This Day in Video Game History: December 11

This Day in Video Game History: December 11
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This Day in Video Game History

1998

Former industry leader JT Storage, a manufacturer of hard drives, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection. Ten months later, it would file for Chapter 7 to liquidate following the sale of its best known division, Atari, to hardware developer Hasbro Interactive for only five million dollars.

The Market for Home Computing and Videogames magazine was launched in North America. The first issue was forty-six pages long and featured two cover stories on the PlayStation.

Nintendo released the The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time roleplaying game for the Nintendo 64 in Europe. (PEGI: 7+)

1999

Infogrames released the Worms Armageddon turn-based strategy game for Windows, the Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, Nintendo 64, and PlayStation in Europe. (ESRB: E)

2000

Crave released Razor Freestyle Scooter for the PlayStation in the U.S. (ESRB: E)

Kemco released the Top Gear: Dare Devil racing game for the PlayStation 2 in North America. (ESRB: E)

2001

The 3DO Company released World Destruction League: Thunder Tanks for Gameboy Color in the U.S. (ESRB: T)

Midway released the Shadow Hearts roleplaying game for the PlayStation 2 in North America. The game’s sales would drastically suffer due to the release of the much-awaited Final Fantasy X only a week later. (ESRB: M)

2003

Empire Interactive released the Ford Racing 3 racing game for Windows, the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in the U.S. (ESRB: E)

2004

Gameloft released Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow 3D for mobile phones in the U.S. (ESRB: T)

2006

Buena Vista Games released Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace in Action for the Wii in the U.S. (ESRB: E10+)

Microsoft released the XNA Game Studio Express and launched the XNA Creators Club for Windows. Using Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, the suite allowed users to develop their own games for Xbox 360 systems and mass distribute them over the internet.

Nintendo released the The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess roleplaying game for the GameCube and Wii in the U.S. (ESRB: T)

Ubisoft released the Rayman Raving Rabbids platform game for Windows in the U.S. (ESRB: E)

2007

The Competitive Enterprise Institute published a study entitled “Politically Determined Ratings and How to Avoid Them.” Among the study’s many other points, authors Cord Blomquist and Eli Lehrer concluded that, “The best ratings systems have evolved in response to market forces. The First Amendment, correctly we believe, has long been interpreted to limit political control over entertainment media, anyway. Ratings systems that avoid government involvement will do a better job giving people the information they need.” They re-enforced their opinion that government agencies should stay out of the rating business by examining the government regulation of radio: “In the radio market, the [FCC] imposes vague but sweeping content guidelines… The threat of FCC-imposed fines has done nothing to give parents greater control over their children’s radio listening habits - they have virtually no way to protect their children from adult material like explicitly sexual “shock jocks” and violent hip-hop lyrics. Heavy regulation and the absence of a private ratings system have made radio worse for parenting.”

Midway released the first-person shooter BlackSite: Area 51 for Windows, the PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in North America. (ESRB: T)

Nintendo announced that it had sold over six million Nintendo DS Lite handheld game systems.

The Seoul Central District Court ordered the Korean music video production company Fantom Entertainment to pay up to US$10,900 for copyright infringement, after the company produced a video that bore too canny a resemblance to the game Final Fantasy VII. District Court Judge Gu Hoe-geun ruled that the company had “illegally used 80 percent of the storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress and their demeanors from video game Final Fantasy VII.” The video’s producer was separately fined another US$6,500, despite claims that he “wanted to contact Square Enix to get permission, but couldn’t find their contact info.”

SNK Playmore released the Neo Geo Battle Coliseum versus fighting game for the PlayStation 2 in the U.S. (ESRB: T)