1996 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as '' Super Mario 64'', ''

Duke Nukem 3D ''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a 1996 first-person shooter, first-person shooter game developed by 3D Realms and published by FormGen for MS-DOS. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem (video game), Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published ...

'', '' Street Fighter Alpha 2'', ''

Super Mario RPG ''Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars'' is a 1996 role-playing video game developed by Square (video game company), Square and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). It was the final ''Mario (franchise) ...

'', '' King's Field III'', '' Virtua Fighter 3'', along with new titles such as '' Blazing Heroes'', '' NiGHTS into Dreams...'', '' Crash Bandicoot'', '' Pokémon Red/Green/Blue'', ''

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

'', ''

Dead or Alive A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of a person whom authorities wish to apprehend. They generally include a picture of the person, either a photograph when one is available or of a facial composite ...

'', '' Soul Edge'', '' Quake'' and ''

Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British video game developer Core Design. The franchise i ...

''. 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 was 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 ...

, while the best-selling consoles in Japan were 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 ''Super Mario 64'', while 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 '' Street Fighter Zero 2'' (''Street Fighter Alpha 2'') and '' Virtua Fighter 2''.

Events

*March – Swedish video game magazine "Super Power" changes name to

Super Play ''Super Play'' was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from 1 October 1992 to September 1996. Overview ''Super Play'' covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were nev ...

. *15 July –

Tom Kalinske Thomas Kalinske (born July 17, 1944) is an American businessman who has worked for Mattel (1972–1987), Matchbox (1987-1990), Sega of America (1990–1996) and LeapFrog (1997–2006). At Mattel, Kalinske was credited with reviving the Barbie ...

announces he will leave his position as president for Sega of America on 1 October. *May 16–18 – The second annual E3 is held in

Los Angeles 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, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. *7 September -

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 ...

opens

SegaWorld London SegaWorld London was an indoor theme park located inside the London Trocadero in London, England. The venue opened in September 1996 and operated as a joint-venture between Chorion (company), Chorion, then-owners of the Trocadero, and Sega. At 1 ...

as part of the London Trocadero in England. It is the first

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. *1 October –

resigns as president for Sega of America. *December 31 – Battle.net Classic is released.

Hardware

* February 21 – Sega Model 3, an

arcade system board An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-opera ...

considered to have the most technically impressive graphics at the time * November 23 –

Bandai is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational toy manufacturer and distributor headquartered in Taitō, Taitō, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Toys & Collectables America and Bandai UK, are respectively headquartered ...

Tamagotchi is a brand of handheld digital pets that was created in Japan by Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ and Aki Maita of Bandai. It was released by Bandai on November 23, 1996 in Japan and in the United States on May 1, 1997, quickly becoming one of the bigge ...

virtual pet handheld *

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 ...

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on June 23, 1996, in North America on September 29, 1996, and in Europe and Australia on March 1, 1997. As the successor to the Super Nintendo E ...

, the first true

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...

home

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

* Nintendo's Game Boy Pocket (GBP) handheld console (30% smaller version of the previous

handheld console) *

's Net Link modem for the

home console * SNK's Neo Geo CDZ (Japan only) *

Namco was a Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company founded in 1955. It operated video arcades and amusement parks globally, and produced video games, films, toys, and arcade cabinets. Namco was one of the most influential c ...

's ''

Alpine Racer is a racing game, racing sports video game developed and published by Namco for Arcade game, arcades. It had a limited release in December 1994, followed by a wide release in July 1995. It ran on the Namco System 22 arcade hardware. The player ...

'' arcade game, including a new type of user interface * The debut of

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's Apple Pippin console

Discontinuation

1996 saw a major shakeup in the crowded home console market, with the Virtual Boy, Atari Jaguar, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer,

Sega CD The Sega CD, known as in most regions outside North America and Brazil, is a CD-ROM accessory and format for the Sega Genesis produced by Sega as part of the fourth generation of video game consoles. Originally released in November 1991, it ca ...

32X The 32X is an video game accessory, add-on for the Sega Genesis video game console. Codenamed "Project Mars", it was designed to expand the power of the Genesis and serve as a transitional console into the History of video game consoles (fifth ...

, and

CD-i The Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I, later CD-i) is a digital optical disc data storage format as well as a hardware platform, co-developed and marketed by Dutch company Philips and Japanese company Sony. It was created as an extension of CDDA ...

all being discontinued.

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1996.

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 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.

''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1996 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

of 1996.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing

arcade video game An arcade video game is an arcade game that takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. All arcade video games are coin-oper ...

s of 1996.

Australia

On Australia's ''Timezone'' monthly arcade charts published in the March 1996 issue of ''Leisure Line'' magazine,

's ''

Manx TT Super Bike ''Manx TT Super Bike'' is a 1995 arcade racing game developed jointly by Sega AM3 and Sega-AM4. It is a motorcycle racing game built for the Sega Model 2 arcade board. Up to 8 players can race in this game if enough arcade cabinets are link ...

'' was the top-grossing dedicated

arcade cabinet An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...

and

's '' Point Blank'' was the top-grossing

arcade conversion In video gaming parlance, a conversion is the production of a game on one computer or console that was originally written for another system. Over the years, video game conversion has taken form in a number of different ways, both in their style and ...

kit.

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 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 ...

) worldwide in 1996.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1996. In addition to the PlayStation games listed above, the following titles were the year's best-selling

and

PC games ''PC Games'' is a monthly-released PC gaming magazine published by the Computec Media GmbH in Germany. History ''PC Games'' was founded in 1992 and included a 3½-in floppy disk, which was changed to a CD-ROM in 1995. By 1999 it became the ...

in the United Kingdom.

Top game rentals in the United States

In the United States, the following games were the top video game rentals of each month, according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA).

Notable releases

Business

* February –

Blizzard Entertainment Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Irvine, California, and a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. Originally founded in 1991, the company is best known for producing the h ...

acquires a development group known as Condor, renaming it

Blizzard North Blizzard North (formerly known as Condor) was an American video game development studio based in San Mateo, California. The studio was the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment, and it was known for the Diablo (series ...

* April – Eidos Interactive acquires CentreGold plc, which holds

Core Design Core Design Limited (known as Rebellion (Derby) Ltd between 2006 and 2010) was a British video game developer based in Derby. Founded in May 1988 by former Gremlin Graphics employees, it originally bore the name Megabrite until rebranding as Co ...

(creator of the Lara Croft character) and U.S. Gold * May 1 –

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

and

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a video gaming website that hosts guides and other resources, as well as an active Internet forum, message board forum. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and has been owned by Fandom (website), Fandom, Inc. since October ...

are launched * June –

Firaxis Games Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs, and Brian Reynolds (game designer), Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meie ...

is formed By Jeff Briggs with Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds * July –

GT Interactive Atari, Inc. is an American video gaming company based in New York City, and a subsidiary of the Atari SA holding company. It is the main entity serving the commercial Atari brand globally since 2003. The company currently publishes games based o ...

purchases

Humongous Entertainment Humongous, Inc. (formerly Humongous Entertainment, Inc.) was an American video game developer based in Bothell, Washington. Founded in 1992, the company developed multiple edutainment franchises, most prominently ''Putt-Putt (series), Putt-Putt' ...

* July 24 –

CUC International CUC (Comp-U-Card) International Inc. was a membership-based consumer services conglomerate with travel, shopping, auto, dining, home improvement and financial services offered to more than 60 million customers worldwide based in Stamford, Connect ...

, Inc purchases Sierra On-Line,

and Davidson & Associates for about $3 billion in a stock swap. * July 30 -

Atari Corporation Atari Corporation was an American manufacturer of Home computer, home computers and Video game console, video game consoles. It was founded by Jack Tramiel on May 17, 1984, as Tramel Technology, Ltd., but then took on the Atari name less than ...

reverse-merges with JTS, Inc. * August 6 – AOL buys Sierra's ImagiNation Network from

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

for a reported $15 million. * August 24 –

Valve A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or Slurry, slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically Pip ...

is founded. * September 1 – AOL closes ImagiNation Network, the first online video game with graphics, after 5 years of service. * September 29 – ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' is founded. * November 13 –

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

and Virtus Corp. found Red Storm Entertainment, headed by Doug Littlejohns * Infogrames Entertainment SA acquires Ocean Software Ltd. * Midway Games, Inc. (subsidiary of WMS Industries) acquires

Atari Games Corporation Atari Games Corporation was an American producer of arcade video games, active from 1985 to 1999, then as Midway Games West Inc. until 2003. It was formed when the coin-operated video game division of Atari, Inc. was transferred by its owner ...

from

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

. * Technos Japan Corporation, originator of the '' Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun'' series and ''

Double Dragon is a beat 'em up video game series originally developed and published by Technōs Japan. It began with the release of the arcade game '' Double Dragon'' in 1987. The series features twin martial artists, Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they fight again ...

'' series, goes out of business (assets acquired by

Atlus is a Japanese video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, Arcade game, arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo. A subsidiary of Sega, the company is known for the ''Megami Tensei'', ''Persona (series), Persona'' ...

) *

Black Isle Studios Black Isle Studios is a division of the video game developer, developer and video game publisher, publisher Interplay Entertainment formed in 1996 that develops role-playing video games. It has published several games from other developers. Blac ...

forms as a division by Interplay; doesn't use Black Isle name until 1998 * Game Park Inc. founded in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

* The company formed by

MicroProse MicroProse is an American video game publisher and video game developer, developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the ''Civilization (series), Civilizat ...

and Spectrum HoloByte in 1993 starts branding using only the MicroProse name * Overworks, Ltd. formed * Zed Two Limited formed *

of America, Inc. v. Computer & Entertainment, Inc. *

The 3DO Company The 3DO Company was an American video game company based in Redwood City, California. It was founded in 1991 by Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins in a partnership with seven other companies to develop the 3DO standard of video gaming hardware ...

purchases

New World Computing New World Computing, Inc. was an American video game developer and video game publisher, publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem, his wife, Michaela Van Caneghem, and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the ''Might and Magic ...

References

External links

{{History of video games Video games by year

Events

Hardware

Discontinuation

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

United States

Australia

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

Japan

United States

Europe

Top game rentals in the United States

Notable releases

Business

See also

References

External links