2002 IN VIDEO GAMING

Contents

Events

Notable releases

Business

Trends

Video game consoles

Handheld game systems

Video game sales

Events

★ Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Will Wright of Maxis to the AIAS Hall of Fame

★ BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) holds 5th annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards for multimedia technologies; 10 of 21 awards go to video games; awards Ian Livingstone the BAFTA Interactive Special Award

★ Big Fish Games is founded with Paul Thelen as the only employee.

★ 8th annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo); the 5th annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E³

★ Eidos Interactive selects Dutch model Jill De Jong as the new digitized Lara Croft character

★ G4 Media, LLC (subsidiary of Comcast Corporation) launches the G4 cable television video game network channel

★ Gama Network hosts the 4th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF)

★ Game Developers Conference hosts the 2nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards

★ SEGA establishes the Sega Mobile division to develop, produce, and distribute video games for mobile phones and PDAs; establishes the Sega.com Business Solutions division to service video game developers and publishers

★ Rockstar Games embroiled in controversy for its ''Grand Theft Auto III'' and '' video games

★ March 22 — ''The Sims'' overtakes ''Myst'' as all-time best-selling computer game, having sold 6.3 million units [1]

★ July - IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 3rd annual Executive Summit

Notable releases

★ January 22 - '' (PC)

★ February 11 - '' (PS2)

★ March 4 - ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' (GBA, Xbox)

★ March 25 - ''Global Operations'' (PC)

★ March 26 - '' (PC)

★ March 28 - ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3'' (PC)

★ March 31 - ''Dungeon Siege'' (PC)

★ April 30 - ''Resident Evil'' (GC)

★ May 2 - '' (PC)

★ May 16 - ''Final Fantasy XI'' (Japan) (PS2)

★ May 20 - ''Grand Theft Auto III'' (PC)

★ May 20 - '' (PC)

★ May 28 - '' (PS2)

★ June 1 - ''The House of the Dead III'' (Arcade)

★ June 6 - ''The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind'' (Xbox)

★ June 16 - ''Neverwinter Nights'' (PC)

★ July 3 - '' (PC)

★ August 13 - '' (PC)

★ August 19 - '' (PC)

★ August 25 - ''Super Mario Sunshine'' (GC)

★ August 25 - ''Super Monkey Ball 2'' (GC)

★ August 27 - '' (PS2)

★ August 29 - '' (PC)

★ September 4 - ''Icewind Dale II'' (PC)

★ September 10 - ''Battlefield 1942'' (PC)

★ September 15 - ''Animal Crossing'' (GC)

★ September 17 - ''Kingdom Hearts'' (PS2)

★ September 23 - ''Tekken 4'' (PS2)

★ September 24 - ''Unreal Championship'' (Xbox)

★ September 30 - '' (PS2)

★ September 30 - ''No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (PC)

★ September 30 - ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' (PC)

★ October 1 - '' (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)

★ October 9 - ''TimeSplitters 2 (PS2)

★ October 15 - ''Red Faction II (PS2)

★ October 16 - ''TimeSplitters 2'' (GC, Xbox)

★ October 22 - '' (Xbox)

★ October 23 - ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' (GC, PS2, Xbox)

★ October 25 - '' (PC)

★ October 27 - '' (PS2)

★ October 28 - ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' (GBA)

★ November 1 - ''Age of Mythology'' (PC)

★ November 4 - '' (Xbox)

★ November 4 - ''Ratchet & Clank'' (PS2)

★ November 6 - '' (PC)

★ November 10 - ''Medal of Honor: Frontline'' (GC, Xbox)

★ November 10 - ''Resident Evil 0'' (GC)

★ November 10 - ''Serious Sam'' (Xbox)

★ November 11 - ''MechAssault'' (Xbox)

★ November 11 - '' (PC)

★ November 15 - ''Metroid Prime'' (GC)

★ November 18 - ''Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance'' (GC)

★ November 18 - ''Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell'' (Xbox)

★ November 20 - ''Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast'' (GC, Xbox)

★ November 20 - '' (PS2)

★ December 13 - '' (Japan) (GC)

Business

★ January 2 – Cyberactive Media, publishers of GameWeek, is closed down.

★ February 19 — Sierra Entertainment, Inc. renamed from Sierra On-Line

★ May 10 — Tiwak renamed from Yeti Interactive

★ November 15 — Xbox Live, the largest online network for video game consoles just start works.

★ November 26 — Squaresoft and Enix announces a fusion. The new name is Square Enix.

★ Activision acquires Luxoflux Corporation, Gray Matter Interactive Studios, Shaba Games LLC, and Z-Axis Ltd.

★ Empire Interactive PLC acquires eJay AG (renamed eJay Entertainment GmbH)

★ Infogrames Entertainment SA acquires Eden Studios and Shiny Entertainment

★ Microsoft acquires Rare Ltd.

★ PCCW: Jaleco USA merges with its VR1 Entertainment (renamed Jaleco Entertainment) division

★ Sony Corporation acquires Aiwa Corporation

★ Vivendi Universal acquires Massive Entertainment

★ Bankrupt/Defunct: Encore Software, Inc. (assets acquired by Navarre Corporation)

★ .400 Software Studios founded

★ Realtime Worlds Founded by David Jones

Trends

The market research company NPD estimated that video game hardware, software, and accessories sold about US$10.3 billion in 2002. This was a 10% increase over the 2001 figure.

Video game consoles

The dominant video game consoles in 2002 were:

★ Nintendo's GameCube

★ Microsoft's Xbox

★ Sony's PlayStation 2

Handheld game systems

The dominant handheld system in 2002 was Nintendo's Game Boy Advance.

Video game sales

The top 10 selling console video games in 2002 in the United States ranked by units sold, according to NPD, were:

'Top Grossing Video Games of 2002'

Rank	Title	Platform	Publisher
1	''	PS2	Rockstar Games
2	''Grand Theft Auto III''	PS2	Rockstar Games
3	''Madden NFL 2003''	PS2	Electronic Arts
4	''Super Mario Advance 2''	GBA	Nintendo
5	''	PS2	Sony
6	''	PS2	Electronic Arts
7	''Spider-Man: The Movie''	PS2	Activision
8	''Kingdom Hearts''	PS2	Squaresoft
9	''	Xbox	Microsoft
10	''Super Mario Sunshine''	GameCube	Nintendo