1995 in video gaming

List of years in video gaming       (table)
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Events

• May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek (then called Video Game Advisor)
• May 11-16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is held in Los Angeles, California
• November 5 — GameFAQs debuts on the web, as an archive of video game FAQs
• November 24 — Nintendo unveils a playable version of the Nintendo Ultra 64, now renamed the Nintendo 64, at the 7th Annual Nintendo Space World Software Exhibition in Japan.

Notable releases

• February 15 — Star Wars: Dark Forces (LucasArts, DOS) is the first in a successful series of Star Wars-based first-person shooters.
• February — Sega localizes the 1993 Japanese game, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, for North American (and on December 8 for European) audiences, marking the end of the original series.
• February 18 — Sega releases the Ristar videogame.
• March 11 — Square releases Chrono Trigger for SNES, which was their largest game for the system at 32 megabits, and included multiple ways to finish the game.
• March 17 — Descent (Parallax Software, DOS), popularized the use of portal rendering technology and provided the player with six full degrees of freedom.
• April 1 — Mortal Kombat 3 is released to arcades.
• April 30 — LucasArts releases the adventure game Full Throttle.
• June 5 — Japanese game EarthBound (Nintendo, Ape, Inc.) is localized for the SNES for North American audiences, garnering a cult following in the US.
• July 31 — Sierra Online releases Phantasmagoria, a controversial game that strays from Sierra's typically family-oriented adventures.
• July — Softstar releases The Legend of Sword and Fairy (仙劍奇俠傳)
• August 5 — Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is released, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Mario series.
• August 31 — Westwood Studios releases Command & Conquer, which becomes one of the first popular real-time strategy games and spawns a franchise.
• August 31 — New World Computing releases Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest, which becomes the first game in the popular Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based strategy game franchise
• August 31 — Origin releases Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, likely to be the most ambitious computer game of the time, with a $12 million USD budget for its interactive-movie/space simulation content.
• October 30 — Ubisoft releases the first Rayman game for the Sega Saturn.
• October 31 — Destruction Derby released.
• October 31 — Cyberdreams release I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, an adaptation of writer Harlan Ellison's short story that won Computer Gaming World's award for "Best Graphic Adventure Game" of the year.
• November 21 — Rareware and Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest the sequel to the hugely popular Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
• November 24 — Bungie releases Marathon 2: Durandal.
• December 9 — Blizzard releases Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, sequel to their initial real-time strategy title, and a far more refined and popular title.
• December 15 — Namco releases Tales of Phantasia, the first in the Tales series.
• December 15 — Konami debuts the Suikoden series with Suikoden.
• Flight Unlimited (Looking Glass Studios, DOS/Windows 95), possibly the first home flight simulator to use fluid dynamic physics.
• Namco releases Time Crisis.
• Team 17 releases Worms.

Hardware

• Nintendo releases:
  • March 20 — Game Boy Play It Loud! series, color/clear versions of the Game Boy
  • April 23 — Satellaview accessory for the Famicom console in Japan only
  • July 21 — Virtual Boy (by Gunpei Yokoi) 32-bit console
• May — Sega releases the Sega Saturn console in North America (released in Japan on November 22, 1994)
• September 9 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in the United States
• September 29 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in Europe
• September 23 nowco releases the joygame console in the United States
• The NES is discontinued in North America

Business

• Frog City Software, Inc. established
• Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton establish Interworld Productions, which is renamed Mythic Entertainment in 1997.
• Norm Koger founds TalonSoft.
• Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip establish BioWare in Edmonton, Alberta.
• Cyberdreams goes out of business.

Lawsuits

• Nintendo v. Samsung Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled.
• Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDEC