2008_in_video_gaming
2008 in video games
Overview of the events of 2008 in video games
2008 saw many new installments in established video game franchises, such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Gears of War 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Persona 4, Fable II, Call of Duty: World at War, Mario Kart Wii, Madden NFL 09, NBA Live 09, NBA 2K9, and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009. New intellectual properties included Army of Two, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, LittleBigPlanet, Mirror's Edge, iRacing, Race Driver: Grid, and Spore.
More information Month, Date(s) ...
| Month | Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| June | 28 | Blizzard Entertainment announces Diablo III in Paris, France. |
| July | 29 | Game developers Joseph and Melissa Batten die in a murder-suicide. |
| November | 13 | Zeebo was announced. The console is aiming for developing countries. |
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Business
More information Month, Date(s) ...
| Month | Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| July | 15–17 | E3 2008 in Los Angeles, California, United States.[1][2] |
| July 31 – August 3 | QuakeCon 2008 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, United States. | |
| October | 2–4 | Nintendo conference held in San Francisco, United States and Tokyo, Japan. |
| December | 1 | National Amusements' Sumner Redstone sells his controlling stake in Midway Games to private investor Mark Thomas, for $100,000 ($0.0012 a share), and assumes $70 million of senior secured and unsecured debt.[3] |
| 9 | Infogrames, Atari's parent company, purchases Cryptic Studios.[4] | |
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Open to the public
More information Month, Date(s) ...
| Month | Date(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| August | 21–24 | Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. |
| October | 3–5 | E for All at the Los Angeles Convention center in California, United States. |
| 9–12 | Tokyo Game Show at the Makuhari Messe International Convention in Mihama-ku, Chiba, Japan.[5] | |
| Games Convention Asia in Singapore. | ||
| 10–11 | BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, California, United States. |
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Worldwide
The following are the best-selling games of 2008 in terms of worldwide retail sales. These games sold at least 5 million units worldwide in 2008.
More information Rank, Title ...
| Rank | Title | Sales | Publisher | Platform(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wii Sports | 22,660,000 | Nintendo | Wii | [lower-alpha 1] |
| 2 | Mario Kart Wii | 13,670,000 | Nintendo | Wii | [7] |
| 3 | Wii Fit | 12,960,000 | Nintendo | Wii | [lower-alpha 2] |
| 4 | Wii Play | 11,680,000 | Nintendo | Wii | [lower-alpha 3] |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto IV | 10,000,000 | Take-Two Interactive | PS3 / X360 | [8] |
| 6 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | 8,100,000 | Nintendo | Wii | [7] |
| 7 | Call of Duty: World at War | 5,890,000 | Activision Blizzard | PS3 / X360 / PC | [9] |
| 8 | Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! | 5,110,000 | Nintendo | Nintendo DS | [lower-alpha 4] |
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Canada
- Based on figures from the NPD Group:
Video game console sales in Canada (first seven months of 2008)[10]
More information Place, Console ...
| Place | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wii | 376,000 |
| 2 | PlayStation 3 | 200,000 |
| 3 | Xbox 360 | 154,000 |
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Japan
- Based on figures from Enterbrain:
Video game console sales of 2008 in Japan (December 31, 2007 – December 28, 2008)[11][12][13]
More information Place, Console ...
| Place | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nintendo DS | 4,029,804 |
| 2 | PlayStation Portable | 3,543,171 |
| 3 | Wii | 2,908,342 |
| 4 | PlayStation 3 | 991,303 |
| 5 | PlayStation 2 | 480,664 |
| 6 | Xbox 360 | 317,859 |
| 7 | Other | 9,575 |
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Best-selling video games of 2008 in Japan (December 31, 2007 – December 28, 2008)[11][12][13]
More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Platform | Publisher | Units sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G | PSP | Capcom | 2,452,111 |
| 2 | Pokémon Platinum | NDS | Pokémon Company | 2,187,337 |
| 3 | Wii Fit | Wii | Nintendo | 2,149,131 |
| 4 | Mario Kart Wii | Wii | Nintendo | 2,003,315 |
| 5 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | Wii | Nintendo | 1,747,113 |
| 6 | Rhythm Heaven | NDS | Nintendo | 1,350,671 |
| 7 | Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride | NDS | Square Enix | 1,176,082 |
| 8 | Animal Crossing: City Folk | Wii | Nintendo | 895,302 |
| 9 | Kirby Super Star Ultra | NDS | Nintendo | 855,427 |
| 10 | Wii Sports | Wii | Nintendo | 841,736 |
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- Based on figures from Dengeki:
Best-selling video games of 2008 in Japan (December 31, 2007 – December 21, 2008)[14][15][16]
More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Platform | Publisher | Units sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G | PSP | Capcom | 2,507,400 |
| 2 | Pokémon Platinum | NDS | Pokémon Company | 2,125,348 |
| 3 | Wii Fit | Wii | Nintendo | 2,024,113 |
| 4 | Mario Kart Wii | Wii | Nintendo | 1,973,089 |
| 5 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | Wii | Nintendo | 1,808,709 |
| 6 | Rhythm Heaven | NDS | Nintendo | 1,320,047 |
| 7 | Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride | NDS | Square Enix | 1,228,014 |
| 8 | Kirby Super Star Ultra | NDS | Nintendo | 724,608 |
| 9 | Animal Crossing: City Folk | Wii | Nintendo | 709,640 |
| 10 | Wii Sports | Wii | Nintendo | 694,765 |
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United States
- Based on figures from the NPD Group:
More information Place, Console ...
| Place | Console | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wii | 3.5 million |
| 2 | PlayStation 3 | 1.6 million |
| 3 | Xbox 360 | 1.34 million |
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More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Platform | Publisher | Units sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wii Play | Wii | Nintendo | 5.28 million |
| 2 | Mario Kart Wii | Wii | Nintendo | 5.00 million |
| 3 | Wii Fit | Wii | Nintendo | 4.53 million |
| 4 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | Wii | Nintendo | 4.17 million |
| 5 | Grand Theft Auto IV | X360 | Rockstar Games | 3.29 million |
| 6 | Call of Duty: World at War | X360 | Activision | 2.75 million |
| 7 | Gears of War 2 | X360 | Microsoft | 2.31 million |
| 8 | Grand Theft Auto IV | PS3 | Rockstar Games | 1.89 million |
| 9 | Madden NFL 09 | X360 | Electronic Arts | 1.87 million |
| 10 | Mario Kart DS | NDS | Nintendo | 1.65 million |
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More information Place, NDS ...
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More information Place, PSP ...
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^ a: In the IGN articles used as sources, IGN lists the titles as the "Top 10 Sellers in 2008"; however, the IGN articles were published on December 9–12, 2008, so the articles might not take into account November and December sales figures, as the NPD Group did not release November's console game sales figures until December 11, 2008.[27]
- Based on figures from the NPD Group:
Note: This list only includes games that were released after NPD started tracking video game sales data.
More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Units sold |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas | 9.40 million |
| 2 | Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock | 8.20 million |
| 3 | Madden NFL 07 | 7.70 million |
| 4 | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City | 7.30 million |
| 5 | Madden NFL 06 | 6.70 million |
| 6 | Halo 2 | 6.61 million |
| 7 | Madden NFL 08 | 6.60 million |
| 8 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | 6.25 million |
| 9 | Grand Theft Auto III | 6.20 million |
| 10 | Madden NFL 2005 | 6.10 million |
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Other
- Based on figures from Enterbrain, GfK Chart-Track, and the NPD Group, respectively:
Best-selling video games in Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States combined (January–July 2008)[29]
More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Units sold in Japan | Units sold in the UK | Units sold in the US | Total units sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grand Theft Auto IV | – | 1,582,000 | 4,711,000 | 6,293,000 |
| 2 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | 1,681,000 | 213,000 | 3,539,000 | 5,433,000 |
| 3 | Mario Kart Wii | 1,601,000 | 687,000 | 2,409,000 | 4,697,000 |
| 4 | Wii Fit | 1,547,000 | 624,000 | 1,433,000 | 3,604,000 |
| 5 | Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock | 26,000 | 412,000 | 3,037,000 | 3,475,000 |
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Best-selling video games in Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States combined (July–September 2008)[30]
More information Place, Title ...
| Place | Title | Units sold in Japan | Units sold in the UK | Units sold in the US | Total units sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madden NFL 09 | 1,000 | 35,000 | 2,958,000 | 2,994,000 |
| 2 | Wii Fit | 346,000 | 460,000 | 1,283,000 | 2,089,000 |
| 3 | Star Wars: The Force Unleashed | – | 321,000 | 1,417,000 | 1,738,000 |
| 4 | Pokémon Platinum | 1,482,000 | – | – | 1,482,000 |
| 5 | Mario Kart Wii | 218,000 | 394,000 | 856,000 | 1,468,000 |
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More information Month, Day ...
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| August | 22 | LeapFrog Didj[31] |
| November | 1 | Nintendo DSi |
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More information Release Date, Title ...
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Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
More information Game, Publisher ...
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More information Title, Date ...
| Title | Date | Director | Distributor(s) | Franchise | Original game publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Persona: Trinity Soul | January 5, 2008 | Atsushi Matsumoto | Aniplex | Persona | Atlus | [citation needed] |
| Giratina & the Sky Warrior | July 19, 2008 | Kunihiko Yuyama | Toho | Pokémon | Game Freak | [37] |
| Far Cry | October 2, 2008 | Uwe Boll | 20th Century Studios | Far Cry | Ubisoft | [38] |
| Resident Evil: Degeneration | October 17, 2008 | Makoto Kamiya | Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan | Resident Evil | Capcom | [39] |
| Max Payne | John Moore | 20th Century Studios | Max Payne | Rockstar Games | [40] |
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- "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
- Sinclar, Brendan (August 1, 2016). "That time the industry almost killed E3". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
- Sakthi Prasad, John Stonestreet (December 1, 2008). "Redstone sells Midway Games to ease debt: report". Reuters. Archived from the original on December 21, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
- James Brightman (December 9, 2008). "Atari to Acquire Cryptic Studios". GameDaily. Archived from the original on December 12, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
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- Matt Matthews (July 21, 2008). "June NPD In-Depth". Edge. Archived from the original on September 5, 2012. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
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- "Nintendo Wii Year in Review 2008". IGN. December 11, 2008. Archived from the original on January 2, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
- Tom Magrino (December 11, 2008). "NPD: Wii sales top 2M during $2.9B month". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 17, 2008. Retrieved January 3, 2009.
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- "Highest-Ranking Games of 2009 (with at least 5 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- "Pokémon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
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