1999 in video games

1999 has seen many sequels and prequels in video games and several new titles such as Mario Party, Sonic Adventure, Pokémon Snap, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver', Heroes of Might and Magic III, Super Smash Bros., Pokémon Stadium, Donkey Kong 64, Ape Escape, Mario Golf 64 and Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation''.

Events
British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards.
March — Game Over is republished as "Game Over: Press Start to Continue".
March 15 — Game Network hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) at GDC.
March 15–19 — Game Developers Conference (formerly Computer Game Developers Conference); moves to San Jose, California where it stays for six consecutive years; hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival.
May — Nintendo has started working on what will eventually be the GameCube, under the codename "Project Dolphin".
May 13 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (at E3); inducts Sid Meier of Firaxis Games to the AIAS Hall of Fame.
May 13–15 — 5th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); the 2nd annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3.
Team Fortress 2 is announced for release during the year, but gets delayed until 2007.

Notable releases

Hardware
September 9 — The Dreamcast is launched in North America with 19 launch titles.
Nintendo's Game Boy Light (GBL) handheld console released in Japan only
SNK's Neo Geo Pocket Color handheld released.
Tiger Electronics Game.com Pocket Pro handheld released.
Sony PlayStation 2 is announced.

Business
February 22 — Sierra reorganizes to cut costs in what is widely referred to as the "Chainsaw Monday" Layoffs, closing several studios and their iconic former headquarters in Oakhurst, California. Some employees were given the option to relocate to their new headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.
New companies: 3d6 Games, 7 Studios, BAM!, Liquid Entertainment, Bohemia Interactive, 7FX

Acquisitions
Activision acquires Elsinore Multimedia, Expert Software, and Neversoft Entertainment
Infogrames Entertainment, SA acquires Accolade (Renamed Infogrames North America), Gremlin Interactive (renamed Infogrames Sheffield House), GT Interactive Software (GTIS), and Ozisoft
Take-Two Interactive acquires TalonSoft
ZeniMax Media acquires Bethesda Softworks

Lawsuits
Nintendo v. Bung Enterprises Ltd.; Nintendo sues Bung over patent infringement
Sony Corporation v. Bleem LLC

Awards
Spiel des Jahres: Tikal - Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer, Ravensburger

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

References

 
Category:Video games by year