won4230egold » Blog Archive » 2003 in video gaming

2003 in video gaming

DC Dreamcast

November 19 — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Xbox)

May 14 — Enter the Cheap Guild Wars Gold Matrix (PC)

September 8 — EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath

[edit]Hardware

NDS Nintendo DS

February 27 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Yu Suzuki of SEGA to the Maple Gold AIAS Hall of Fame.

March 24 — the WOW EU Gold Legend of Zelda: the Cheap Archlord Gold Wind Waker (North America) (GC)

October 27 — Tony Hawk’s Underground (GBA, GC, PS2, Xbox)

August 27 — Otogi: Myth of Demons (Xbox)

Mac Apple Macintosh personal computer

March 18 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (PS2, Xbox)

March 24 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (PC)

GCN Nintendo GameCube

Additionally, two new handheld consoles were introduced in 2003, the Buy EVE ISK Game Boy Advance SP (an enhanced GBA) and Nokia’s N-Gage.

2 Pokémon Ruby GBA Nintendo

November 12 — Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield (Xbox)

September 4 — Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII (PC)

June 20 — Tomb Raider: the WYD Gold Angel of Darkness (PS2)

April 17 — Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the EVE Online ISK Zilart (Japan)

March 2 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (GBA, GC)

March 24 — Amplitude (PS2)

November 3 — Fire Emblem (GBA)

October 14 — Jak II (PS2)

February 19 — Microsoft announces a deal to buy Connectix Corp.

Platform key

November 6 — Prince of Persia: the Maple Story Mesos Sands of Time (PS2)

May — the Cheap FFXI Gil 3DO Company announces bankruptcy and closes down its New World Computing subsidiary

November 30 — Prince of Persia: the Buy WOW Gold Sands of Time (PC)

September 17 — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC)

November 18 — Prince of Persia: the Lineage2 Adena Sands of Time (GC)

November 19 — Beyond Good & Evil (PC)

May 14-16 — 9th annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo) held at Los Angeles Convention Center; 6th annual Game Critics Awards for the Dungeons Dragons CD Key Best of E³.

Wii Wii

August 6 — Silent Hill 3 (PS2)

December 2 — Beyond Good & Evil (Xbox)

May 21 — WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (GBA)

April 9 — Burnout 2: Point of Impact (GC)

GB Game Boy

The dominant handheld systems in 2003 were:

March 17 — Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA)

July 16 — Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) renamed as Entertainment Software Association (ESA).

September 8 — Anarchy Online: the Knight Online Gold Shadowlands (PC)

December — Interplay closes its Black Isle Studios division

November 25 — Max Payne 2: the World of Warcraft CD Key Fall of Max Payne (Xbox)

October 20 — SSX 3 (GC, PS2, Xbox)

9 Enter the 9 Dragons Gold Matrix PS2 Atari

November 18 — Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)

January 12 — Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox)

November 13 — the Hellgate London Palladium Simpsons: Hit & Run (PC)

[edit]Trends

Sony’s PlayStation 2

November 11 — Beyond Good & Evil (PS2)

[edit]Handheld game systems

Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance

October 20 — Families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, two young adults shot by teens William and Josh Buckner (who in statements to investigators claimed their actions were inspired by Grand Theft Auto III), file a USD$246 million lawsuit against developer Rockstar Games, publisher Take Two Interactive Software, retailer Wal-Mart, and console-maker Sony Computer Entertainment America.

August 25 — F-Zero GX (GC)

March 26 — Galactic Civilizations (PC)

Nintendo’s GameCube

7 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! GameCube Nintendo

September 16 — Homeworld 2 (PC)

October 7 — Viewtiful Joe (GC)

October 29 — Call of Duty (PC)

PS2 PlayStation 2

Take Two Interactive buys TDK Mediactive, Inc.

May 20 — Rise of Nations (PC)

November — Kazushige Nojima resigns from Square Enix.

1 Madden NFL 2004 PS2 Electronic Arts

6 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City PS2 Rockstar Games

Events

February 14 — Nintendo releases the PotBS CDKey Game Boy Advance SP, an enhanced version of its popular Game Boy Advance handheld game console.

June 12 — Obsidian Entertainment founded

July 1 — Warcraft III: the EverQuest 2 Gold Frozen Throne (PC)

Win Windows-based personal computer

Late 2003 — Data East goes defunct.

The dominant video game consoles in 2003 were:

November 17 — Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)

PS1 PlayStation

Nintendo states that the Buy World of Warcraft Gold next generation console will be fully compatible with GameCube.

March 4 — EverQuest: the 2 Moons Gold Legacy of Ykesha

November 4 — Civilization III: Conquests (PC)

North American release dates:

Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA renames itself Atari

December 2 — Max Payne 2: the Hero Online Gold Fall of Max Payne (PS2)

October 31 — BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) announces that nominations for the PotBS Gold 6th annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards will instead be split between the CDKey 1st annual BAFTA Games Awards for video game publications and (on November 24) the Sell World of Warcraft Gold BAFTA Interactive Awards for multimedia technologies; ceremonies to be held in February 2004.

March 25 — Dynasty Warriors 4 (PS2)

XB Xbox

July 1 — Tomb Raider: the EverQuest CD Key Angel of Darkness (PC)

May 27 — Hulk (PC), (PS2), (GC), (Xbox)

[edit]Business

November 4 — Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack (Xbox)

August 27 — Soul Calibur II (GC, PS2, Xbox)

September 16 — the Buy Guild Wars Gold Simpsons: Hit & Run (GC, PS2, Xbox)

September 22 — Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (PC})

October 14 — Max Payne 2: the DAOC CD Key Fall of Max Payne (PC)

November 4 — SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2)

September — Nintendo’s Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES) are officially axed from production worldwide.

PSP PlayStation Portable

June 2 — Toontown Online (PC) (Public release)

Nokia releases the Buy Vanguard Gold hybrid N-Gage handheld console / mobile phone.

November 11 — SSX 3 (GBA)

GBA Game Boy Advance

February 17 — Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)

4 Need for Speed: Underground PS2 Electronic Arts

February 26 — Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)

November 12 — Prince of Persia: the 12Sky Gold Sands of Time (Xbox)

Microsoft’s Xbox

10 Medal of Honor: Rising Sun PS2 Electronic Arts

April 1-Enix Corporation and Square Co., Ltd. officially merge, forming Square Enix Co., Ltd.

November 11 — Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)

July 17 — Star Wars: Knights of the Gaia Online Gold Old Republic (Xbox)

X360 Xbox 360

Nokia N-Gage

October 1 — DreamWorks SKG and Tecmo announce a movie adaptation of the Buy Sword of The New World VIS video game Fatal Frame has been fast-tracked with John Rogers and Steven Spielberg involvement.

8 Tony Hawk’s Underground PS2 Activision

Top Grossing Video Games of 2003 Rank Title Platform Publisher

Late 2003 — GameSpot reports a rebuttal regarding two statements from Nintendo and Bandai execs denying a potential Nintendo takeover of Bandai; according to the EverQuest Plat story, Nintendo is working with a Japanese banking firm that has Bandai and Nintendo as their corporate clients to try to take over Bandai

November 17 — Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GC)

December 11 — Beyond Good & Evil (GC)

First PlayStation Portable prototype shown by Sony.

PS3 PlayStation 3

August 13 — Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)

October 1 — Freedom Fighters (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)

August — Microsoft announced ATI as the FFXI CD Key developer of the EVE Online ISK GPU for their next generation console, Project Xenon. Their previous contract with NVIDIA was finished but the Seal Online Gold GPU of the LOTRO Gold Xbox continued in production.

December 2 — Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC, Xbox)

November 14 — Kya Dark Lineage (PlayStation 2)

February 13 — Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (PC)

November 3 — True Crime: Streets of LA (GC, PS2, Xbox)

July - IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 4th annual Executive Summit

CNN/Money reports that video games are a USD$10 billion dollar industry

Late 2003 — Nintendo buys shares from Japanese toy and animation conglomerate Bandai making Nintendo one of Bandai’s top 10 shareholders

3 Pokémon Sapphire GBA Nintendo

[edit]Notable releases

November 18 — Victoria: An Empire Under the Star Wars Galaxies CDKey Sun (PC)

[edit]Video game consoles

The top 10 selling console video games in 2003 in the Hellgate London CD Key United States ranked by units sold, according to NPD, were:

March 19 — Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield (PC)

5 the Cheap EQ2 Gold Legend of Zelda: the Dofus Kamas Wind Waker GameCube Nintendo

Computer games continue to lose ground to console video games with a US sales drop of 14% in 2003. (NPD) Total 2003 entertainment software sales in the Buy EVE Online ISK United States grew slightly to $7 billion USD; console sales increased to $5.8 billion and computer games accounted for the Cheap RS Gold remaining $1.2 billion. ESA (pdf)

October 28 — Final Fantasy XI (PC) (US)

May 1 — Burnout 2: Point of Impact (Xbox)

April — Pan European Game Information (PEGI), a European video game content rating system, comes into use.

December 2 — Silent Hill 3

November 18 — Star Wars: Knights of the LOTRO Gold old Republic (PC)

GBC Game Boy Color

July 9 — Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (PC)

January 25 — Devil May Cry 2 (PS2)

March 6-9 — Game Developers Conference hosts 3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Gama Network’s 5th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF).

February 25 — Master of Orion III (PC)

Enix Corporation officially absorbs Square Co., Ltd., forming Square Enix Co., Ltd.

[edit]Video game sales