1991 in video gaming

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Events

Notable releases

• MicroProse creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game as of 2005^[update].
• Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s.
• AOL, SSI, TSR and Stormfront Studios collaborate and launch Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG.
• Delphine Software releases Eric Chahi's "Another World" for the Amiga 500, one of the first games to be made using polygons instead of conventional sprites. Also one of the first games to use rotoscoping techniques to create cutscenes and fluid character animations since Prince of Persia.
• February 14 — DMA Design releases Lemmings, a puzzle game that requires the player to lead a group of lemmings through a dangerous environment to an escape portal.
• March, Capcom releases Street Fighter II for arcades. It becomes highly successful and is routinely listed as the grandfather of the fighting game genre.
• June 23 — Sega releases Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) (by AM8, later Sonic Team) for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit) (by AM8, later Sonic Team) for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear. It introduced the eponymous character, who would go on to become Sega's mascot.
• July 19 — Square releases Final Fantasy IV in Japan, the first Final Fantasy game for the Super Famicom (released in November as Final Fantasy II in North America).
• August 23 — Nintendo releases Super Mario World and F-Zero along with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America; Super Mario World was the original pack-in game for the SNES, and one of the most sold games for that system. The game introduces the Yoshi character to the Mario series.
• November 21 — Nintendo releases The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past for the Super Famicom in Japan.
• December 13, Tecmo releases Tecmo Super Bowl for NES, which serves as one of the most revolutionary arcade football games of its time.
• Team17 release the first of their popular Alien Breed series for the Amiga.

Hardware

• August 23 — Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in North America
• December 1 — Sega releases the Mega-CD in Japan
• September — S3 launches with the 86C911, often regarded as the first significant graphics accelerator chip

Business

• New York State v. Nintendo lawsuit: the state attorney general sues Nintendo over the monopoly of the video game industry. Nintendo loses the suit and offers customers a $5 rebate on Nintendo games.
• New companies: Vicarious Visions, Inc, id Software, Bungie Software, Silicon & Synapse (now known as Blizzard Entertainment), The 3DO Company (founded as SMSG, Inc.), Cyberdreams