1995 in video gaming

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Events

• May 11 – Introduction of trade magazine GameWeek (then called Video Game Advisor)
• May 11–16 — The 1st annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is held in Los Angeles, California
• November 5 — GameFAQs debuts on the web, as an archive of video game FAQs
• November 24 — Nintendo unveils a playable version of the Nintendo Ultra 64, now renamed the Nintendo 64, at the 7th Annual Nintendo Space World Software Exhibition in Japan.

Notable releases

• February 15 — Star Wars: Dark Forces (LucasArts, DOS) is the first in a successful series of Star Wars-based first-person shooters.
• February — Sega localizes the 1993 Japanese game, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, for North American (and on December 8 for European) audiences, marking the end of the original series.
• February 18 — Sega releases the Ristar videogame.
• March 11 — Square releases Chrono Trigger for SNES, which was their largest game for the system at 32 megabits, and included multiple ways to finish the game.
• March 17 — Descent (Parallax Software, DOS), popularized the use of portal rendering technology and provided the player with six full degrees of freedom.
• April 15 — Mortal Kombat 3 is released to arcades.
• April 30 — LucasArts releases the adventure game Full Throttle.
• June 5 — Japanese game EarthBound (Nintendo, Ape, Inc.) is localized for the SNES for North American audiences, garnering a cult following in the US.
• July 31 — Sierra Online releases Phantasmagoria, a controversial game that strays from Sierra's typically family-oriented adventures.
• July — Softstar releases The Legend of Sword and Fairy (仙劍奇俠傳^?)
• August 5 — Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island is released, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Mario series.
• August 31 — Westwood Studios releases Command & Conquer, which becomes one of the first popular real-time strategy games and spawns a franchise.
• August 31 — New World Computing releases Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest, which becomes the first game in the popular Heroes of Might and Magic turn-based strategy game franchise
• August 31 — Origin releases Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom, likely to be the most ambitious computer game of the time, with a $12 million USD budget for its interactive-movie/space simulation content.
• October 30 — Ubisoft releases the first Rayman game for the Sega Saturn.
• October 31 — Destruction Derby released.
• October 31 — Cyberdreams release I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, an adaptation of writer Harlan Ellison's short story that won Computer Gaming World's award for "Best Graphic Adventure Game" of the year.
• November 21 — Rareware and Nintendo releases Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest the sequel to the hugely popular Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
• November 24 — Bungie releases Marathon 2: Durandal.
• November 29 — Naughty Dog releases Crash Bandicoot
• December 9 — Blizzard releases Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, sequel to their initial real-time strategy title, and a far more refined and popular title.
• December 15 — Namco releases Tales of Phantasia, the first in the Tales series.
• December 15 — Konami debuts the Suikoden series with Suikoden.
• Flight Unlimited (Looking Glass Studios, DOS/Windows 95), possibly the first home flight simulator to use fluid dynamic physics.
• Namco releases Time Crisis.
• Team 17 releases Worms.

Hardware

• Nintendo releases:
  • March 20 — Game Boy Play It Loud! series, color/clear versions of the Game Boy
  • April 23 — Satellaview accessory for the Famicom console in Japan only
  • July 21 — Virtual Boy (by Gunpei Yokoi) 32-bit console
• May — Sega releases the Sega Saturn console in North America (released in Japan on November 22, 1994)
• September 9 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in the United States
• September 29 — Sony releases the PlayStation console in Europe
• September 23 nowco releases the joygame console in the United States
• The NES is discontinued in North America

Business

• Frog City Software, Inc. established
• Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton establish Interworld Productions, which is renamed Mythic Entertainment in 1997.
• Norm Koger founds TalonSoft.
• Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip establish BioWare in Edmonton, Alberta.
• Cyberdreams goes out of business.

Lawsuits

• Nintendo v. Samsung Electronics; Nintendo sues Samsung for promoting software piracy. The suit is settled.
• Nintendo of America, Inc. v. NTDEC