2006 in video games
2006 saw the release of several sequels and prequels in video games, prominently including New Super Mario Bros, alongside many prominent new releases including Bully, Company of Heroes, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Just Cause, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Prey, Resistance: Fall of Man, Saints Row, Thrillville and Sonic the Hedgehog.
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|---|---|---|---|
Events
| Month | Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 26 | Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.[1] |
| Konami Corp. announces the list of titles it expects to ship in 2006, ranging from Beatmania to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, and covering multiple platforms.[2] | ||
| Public schools in West Virginia will add Dance Dance Revolution by Konami to their curriculum, in an effort to combat obesity.[3][4] | ||
| 27 | Players of the Horde clan from World of Warcraft start the "Gamers Against No Kash" charity, to pay the subscription fees for valuable players strapped for cash.[5] | |
| Microsoft of Japan made a statement to Japanese game magazine Famitsu regarding the Xbox 360 launch. "It was a lot more difficult than we had imagined. We couldn't prepare the launch titles that we had promised, and it made an impact," said Microsoft of Japan Xbox chief of operations Yoshihiro Maruyama. At the launch of the first Xbox in Japan, more units were sold in three days than have been sold of the Xbox 360 in one month.[6] | ||
| The PlayStation Portable 2.01-2.50 firmware versions, previously considered unhackable, are hacked by Fanjita.[7] | ||
| The Los Angeles attorney's office sues Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive over the Hot Coffee mod.[8] | ||
| 30 | A mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 was released. Microsoft claimed the update was for bugfixes and improvements. Members of the modding community claim that "the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community".[9] | |
| Nintendo released a statement regarding the Red Tulip phenomenon on Animal Crossing: Wild World, stating "We have isolated the problem and determined that there was a temporary error with the upload tool when this letter was posted". Earlier, there had been speculation that the tulips were a result of black hat hackers.[10] | ||
| 31 | Sony is reportedly building an Xbox Live-killer for the PlayStation 3.[11] | |
| StarForce, a DRM maker for computer games, threatens to sue popular weblog Boing Boing for criticising its products.[12] | ||
| Blizzard Entertainment responds to the LGBT debate happening in World of Warcraft. The company stated: "To promote a positive game environment for everyone and help prevent such harassment from taking place as best we can, we prohibit mention of topics related to sensitive real-world subjects in open chat within the game, and we do our best to take action whenever we see such topics being broadcast." | ||
| Sony announces that ten servers will be merged with ten others on Everquest 2. Players are cautiously optimistic.[13][14] | ||
| February | 6 | After Tiger Telematics' bankruptcy, the Gizmondo handheld console is discontinued, only selling nearly 25,000 units.[15] |
| May | 10–12 | The 12th annual E3 is held in Los Angeles, California, United States.[16] |
| November | 7 | Left Behind Games releases Left Behind: Eternal Forces amid much controversy. |
| 17 | Sony releases the PlayStation 3 in North America. | |
| 19 | Nintendo releases the Wii. |
Business
| Month | Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 5 | Vivendi Universal Games acquires High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy Studios, Inc), which gained independence from Sammy in 2005.[17] |
| 9 | Take-Two Interactive acquires Irrational Games. | |
| 26 | Sony reports that strong sales of the PlayStation Portable helped the company make a profit of ¥70 billion, the first time in 11 years that the company has managed to avoid an annual loss.[18] | |
| Microsoft announces $293 million losses in its Home and Entertainment division, record revenues overall.[19] | ||
| Nintendo reports declining Nintendo GameCube and Game Boy Advance sales but increased profits: ¥92.2 billion.[20] | ||
| 27 | The Nintendo DS returns to the top of the weekly Japanese charts, with 64,515 units sold compared to 38,271 for the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation 2 is third with 26,135 units sold, while the Xbox 360 continues to sell poorly (just 3,616, less than the GameCube). The five best-selling games were Brain Training for Adults 2, Animal Crossing: Wild World, Super Mario Strikers, Brain Training for Adults and Mario Kart DS, all published by Nintendo.[21] | |
| Microsoft lowers its estimate of Xbox 360 sales in its first 90 days from 2.75-3.0 million units to 2.5 million due to supply shortage. The yearly estimate (4.5 to 5.5 million) is unchanged since Microsoft plans to increase its console production with the help of a new manufacturer, Celestica.[22] Meanwhile, Microsoft postpones the Australian 360 launch from March 2 to 23, 2006 due to a "short term manufacturing challenge".[23] | ||
| 30 | Shares of Take-Two Interactive, the controversial creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, rose Monday after news that the company was in takeover talks with an unnamed buyer.[24][25][26] | |
| 31 | CNET reports that Cisco Systems might be interested in buying Nintendo.[27][28] | |
| February | Unknown | Tiger Telematics, the manufacturer of the Gizmondo handheld console, files for bankruptcy.[29] |
| May | Unknown | IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) successfully merged with VSDA (Video Software Dealers Association) to form combined organization EMA (Entertainment Merchants Association) |
| July | Unknown | ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) formed. |
| July | Unknown | Atari plans to sell-off their game development studios. |
| October | Unknown | ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) soft-launched. |
Notable releases
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Hardware and software sales
United States
- Based on figures from the NPD Group:
Best-selling video games of 2006 in the US [32]
| Place | Title | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madden NFL 07 | PS2 | 1.8 million |
| 2 | New Super Mario Bros. | NDS | 1.5 million |
| 3 | Kingdom Hearts II | PS2 | 1.5 million |
| 4 | Gears of War | X360 | 1 million |
| 5 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter | X360 | 913,000 |
| 6 | Final Fantasy XII | PS2 | 895,000 |
| 7 | Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories | PS2 | 860,000 |
| 8 | NCAA Football 07 | PS2 | 849,000 |
| 9 | Madden NFL 07 | X360 | 826,000 |
| 10 | Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! | NDS | 792,000 |
Best-selling video games of 2006 by platform[33]
| Place | Xbox 360[33] | Wii[40] |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft) |
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo) |
| 2 | Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts) |
Red Steel (Ubisoft) |
| 3 | Gears of War (Microsoft) |
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega) |
| 4 | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks / 2K Games) |
Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft) |
| 5 | Fight Night Round 3 (Electronic Arts) |
Call of Duty 3 (Activision) |
| 6 | Saints Row (THQ) |
Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts) |
| 7 | Dead Rising (Capcom) |
Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Atlus) |
| 8 | NCAA Football 07 (Electronic Arts) |
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision) |
| 9 | Call of Duty 3 (Activision) |
Excite Truck (Nintendo) |
| 10 | Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Ubisoft) |
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (Majesco Entertainment) |
Japan
- Based on figures from Enterbrain:
Best-selling video games of 2006 in Japan [41]
| Place | Title | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pokémon Diamond and Pearl | NDS | 4,302,815 |
| 2 | New Super Mario Bros. | NDS | 3,818,214 |
| 3 | Brain Training 2 | NDS | 3,748,638 |
| 4 | Animal Crossing: Wild World | NDS | 2,485,264 |
| 5 | Final Fantasy XII | PS2 | 2,322,329 |
| 6 | Brain Training | NDS | 1,991,116 |
| 7 | English Training | NDS | 1,529,618 |
| 8 | Mario Kart DS | NDS | 1,115,082 |
| 9 | Winning Eleven 10 | PS2 | 1,050,236 |
| 10 | Tetris DS | NDS | 985,246 |
Europe
- Based on estimates from Electronic Arts:
Video game console sales of 2006 in Europe[42][43]
| Place | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nintendo DS | 6.4 million |
| 2 | PlayStation 2 | 6 million |
| 3 | PlayStation Portable | 4 million |
| 4 | Xbox 360 | 2 million |
| 5 | Wii | 0.7 million |
Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
References
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- TeamXbox Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- Reuters Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- GameSpot Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- "Gameshout". Gameshout. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- Gamasutra Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- PSP Updates Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
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- Gamasutra Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- Gamasutra Archived February 21, 2011, at WebCite
- Joystiq Archived February 22, 2011, at WebCite
- Gamasutra Archived February 22, 2011, at WebCite
- Sony Archived February 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- Darniaq Archived February 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- Blake Snow (July 30, 2007). "The 10 Worst-Selling Handhelds of All Time". GamePro.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2007. Retrieved January 17, 2008.
- "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
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- Media Create
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- "Yahoo". Games.yahoo.com. November 9, 2010. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- Marketwatch Archived February 22, 2011, at WebCite
- "TTWO Stock Chart". Finance.yahoo.com. April 12, 2005. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
- CNET Archived May 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- GameDaily.biz Archived October 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- "Gizmondo Europe goes into liquidation". Pocket-Lint. February 7, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps2/924617-the-king-of-fighters-2006/data
- http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/923586-jaws-unleashed/data
- "Madden NFL Proves Best Selling Game of 2006: News from 1UP.com". Archived from the original on May 22, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
- IGN Xbox 360 Team (December 22, 2006). "Xbox 360 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- IGN Staff (December 18, 2006). "Nintendo DS 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- The IGN GameCube Staff (December 20, 2006). "GameCube 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- Dan; Steve; Charles (December 20, 2006). "PC 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- IGN PlayStation Team (December 19, 2006). "PS2 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- IGN PlayStation Team (December 22, 2006). "PS3 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- IGN Xbox Team (December 19, 2006). "Xbox Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- The IGN Wii Team (December 22, 2006). "Wii 2006 Year in Review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2009.
- "Gamasutra - News - Japanese Software Market Up 125% In 2006". Archived from the original on May 19, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2009.
- Electronic Arts (January 31, 2008). "Supplemental Segment Information" (PDF). Thomson Financial. pp. 4–5. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- David Jenkins (February 1, 2008). "EA Reveals European Hardware Estimates". Gamasutra. CMP Media. Archived from the original on February 22, 2011. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- "Best Video Games for 2006". Metacritic. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
- "Highest-Ranking Games of 2006 (with at least 10 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
- "Best Video Games for 2007". Metacritic. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- "Highest-Ranking Games of 2007 (with at least 10 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- "Armadillo Run for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
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