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1998 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as F-Zero X, Marvel vs. Capcom, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Resident Evil 2, Metal Gear Solid, Glover, Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Gex: Enter the Gecko, Fallout 2, Return to Krondor and Tomb Raider III, along with new titles such as Banjo-Kazooie, Half-Life, MediEvil, Radiant Silvergun, Spyro the Dragon, StarCraft and Xenogears.

The year's best-selling video game console was the PlayStation for the third year in a row. The year's most critically acclaimed title was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which remains Metacritic's highest-scoring game of all time. The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Pikachu for the Game Boy, while the year's highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was Tekken 3.

Events

• Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) hosts its first annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo is inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the first annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards.
• January 1 – The ESRB changes the "K-A" (Kids to Adults) rating to "E" (Everyone).
• March 14 – Sega announces the discontinuation of the Sega Saturn in North America to prepare for the launch of its successor, the Dreamcast.
• May:
  • 28 – Bill Williams, designer of Alley Cat, Necromancer, and Mind Walker, dies.
  • 28–30 – The fourth annual E3 is held in Atlanta, Georgia. Following the show, the inaugural Game Critics Awards was held with winners being titled Best of E3.
• July 3 – Danielle Bunten Berry, designer of M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold, dies.
• September 6 – Infogrames Entertainment, SA and Canal+ launch the Game One television channel.
• November 28 – Video game retailer FuncoLand opens its 300th location in Nashville, Tennessee.
• December – Take-Two Interactive forms the Rockstar Games publishing label.
• December 11 - The final Sega Saturn game is released in North America, Magic Knight Rayearth.

Hardware releases

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1998.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1998 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Financial performance

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) of 1998 in Japan, the United States, and Germany.

The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing home video games of 1998 in the United States and Europe.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1998.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1998.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the top ten highest-grossing home video games of 1998.

Australia

In Australia, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home console games of 1998.

Highest-grossing arcade games in Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1998.

Business

• Activision acquires CD Contact Data and Head Games Publishing.
• Eidos Interactive acquires Crystal Dynamics.
• Electronic Arts Inc. acquires Westwood Studios, and with so they also acquire the North American operations of Virgin Interactive.
• JTS Corp. (Atari Corporation) files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• Hasbro Interactive acquires the Atari brand and property from JTS in May. They also acquire MicroProse in August.
• Square Co. and Electronic Arts form Square Electronic Arts LLC to publish a wealth of Square Co. titles in the U.S.
• Havas, a subsidiary of Vivendi, acquires Cendant Software, which includes Sierra On-Line and Blizzard Entertainment.
• Lego Media established by Lego Group
• New companies: BreakAway, Elixir, Metro3D, Rockstar, Sunrise, Troika, WildTangent, Loki, Retro Studios
• Defunct: DWANGO

Game releases

The list of games released in 1998.

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

See also

• 1998 in games

Notes

1. ^ Pocket Monsters: Red / Green / Blue (Pokémon Red / Green / Blue) sold 1,739,391 units. Pocket Monsters: Pikachu (Pokémon Yellow) sold 1,549,000 units.

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History of video games

v t e Chronology of video games Early history 1947–1972 1970s 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980s 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990s 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000s 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010s 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020s 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Near future v t e Video game history by platform By platform Early mainframe games History of arcade video games Golden age Timeline History of video game consoles Crash of 1983 Console war History of mobile games By console generation First (1972–1980) Second (1976–1992) Third (1983–2003) Fourth (1987–2003) Fifth (1993–2005) Sixth (1998–2013) Seventh (2005–2017) Eighth (2012–) Ninth (2020–) v t e Video game genres List of video game genres Action Platformer Endless runner Platform fighter Shooter Arena First-person Hero Light gun Shoot 'em up Bullet hell Rail Twin-stick Tactical Third-person Survival Battle royale Survival horror Other Beat 'em up Hack and slash Fighting Platform fighter Maze Pac-Man clone Snake Stealth Action-adventure Grand Theft Auto clone Metroidvania Adventure Escape room Graphic adventure Interactive fiction Interactive film Visual novel Walking sim Digital tabletop Deck-building Roguelike deck-building Digital collectible card Puzzle Hidden object Sokoban Tile-matching Role-playing Action role-playing Looter shooter Soulslike Dungeon crawl MMORPG Monster-taming Roguelike Roguelike deck-building Tactical role-playing Simulation Life Dating Farming God Social Virtual pet CMS Business City-building Government Sports Fishing Racing Kart racing Sim racing Vehicle Flight simulation Combat Lunar Lander Space Submarine simulator Train simulator Vehicular combat Other Falling-sand Immersive sim Strategy 4X Auto battler MOBA Real-time strategy Time management Real-time tactics Tactical role-playing Tower defense Turn-based strategy Turn-based tactics Artillery Wargame Grand strategy Other genres Cozy Fitness Horror Survival horror Incremental Music Rhythm Non-game Party Photography Programming Typing Related concepts Themes Advergame Bishōjo Christian Comedy Educational Girls Licensed Otome Sexual Eroge Nonviolent Personalized Sci-fi Serious Art Climate change News Player modes Multiplayer Co-op MMO PVP Single-player Production AAA Indie Doujin soft Fan game Design Casual Hypercasual Emergent gameplay FMV Gacha Kaizo Masocore Nonlinear gameplay Open world Sandbox Side-scrolling Twitch gameplay Vertically scrolling Other Minigame Toys-to-life Video game clone Video game modding Video game remake v t e Video games by country Africa Ghana Kenya Nigeria South Africa Americas Latin America Brazil Colombia Canada United States Asia Bangladesh China India Indonesia Iran Japan South Korea Malaysia Philippines Russia Thailand Turkey Europe Belgium Czech Republic Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Lithuania Netherlands Norway Poland Russia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom Oceania Australia New Zealand

• 1998 in video gaming
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