1981
According to the Twin Galaxies video game records site, Lonnie J. Cancienne, age 19, scores a record-setting 30,000,000 points on Atari’s Asteroids arcade game after playing for fifty-two hours and one minute at the Mr. Ice Cream Parlor in Westwego, Louisiana.
1996
Bungie Software releases the science fiction-themed first-person shooter (FPS) Marathon 2: Durandal for Windows 95 in North America. (ESRB: M)
2002
Microsoft launches its first round of Xbox Live beta tests in Japan.
2003
Bandai releases the fighting game Digimon Battle Spirit, based on the first three seasons of the animated series, for the Game Boy Advance in Europe. (PEGI: 3+)
Nintendo releases Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour for the GameCube in Japan. It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 title Mario Golf. (CERO: A)
Sega releases the single-player hack and slash game Otogi: Myth of Demons for Xbox in Europe.
THINKFilm releases the documentary Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine, directed by Vikram Jayanti. It takes an in-depth look at the 1997 chess match between World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, the highest rated chess player in world history, and Deep Blue, the chess-playing computer IBM designed specifically to beat him, which defeated him. Specifically, the film places a heavy emphasis on suspicions that IBM used a human player to bolster the computer's strategic strength during the course of several games. Running Time: 1 hr 27 mins
Ubisoft releases Pirates of the Caribbean for the Xbox in Europe. The game serves as a sort of prequel to the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, telling the story of how Jack Sparrow survived being marooned on an island by his crew. (ESRB: T)
2006
Atari releases the arcade-style street racing game Test Drive Unlimited for the Xbox 360 in the U.S. It's the fifteenth game in the series. (ESRB: E10+)
David Pierce is appointed as the new CEO of Atari shortly after the company was delisted from the NASDAQ stock market because its price had fallen under a dollar in value.
2007
Electronic Arts releases the first-person shooter (FPS) Medal of Honor: Airborne for personal computers and the Xbox 360 in Asia. It's the eleventh installment of the Medal of Honor franchise, and it centers around a platoon of paratroopers for the first time in the series. It deviates from most FPS games in that players' missions are do not have clearly delineated starting and stoping points, lending the game a free-roaming quality not unlike roleplaying games.
Microsoft Game Studios releases the game compilation Xbox Live Arcade Unplugged for the Xbox 360 in the U.S. It includes six Xbox Live Arcade games, including Bejewled 2, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Hardwood Backgammon, Outpost Kaloki X, Texas Hold'em, and Wik, and The Fable of Souls. It also includes a one month Xbox Live trial. Price: US$39.99 (ESRB: T)
Sega releases the single-player game Yakuza for the PlayStation 2 in North America. Development of the game and its sequel cost ¥2.4 billion (Approx. $21 million), which makes the pair two of the most expensive video games ever released. The game a former Yakuza member named Kazuma Kiryu who is released from prison only to find himself embroiled in a mystery in which he must find his kindnapped girlfriend and discover who has stolen money from his former clan. The game will receive acclaim in Japan for being the first game to explore Yakuza culture with such authenticity, however, it will be deridded in the west for its tedious gameplay. (ESRB: M)