2004 in video gaming

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 "FIFA Soccer 2005". It's officially the last game in the history of PlayStation
• November 5 — Nobuo Uematsu resigns from Square Enix and becomes a freelancer, starting his own business, called Smile Please Co., Ltd..
• November 21 — Nintendo launches its DS handheld in the US

Business

• January 12 — Ubisoft acquires Tiwak
• February — EA 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.

Notable releases

North American release dates:

• February 9 — EverQuest: Gates of Discord (PC)
• March 2 — Ninja Gaiden (Xbox)
• 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 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 — 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)

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.

Video game consoles

• Nintendo GameCube
• Microsoft Xbox
• Sony 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

Handheld game systems

The dominant handheld systems in 2004 were:

• Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP

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.

Video game sales

Based on figures from the NPD Group.

Best-selling video games of 2004 in the United States

Rank	Title	Console	Publisher
1	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	PS2	Take-Two Interactive
2	Halo 2	Xbox	Microsoft
3	Madden NFL 2005	PS2	Electronic Arts
4	ESPN NFL 2K5	PS2	Take-Two Interactive
5	Need For Speed: Underground 2	PS2	Electronic Arts
6	Pokémon Fire Red with adapter	GBA	Nintendo of America
7	NBA Live 2005	PS2	Electronic Arts
8	Spider-Man 2	PS2	Activision
9	Halo: Combat Evolved	Xbox	Microsoft
10	ESPN NFL 2K5	Xbox	Take-Two Interactive

References