2002 In Video Gaming

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 Awards for multimedia technologies; 10 of 21 awards go to video games; awards Ian Livingstone the BAFTA Interactive Special Award
• 8th annual E (Electronic Entertainment Expo); the 5th annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E
• 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 moral panic 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 http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/simslivinlarge/news_2857556.html

Notable releases

• July 3 - Blizzard Entertainment releases Warcraft III (Windows), which adds RPG elements to its RTS gameplay.
• October 27 - Rockstar Games releases (PS2), the best-selling game of the year in the United States.

Business

• 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)
• February 19 - Sierra Entertainment, Inc. renamed from Sierra On-Line
• .400 Software Studios founded
• May 10 - Tiwak renamed from Yeti Interactive

Trends

Video game consoles

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

Top-selling games

1. , by Rockstar Games, for PlayStation 2
2. Grand Theft Auto 3, by Rockstar Games, for PlayStation 2
3. Madden NFL 2003, by Electronic Arts, for PlayStation 2
4. Super Mario Advance 2, by Nintendo, for Game Boy Advance
5. , by Sony, for PlayStation 2
6. , by Electronic Arts, for PlayStation 2
7. Spider-Man: The Movie, by Activision, for PlayStation 2
8. Kingdom Hearts, by Squaresoft, for PlayStation 2
9. , by Microsoft, for Xbox
10. Super Mario Sunshine, by Nintendo, for GameCube

<< Previous Word Browser Next >>
aladdin and the king of thieves great grey owl joan b. kroc state opening of parliament dieppe raid josef sudek donald duck going quackers timon (disambiguation) george szell tyler hamilton stepan fedorovich apraksin	william safire youth day hermine braunsteiner donald creighton clogs ostankino tower kvly tv mast gabrielle weidner robert taft method of complements transcript programming language	termination shock melian dialogue binary asteroid stan mikita plain of jars walter james banff, alberta panchen lama !x language mage paricutn	newburgh, new york catharine beecher bravery base camp united states mint charles bonaparte cornice charles russell university of toronto faculty of applied science and engineering haliburton, ontario henry daglish