1995 In Video Gaming on:
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1995 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as '' Dragon Quest VI'', '' Mega Man 7'', '' Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'', '' Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest'', and '' Tekken 2'', along with new titles such as '' Mario's Picross'', '' Battle Arena Toshinden'', '' Chrono Trigger'', '' Rayman'', ''
*May 11 –
Twisted Metal
''Twisted Metal'' is a series of Vehicular combat game, vehicular combat video games originally developed by SingleTrac and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series has appeared on the PlayStation (console), PlayStation, PlaySta ...
'', '' Star Wars: Dark Forces'', '' Destruction Derby'', '' Wipeout'' and '' Jumping Flash!''
The year's highest-grossing arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily game of skill, games of skill and in ...
in Japan was '' Virtua Fighter 2'', while the best-selling arcade video games in the United States were ''Daytona USA'' (for the second year in a row) and '' Mortal Kombat 3''. The home video game with the highest known sales in 1995 was ''Dragon Quest VI'', despite only releasing in Japan. The Super Famicom was the best-selling game console in Japan, while the North American Super Nintendo was the best-selling console in North America.
Hardware releases
*Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles.
The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...
releases:
**March 20 – Game Boy Play It Loud! series, color/clear versions of the Game Boy.
**April 23 – Satellaview
The is a satellite modem peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Famicom in 1995. Containing 1 megabyte of ROM space and an additional 512 kB of RAM, Satellaview allowed players to download games, maga ...
accessory for the Super Famicom console in Japan only.
**July 21 – Virtual Boy 32-bit console in Japan. It is discontinued on December 22.
*May 11 – Sega
is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...
releases the Sega Saturn
The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it is the successor to the succes ...
console in North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
.
*August 14 – The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is discontinued in North America.
*September 9 – Sony
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
releases the PlayStation
is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...
console in the United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
*September 29 – Sony releases the PlayStation console in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
.
*October 25 – Funtech releases the Super A'Can console in Taiwan.
*Full date unknown
** R-Zone
** VFX1 Headgear
Top-rated games
Major awards
''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame
The following video game releases in 1995 entered ''Famitsu
, formerly , is a line of Japanese Video game journalism, video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly f ...
'' magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.
Financial performance
Highest-grossing arcade games
Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1995, according to the annual '' Gamest'' and '' Game Machine'' charts.United States
In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1995, according to the American Amusement Machine Association (AAMA) and Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA).Best-selling video game consoles
Best-selling home video games
The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1995 in Japan and the United States.Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1995.United States
In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1995.United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1995.Game releases
Events
* January or February – Stars! is released asshareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...
.
* April 6 – Funco Inc., parent company of video game retailer FuncoLand, announces that vice president and director Stanley Bodine is promoted to president and chief operating officer, replacing founder David R. Pomije, who will remain as chairman and chief executive. Financial controller Robert Hiben is also named chief financial officer, while vice president of merchandising and information systems Michael Hinnenkamp resigns from the company to pursue other career opportunities.
* May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek (then called Video Game Advisor).
* May 11–13 – The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo
E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo) was an annual Trade fair, trade event for the video game industry organized and presented by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). It was held principally in Los Angeles from 1995 to 2019, wit ...
(E3) is held in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
* November 5 – GameFAQs debuts on the web, as an archive of video game FAQs.
* November 24 – Nintendo unveils a playable version of the Nintendo Ultra 64, later renamed the Nintendo 64, at the 7th Annual Nintendo Space World Software Exhibition in Japan. Thirteen games were demonstrated but only two were in playable form, ''Kirby Ball 64'' and '' Super Mario 64''.
Business
*New companies: BioWare, Frog City, Interworld Productions (renamed Mythic Entertainment in 1997), Remedy, TalonSoft *Defunct: Cyberdreams *Nintendo v. Samsung Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled. *Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDECSee also
* 1995 in gamesReferences
External links
{{History of video games Video games by year