1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as ''

Dragon Quest VI ''Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation'', known in Europe as ''Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie'', is a role-playing video game developed by Heartbeat and published by Enix for the Super Famicom as a part of the '' Dragon Quest'' series and ...

'', '' Mario's Picross'', ''

Mega Man 7 ''Mega Man 7'' (stylized as ''Mega Man VII'') is an action platform video game developed and published by Capcom for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the seventh game in the original ''Mega Man'' series. The game was released in J ...

'', '' Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'', and ''

Tekken 2 is a fighting game, the second entry in the '' Tekken'' series. It was released in arcades in 1995, and for the PlayStation in 1996. The original arcade version of the game was released in '' Tekken 5''s Arcade History mode for the PlayStation ...

'', along with new titles such as ''

Battle Arena Toshinden is a weapons-based fighting game developed by Tamsoft and published by Takara and Sony Computer Entertainment in 1995 for the PlayStation, followed by 1996 ports for the Sega Saturn, Game Boy and MS-DOS. It was one of the first fighting games ...

'', ''

Chrono Trigger is a 1995 role-playing video game developed and published by Square. It was originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the first game in the ''Chrono'' series. The game's development team included three designers th ...

'', ''

Rayman ''Rayman'' is a franchise of platform video games, created by video game designer Michel Ancel for Ubisoft. Since the release of the original '' Rayman'' game in 1995, the series has produced a total of 45 games across multiple platforms. The ...

'', ''

Soul Edge is a fighting game developed by the Namco team Project Soul and published by Namco as the first installment in the ''Soulcalibur'' series of 3D fighting games. Originally released as an arcade game in December 1995 in video gaming, 1995, an upgra ...

'', ''

Twisted Metal ''Twisted Metal'' is a series of vehicular combat video games published by Sony Computer Entertainment, and developed by various companies. The series has appeared on the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3. As o ...

'', '' Star Wars: Dark Forces'', ''

Destruction Derby ''Destruction Derby'' is a vehicular combat racing video game developed by Reflections Interactive and published by Psygnosis. Based on the sport of demolition derby, the game tasks the player with racing and destroying cars to score points ...

'', '' Wipeout'' and ''

Jumping Flash! ''Jumping Flash!'' is a first-person platform video game co-developed by Exact and Ultra and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The first installment in the ''Jumping Flash!'' series, it was released for the PlayStation on 28 April 19 ...

'' The year's highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was ''

Virtua Fighter 2 is a 1994 fighting video game developed by Sega. It is the sequel to 1993's ''Virtua Fighter'' and the second game in the ''Virtua Fighter'' series. It was created by Sega's Yu Suzuki-headed AM2 and was released for the arcades in 1994. Ports ...

'', while the best-selling

arcade video game An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...

s in the United States were ''Daytona USA'' (for the second year in a row) and ''

Mortal Kombat 3 ''Mortal Kombat 3'' is a 1995 arcade fighting game developed by Midway Games and first released into arcades in 1995. It is the third main installment in the '' Mortal Kombat'' franchise and a sequel to 1993's ''Mortal Kombat II''. As in the p ...

''. The home video game with the highest known sales in 1995 was ''Dragon Quest VI'', despite only releasing in Japan. The

Super Famicom The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...

was the best-selling game console in Japan, while the Sega Genesis was the best-selling console in North America.

Hardware releases

* Nintendo releases: **March 20 – Game Boy Play It Loud! series, color/clear versions of the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

. **April 23 –

Satellaview The is a satellite modem peripheral produced by Nintendo for the Super Famicom in 1995. Containing 1 megabyte of ROM space and an additional 512 kB of RAM, Satellaview allowed players to download games, magazines, and other media through sate ...

accessory for the

console in Japan only. **July 21 –

Virtual Boy The Virtual Boy is a 32-bit tabletop portable video game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. Released in 1995, it was marketed as the first console capable of displaying stereoscopic "3D" graphics. The player uses the console like ...

32-bit console in Japan. It is discontinued on December 22. Sega-Saturn-Console-Set-Mk1

*May 11 – Sega releases the Sega Saturn console in North America. *August 14 – The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is discontinued in North America. *September 9 –

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professiona ...

releases the PlayStation console in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. *September 29 – Sony releases the PlayStation console in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. *October 25 – Funtech releases the Super A'Can console in Taiwan.

Top-rated games

Major awards

''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1995 entered ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the 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

s of 1995, according to the annual ''

Gamest was a Japanese video game magazine that specialized in covering arcade games. Published by Shinseisha, it first began in May 1986 and originally published bi-monthly, later changed to be a monthly-issued magazine in the late 1980s. The magazine a ...

'' 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 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 ...

(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 as shareware. * April 6 – Funco Inc., parent company of 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 ga ...

, 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) is held in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. * 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 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and ...

, 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 BioWare is a Canadian video game developer based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk and Augustine Yip, alongside Trent Oster, Brent Oster, and Marcel Zeschuk. Since 2007, ...

, Frog City, Interworld Productions (renamed

Mythic Entertainment Mythic Entertainment (formerly BioWare Mythic, EA Mythic, Inc., and Interworld Productions) was a video game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game ' ...

in 1997), Remedy, TalonSoft *Defunct:

Cyberdreams Cyberdreams Interactive Entertainment was a video game publisher located in California that specialized in adventure games developed in collaboration with famous names from the fantasy, horror and science fiction genres between 1990 and 1997. H ...

*Nintendo v.

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled. *Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDEC

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:1995 In video games Video games by year

Hardware releases

Top-rated games

Major awards

''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

United States

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

Japan

United States

United Kingdom

Game releases

Events

Business

See also

References

External links