1999 in video games

1999 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Heroes of Might and Magic III, System Shock 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Final Fantasy VIII, Age of Empires II, Crash Team Racing, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Grand Theft Auto 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Chrono Cross, Unreal Tournament, Pokémon Gold and Silver, and Donkey Kong 64, along with new titles such as Super Smash Bros., Silent Hill, Syphon Filter, Driver, EverQuest, Homeworld, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Planescape: Torment.

The year's most critically acclaimed video game was the Dreamcast title Soulcalibur, which remains among the highest-rated games of all time on Metacritic. The best-selling home video game worldwide was the Game Boy title Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow for the second year in a row, while the year's highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was Sega's Virtua Striker 2.

Events

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards.
• March – Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children is republished as Game Over: Press Start to Continue.
• March 15 – Game Network hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) at GDC.
• March 15–19 – Game Developers Conference (formerly Computer Game Developers Conference); moves to San Jose, California where it stays for six consecutive years; hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival.
• May 12 – Nintendo has started working on what will eventually be the GameCube, under the codename "Project Dolphin".
• May 13 – Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (at E3); inducts Sid Meier of Firaxis Games to the AIAS Hall of Fame.
• May 13–15 – 5th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); the 2nd annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3.
• September 7 - The SegaWorld London amusement park shuts down for good exactly three years after its original opening date in 1996. The bottom two floors of the park continue to operate as a generic arcade until 2011.

Hardware

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1999.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1999 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Financial performance

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) of 1999 in Japan, the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.

The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing home video games of 1999 in the United States and Europe.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1999.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1999.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the top ten highest-grossing home video games of 1999.

In the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1999.

Australia

In Australia, the following titles were the top ten best-selling console games of 1999.

Highest-grossing arcade games in Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten highest-grossing arcade games of 1999.

Notable releases

Business

• February 22 – Sierra reorganizes to cut costs in what is widely referred to as the "Chainsaw Monday" Layoffs, closing several studios and their iconic former headquarters in Oakhurst, California. Some employees were given the option to relocate to their new headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.
• Midway Games stops using the Atari Games brand.
• New companies: 3d6 Games, 7 Studios, BAM!, Liquid Entertainment, Bohemia Interactive, 7FX

Acquisitions

• Activision acquires Elsinore Multimedia, Expert Software, and Neversoft Entertainment
• Infogrames Entertainment, SA acquires Accolade (Renamed Infogrames North America), Gremlin Interactive (renamed Infogrames Sheffield House), GT Interactive (GTIS), and Ozisoft
• Take-Two Interactive acquires TalonSoft
• ZeniMax Media acquires Bethesda Softworks
• Codemasters acquires Sensible Software

Lawsuits

• Nintendo v. Bung Enterprises Ltd.; Nintendo sues Bung over patent infringement
• Sony Corporation v. Bleem LLC

See also

• 1999 in games

Notes

References

1. List of video games considered the best
2. Medal of Honor (1999 video game)
3. List of banned video games by country
4. Video game
5. 1998 in video games
6. Video games in the United States
7. List of best-selling video games
8. Computer and Video Games
9. Video game piracy
10. List of films based on video games
11. 1999 in games
12. 1990s in video games
13. List of Activision video games
14. Marvel Games
15. List of video games notable for negative reception
16. List of Games Workshop video games
17. List of video games featuring Superman
18. Sexual content in video games
19. Game studies
20. Violence and video games