1998 in video gaming

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Events

• Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo to the AIAS Hall of Fame
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 1st annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards
• 4th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); the 1st annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3
• Game One channel (subsidiary of Canalplus); Infogrames Entertainment SA and Canal+ launch the Game One television channel.
• November 9, 1998 — Loki Software, the first game porting house in the vein of MacSoft for Linux, was founded; the site LinuxGames was also established that year.

Notable releases

• January 21 – Resident Evil 2 (PS1) (1999 for Win/N64/DC, 2003 for GC)
• January 29 – Panzer Dragoon Saga (Sat)
• February 11 – Xenogears (PS1)
• March 13 – World Cup 98 (PS1) (April 30 for Win, May 18 for N64)
• March 19 – Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War (Win)
• March 29 – Parasite Eve (PS1)
• March 31 – StarCraft (Win) (2000 for N64)
• April 30 – Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (Win)
• May 6 – Warhammer: Dark Omen (Win, PS1)
• May 22 – Unreal (Win)
• June 30 – Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
• July 31 – Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (Win)
• July 31 – Heart of Darkness (PS1) (August 31 for Win)
• August 21 – Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Win) (1999 for N64/PS1, 2000 for DC)
• September 3 – Metal Gear Solid (PS1) (2000 for Win)
• September 10 – Spyro the Dragon (PS1)
• September 27 – Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (Win) (March 25 for PS1)
• September 30 – Fallout 2 (Win)
• September 30 – Shogo: Mobile Armor Division (Win)
• October 30 – Grim Fandango (Win)
• October 21 – Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64)
• October 31 – Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome (Win)
• October 31 – SiN (Win)
• October 31 – Heretic 2 (Win)
• November 4 - Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS1
• November 19 – Half-Life (Win) (2001 for PS2)
• November 21 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) (2002 for GC)
• November 21 – Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft (PS1, Win)
• November 30 – StarCraft: Brood War (Win)
• November 30 – Thief: The Dark Project (Win)
• November 30 – Baldur's Gate (Win)
• December 3 – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron (Win) (December 7 N64)
• December 4 – Magic and Mayhem (Win)
• December 12 – Falcon 4.0 (Win)
• December 14 - Mario Party (N64)
• December 17 – Suikoden II (PS1)
• December 23 – Sonic Adventure (DC) (2003 for GC, Win)

Hardware

• Bandai's WonderSwan handheld in Japan
• Majesco Sales Inc.'s Genesis 3 home console
• Nintendo:
  • Game Boy Color (GBC) handheld console
  • Camera & Printer accessories for the Game Boy handheld console
• Sega's NAOMI arcade system board and Dreamcast home console
• SNK's Neo Geo Pocket (NGP) handheld

Business

• Activision acquires CD Contact Data and Head Game Publishing
• Eidos Interactive acquires Crystal Dynamics
• Electronic Arts Inc. acquires Virgin Studio and Westwood Studios, Inc.
• Hasbro, Inc. acquires Atari Corporation (from JTS Corp.), Microprose, and Tiger Electronics
• JTS Corp. (Atari Corporation) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
• BreakAway Games, Ltd. founded
• Elixir Studios Ltd. formed
• Lego Media established by Lego Group
• Metro3D, Inc. founded
• Rockstar Games founded
• Square Co. and Electronic Arts form Square Electronic Arts LLC to publish a wealth of Square Co. titles in the U.S.
• Havas, a subsidiary of Vivendi, acquires Cendant Software, which includes Sierra On-Line and Blizzard Entertainment
• Sunrise Interactive founded
• Troika Games founded
• WildTangent, Inc. founded