November 11 — Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
May 14 — Enter the Buy Tabula Rasa Credits Matrix (PC)
GCN Nintendo GameCube
February 25 — Master of Orion III (PC)
September 17 — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (PC)
January 12 — Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox)
Nokia releases the WOW CDKey hybrid N-Gage handheld console / mobile phone.
July 16 — Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) renamed as Entertainment Software Association (ESA).
March 24 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (PC)
November 30 — Prince of Persia: the The Matrix Online CD Key Sands of Time (PC)
May 14-16 — 9th annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo) held at Los Angeles Convention Center; 6th annual Game Critics Awards for the VC Coin Best of E³.
November 18 — Prince of Persia: the LOTRO EU Gold Sands of Time (GC)
Platform key
September — Nintendo’s Famicom (NES) and Super Famicom (SNES) are officially axed from production worldwide.
October 14 — Jak II (PS2)
PS2 PlayStation 2
April 9 — Burnout 2: Point of Impact (GC)
November 4 — SOCOM II: U.S. Navy SEALs (PS2)
September 8 — Anarchy Online: the SNW Vis Shadowlands (PC)
7 Mario Kart: Double Dash!! GameCube Nintendo
PSP PlayStation Portable
December 2 — Beyond Good & Evil (Xbox)
March 18 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (PS2, Xbox)
April 17 — Final Fantasy XI: Rise of the The Matrix Information Zilart (Japan)
April — Pan European Game Information (PEGI), a European video game content rating system, comes into use.
Additionally, two new handheld consoles were introduced in 2003, the Gaia Online Gold Game Boy Advance SP (an enhanced GBA) and Nokia’s N-Gage.
February 26 — Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2)
March 25 — Dynasty Warriors 4 (PS2)
[edit]Handheld game systems
November 12 — Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield (Xbox)
Nintendo’s GameCube
November 4 — Civilization III: Conquests (PC)
December — Interplay closes its Black Isle Studios division
Microsoft’s Xbox
August — Microsoft announced ATI as the Rappelz Gold developer of the Maple Story Europe Mesos GPU for their next generation console, Project Xenon. Their previous contract with NVIDIA was finished but the EVE Online ISK GPU of the WOW Gold Europe Xbox continued in production.
Late 2003 — Nintendo buys shares from Japanese toy and animation conglomerate Bandai making Nintendo one of Bandai’s top 10 shareholders
Top Grossing Video Games of 2003 Rank Title Platform Publisher
XB Xbox
December 2 — Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC, Xbox)
June 12 — Obsidian Entertainment founded
September 16 — the Matrix Info Simpsons: Hit & Run (GC, PS2, Xbox)
March 2 — Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (GBA, GC)
March 17 — Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA)
GBC Game Boy Color
August 27 — Soul Calibur II (GC, PS2, Xbox)
March 24 — the WOW EU Gold Legend of Zelda: the Matrix Information Wind Waker (North America) (GC)
May 27 — Hulk (PC), (PS2), (GC), (Xbox)
GB Game Boy
Late 2003 — GameSpot reports a rebuttal regarding two statements from Nintendo and Bandai execs denying a potential Nintendo takeover of Bandai; according to the EverQuest Gold story, Nintendo is working with a Japanese banking firm that has Bandai and Nintendo as their corporate clients to try to take over Bandai
The dominant video game consoles in 2003 were:
Nokia N-Gage
March 4 — EverQuest: the Cheap L2 Adena Legacy of Ykesha
September 22 — Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (PC})
July 1 — Tomb Raider: the SilkRoad Online Gold Angel of Darkness (PC)
November 3 — True Crime: Streets of LA (GC, PS2, Xbox)
The dominant handheld systems in 2003 were:
May 1 — Burnout 2: Point of Impact (Xbox)
First PlayStation Portable prototype shown by Sony.
Late 2003 — Data East goes defunct.
May 20 — Rise of Nations (PC)
1 Madden NFL 2004 PS2 Electronic Arts
Win Windows-based personal computer
November 18 — Victoria: An Empire Under the Cheap WOW Gold Sun (PC)
November 17 — Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (GBA)
8 Tony Hawk’s Underground PS2 Activision
October 31 — BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) announces that nominations for the EVE Online ISK 6th annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards will instead be split between the Shadow of Legend Coin 1st annual BAFTA Games Awards for video game publications and (on November 24) the GW Gold BAFTA Interactive Awards for multimedia technologies; ceremonies to be held in February 2004.
[edit]Business
Events
November 12 — Prince of Persia: the LastChaos Gold Sands of Time (Xbox)
March 26 — Galactic Civilizations (PC)
November 11 — SSX 3 (GBA)
[edit]Trends
November 19 — Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Xbox)
February 17 — Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)
October 20 — SSX 3 (GC, PS2, Xbox)
October 7 — Viewtiful Joe (GC)
February 27 — Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Yu Suzuki of SEGA to the EQ2 Gold AIAS Hall of Fame.
July 17 — Star Wars: Knights of the Silk Road Gold Old Republic (Xbox)
September 8 — EverQuest: Lost Dungeons of Norrath
August 6 — Silent Hill 3 (PS2)
November 11 — Beyond Good & Evil (PS2)
February 14 — Nintendo releases the EQ Plat Game Boy Advance SP, an enhanced version of its popular Game Boy Advance handheld game console.
March 6-9 — Game Developers Conference hosts 3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards and Gama Network’s 5th annual Independent Games Festival (IGF).
10 Medal of Honor: Rising Sun PS2 Electronic Arts
November 4 — Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack (Xbox)
Sony’s PlayStation 2
October 1 — DreamWorks SKG and Tecmo announce a movie adaptation of the 9Dragons Gold video game Fatal Frame has been fast-tracked with John Rogers and Steven Spielberg involvement.
November 19 — Beyond Good & Evil (PC)
Computer games continue to lose ground to console video games with a US sales drop of 14% in 2003. (NPD) Total 2003 entertainment software sales in the Lineage 2 CD Key United States grew slightly to $7 billion USD; console sales increased to $5.8 billion and computer games accounted for the FFXI Gold remaining $1.2 billion. ESA (pdf)
June 20 — Tomb Raider: the Perfect World Silver Angel of Darkness (PS2)
Take Two Interactive buys TDK Mediactive, Inc.
August 27 — Otogi: Myth of Demons (Xbox)
August 25 — F-Zero GX (GC)
CNN/Money reports that video games are a USD$10 billion dollar industry
July - IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) hosts 4th annual Executive Summit
November 14 — Kya Dark Lineage (PlayStation 2)
November 17 — Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (GC)
Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance
September 4 — Battlefield 1942: Secret Weapons of WWII (PC)
[edit]Notable releases
9 Enter the forum Matrix PS2 Atari
Enix Corporation officially absorbs Square Co., Ltd., forming Square Enix Co., Ltd.
December 2 — Max Payne 2: the IMVU Credits Fall of Max Payne (PS2)
October 1 — Freedom Fighters (GC, PC, PS2, Xbox)
[edit]Video game consoles
July 1 — Warcraft III: the Maple Story Europe Mesos Frozen Throne (PC)
June 2 — Toontown Online (PC) (Public release)
December 2 — Silent Hill 3
October 27 — Tony Hawk’s Underground (GBA, GC, PS2, Xbox)
6 Grand Theft Auto: Vice City PS2 Rockstar Games
The top 10 selling console video games in 2003 in the PotBS CDKey United States ranked by units sold, according to NPD, were:
3 Pokémon Sapphire GBA Nintendo
May 21 — WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgame$ (GBA)
DC Dreamcast
PS3 PlayStation 3
October 29 — Call of Duty (PC)
Wii Wii
July 9 — Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (PC)
GBA Game Boy Advance
4 Need for Speed: Underground PS2 Electronic Arts
North American release dates:
November 6 — Prince of Persia: the EverQuest Plat Sands of Time (PS2)
PS1 PlayStation
March 19 — Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield (PC)
October 20 — Families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, two young adults shot by teens William and Josh Buckner (who in statements to investigators claimed their actions were inspired by Grand Theft Auto III), file a USD$246 million lawsuit against developer Rockstar Games, publisher Take Two Interactive Software, retailer Wal-Mart, and console-maker Sony Computer Entertainment America.
February 19 — Microsoft announces a deal to buy Connectix Corp.
September 16 — Homeworld 2 (PC)
November 18 — Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
November 18 — Star Wars: Knights of the Cheap Dofus Kamas old Republic (PC)
December 11 — Beyond Good & Evil (GC)
February 13 — Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell (PC)
November — Kazushige Nojima resigns from Square Enix.
2 Pokémon Ruby GBA Nintendo
January 25 — Devil May Cry 2 (PS2)
November 3 — Fire Emblem (GBA)
October 14 — Max Payne 2: the Buy Lineage Adena Fall of Max Payne (PC)
X360 Xbox 360
October 28 — Final Fantasy XI (PC) (US)
Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment SA renames itself Atari
5 the EverQuest2 Gold Legend of Zelda: the Lineage 2 Game Card Wind Waker GameCube Nintendo
March 24 — Amplitude (PS2)
Nintendo states that the 9 Dragons Gold next generation console will be fully compatible with GameCube.
November 25 — Max Payne 2: the Cheap Lineage2 Adena Fall of Max Payne (Xbox)
May — the Gaia Online Gold 3DO Company announces bankruptcy and closes down its New World Computing subsidiary
NDS Nintendo DS
November 13 — the community Simpsons: Hit & Run (PC)
August 13 — Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution (PS2)
[edit]Hardware
Mac Apple Macintosh personal computer
April 1-Enix Corporation and Square Co., Ltd. officially merge, forming Square Enix Co., Ltd.
[edit]Video game sales
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- Utilities, modifications and conversions This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness was an unusual game for the time because a large number of third-party utilities were written for it. Among the first things, Daniel Lemberg reverse-engineered the Warcraft II map file (*.pud) format and created the first third-party map editor, War2xEd, which could do numerous things the bundled map editor could not do, such as editing unit attributes. Although Lemberg did not make the source code for War2xEd public, he did publish the complete Warcraft II map file format, which led to a wealth of new tools, including a Macintosh version of the tool called PudMaster. More importantly, Blizzard began to use War2xEd internally, and it influenced them to bundle a feature-rich editor with their immensely popular game StarCraft. the next important breakthrough came when Alexander Cech and Lemberg broke the encryption used in the base game data files. Cech went on to create a program called Wardraft, which allowed users to browse and modify the contents of the game data files, allowing comprehensive modifications. the spawn of extensive alterations became known as “Total Conversions”, and a great many projects were in motion for a good long while. Some of the more prominent were “DeathCraft: Twilight of Demons” by Dirk “The Guardian” by Richartz, “War of the Ring” by Gurthaur, “Editor’s Total Conversion” by Fronzel Neekburn and the whole of the Warclan, “Elfcraft” by Ace Calhoon, and the noteworthy “Rituals of Rebirth” spearheaded by Kalindor, Kosmous, and Commoner. [edit]Special features Humorous unit quotes are a feature of Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, following the tradition of the original Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. If a single unit is clicked on several times in a row, his or her voice samples change from regular to longer, emotional ones. He or she may start getting angry at the player, or quote lines in reference to movies or games. For example, a footman would say, “don’t you have a kingdom to run?” or “are you still touching me?” These phrases differed in the game’s demo for the Footman and Grunt units, and were mostly indignations to purchase the full version. Clicking on a non-playable critter such as a sheep enough times causes it to blow up. If the disk for Beyond the Dark Portal is inserted into a CD player, the orchestrated music from the game can be played. In addition, there is a bonus 13th track called “I’m a Medieval Man” which features remixed sound bites from the first game. the track is also available in-game by typing “disco” as a cheat. this however gives you the status cheater when you finish that mission. “Medieval Man” is also a cheat code in StarCraft to obtain all unit upgrades for free or in Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness to play the song as background music. Also, in StarCraft, if one clicks on an observer while playing as the Protoss, a clip of the song will be played. the song is also a reference to the Command & Conquer song “Mechanical Man”.[citation needed] the script that was used in the book positioned in the background screen while the player was informed about mission objectives is Serbian Cyrillic alphabet, but the language in which it is written is English. the text contains a small section of a game story text, mentioning how the Orcish hordes entered the forests of Lordaeron. Warcraft II’s soundtrack has been released in MP3 format by Blizzard[2] [edit]Online play Screen shot of game play.Although the Battle.net Edition wasn’t released until 1999, online play was widespread from the game’s release using IPX Emulators such as Kali. Warcraft II (along with Command & Conquer) was one of the first Real-time strategy games to be played widely online, and spawned several leagues, including the International Warcraft League (IWL) and singles and teams ladders on Case’s Ladder. the Mac release allowed multiplayer games over TCP/IP. the IRC channel MacWarCraft served as a gathering place for online play, before Battle.net was created. There was also a popular league created by the Macintosh community, that provided a ranking system and helped players find opponents, called MaG League (short for Macintosh Gaming League). When the Battle.net edition was released, a new meter of play speeds was added, including a turbo-like speed called “Fastest” that became popular with some players, while traditional players gamed on “Even Faster” speed. Despite the old age of the game, play continues on Battle.net today, along with a significant community on server.war2.ru servers. For LAN (home) multi play, tools such as DOSBox can be used to emulate IPX or direct serial connections over TCP/IP. [edit]Ports Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal were released together for Sega Saturn and PlayStation under the title Warcraft II: the Dark Saga in 1997 by Electronic Arts. There was also a reverse engineered free software game engine called Freecraft, which allowed users to import the actual game data from Warcraft II and play the game on different platforms and with additional features like queuing unit production, finding idle workers, an improved AI and network connectivity for up to 16 players. In addition to being compatible with Warcraft II, it could also be used with a set of artwork and scenarios made by the Freecraft Media Project (FcMP). Although the actual Freecraft program and FcMP used no art or code from Warcraft II, the project received a threatening cease-and-desist letter from Blizzard, apparently due to similarity to the Warcraft trademarks. Not willing to fight Blizzard, the maintainers canceled the whole project, later rekindling it under the name of Stratagus. By using this game engine through Wargus, the game is also playable on BSD, Linux and Mac OS X.
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