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2006 saw the release of many sequels and prequels in video games, prominently including Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, Madden NFL 07, NBA Live 07, NBA 2K7, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, Tony Hawk's Project 8, New Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, alongside many prominent new releases including Bully, Company of Heroes, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Just Cause, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Ōkami, Prey, Resistance: Fall of Man, Saints Row, and Thrillville. Two new home consoles were released during the year: Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.
The year's best-selling game console was the Nintendo DS, while the year's best-selling video game was New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. The year's most critically acclaimed title was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Nintendo's GameCube and Wii consoles.
Events
Month | Date(s) | Event |
---|---|---|
January | 26 | Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.[1] |
Konami Corp. announces the list of titles it expects to ship in 2006, ranging from Beatmania to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, and covering multiple platforms.[2] | ||
Public schools in West Virginia will add Dance Dance Revolution by Konami to their curriculum, in an effort to combat obesity.[3][4] | ||
27 | Players of the Horde clan from World of Warcraft start the "Gamers Against No Kash" charity, to pay the subscription fees for valuable players strapped for cash.[5] | |
Microsoft of Japan made a statement to Japanese game magazine Famitsu regarding the Xbox 360 launch. "It was a lot more difficult than we had imagined. We couldn't prepare the launch titles that we had promised, and it made an impact," said Microsoft of Japan Xbox chief of operations Yoshihiro Maruyama. At the launch of the first Xbox in Japan, more units were sold in three days than have been sold of the Xbox 360 in one month.[6] | ||
The PlayStation Portable 2.01-2.50 firmware versions, previously considered unhackable, are hacked by Fanjita.[7] | ||
The Los Angeles attorney's office sues Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive over the Hot Coffee mod.[8] | ||
30 | A mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 was released. Microsoft claimed the update was for bugfixes and improvements. Members of the modding community claim that "the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community".[9] | |
Nintendo released a statement regarding the Red Tulip phenomenon on Animal Crossing: Wild World, stating "We have isolated the problem and determined that there was a temporary error with the upload tool when this letter was posted". Earlier, there had been speculation that the tulips were a result of black hat hackers.[10] | ||
31 | Sony is reportedly building an Xbox Live-killer for the PlayStation 3.[11] | |
StarForce, a DRM maker for computer games, threatens to sue popular weblog Boing Boing for criticising its products.[12] | ||
Blizzard Entertainment responds to the LGBT debate happening in World of Warcraft. The company stated: "To promote a positive game environment for everyone and help prevent such harassment from taking place as best we can, we prohibit mention of topics related to sensitive real-world subjects in open chat within the game, and we do our best to take action whenever we see such topics being broadcast." | ||
Sony announces that ten servers will be merged with ten others on Everquest 2. Players are cautiously optimistic.[13][14] | ||
February | 6 | After Tiger Telematics' bankruptcy, the Gizmondo handheld console is discontinued, only selling nearly 25,000 units.[15] |
May | 10–12 | The 12th annual E3 is held in Los Angeles, California, United States.[16] |
November | 7 | Left Behind Games releases Left Behind: Eternal Forces amid much controversy. |
17 | Sony releases the PlayStation 3 in North America. | |
19 | Nintendo releases the Wii. |
Business
Month | Date(s) | Event |
---|---|---|
January | 5 | Vivendi Universal Games acquires High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy Studios, Inc), which gained independence from Sammy in 2005.[17] |
9 | Take-Two Interactive acquires Irrational Games. | |
26 | Sony reports that strong sales of the PlayStation Portable helped the company make a profit of ¥70 billion, the first time in 11 years that the company has managed to avoid an annual loss.[18] | |
Microsoft announces $293 million losses in its Home and Entertainment division, record revenues overall.[19] | ||
Nintendo reports declining GameCube and Game Boy Advance sales but increased profits: ¥92.2 billion.[20] | ||
27 | The Nintendo DS returns to the top of the weekly Japanese charts, with 64,515 units sold compared to 38,271 for the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation 2 is third with 26,135 units sold, while the Xbox 360 continues to sell poorly (just 3,616, less than the GameCube). The five best-selling games were Brain Training for Adults 2, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Super Mario Strikers, Brain Training for Adults and Mario Kart DS, all published by Nintendo.[21] | |
Microsoft lowers its estimate of Xbox 360 sales in its first 90 days from 2.75-3.0 million units to 2.5 million due to supply shortage. The yearly estimate (4.5 to 5.5 million) is unchanged since Microsoft plans to increase its console production with the help of a new manufacturer, Celestica.[22] Meanwhile, Microsoft postpones the Australian 360 launch from March 2 to 23, 2006 due to a "short term manufacturing challenge".[23] | ||
30 | Shares of Take-Two Interactive, the controversial creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, rose Monday after news that the company was in takeover talks with an unnamed buyer.[24][25][26] | |
31 | CNET reports that Cisco Systems might be interested in buying Nintendo.[27][28] | |
February | 15 | ScrewAttack, a video game-related website is launched. |
Unknown | Tiger Telematics, the manufacturer of the Gizmondo handheld console, files for bankruptcy.[29] | |
May | Unknown | IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) successfully merged with VSDA (Video Software Dealers Association) to form combined organization EMA (Entertainment Merchants Association) |
July | Unknown | ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) formed. |
July | Unknown | Atari plans to sell-off their game development studios. |
October | Unknown | ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) soft-launched. |
Unknown | Esports organization OpTic Gaming is founded. |
Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
Financial performance
Best-selling game consoles
Rank | Console | Manufacturer | Sales | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Japan[35] | Europe & North America[36] | Combined | |||
1 | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 8,862,969 | 11,700,000 | 20,562,969 |
2 | PlayStation 2 | Sony | 1,547,866 | 10,700,000 | 12,247,866 |
3 | PlayStation Portable | Sony | 1,946,911 | 7,000,000 | 8,946,911 |
4 | Xbox 360 | Microsoft | 208,697 | 5,900,000 | 6,108,697 |
5 | Wii | Nintendo | 998,118 | 1,800,000 | 2,798,118 |
6 | PlayStation 3 | Sony | 466,716 | 700,000 | 1,166,716 |
Japan
Rank | Console | Manufacturer | Units sold |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nintendo DS Lite | Nintendo | 7,526,038 |
2 | PlayStation Portable | Sony | 1,946,911 |
3 | PlayStation 2 | Sony | 1,547,866 |
4 | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 1,336,931 |
5 | Wii | Nintendo | 998,118 |
6 | PlayStation 3 | Sony | 466,716 |
7 | Game Boy Advance SP | Nintendo | 275,779 |
8 | Xbox 360 | Microsoft | 208,697 |
9 | Game Boy Micro | Nintendo | 157,557 |
10 | GameCube | Nintendo | 89,775 |
Europe
Rank | Console | Manufacturer | Units sold |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 6,400,000 |
2 | PlayStation 2 | Sony | 6,000,000 |
3 | PlayStation Portable | Sony | 4,000,000 |
4 | Xbox 360 | Microsoft | 2,000,000 |
5 | Wii | Nintendo | 700,000 |
North America
Rank | Console | Manufacturer | Units sold |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 5,300,000 |
2 | PlayStation 2 | Sony | 4,700,000 |
3 | Xbox 360 | Microsoft | 3,900,000 |
4 | PlayStation Portable | Sony | 3,000,000 |
5 | Wii | Nintendo | 1,100,000 |
6 | PlayStation 3 | Sony | 700,000 |
Best-selling video games
Rank | Title | Platform(s) | Sales | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Japan | United States | Europe | Worldwide | |||
1 | New Super Mario Bros. | Nintendo DS | 3,840,296[38] | 2,000,000[39] | 1,000,000+[40] | 8,640,000[41] |
2 | Madden NFL 07 | Multi-platform | 2,063+[42] | 3,900,000+[39] | 5,000,000+[43] | |
3 | Pokémon Diamond / Pearl | Nintendo DS | 4,355,495[38] | — | — | 4,355,495 |
4 | Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Winning Eleven 10) | Multi-platform | 1,292,472+[44] | 3,000,000+[45] | 4,292,472+ | |
5 | Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (Brain Training) | Nintendo DS | 1,991,116[44] | 1,100,000[39] | 1,000,000+[40] | 4,091,116+ |
6 | Final Fantasy XII | PlayStation 2 | 2,400,000+[46] | 1,500,000+[46] | — | 4,000,000[47] |
7 | More Brain Training (Brain Age 2) | Nintendo DS | 3,748,638[44] | — | — | 3,748,638 |
8 | Animal Crossing: Wild World (Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori) | Nintendo DS | 2,485,264[44] | Unknown | 1,000,000+[40] | 3,485,264+ |
9 | FIFA 07 | Multi-platform | 3,000,000+[48] | |||
Need for Speed: Carbon | Multi-platform | 24,904+[42] | 871,600+[39] | 3,000,000+[48] | ||
The Sims 2: Pets | Multi-platform | 2,229+[42] | 3,000,000+[48] |
Japan
Rank | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher | Sales | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Pokémon Diamond / Pearl | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 4,355,495 | [38] |
2 | New Super Mario Bros. | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 3,840,296 | |
3 | More Brain Training (Brain Age 2) | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 3,748,638 | [44] |
4 | Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing: Wild World) | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 2,485,264 | |
5 | Final Fantasy XII | PlayStation 2 | Square Enix | 2,400,000+ | [46] |
6 | Brain Training (Brain Age) | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 1,991,116 | [44] |
7 | English Training | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 1,662,573 | [38] |
8 | Winning Eleven 10 (Pro Evolution Soccer 6) | PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable | Konami | 1,292,472 | [44] |
9 | Mario Kart DS | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 1,115,082 | |
10 | Tetris DS | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 985,246 |
United States
Rank | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher | Sales | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Madden NFL 07 | PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 | EA Sports | 3,900,000 | [39] |
2 | New Super Mario Bros. | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 2,000,000 | |
3 | Gears of War | Xbox 360 | Microsoft Game Studios | 1,800,000 | |
4 | Kingdom Hearts II | PlayStation 2 | Square Enix | 1,700,000 | |
5 | Final Fantasy XII | PlayStation 2 | Square Enix | 1,500,000+ | [46] |
6 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Wii, GameCube | Nintendo | 1,500,000 | [39] |
7 | Guitar Hero II | PlayStation 2 | RedOctane | 1,300,000 | |
8 | Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! | Nintendo DS | Nintendo | 1,100,000 | |
Call of Duty 3 | Multi-platform | Activision | 1,100,000 | ||
10 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter | Xbox 360 | Ubisoft | 1,000,000 | |
NCAA Football 07 | PlayStation 2 | EA Sports | 1,000,000 |
Platform | Title | Publisher | Sales | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
GameCube | Sonic Riders | Sega | Unknown | [49][39] |
Nintendo DS | New Super Mario Bros. | Nintendo | 2,000,000 | [50][51] |
PC | World of Warcraft | Blizzard Entertainment | Unknown | [52] |
PlayStation 2 | Madden NFL 07 | Electronic Arts | 2,800,000 | [53][51] |
PlayStation 3 | Resistance: Fall of Man | Sony Computer Entertainment | Unknown | [54] |
Xbox | Madden NFL 07 | Electronic Arts | Unknown | [55] |
Xbox 360 | Gears of War | Microsoft Game Studios | 1,800,000 | [51] |
Wii | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess | Nintendo | Unknown | [56] |
United Kingdom
Rank | Title | Publisher |
---|---|---|
1 | FIFA 07 | EA Sports |
2 | Pro Evolution Soccer 6 | Konami |
3 | Need for Speed: Carbon | EA Games |
4 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | Rockstar Games |
5 | Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy | LucasArts |
6 | The Sims 2: Pets | EA Games |
7 | Cars | THQ |
8 | Tomb Raider: Legend | Eidos Interactive |
9 | The Sims 2 | EA Games |
10 | WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 | THQ |
Hardware releases
Month | Day | Console |
---|---|---|
March | 2 | Nintendo DS LiteJP |
November | 11 | PlayStation 3JP |
November | 19 | WiiNA |
Notable releases
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See also
References
- ↑ GameSpot Archived May 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ TeamXbox Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Reuters Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- ↑ GameSpot Archived May 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Gameshout". Gameshout. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ PSP Updates Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived May 9, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Joystiq Archived May 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived September 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Sony Archived February 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Darniaq Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Blake Snow (July 30, 2007). "The 10 Worst-Selling Handhelds of All Time". GamePro.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
- ↑ "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
- ↑ Prnewswire Archived May 31, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Financial Times Archived May 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ GameSpot Archived May 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Media Create
- ↑ TeamXbox Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Gamasutra Archived May 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Yahoo". Games.yahoo.com. November 9, 2010. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ↑ Marketwatch Archived May 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "TTWO Stock Chart". Finance.yahoo.com. April 12, 2005. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- ↑ CNET Archived May 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ GameDaily.biz Archived October 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Gizmondo Europe goes into liquidation". Pocket-Lint. February 7, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- ↑ "Best Video Games for 2006". Metacritic. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
- ↑ "Highest-Ranking Games of 2006 (with at least 10 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
- 1 2 "Best Video Games for 2007". Metacritic. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- 1 2 "Highest-Ranking Games of 2007 (with at least 10 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- ↑ "Armadillo Run for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
- 1 2 "テレビゲームハード販売ランキング" [Video game hardware sales ranking]. Geimin (in Japanese). Famitsu. Archived from the original on January 29, 2009. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- 1 2 3 Electronic Arts (January 31, 2008). "Supplemental Segment Information" (PDF). Thomson Financial. pp. 4–5. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- ↑ David Jenkins (February 1, 2008). "EA Reveals European Hardware Estimates". Gamasutra. CMP Media. Archived from the original on February 15, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- 1 2 3 4 "2006年テレビゲームソフト売り上げTOP500(メディアクリエイト版)" [2006 Video Game Software Sales Top 500 (Media Create)]. Geimin (in Japanese). Media Create. August 26, 2007. Archived from the original on December 14, 2007. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Surette, Tim (January 16, 2007). "Madden hoists 2006 sales trophy". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2021.
- 1 2 3 "DS sells 7 million in Europe". GameSpot. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ↑ "Consolidated Financial Highlights" (PDF) (Press release). Kyoto: Nintendo. January 25, 2007. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- 1 2 3 "Game Search". Game Data Library. Famitsu. Archived from the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- ↑ "Unexpected Profit at Electronic Arts as Video Game Sales Pick Up". The New York Times. November 3, 2006. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Gamasutra - News - Japanese Software Market Up 125% In 2006". Archived from the original on December 20, 2008. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
- ↑ "Konami scores with PES6". GamesIndustry.biz. November 3, 2006. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- 1 2 3 4 "Square Enix Announces Record Shipment With Final Fantasy XII". Square Enix. November 6, 2006. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2006.
- ↑ "スクウェア・エニックス、PS2「ファイナルファンタジーXII」欧州版発売。全世界累計出荷本数500万本を突破" [Square Enix releases PS2 "Final Fantasy XII" European version. Cumulative worldwide shipments exceed 5 million units]. Impress Watch (in Japanese). February 23, 2007. Archived from the original on February 25, 2007. Retrieved May 21, 2022.
- 1 2 3 Konrad, Rachel (February 27, 2007). "Electronic Arts replaces CEO Probst". NBC News. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
- ↑ The IGN GameCube Staff (December 20, 2006). "GameCube 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 19, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ IGN Staff (December 18, 2006). "Nintendo DS 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 8, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- 1 2 3 Sinclair, Brendan (January 16, 2007). "NPD: Game industry reaches $12.5 billion in '06". GameSpot. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
- ↑ Dan; Steve; Charles (December 20, 2006). "PC 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 2, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ IGN PlayStation Team (December 19, 2006). "PS2 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 3, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ IGN PlayStation Team (December 22, 2006). "PS3 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 14, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ IGN Xbox Team (December 19, 2006). "Xbox Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on January 12, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ The IGN Wii Team (December 22, 2006). "Wii 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on May 3, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- ↑ Gibson, Ellie (January 11, 2007). "ELSPA says 2006 was record year for UK games industry". GamesIndustry.biz. Archived from the original on January 13, 2007. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
- ↑ "UK Top Selling Games 2006". UKIE. United Kingdom: The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment. April 9, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
- ↑ "The King of Fighters 2006 Release Information for PlayStation 2 - GameFAQs".
- 1 2 3 "Jaws Unleashed Release Information for PC - GameFAQs".