2004 in video gaming

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Events

• January 20 — Wired's Vaporware Awards gives its first "Lifetime Achievement Award" to recurring winner Duke Nukem Forever.
• March 4 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Peter Molyneux into the AIAS Hall of Fame.
• March 22–26 — Game Developers Conference hosts 4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Gama Network's 6th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF).
• May 11 — Nintendo officially announces its "Revolution" (later named Wii) console.
• July — IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 5th annual Executive Summit.
• August 3 — Doom 3 is released, restarting the breakthrough franchise, and featured complex graphics features such as unified lighting and shadowing, real-time fully dynamic per-pixel lighting and stencil shadowing. The game became id's best selling game to date.
• October 12 — EA Sports launches the multi-format FIFA Football 2005. It is the last major title to be released for the original PlayStation console.
• November — Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 are officially released on PC around the world, bringing in a new era for the First Person Shooter genre of video game, with advanced graphics & physics.
• November 5 — Nobuo Uematsu resigns from Square Enix and becomes a freelancer, starting his own business, called Smile Please Co., Ltd..
• November 17 — Atari Releases its first home game console since the Atari Jaguar, titled the Atari Flashback.
• November 21 — Nintendo launches its DS handheld in the United States.

Business

• January 12 — Ubisoft acquires Tiwak.
• February — Electronic Arts consolidates, rolls most of Maxis and all of Origin Systems into its Redwood Shores, California HQ.
• March — Microsoft announces XNA the successor of DirectX as the default API for "Longhorn", and Xenon.
• April 6 — Midway Games acquires Surreal Software.
• May — Sammy Corporation buys a controlling share in Sega Corporation at a cost of $1.1 billion creating the new company, "Sega Sammy Holdings Inc", one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.
• July — Square Enix restructures executive branches around the world.
• August 30 — Acclaim declares bankruptcy and closes its doors.
• October 11 — Midway Games acquires Inevitable Entertainment and renames it Midway Studios Austin.
• November 30 — Midway Games acquires developer Paradox Development.
• December 13 — Electronic Arts purchases a 5-year exclusive agreement for the rights to the NFL, which includes NFL teams, stadiums and players for use in EA's football video games.
• December 20 — Electronic Arts purchases 20% stake in Ubisoft. The purchase at the time was considered "hostile", by Ubisoft.

Notable releases

Video game platforms

GBA Game Boy Advance GCN Nintendo GameCube NDS Nintendo DS PS1 PlayStation PS2 PlayStation 2 PSP PlayStation Portable Win Microsoft Windows Xbox Xbox

Notable releases of the year 2004

Release	Title	PC	5th Gen	6th Gen	Handheld
January 13	Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
February 9	Metroid: Zero Mission	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
February 9	EverQuest: Gates of Discord	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
March 2	Ninja Gaiden	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
March 2	Scooby-Doo: Mystery Mayhem	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	GBA
March 9	Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
March 9	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Athena Sword	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
March 14	Battlefield Vietnam	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
March 16	Unreal Tournament 2004	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
March 23	Far Cry	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
March 23	Final Fantasy XI	N/A	N/A	PS2 (US)	N/A
March 23	Sonic Heroes	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	N/A
April 12	Painkiller	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
April 20	Hitman: Contracts	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
April 27	City of Heroes	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
April 27	Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
May 4	Rallisport Challenge 2	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
May 6	Samurai Warriors	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
May 25	Thief: Deadly Shadows	Windows	N/A	Xbox	N/A
June 1	The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
June 3	Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
June 3	Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
June 7	The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
June 15	Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
July 13	Tales of Symphonia	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
August 3	Doom 3	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
August 18	Astro Boy: Omega Factor	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
August 30	Pikmin 2	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
August 30	WWE Day of Reckoning	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
September 7	Burnout 3: Takedown	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
September 7	Silent Hill 4: The Room	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
September 9	Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
September 13	EverQuest: Omens of War	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
September 14	Call of Duty: United Offensive	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
September 14	Fable	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
September 14	Sly 2: Band of Thieves	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
September 14	The Sims 2	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
September 17	Crisis Zone	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
September 20	Def Jam: Fight for NY	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	N/A
September 20	Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
September 21	Final Fantasy XI: Chains of Promathia	Windows	N/A	PS2	N/A
September 21	Star Wars Battlefront	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
September 22	Katamari Damacy	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
September 22	Rome: Total War	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
September 23	Crash Twinsanity	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
September 28	Myst IV: Revelation	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
October 1	Scaler	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	N/A
October 1	Crash Twinsanity	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
October 4	Tony Hawk's Underground 2	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	GBA
October 5	Tribes: Vengeance	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
October 5	Conflict: Vietnam	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
October 5	Mega Man Zero 3	N/A	N/A	N/A	GBA
October 11	Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
October 12	Tak 2: The Staff of Dreams	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	GBA
October 12	FIFA Football 2005	Windows	PS1	PS2, GCN	GBA, PSP
October 25	Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
October 25	OutRun 2	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
October 26	Dead or Alive Ultimate	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
October 26	Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
October 26	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 1	Counter-Strike: Source	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 2	Killzone	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 2	Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 2	Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 3	Spyro: A Hero's Tail	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	N/A
November 4	Godzilla: Save the Earth	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox	N/A
November 5	"Bejeweled 2"	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 8	EverQuest II	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 9	Halo 2	N/A	N/A	Xbox	N/A
November 9	Jak 3	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 15	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
November 15	Need for Speed: Underground 2	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 16	Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 16	Half-Life 2	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 16	Joint Operations: Escalation	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 16	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 17	Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater	N/A	N/A	PS2	N/A
November 21	Super Mario 64 DS	N/A	N/A	N/A	NDS
November 22	GoldenEye: Rogue Agent	N/A	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	NDS
November 22	JFK: Reloaded	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 23	World of Warcraft	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
November 30	Prince of Persia: Warrior Within	Windows	N/A	PS2, Xbox, GCN	N/A
December 1	Painkiller: Battle out of Hell	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
December 1	Scrapland	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
December 5	Mario Party 6	N/A	N/A	GCN	N/A
December 6	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords	Windows	N/A	Xbox	N/A
December 6	The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A
December 8	The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay	Windows	N/A	N/A	N/A

Trends

In 2004, the total U.S. sales of video game hardware, software and accessories was $9.9 billion compared with $10 billion in 2003. Total software sales rose 8 percent over the previous year to $6.2 billion. Additionally, sales of portable software titles exceeded $1 billion for the first time. Hardware sales were down 27 percent for the year due in part to shortages during the holiday season and price reductions from all systems.

Video game consoles

• Nintendo GameCube
• Xbox
• PlayStation 2
  • Sony released an internal hard drive for the PlayStation 2 on March 23
  • The third major hardware revision of the PlayStation 2 (model number SCPH-70000) was released in Japan on November 1

Handheld game systems

The dominant handheld systems in 2004 were:

• Game Boy Advance SP
• N-Gage

PlayStation Portable

Additionally, Nokia released an updated version of their original N-Gage, called the N-Gage QD. Nintendo released the Nintendo DS on November 21 in the United States. In Japan Sony released the PlayStation Portable on December 12.

Video game sales

Based on figures from the NPD Group.

Best-selling video games of 2004 in the United States

Rank	Title	Console	Publisher	Sales
1	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas	PS2	Rockstar Games	19.87 million
2	Halo 2	Xbox	Microsoft Game Studios	7.87 million
3	Madden NFL 2005	PS2	EA Sports	3.41 million
4	ESPN NFL 2K5	PS2	Sega	2.87 million
5	Need For Speed: Underground 2	PS2	Electronic Arts	2.36 million
6	Pokémon Fire Red with adapter	GBA	Nintendo	2.08 million
7	NBA Live 2005	PS2	EA Sports	2.02 million
8	Spider-Man 2	PS2	Activision	1.78 million
9	Halo: Combat Evolved	Xbox	Microsoft Game Studios	1.34 million
10	ESPN NFL 2K5	Xbox	Sega	1.26 million