This Day in Video Game History: November 9
This Day in Video Game History
1982
Mattel Electronics announced that it would offer a converter device that allows its Intellivision console to play cartridges from the more popular Atari 2600 console.
1983
The Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation announced that it would phase out its video game development division.
1990
Sierra released King’s Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! for Amiga, Mac, MS-DOS, and Windows computers.
1993
PC Magazine published the article “Game Machines: Trend or Fiasco?” by John C. Dvorak. The game, which questioned the marketability of games for computers, evoked an outcry of indignation from gaming fans and elicited one of the largest responses seen in the magazine’s history.
1996
Videotopia offered a hands-on interactive exhibit on the history of video games at the Tanglewood Mall in Roanoke, Virginia November 9 through January 1.
1998
Sony announced an agreement under which Toshiba would develop a new chipset for Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 2 console. The chipset will include an MPEG2 decoder that will allow the console to playback DVDs.
2000
Midway released Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2 for the PlayStation in US. (ESRB: T)
Sony Computer Entertainment of America released Crash Bash for the PlayStation in North America. (ESRB: E)
2001
Konami released the single-player Gradius Galaxies horizontal scrolling shooter game for the Game Boy Advance in Europe. (ELSPA: 11+)
Konami released the Castlevania Chronicles platform game for the PlayStation in Europe. (ELSPA: 15+)
Microsoft released the Project Gotham Racing racing game for the Xbox in North America. (ESRB: E)
Namco released the Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil platform game for the PlayStation 2 in Europe. (ELSPA: 3+)
2004
EA Games released the first-person shooter Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault on CD for Windows. It was the seventh installment of the Medal of Honor series. (ESRB: T)
EA Games released the The Urbz: Sims in the City simulation game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in the U.S. It was the third Sims game for video game consoles. (ESRB: T)
Eidos announced that its Backyard Wrestling 2 video game had gone Gold.
Eidos announced that its racing game Crash n’ Burn had gone Gold.
Microsoft Game Studios released the science fiction-themed first-person shooter Halo 2 for the Xbox in Australia and North America. Three weeks before the game’s release, it had already sold a record 1.5 million pre-ordered copies. In its first day, the game sold 2.4 million units in North America alone, grossing $125 million in revenue and setting a record for the most successful opening day in the history of entertainment. (ESRB: M) Price: US$50 or US$55 (deluxe edition)
Sony Computer Entertainment of America released the Jak 3 platform game for the PlayStation 2 in North America. (ESRB: T)
2005
Activision released American Chopper 2: Full Throttle, based on the Discovery Channel television series American Chopper, for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. (ESRB: T)
The BBC published a story in which it reported that a twenty-three year old gamer known in-game as “Deathifier” who had purchased a virtual island in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Project Entropia for £13,700 in real-world currency had recouped his investment in under a year by selling land and taxing other gamers. “The money made to date was only a taste of what can be achieved with my virtual island purchase,” Deathifier told the BBC in an interview.
2006
Ubisoft released the stealth-based game Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent for Windows in Australia. It was the fourth installment in the Splinter Cell series of games. (OFLC: MA 15+)
2007
Activision releases the first-person shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Windows, the PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The game marks a departure from its predecessors in the popular Call of Duty series in that it is the first game to be set in the present day as well as the first to receive an M (Mature) rating in the U.S. The game was highly praised by critics for its gameplay. IGN exclaimed that Call of Duty 4 brought “a new level of immersion and intensity that we had never seen before” to the genre. Within a year, over ten million units of the game will be sold. (PEGI: 16+)
D3 Publisher released Ben 10: Protector of Earth, based of the animated series Ben 10, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS in Australia and Europe. (PEGI: 7+)
Eleven days before the official release date of the highly promoted, much anticipated game Mass Effect news circulates in game forums on the internet that the title had hit the shelves at a number of Kmart retail stores across the United States. The premature release was confirmed by the game’s developer, BioWare, and shortly thereafter, other retailers followed suit in breaking the distribution date.
Google announced that it would begin serving ads in computer games.
Frozenbyte announced that its game Shadowgrounds Survivor had gone Gold.
Rumors that the Target retail chain had pulled all copies of the psychological horror game Manhunt from the shelves of its North American stores. A Target spokesman made a public statement that “Target strives to provide merchandise that will appeal to a wide variety of guests,” adding that Target wants “guests to be comfortable with the purchasing decision."
Sony Computer Entertainment released the Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction platform game for the PlayStation 3 in Europe. It was the seventh installment in the Ratchet & Clank series, and it was among the earliest PlayStation 3 games to support the Dual Shock 3 rumble pack. (PEGI: 7+)
