, almost fifteen years after the initial launch, over two hundred models of DVD players are available from dozens of electronics companies. Older DVD players ("first" generation drives) will not recognize DVD-R's.