1997 in video games

1997 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Final Fantasy VII, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, GoldenEye 007, Star Fox 64, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Quake II, Mega Man Legends, Riven, Tomb Raider II, Dark Rift, Tekken 3 and Virtua Striker 2, along with new titles such as Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Gran Turismo, Diablo, Grand Theft Auto and Fallout.

Sony's PlayStation was the year's best-selling video game console worldwide for the second year in a row, while also being the annual best-selling console in Japan for the first time (overtaking the Game Boy and Sega Saturn). The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, while the year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Sega's Virtua Fighter 3 and Print Club 2.

Events

 * March 6 - Sega opens Sega World Sydney in Australia. It is the second Sega World park to open outside of Japan, with the first opening as part of the London Trocadero the previous year.
 * June 19–21 – The 3rd annual E3 is held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
 * October:
 * Video game retailer FuncoLand opens its first Greater Cincinnati locations.
 * 4 – Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997) dies after a double car accident.
 * November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) launched.
 * December 16 – A scene from the Pokémon anime (based upon the highly successful games) causes 685 Japanese children to have seizures. Nintendo makes a statement proclaiming the safety of the Pokémon games from fear that the games would cause a similar effect, the episode to be permanently removed from circulation, and the featured Pokémon in the episode (Porygon) has not made an appearance in the Pokémon anime since.
 * TSR, Inc., the owner of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game, was acquired by Wizards of the Coast.
 * 3D Realms begins production of Duke Nukem Forever, winner of numerous vaporware awards.
 * The gaming portal Cool Math Games went online for the first time.
 * Sony releases PlayStation development software for PC

Game of the Year awards
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1997.

Metacritic and GameRankings
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are online aggregators of video game journalism reviews. Note that their coverage of print magazines at the time was limited, with numerous print magazines not listed on their sites.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame
The following video game releases in 1997 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Highest-grossing arcade games in Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1997.

Best-selling home video games
Final Fantasy VII was the best-selling home video game worldwide in 1997. It sold more than 6 million copies worldwide by 1998, becoming the best-selling PlayStation game up until then.

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) of 1997 in Japan and the United States.

United States
In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1997.

Europe
In Europe, the following titles were the top-selling home video games of each month in 1997.

Business

 * Activision acquires CentreSoft Ltd. and Raven Software
 * Electronic Arts Inc. acquires Maxis
 * GameTek filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and closed its doors in July 1998
 * 2015, Inc. founded
 * 4D Rulers Software, Inc. founded
 * September – 4HEAD Studios created
 * Bungie West formed by Bungie
 * Conspiracy Entertainment Corporation founded
 * Crave Entertainment, Inc. formed
 * August – Human Head Studios, Inc. formed
 * Illusion Softworks, a.s. founded
 * April 15 – Irem Software Engineering Inc. founded
 * Irrational Games LLC founded
 * Mythic Entertainment renames itself from Interworld Productions after name dispute with another "Interworld" company
 * THQ renamed from Toy Headquarters, Inc.
 * Warthog PLC founded

Lawsuits

 * Nintendo vs Games City: Nintendo sues Games City for selling the Game Doctor and Doctor V64 backup devices for the SNES and N64 consoles. Nintendo wins the suit.
 * Nintendo vs Prima Publishing: Nintendo sues Prima over copyrights to maps of the N64 video game GoldenEye 007. Nintendo loses the suit.
 * Nintendo vs Sony Video Games: Nintendo sues Sony over copyrights about Mario games.