1996 in video games

1996 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario 64, Duke Nukem 3D, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Super Mario RPG, King's Field III, Virtua Fighter 3, along with new titles such as Blazing Heroes, NiGHTS into Dreams..., Crash Bandicoot, Pokémon Red/Green/Blue, Resident Evil, Dead or Alive, Quake and Tomb Raider.

The year's best-selling video game console worldwide was the PlayStation, while the best-selling consoles in Japan were the Game Boy and Sega Saturn. The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Super Mario 64, while highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Street Fighter Zero 2 (Street Fighter Alpha 2) and Virtua Fighter 2.

Events

 * March – Swedish video game magazine "Super Power" changes name to Super Play.
 * 15 July – Tom Kalinske announces he will leave his position as president for Sega of America on 1 October.
 * May 16–18 – The second annual E3 is held in Los Angeles, California, United States.
 * 7 September - Sega opens SegaWorld London as part of the London Trocadero in England. It is the first Sega World park to open outside of Japan.
 * 1 October – Tom Kalinske resigns as president for Sega of America.
 * December 31 – Battle.net Classic is released.

Hardware



 * February 21 – Sega Model 3, an arcade system board considered to have the most technically impressive graphics at the time
 * November 23 – Bandai's Tamagotchi virtual pet handheld
 * Nintendo's Nintendo 64, the first true 64-bit home console
 * Nintendo's Game Boy Pocket (GBP) handheld console (30% smaller version of the previous Game Boy handheld console)
 * Sega's Net Link modem for the Sega Saturn home console
 * SNK's Neo Geo CDZ (Japan only)
 * Namco's Alpine Racer arcade game, including a new type of user interface
 * The debut of Apple's Apple Pippin console (their only dedicated gaming console until the Apple Vision Pro)

Discontinuation
1996 saw a major shakeup in the crowded home console market, with the Virtual Boy, Atari Jaguar, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Sega CD, 32X, and CD-i all being discontinued.

Game of the Year awards
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1996.

Metacritic and GameRankings
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame
The following video game releases in 1996 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1996.

United States
In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1996.

Australia
On Australia's Timezone monthly arcade charts published in the March 1996 issue of Leisure Line magazine, Sega's Manx TT Super Bike was the top-grossing dedicated arcade cabinet and Namco's Point Blank was the top-grossing arcade conversion kit.

Best-selling home video games
The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) worldwide in 1996.

Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

United States
In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

Europe
In Europe, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1996.

In addition to the PlayStation games listed above, the following titles were the year's best-selling Sega Saturn and PC games in the United Kingdom.

Top game rentals in the United States
In the United States, the following games were the top video game rentals of each month, according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA).

Business

 * February – Blizzard Entertainment acquires a development group known as Condor, renaming it Blizzard North
 * April – Eidos Interactive acquires CentreGold plc, which holds Core Design (creator of the Lara Croft character) and U.S. Gold
 * May 1 – GameSpot and GameFAQs are launched
 * June – Firaxis Games is formed By Jeff Briggs with Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds
 * July – GT Interactive purchases Humongous Entertainment
 * July 24 – CUC International, Inc purchases Sierra On-Line, Blizzard Entertainment and Davidson & Associates for about $3 billion in a stock swap.
 * July 30 - Atari Corporation reverse-merges with JTS, Inc.
 * August 6 – AOL buys Sierra's ImagiNation Network from AT&T for a reported $15 million.
 * August 24 – Valve is founded.
 * September 1 – AOL closes ImagiNation Network, the first online video game with graphics, after 5 years of service.
 * September 29 – IGN is founded.
 * November 13 – Tom Clancy and Virtus Corp. found Red Storm Entertainment, headed by Doug Littlejohns
 * Infogrames Entertainment SA acquires Ocean Software Ltd.
 * Midway Games, Inc. (subsidiary of WMS Industries) acquires Atari Games Corporation from Time Warner.
 * Technos Japan Corporation, originator of the Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun series and Double Dragon series, goes out of business (assets acquired by Atlus)
 * Black Isle Studios forms as a division by Interplay; doesn't use Black Isle name until 1998
 * Game Park Inc. founded in South Korea
 * The company formed by MicroProse and Spectrum HoloByte in 1993 starts branding using only the MicroProse name
 * Overworks, Ltd. formed
 * Zed Two Limited formed
 * Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Computer & Entertainment, Inc.
 * The 3DO Company purchases New World Computing