1997 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as '' Final Fantasy VII'', '' Castlevania: Symphony of the Night'', '' GoldenEye 007'', '' Star Fox 64'', '' Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back'', ''

Quake II ''Quake II'' is a 1997 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Activision. It is the second installment of the Quake (series), ''Quake'' series, following ''Quake (video game), Quake''. Develope ...

'', '' Mega Man Legends'', '' Riven'', '' Tomb Raider II'', '' Dark Rift'', ''

Tekken 3 is a 1997 fighting game developed and published by Namco. It is the third installment in the ''Tekken'' series and the first game built on the Namco System 12 arcade game, arcade hardware. The game takes place twenty years after ''Tekken 2'' (1 ...

'' and '' Virtua Striker 2'', along with new games such as '' Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee'', '' Gran Turismo'', '' Diablo'', ''

Grand Theft Auto ''Grand Theft Auto'' (''GTA'') is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is prima ...

'', '' Fallout'', and '' Postal''.

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 ...

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 ...

was the year's best-selling

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

worldwide for the second year in a row, while also being the annual best-selling console in Japan for the first time (overtaking the

Game Boy The is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America later that year and other territories from 1990 onwards. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-ga ...

and

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 ...

). The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Squaresoft's ''Final Fantasy VII'' for the PlayStation, while the year's highest-grossing

arcade games 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 games of skill and include arcade ...

in Japan were

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 ...

's ''

Virtua Fighter 3 is a 1996 fighting video game developed and published by Sega, the sequel to 1994's ''Virtua Fighter 2'' as part of the ''Virtua Fighter'' series. Released originally in arcades, ''Virtua Fighter 3'' was the first arcade game to run on the Se ...

'' and '' Print Club 2''.

Events

*March 6 -

opens Sega World Sydney in Australia. It is the second

Sega World Sega World (Japanese language, Japanese: セガワールド, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ''Segawārudo''), sometimes stylized as SegaWorld, is a formerly international chain of amusement arcades and entertainment centers created by Sega. Tho ...

park to open outside of Japan, with the first opening as part of the London Trocadero the previous year. *June 19–21 – The 3rd annual E3 is held in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, United States. * October: ** Video game retailer

FuncoLand FuncoLand was an American video game retailer based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, that specialized in selling new and used video game software. It is considered the first major video game retailer to allow consumers to sell and trade used video gam ...

opens its first

Greater Cincinnati The Cincinnati metropolitan area (also known as the Cincinnati Tri-State area or Greater Cincinnati) is a metropolitan area with its core in Ohio and Kentucky. Its largest city is Cincinnati and includes surrounding counties in the U.S. states ...

locations. ** 4 –

Gunpei Yokoi , sometimes transliterated as Gumpei Yokoi, was a Japanese toy maker and video game designer. As a long-time Nintendo employee, he was best known as creator of the Game & Watch handheld system, inventor of the cross-shaped Control Pad, the ...

(1941–1997) dies after a double car accident. *November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association ( IEMA) launched. * December 16 – A scene from the ''Pokémon'' anime (based upon the highly successful games) causes 685 Japanese children to have seizures. Nintendo makes a statement proclaiming the safety of the ''Pokémon'' games from fear that the games would cause a similar effect, the episode to be permanently removed from circulation, and the featured Pokémon in the episode (Porygon) has not made an appearance in the ''Pokémon'' anime since. * TSR, Inc., the owner of the

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...

, was acquired by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

. *3D Realms begins production of '' Duke Nukem Forever'', winner of numerous vaporware awards. *The gaming portal Cool Math Games went online for the first time. *

releases

development software for PC

Hardware

Discontinued

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1997.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

(MC) and

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

(GR) are online aggregators of

video game journalism Video game journalism (also called games journalism or video game criticism) is a specialized branch of journalism that covers various aspects of video games, including game reviews, industry news, and player culture, typically following a core ...

reviews. Note that their coverage of print magazines at the time was limited, with numerous print magazines not listed on their sites.

''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1997 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 in Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing

of 1997.

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

'' Final Fantasy VII'' was the best-selling home video game worldwide in 1997. It sold more than copies worldwide by 1998, becoming the best-selling PlayStation game up until then. The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games ( console games or

computer games A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

) of 1997 in Japan and the United States.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the top-selling home video games of each month in 1997.

Notable releases

Business

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...

acquires CentreSoft Ltd. and

Raven Software Raven Software Corporation (trade name: Raven; formerly Raven Software, Inc.) is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most ...

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by former Apple Inc., Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry ...

Inc. acquires

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997. Maxis is ...

* GameTek filed for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

bankruptcy and closed its doors in July 1998 * 2015, Inc. founded *4D Rulers Software, Inc. founded *September – 4HEAD Studios created * Bungie West formed by

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington, and a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (programme ...

* Conspiracy Entertainment Corporation founded *

Crave Entertainment Crave Entertainment (aka Crave Games) was an American video game publisher founded in 1997 by Nima Taghavi. Its headquarters was in Newport Beach, California. It was acquired by Handleman Company in 2005 in a deal valued up to $95,000,000 but w ...

, Inc. formed *August – Human Head Studios, Inc. formed * Illusion Softworks, a.s. founded *April 15 –

Irem is a Japanese video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher and manufacturer of pachinkos. The company has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The full name of the company that uses the brand is Irem Software Enginee ...

Software Engineering Inc. founded * Irrational Games LLC founded * Mythic Entertainment renames itself from Interworld Productions after name dispute with another "Interworld" company * THQ renamed from Toy Headquarters, Inc. *Warthog PLC founded

Lawsuits

* Nintendo vs Games City: Nintendo sues Games City for selling the Game Doctor and Doctor V64 backup devices for the

SNES The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Europe and Oceania an ...

and N64 consoles. Nintendo wins the suit. * Nintendo vs Prima Publishing: Nintendo sues Prima over copyrights to maps of the N64 video game '' GoldenEye 007''. Nintendo loses the suit. * Nintendo vs Sony Video Games: Nintendo sues Sony over copyrights about Mario games.

References

External links

{{History of video games Video games by year