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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.
Eventsedit
- 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.[1]
- October:
- Video game retailer FuncoLand opens its first Greater Cincinnati locations.[2]
- 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
Hardwareedit
| Month | Day | System |
|---|---|---|
| March | 1 | Nintendo 64EU/AU |
| April | 25 | Dual Analog ControllerJP |
| September | 12 | Game.comNA |
| October | 20 | New-style Super NESNA |
| November | 20 | DualShock controllerJP |
Discontinuededit
| Month | Day | System |
|---|---|---|
| Unknown | Unknown | Genesis/Mega Drive |
| April | 30 | Sega Game Gear |
Top-rated gamesedit
Game of the Year awardsedit
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1997.
| Awards | Game of the Year | Platform(s) | Genre | Publisher | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CESA Awards | Final Fantasy VII | PlayStation | Role-playing | Squaresoft | [3] |
| Japan Media Arts Festival | [4] | ||||
| Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) | Sony | [5] | |||
| Game Informer | [6] | ||||
| GamePro | [7] | ||||
| Hyper | [8] | ||||
| Origins Awards | [9] | ||||
| Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) | GoldenEye 007 | Nintendo 64 | First-person shooter | Nintendo | [10] |
| Interactive Achievement Awards | [11] | ||||
| Digitiser | Super Mario 64 | Nintendo 64 | Platformer | Nintendo | [12] |
| Golden Joystick Awards | [13] | ||||
| GameSpot | Total Annihilation | PC | Real-time strategy | Cavedog | [14] |
| Gamest Awards | Vampire Savior (Darkstalkers 3) | Arcade (CP System II) | Fighting | Capcom | [15] |
| Japan Media Arts Festival | Intelligent Qube (I.Q. / Kurushi) | PlayStation | Puzzle | Sony | [4] |
| Origins Awards | Sid Meier's Gettysburg! | PC | Wargame | Electronic Arts | [9] |
| Tomb Raider | Multi-platform | Action-adventure | Eidos Interactive |
Critically acclaimed titlesedit
Metacritic and GameRankingsedit
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.