Thread: History of video games between 2000 and 2004

Hi all

I need to write a short documentation about the video games industry (in general) between 2000 and 2004, in order to outline what happened and thus am asking for ideas, as - as every individual - I am strongly biaised and will miss quite a few things (wikipedia will help but I would rather have some gamers personal insights).

As of now I have this skeleton :

======================

Intro : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_video_games

IMPORTANT : the massive internet connectivity of this new generation of consoles (only the dreamcast had it before)
wireless controlers (GC)


2000 (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_in_video_gaming)
- The sims (PC, jan 31) -- yeay
* launch of the PS2 (march 4)
* death of SNK

2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_in_video_gaming)
- max Payne (PC, july 23) -- bullet time
* launch of the GBA (march 21)
- GTA 3 (PS2, oct 22) -- controversies
* launch of the game cube (sept 14)
* launch of the XBox (nov 15)
- Halo (XBox, nov 15)
- Pikmin (GC, dec 3) -- weird
* sega stops manufacturing home consoles

2002 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_in_video_gaming
- MoH : AA (PC, jan 22)
- Resident Evil (GC, april 30)
- TES 3 : Morro (PC, may 2) -- nice RPG
- Warcraft 3 (PC, july 3)
- Metroid prime (GC, nov 15)

The market research company NPD estimated that video game hardware, software, and accessories sold about US$10.3 billion in 2002. This was a 10% increase over the 2001 figure.

2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_in_video_gaming
* april 1 : official fusion of squaresoft and enix
* september : official end to the production of NES and SNES
* launch of the Nokia N-Gage (oct 7)
- PoP (PS2 - xbox - GC - PC, nov 6) -- return of plateform games

Computer games continue to lose ground to console video games with a US sales drop of 14% in 2003. (NPD) 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.

2004
- far cry (PC, march 23) -- beautiful
- Katamari Damacy (PS2, March 1
- Halo 2 (XBox, nov 9) -- 125 million $ on its première day => fastest selling media product in the history of the USA
- half life 2 (PC, nov 16)
* launch of the DS (nov 21)
- Wow (PC, nov 23) -- a new era was born in MMO
* launch of the PsP (dec 12)


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.

======================


As you can see, most of the game I picked were PC games.. so if you think I have forgotten a game that revolutionnized its genre or created a new one between 2000 and 2004, please tell me (with arguments ^^)
You can also state which's the best console and why, and if you want which is the shittiest, as well as what games should never have seen light !

Any comments are welcome

Question; When did Xbox live appear? I thought the Jaguar was the shittiest.

Half life/Half life 2 were kind of revolutionary. I think that Half-Life was released in 2001 for the ps2 and Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.

unreal engine? even rpg games use it.

HL2 set a benchmark for the fps genre.

2002 saw the release of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, a WWII shooter. Many other WWII series, including BF1942 and the CoD series followed.

Release of the GBA in 2001 (?). Release of the Nokia N-Gage in 2003.

May 11th, 2004. Nintendo "Revolution", later named the Wii, is announced.

October 12th, 2004. Last game for the PS is released, FIFA 2005.

More to come later.

//edit: How come I never get such interesting paper topics? T____T

@Henchy : good question ! I'll add it as the internet connectivity is one of the big innovations of this generation of consoles ^^ I forgot to note it.

Originally Posted by Comp_Master

Half life/Half life 2 were kind of revolutionary. I think that Half-Life was released in 2001 for the ps2 and Half-Life 2 was released in 2004.

Oh, I am definitely gonna add those games then

I think I'll add FFXI (the mmo one) too..

@dna2 : it seems the unreal engine came out in 1998, even though I may note that there is a trend for games to buy and use third party engines... So someone know if it was not (or less) the case before ?

@beowulf : I never played war FPS that much, but aren't this genre almost as old as video games in general ? Or do you think there really was a big trend launched by MoH ?


edit : should I add Halo too ? In the end it is reknown principally because it's the first FPS to not suck on consoles, no ?

How about looking through some of the Gamasutra articles talking about the history of videogames? I did a quick search, and these are some of the relevant threads I could find which might be of interest:

The history of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III (1994-2004) (note: this article is very in-depth and comprehensive.)
The Rise of ARGs (ARGs stand for Alternate Reality Games, which mix video games with reality)
A History of Electronic Arts (Electronic Arts is currently the largest publisher and distributor of games in the world, and in between all the company info, you can see what games they released during the years).

-Dizzy-

Thanks Dizzy, I'll look into these links later

iirc Dreamcast was the first to have online features, GC was the first to have wireless controllers.

Anyways, games.

Fighters:

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (Nov 18, 2002) first released on the Dreamcast, then PS2, and then Xbox.
IMO redifined what fast paced fighters should be, aerial combos, and infinite combos.

Capcom vs. SNK 2 (Sep 13, 2001) first released on Dreamcast, then PS2 a few months later, and a year after that on GC, then another year later on Xbox.
The characters and different modes of gameplay choices, just the variaty of modes in itself was done great.

Guilty Gear X2 (Feb 3, 2003) released for the PS2
Best quality sprites, fluid motion without breaking quality too much, great backgrounds, and bad ass soundtrack.

Not sure what they would label this as but:

Katamari Demacy (September 2, 2004) Released for PS2
One of the most random fun game I've played where you just roll something called a "katamari" to pick up object, people.

There's lots more but can't think of them atm and I've got to go to school now. I'll edit and add more later.

Thanks for the help
I only saw images and videos of Katamari Damacy, but it sure looked unique and had a huge fanbase => added !
As for the fighting games, I am sure they were great but they were nothing new. Maybe I will speak of marvel vs capcom 2 very quickly though, or capcom vs snk as a sidenote about SNK's death.


About global trends, I have the impression that the advert/derived games really grew during this time period (for 2003 alone : The Matrix, Hulk, the simpson hit and run, star wars...), what do you think ?