2004 in video gaming Information & 2004 in video gaming Links at HealthHaven.com

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[edit] Events

January 20 — Wired's Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winner Duke Nukem Forever.
March 4 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Peter Molyneux into the AIAS Hall of Fame
March 22-26 — Game Developers Conference hosts 4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Gama Network's 6th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF)
May 11 — Nintendo officially announces its "Revolution" (later named Wii) console.
July - IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 5th annual Executive Summit
October 12 — EA Sports launches the multi-format FIFA Football 2005. It is the last major title to be released for the original PlayStation console.
November 5 — Nobuo Uematsu resigns from Square Enix and becomes a freelancer, starting his own business, called Smile Please Co., Ltd..
November 16 - Half-Life 2 is officially released on PC around the world, bringing in a new era for the First Person Shooter genre of video game, with advanced graphics & AI.
November 21 — Nintendo launches its DS handheld in the US

[edit] Business

January 12 — Ubisoft acquires Tiwak
February — Electronic Arts consolidates, rolls most of Maxis and all of Origin Systems into its Redwood Shores, California HQ
March — Microsoft announces XNA the successor of DirectX as the default API for Windows Vista and Xenon.
April 6 — Midway Games acquires Surreal Software
May — Sammy Corporation buys a controlling share in Sega Corporation at a cost of $1.1 billion creating the new company, "Sega Sammy Holdings Inc", one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.
July — Square Enix restructures executive branches around the world.
August 30 — Acclaim declares bankruptcy and closes its doors
October 11 — Midway Games acquires Inevitable Entertainment and renames it Midway Studios Austin.
November 30 — Midway Games acquires developer Paradox Development.
December 13 — Electronic Arts purchases a 5-year exclusive agreement for the rights to the NFL, which includes NFL teams, stadiums and players for use in EA's football videogames.
December 20 — Electronic Arts purchases 20% stake in Ubisoft. The purchase at the time was considered "hostile", by Ubisoft.

[edit] Notable releases

Video game platforms

GBA	Game Boy Advance
GCN	Nintendo GameCube
NDS	Nintendo DS

PS2	PlayStation 2
PSP	PlayStation Portable
Win	Microsoft Windows

Xbox	Xbox

North American release dates:

February 9 — Metroid: Zero Mission (GBA)
February 9 — EverQuest: Gates of Discord (PC)
March 2 — Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
March 9 — Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (GC)
March 9 — Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword (PC)
March 14 — Battlefield Vietnam (PC)
March 16 — Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)
March 23 — Far Cry (PC)
March 23 — Final Fantasy XI (North America) (PS2)
March 23 — Sonic Heroes (GC, PS2, Xbox)
April 12 — Painkiller (PC)
April 20 — Hitman: Contracts (PC, PS2, Xbox)
April 27 — City of Heroes (PC)
April 27 — Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots (PC)
May 6 — Samurai Warriors (PS2)
May 25 — Thief: Deadly Shadows (PC, Xbox)
June 1 — The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox)
June 15 — Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising (PC)
July 13 — Tales of Symphonia (GC)
August 3 — Doom 3 (PC)
August 18 — Astro Boy: Omega Factor (GBA)
August 30 — Pikmin 2 (GC)
September 7 — Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2) (Xbox)
September 7 — Silent Hill 4: The Room (PC, PS2, Xbox)
September 9 — Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA)
September 13 — EverQuest: Omens of War (PC)
September 14 — Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)
September 14 — Fable (Xbox)
September 14 — The Sims 2
September 20 — Def Jam: Fight for NY (GC, PS2, Xbox)
September 20 — Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (PC)
September 21 — Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia (PC, PS2)
September 21 — Star Wars Battlefront (PS2, Xbox)
September 22 — Katamari Damacy (PS2)
September 22 — Rome: Total War (PC)
September 28 — Myst IV: Revelation (PC)
October 4 — Mortal Kombat: Deception (PS2, Xbox)
October 4 — Tony Hawk's Underground 2 (GBA, GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)
October 5 — Conflict: Vietnam (PC, PS2, Xbox)
October 11 — Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GC)
October 25 — Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2)
October 25 — OutRun 2 (Xbox)
October 26 — Dead or Alive Ultimate (Xbox)
October 26 — Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed (PC)
October 26 — Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
November 2 — Killzone (PS2)
November 2 — Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault (PC)
November 3 — Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)
November 8 — EverQuest II (PC)
November 9 — Halo 2 (Xbox)
November 9 — Jak 3 (PS2)
November 15 — Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (GC)
November 15 — Need for Speed: Underground 2 (PS2)
November 16 — Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 (PS2)
November 16 — Half-Life 2 (PC)
November 16 — Joint Operations: Escalation (PC)
November 16 — Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (PC)
November 17 — Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2)
November 21 — Super Mario 64 DS (NDS)
November 23 — World of Warcraft (PC)
November 30 — Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)
December 1 — Painkiller: Battle out of Hell (PC)
December 6 — Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords (Xbox)
December 6 — The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth (PC)
December 8 — The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC)

[edit] Trends

In 2004, the total U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories was $9.9 billion compared with $10 billion in 2003. Total software sales rose 8 percent over the previous year to $6.2 billion. Additionally, sales of portable software titles exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Hardware sales were down 27 percent for the year due in part to shortages during the holiday season and price reductions from all systems.

[edit] Video game consoles

Nintendo GameCube
Xbox
PlayStation 2
- Sony released an internal hard drive for the PlayStation 2 on March 23
- The third major hardware revision of the PlayStation 2 (model number SCPH-70000) was released in Japan on November 1

[edit] Handheld game systems

The dominant handheld systems in 2004 were:

PlayStation Portable

Additionally, Nokia released an updated version of their original N-Gage, called the N-Gage QD. Nintendo released the Nintendo DS on November 21 in the United States. In Japan Sony released the PlayStation Portable on December 12.

[edit] Video game sales

Based on figures from the NPD Group.

**Best-selling video games of 2004 in the United States**^[1]
Rank	Title	Console	Publisher
1	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	PS2	Rockstar Games
2	Halo 2	Xbox	Microsoft Game Studios
3	Madden NFL 2005	PS2	EA Sports
4	ESPN NFL 2K5	PS2	Sega
5	Need For Speed: Underground 2	PS2	Electronic Arts
6	Pokémon Fire Red with adapter	GBA	Nintendo
7	NBA Live 2005	PS2	EA Sports
8	Spider-Man 2	PS2	Activision
9	Halo: Combat Evolved	Xbox	Microsoft Game Studios
10	ESPN NFL 2K5	Xbox	Sega

[edit] References

^ "The NPD Group Reports Annual 2004 U.S. Video Game Industry Retail Sales". NPD Group. 2005-01-18. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20061125183902/http://www.npdfunworld.com/funServlet?nextpage=pr_body.html&content_id=2076. Retrieved 2008-02-28.

[0] "The NPD Group Reports Annual 2004 U.S. Video Game Industry Retail Sales". NPD Group. 2005-01-18. Archived from the original on 2006-11-25. http://web.archive.org/web/20061125183902/http://www.npdfunworld.com/funServlet?nextpage=pr_body.html&content_id=2076. Retrieved 2008-02-28.

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