-
Warcraft: Blizzard
Blizzard releases Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, a real-time strategy game that introduces millions of players to the legendary world of Azeroth. -
Playstation
Sony releases PlayStation in the United States, selling for $100 less than Sega Saturn. The lower price point, along with the arrival of Nintendo 64 in 1996, weakens Sega's home console business. When Sony PlayStation 2 debuts in 2000, it becomes the dominant home console and Sega exits the home console business. -
Tomb Raider
Lara Croft debuts as the star of Eidos's adventure game Tomb Raider. Players love her, but critics charge that she's an example of sexism in video games. -
Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time transports players to the richly imagined world of Hyrule, full of engaging characters, thought-provoking puzzles, and the most memorable musical instrument to ever appear in a video game. -
Chess on Super Computer
Machine triumphs over man as IBM's supercomputer chess program Deep Blue defeats world champion Gary Kasparov in a match. -
Everquest
Sony Online Entertainment's Everquest leads hundreds of thousands of users to join guilds, fight monsters, and level up in the multiplayer online world of Norrath. -
The Sims
Will Wright's The Sims models real life. It is no the first simulation game-Utopia on intellivision (1982), Peter Molyneaux's Populous (1989), Sid Meier's Civilization (1991), and Wright's own SimCity (1989) preceded it0but it becomes the best-selling computer game ever and the most popular game with females. -
Mircosoft- Halo
Microsoft enters the video game market with Xbox and hit games like Halo: Combat Evolved. Four years later, Xbox 360 gains millions of fans with its advanced graphics and seamless online play. -
Serious Games Initiative
The U.S> Ar,y releases America's Army video game to help recruit and communicate with a new generation of electronic gamers, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars launches the Serious Game Initiative to encourage the development of games that adress policy and management issues. -
Steam
Valve energizes PC gaming with its release of Steam. The digital distribution platform allows players to download, play, and update games. -
Nintendo DS
Nintendo maintain its dominance of the handheld market with the Nintendo DS, an easy-to-use, portable gaming system packed with two processors, two screens, multiplayer capabilities, and a stylus for the touchscreen. Great games like Super Mario Kart DS helped too. -
Mircosoft Xbox 360
Microsoft's Xbox 360 brings high-definition realism to the game market, as well as even better multiplayer competitions on Xbox Live and popular titles such as Alan Wake. -
Nintendo WII
Nintendo Wii gets gamers off the couch and moving with innovative, motion-sensitive remotes. Not only does Nintendo make gaming more active, it also appeals to millions of people who never before liked video games. -
Rock Band
Grab your guitar, microphone, bass, or drums, and start playing Rock Band. That's what millions of would-be musicians did with Harmonix's hit title. -
World of Warcraft
More than 10 million worldwide subscribers make World of Warcraft the most popular massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. MMOs create entire virtual universes for players and redefine how we play, learn, and relate to each other. -
Angry Birds
Social games like Farmville and mobile games like Angry Birds shake up the games industry. Millions of people who never would have considered themselves gamers now while away hours playing games on new platforms like Facebook and the iPhone. -
Minecraft
The indie game movement comes of age with the tremendous popularity of Minecraft, the addictive brick-building game from Swedish developer Markus Persson. -
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure becomes the first augmented-reality hit by letting players place plastic figures on a Portal of Power to zap characters into the game. Two years later Disney Infinity joins the ranks of toy-video game hybrids. -
Crowfunding
Crowdfunding site Kickstarter enables game creators to raise millions of dollars to produce new and experimental play platforms such as the OUYA console and the Oculus Rift. -
Gone Home
Gone Home, The Last of Us, and Papers, Please usher in a new wave of mature video game stories that confront players with tough emotional choices in ethically-complex worlds. -
Free-tp-play
"Free-to-play" becomes a dominant business model as blockbusters like CrossFire, League of Legends, World of Tanks, and even Kim Kardashian: Hollywood achieve sales in the hundreds of millions of dollars through microtransaction payments for in-game items and premium content.
