2004 In Video Gaming

EVENTS

January 20 — '' Wired '''s Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winner '' Duke Nukem Forever ''.

March 4 — Academy Of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ; inducts Peter Molyneux into the AIAS Hall Of Fame

March 22 - 26 — Game Developers Conference hosts 4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Gama Network's 6th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF)

November 5 — Nobuo Uematsu resigns from Square Enix and becomes a freelancer, starting his own business, called Smile Please Co., Ltd. .

November 21 — Nintendo launches its DS handheld in the US

Business

January 12 — Ubisoft acquires Tiwak

February — EA consolidates, rolls most of Maxis and all of Origin Systems into its Redwood Shores, California HQ

March — Microsoft announces XNA the successor of DirectX as the default API for Windows Vista and Xenon .

April 6 — Midway Games acquires Surreal Software

May — Sammy Corporation buys a controlling share in Sega Corporation at a cost of $1.1 billion creating the new company, "Sega Sammy Holdings Inc", one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.

July — Square Enix restructures executive branches around the world.

August 30 — Acclaim declares bankruptcy and closes its doors

October 11 — Midway Games acquires Inevitable Entertainment and renames it Midway Studios Austin.

November 30 — Midway Games acquires developer Paradox Development .

December 13 — Electronic Arts purchases a 5-year exclusive agreement for the rights to the NFL, which includes NFL teams, stadiums and players for use in EA's football videogames.

December 20 — Electronic Arts purchases 20% stake in Ubisoft . The purchase at the time was considered "hostile", by Ubisoft.

Notable releases

March 2 — '' Ninja Gaiden '' ( Xbox )

March 23 — '' Sonic Heroes '' ( GameCube ) ( PS2 ) (Xbox)

March 23 — '' FarCry '' ( PC )

August 3 — '' Doom 3 '' (PC)

'' (PS2) (Xbox)

September 9 — '' Pokémon FireRed '' and '' Pokémon LeafGreen '' ( Game Boy Advance )

September 14 — '' Fable '' (Xbox)

'' (GameCube) (PS2) (Xbox)

September 21 — '' Star Wars Battlefront '' (PS2) (Xbox)

September 22 — '' Katamari Damacy '' (PS2)

October 26 — '' Dead Or Alive Ultimate ''

'' (PS2)

November 2 — '' Killzone '' - (PS2)

November 9 — '' Halo 2 '' (Xbox)

'' (GameCube)

November 16 — '' Half-Life 2 '' (PC)

'' (PS2)

November 23 — '' World Of Warcraft '' (PC)

TRENDS

In 2004, the total U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories was $9.9 billion compared with $10 billion in 2003. Total software sales rose 8 percent over the previous year to $6.2 billion. Additionally, sales of portable software titles exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Hardware sales were down 27 percent for the year due in part to shortages during the holiday season and price reductions from all systems.

Video game consoles

The dominant Video Game Console s in 2004 were:

Nintendo GameCube

Microsoft Xbox

Sony PlayStation 2

---Sony released an Internal Hard Drive for the PlayStation 2 on March 23

---The third major hardware revision of the PlayStation 2 (model number SCPH-70000) was released in Japan on November 1

Handheld game systems

The dominant Handheld Systems in 2004 were:

Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP

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Additionally, Nokia released an updated version of their original N-Gage , called the N-Gage QD . Nintendo released the Nintendo DS on November 21 in the United States . In Japan Sony released the PlayStation Portable on December 12 .

Video game sales

REFERENCES

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