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See also:
2002 in video gaming,
other events of 2003,
2004 in video gaming and the
history of video games
Events
Hardware
Business
- February 19 - Microsoft announces a deal to buy Connectix Corp.
- Take Two Interactive buys TDK Mediactive, Inc.
- Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA renames itself Atari
- Square Co. and Enix Corporation merge, forming Square Enix Co., Ltd.
- CNN/Money (http://money.cnn.com) reports that video games are a USD$10 billion dollar industry
- May - The 3DO Company announces bankruptcy
- December - Interplay closes its Black Isle Studios division
- Late 2003 - Nintendo buys shares from Japanese toy and animation conglomerate Bandai making Nintendo one of Bandai's top 10 shareholders
- Late 2003 - GameSpot (http://www.gamespot.com) reports a rebuttal regarding two statements from Nintendo and Bandai execs denying a potential Nintendo takeover of Bandai; according to the story, Nintendo is working with a Japanese banking firm that has Bandai and Nintendo as their corporate clients to try to take over Bandai
- Late 2003 - Data East goes defunct.
Trends
Computer games continue to lose ground to console video games with a US sales drop of 14% in 2003. (NPD) (http://www.npdtechworld.com/techServlet?nextpage=pr_body_it.html&content_id=720) Total 2003 entertainment software sales in the United States grew slightly to $7 billion USD; console sales increased to $5.8 billion and computer games accounted for the remaining $1.2 billion. (ESA) (http://www.theesa.com/industrysales.html)
Video game consoles
Two new handheld consoles were introduced in 2003: The Game Boy Advance SP (an enhanced GBA) and Nokia's N-Gage.
The dominant consoles in 2003 were:
Top-selling games
The top 10 selling console video games in 2003 in the United States ranked by units sold, according to NPD (http://www.npdfunworld.com/funServlet?nextpage=trend_body.html&content_id=780), were:
- Madden NFL 2004, published by Electronic Arts, for PlayStation 2
- Pokémon Ruby, Nintendo of America, Game Boy Advance
- Pokémon Sapphire, Nintendo of America, Game Boy Advance
- Need for Speed: Underground, Electronic Arts, PS2
- The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo of America, GameCube
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Rockstar Games, PS2
- Mario Kart: Double Dash, Nintendo of America, GameCube
- Tony Hawk's Underground, Activision, PS2
- Enter the Matrix, Atari, PS2
- Medal of Honor: Rising Sun, Electronic Arts, PS2
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