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1999 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Heroes of Might and Magic III, System Shock 2, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Final Fantasy VIII, Age of Empires II, Crash Team Racing, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Grand Theft Auto 2, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Chrono Cross, Unreal Tournament, Pokémon Gold and Silver, and Donkey Kong 64, along with new titles such as Super Smash Bros., Silent Hill, Syphon Filter, Driver, EverQuest, Homeworld, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, and Planescape: Torment.
The year's most critically acclaimed video game was the Dreamcast title Soulcalibur, which remains among the highest-rated games of all time on Metacritic. The best-selling home video game worldwide was the Game Boy title Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow for the second year in a row, while the year's highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was Sega's Virtua Striker 2.
Legend
Events
- British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosts the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards.
- March – Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children is republished as Game Over: Press Start to Continue.
- March 15 – Game Network hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) at GDC.
- March 15–19 – Game Developers Conference (formerly Computer Game Developers Conference); moves to San Jose, California where it stays for six consecutive years; hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival.
- May 12 – Nintendo has started working on what will eventually be the GameCube, under the codename "Project Dolphin".
- May 13 – Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (at E3); inducts Sid Meier of Firaxis Games to the AIAS Hall of Fame.
- May 13–15 – 5th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); the 2nd annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3.
- September 7 - The SegaWorld London amusement park shuts down for good exactly three years after its original opening date in 1996. The bottom two floors of the park continue to operate as a generic arcade until 2011.
Hardware
thumb|[[WonderSwan]]
thumb|[[Neo Geo Pocket Color]]This is a list of all the game-related hardware released in 1999.
The Sega Dreamcast made its international release after initially launching in Japan the previous year.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Date
! System
|-
| January 23
| PocketStation<sup></sup>
|-
| March 4
| WonderSwan<sup></sup>
|-
| March 16
| Neo Geo Pocket Color<sup></sup>
|-
| May / June
| Game.com Pocket Pro
|-
| September 9
| Dreamcast<sup></sup>
|-
|October 14
|Dreamcast<sup></sup>
|-
|November 30
|Dreamcast<sup></sup>
|}
Top-rated games
Game of the Year awards
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1999.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
! Awards
! Game of the Year
! Platform
! Publisher
! Genre
! class="unsortable" |
|-
| Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
| rowspan="3" | Soulcalibur
| rowspan="3" | DC
| rowspan="3" | Namco
| rowspan="3" | Fighting
|
|-
|GameSpot
|
|-
| Hyper
|
|-
|GamePower
|Soulcalibur
|DC
|Namco
|Fighting
|
|-
|GameSpy
|Soulcalibur
|DC
|Namco
|Fighting
|
|-
| BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards
| rowspan="2" | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
| rowspan="2" | N64
| rowspan="2" | Nintendo
| rowspan="2" | Action-adventure
|
|-
| Video Software Dealers Association
|
|-
|GameSpy
|Unreal Tournament
|
|Epic Games
|First Person Shooter
|
|-
| Digitiser
| Pokémon Red / Blue
| GB
| Nintendo
| Role-playing
|
|-
| Edge
| Gran Turismo 2
| PS1
| Sony
| Racing simulation
|
|-
|Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM)
| Final Fantasy VIII
| PS1
| Squaresoft
| Role-playing
|
|-
|GameSpot
| EverQuest
|
| Sony
| MMORPG
|
|-
| Japan Game Awards
| Doko Demo Issyo
| PS1
| Sony
| Strategy
|
|-
| Japan Media Arts Festival
| Seaman
| DC
| Sega
| Simulation
|
|-
| RPGFan
| Chrono Cross
| PS1
| Squaresoft
| RPG
|
|}
Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic and GameRankings
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ 1999 games and expansions scoring at least 88/100 (MC) or 87.5% (GR)
|-
! scope="col" | Game
! scope="col" | Publisher
! scope="col" | Release Date
! scope="col" | Platform(s)
! scope="col" | MC score
! scope="col" | GR score
|-
| Soulcalibur
| Namco
| August 5, 1999
| DC
| 98/100
| 96.56%
|-
| Chrono Cross
| Square
| November 18, 1999
| PS1
| 94/100
| 92.28%
|-
| Gran Turismo 2
| Sony Computer Entertainment
| December 11, 1999
| PS1
| 93/100
| 92.42%
|-
| Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
| Activision
| September 29, 1999
| PS1
| 92/100
| 93.67%
|-
| Unreal Tournament
| GT Interactive
| November 22, 1999
| WIN
| 92/100
| 93.57%
|-
| Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
| Nintendo
| May 10, 1999
| GBC
|
| 92.63%
|-
| Homeworld
| Sierra Entertainment
| September 28, 1999
| WIN
| 93/100
| 88.81%
|-
| System Shock 2
| Electronic Arts
| August 11, 1999
| WIN
| 92/100
| 92%
|-
| Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
| Electronic Arts
| February 12, 1999
| WIN
| 92/100
| 91.88%
|-
| Age of Empires II
| Microsoft
| September 30, 1999
| WIN
| 92/100
| 91.81%
|-
| Medal of Honor
| Electronic Arts
| October 31, 1999
| PS1
| 92/100
| 87.31%
|-
| Crash Team Racing
| Sony Computer Entertainment
| September 30, 1999
| PS1
| 88/100
| 91.78%
|-
| FreeSpace 2
| Interplay Entertainment
| September 30, 1999
| WIN
| 91/100
| 91.58%
|-
| NFL 2K
| Sega
| September 9, 1999
| DC
|
| 91.53%
|-
| Pokémon Silver Version
| Nintendo
| November 21, 1999
| GBC
|
| 91.35%
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"
!Title
!Platform
!Publisher
!Genre
!Score (out of 40)
|-
|Soulcalibur
|DC
|Namco
|Fighting
|40
|-
|Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Oratorio Tangram
|DC
|Sega
|Shooter
|39
|-
|Final Fantasy VIII
|PS1
|Squaresoft
|RPG
|37
|-
|Dragon Quest Characters: Torneko no Daibōken 2
|PS1
|Enix
|Roguelike
|37
|-
|Sega Rally 2
|DC
|Sega
|Racing
|36
|-
|Jikkyō Powerful Pro Yakyū 6 (Power Pros 6)
|N64
|Konami
|Sports
|36
|-
|Biohazard 3: Last Escape (Resident Evil 3: Nemesis)
|PS1
|Capcom
|Survival horror
|36
|-
|Chrono Cross
|PS1
|Squaresoft
|RPG
|36
|-
|Um Jammer Lammy
|PS1
|Sony
|Rhythm
|35
|-
|SaGa Frontier 2
|PS1
|Squaresoft
|RPG
|35
|-
|Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers
|PS1
|Atlus
|RPG
|35
|-
|Culdcept Expansion
|PS1
|Media Factory
|Turn-based strategy
|35
|-
|Fire Emblem: Thracia 776
|SNES
|Nintendo
|SRPG
|35
|}
Financial performance
Best-selling video game consoles
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan="2" | Rank
! rowspan="2" | Manufacturer
! rowspan="2" | Game console
! rowspan="2" | Type
! rowspan="2" | Generation
! colspan="4" | Sales
|-
! data-sort-type="number" | Japan
! data-sort-type="number" | United States
! data-sort-type="number" | Europe
! data-sort-type="number" | Worldwide
|-
|1
|Sony
|PS1
|Home
|32-bit
|2,570,000
|7,040,000
|2,680,000+
|
|17,450,000
|
|6,490,000
|1,700,000
|500,000+
|3,150,000+
|-
|5
|Bandai
|WS
|Handheld
|16-bit
|1,400,000
|
|25,000+
|-
|10
|Sega
|SAT
|Home
|32-bit
|< 10,000
|
|
| +
|-
| 2
| Final Fantasy VIII
| PS1
| 3,538,000
|
|
| +
|-
| 3
| Pocket Monsters: Gold / Silver (Pokémon Gold / Silver)
| GBC
| 4,444,000
| 1,300,000
| 1,800,000
! Europe
|}
Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1999.
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! Rank
! Title
! Platform
! Sales
! First-day sales revenue
! Inflation
! class="unsortable" |
|-
| 1
| Pocket Monsters: Gold / Silver (Pokémon Gold / Silver)
| GBC
| 4,444,000
|
|
|
|-
| 2
| Final Fantasy VIII
| PS1
| 3,538,000
|¥17,200,000,000 ($151,000,000)
|$
|
|-
| 3
| Dance Dance Revolution / 2ndReMix
| PS1
|
| colspan="2"
|