2004 in video gaming - Definition and Overview

See also: 2003 in video gaming, other events of 2004, 2005 in video gaming, and the history of video games

Events

• January 20 - Wired's Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winnner 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)
• November 5 - Nobuo Uematsu resigns from Square Enix and becomes a freelancer, starting his own business, called Smile Please.

Notable releases

• August 3 - id Software releases Doom 3 after four years of development
• September 9 - Pokémon FireRed and Pokémon LeafGreen are released in the US with a free wireless adapter (the release in many US locations was 3 days later)
• September 21 - Star Wars Battlefront (Pandemic Studios/LucasArts)
• October 29 - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North)
• November 9 - Microsoft releases Halo 2 and takes in $125 million USD in one of the biggest commercial entertainment opening days ever
• November 15 - Metroid Prime 2: Echoes (Retro Studios)
• November 16 - Valve Software releases Half-Life 2 after five years of development
• November 21 - Nintendo launches its DS handheld in the US
• November 23 - Blizzard Entertainment releases World of Warcraft in North America, Australia and New Zealand. The game sells over 240,000 copies in its first day, the highest ever total for a PC game.

Business

• January 12 - Ubisoft acquires Tiwak
• February - EA consolidates, rolls most of Maxis and all of Origin Systems into its Redwood Shores, California HQ
• 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.

Trends

Video game consoles

The dominant consoles in 2004 are:

• Nintendo GameCube
• Game Boy Advance
• Sony PlayStation 2
• Microsoft Xbox