Game Scoop! Presents: What Was the Year 2000 Like for Video Games?

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3:05Feel a little like your days are numbered? By offering more sophisticated 3D games with more mature imagery and themes, PlayStation had changed the reputation of video games from what was mostly still seen as a juvenile pastime into truly mainstream entertainment for all ages. Sony was now ready to launch its successor, the PlayStation 2, but there was no guarantee that lightning would strike twice. I think the key word for the next generation PlayStation is emotion. Despite birthing classics like Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time, and GoldenEye 007, the four-year-old Nintendo 64 was in a distant second place behind PlayStation.

3:40Nintendo's decision to go with expensive cartridges for the N64 instead of cheap discs like the competition had pushed away many third-party publishers, leading to software droughts. And Nintendo's overall kid-friendly image was starting to feel quaint next to the edgy, cooler PlayStation and Sega brands. Would you rather be at home shooting a bazooka or watching a chick flick? What? Chick flick, bazooka. Chick flick, bazooka. But despite the struggle, Nintendo did have complete dominance of the handheld market and had a plan to give its family-friendly image a significant makeover. Sega's Dreamcast was only a few months old in the U.S.

4:11and had an early hit with Soulcalibur, but most of its best games had yet to arrive. Over the next 12 months, Sega would play its hand almost perfectly in its efforts to sell the Dreamcast, but still failed to survive. So what went wrong? The year 2000 would see the launch of the best-selling console ever and many of the highest-rated games ever. It was an exciting time that felt like gaming was about to explode with new innovations, but some beloved companies would struggle to adapt to the changing times. This is why the year 2000 was one of the most important years in the history of video games.

4:48At the start of 2000, PlayStation devs were starting to get nervous. The PlayStation 2 was just two months away from its release in Japan and 10 months from its holiday release in North America. But North American developers still couldn't get their hands on dev kits. According to NextGen Magazine sources, no US studio had a full PS2 development kit going into the new year. One executive told the magazine, I need a launch title, and if I don't get a dev kit soon, I'm screwed. Now we're thinking even more about doing Dreamcast games, stating that if they couldn't get PS2 software ready for launch, they would throw their support behind Sega instead.

5:20One of the few studios to have a PS2 dev kit was Insomniac, who are now known for their record-breaking Spider-Man series, but at the time was known as the Spyro the Dragon creators. Alex Hastings, VP of software at Insomniac, told NextGen,

5:36Whenever you get a new console, you start thinking, okay, how can I get the system to the absolute maximum that it can do? With a system this complex and powerful, it's an overwhelming task. People like me have to change our perspective a little bit and not say, how can I get this to run 100 % but how can we come close? Sega, on the other hand, had decided to set the Dreamcast apart from PlayStation and Nintendo with its online capabilities. To that end, Sega launched a new company, SegaNet, which would be a full internet service provider. And in a shocking move, it offered gamers a free Dreamcast if they signed up for two years of the SegaNet service.

6:09This offer was even retroactive. If you already owned a Dreamcast, Sega would mail you a check for$200. Do you accept cash? Sega delivered the first must-have Dreamcast game of the year on February 2nd, Crazy Taxi. The arcade version of the frantic passenger delivery game, released the previous year, was already a huge hit, and the Dreamcast port was even better. IGN called it the closest thing to a digital drug we've ever seen. Think of it as gaming crack. We gave it a 9.6. Not only was it addictive, it was also a graphical showcase for the Dreamcast that ran at a smooth 60 frames per second.

6:46As of January 11th, 1.5 million Dreamcasts had been sold in the United States, but if any game was going to sell more Dreamcasts this year, it was going to be Crazy Taxi. Nintendo, hoping to give the now 4-year-old N64 sales a jolt, introduced 6 new color variations in February. Alongside the original charcoal color, gamers could now choose from Smoke, Grape, Ice, Jungle, Fire, and Watermelon. Nintendo 64's six new colors are so amazing, choosing a favorite might be somewhat of a struggle. But new colors weren't enough to alleviate frustrated gamers who were upset with the trickle of games being released for the platform.

7:19In April, NextGen Magazine asked the question, is Nintendo 64 doomed? Doomed! Now today, it may seem like an odd question to ask, given the machine was about to receive the gifts of Perfect Dark, The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, and Banjo-Tooie. But 1999 had been a lighter year for Nintendo, with perhaps less exciting releases like Donkey Kong 64, Mario Golf, and a port of Resident Evil 2. While first-party software usually sold well, third-party publishers were reporting falling software sales on the platform. Acclaim, publisher of games like Turok and South Park, Chef's Love Shack, reported that N64 sales made up 60 % of its revenue at the start of 1999, but that figure had fallen to just 28 % a year later when PlayStation and Dreamcast started eating into N64's market share.

8:06EA reported that its Nintendo 64 sales were flat while its PlayStation sales were up 31%. The swing was clear and happening in real time. Electronic Gaming Monthly's editor-in-chief at the time, John Davison, wrote, For months now, we've been getting reports from developers, retailers, and more importantly, from our readers, that the N64 has seen brighter days. Developers and publishers are disappointed with sales. retailers are noticing a switch in interest from Nintendo to Sega, and you guys are all getting frustrated with the wild discrepancies in the quality of the games. Sure, first-party stuff usually rocks, but everything else sucks.

8:39Ocarina of Time, Mario 64, GoldenEye, Banjo-Kazooie, and other big releases just hadn't produced the same healthy hardware sales that PlayStation was enjoying. With only six months left before the launch of the next generation in North America, PlayStation had outsold Nintendo 64 3 to 1. Nintendo's 2000 game releases had kicked off with Mario Party 2 arriving in North America. We liked it, but IGN gave it the dreaded 7.9, the same score the first game received, because simply new minigames and new boards didn't quite seem to justify spending another 50 bucks. Its reputation has improved over the years, though, and in 2015, we named it the second best Mario Party game ever, behind only Mario Party 3, but that didn't help the N64 back in the year 2000.

9:22However, the final previews for Perfect Dark started arriving in April, and it was becoming clear this would be a milestone release for Nintendo and Rare. Excitement for the GoldenEye spiritual successor was building to a crescendo. Meanwhile, the Game Boy continued to completely dominate the handheld market. Nintendo would sell its 100 millionth Game Boy in 2000. Even though it was 11 years old, it wouldn't have any real competition in the handheld space until Sony would release the PSP in 2005. The Game Boy would see the release of some more mature games this year, with Konami delivering Metal Gear Solid on Game Boy Color on May 2nd.

9:56This was a follow-up to the NES original, set seven years later and not a port of the hit PlayStation game. It presented the top-down, pixel art version of Metal Gear in the best light possible, making for a much more playable adventure than the NES version. The Game Boy Color wasn't known for complex gameplay experiences, and stealth games for it were pretty much non-existent. Metal Gear Solid offered a deep, strategic, portable game that remained faithful to the franchise's roots. In February, Electronic Arts acquired DreamWorks Interactive, the gaming arm of DreamWorks that was founded by Steven Spielberg.

10:26DreamWorks already had a distribution deal with EA, which had led to the previous year's huge hit, Medal of Honor, produced by Spielberg. EA renamed the studio EA Los Angeles and set it to work on the sequel, which would be released that year as Medal of Honor Underground. We thought it was amazing and gave it a 9 out of 10.

10:44Call of Duty was still three years away at this point, and even EA's own Battlefield was another two years down the line. So Medal of Honor had the battlefield all to itself. EA would go on to make 15 more games in the series, although EA Los Angeles would eventually be renamed Danger Close Games and then ultimately shut down in early 2013. And then, amidst the console war between Sega, Nintendo, and Sony, Microsoft decided to enter the fray in a move that would significantly alter the hardware business for decades to come. In his keynote speech at the 2000 Game Developers Conference, Bill Gates introduced the Xbox.

11:20He emphasized it would be built like a PC and leverage DirectX technology, claiming it would make porting PC games easier. Microsoft would use the year to slowly build hype for the Xbox.

11:37On June 19th, though, Microsoft made probably its most important gaming acquisition until it would acquire Activision Blizzard 24 years later. It bought a relatively unknown developer called Bungie.

11:54Development on the original Halo would now continue as an Xbox exclusive and as a series would go on to define the console and the brand. Bungie would remain with Microsoft until going private again in 2007. No one outside Microsoft knew it at the time, but the forthcoming Xbox now had its own killer app more than a year before its release. Now, what was going on with PC gaming in 2000? While the PC gaming market is thriving today and executives like Xbox's Phil Spencer worry about the lack of growth in the console space, a March 2000 next-gen headline read, Is the PC market in trouble? Industry leaders answered with a resounding yes.

12:30The biggest pain point in 2000 was the lack of standards on PC, leading developers to spend a lot of time trying to optimize for endless different hardware configurations. Eidos was the publisher of Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kane, Hitman, and many more. Its president, Rob Dyer, said, we've got a really, really miserable PC market and it's not getting any better. I'm going way out on a limb, but I think the PC is going to cease to be any kind of viable platform within the next 18 to 24 months. It's going to be completely supplanted by Microsoft's Xbox or whatever else. I think Microsoft, if this Xbox is for real, is basically raising the flag and saying, we're seeing a huge problem on the PC side.

13:06There are just so few games that do anything on the PC. David Cage, CEO of Quantic Dream, that would go on to develop games like Heavy Rain and Detroit Become Human, added, PC is probably condemned to disappear or at least to become more and more a niche for hardcore gamers. The reason is simple. You need to pay about five to 10 times more to have a good PC than a console. Not only is it cheaper, but also your hardware won't be outdated a month after you buy it as it is on PC. Now, these predictions were, of course, way off base. They were from a time before Steam, though, Valve's marketing-leading software store that would arrive three years later and would do a lot to revive the PC gaming market.

13:41Speaking of Eidos, on June 23rd, it published Deus Ex. It was considered an instant classic thanks to its level of player freedom and choice, many considered to be one of the greatest video games ever made. In fact, our Diablo 2 review that same year opened with the line, Is Diablo 2 the greatest thing since sliced bread? No, that's Deus Ex. Deus Ex would go on to inspire generations of hit games like Dishonored and Mass Effect, all taking influence from the systems of choice and consequence in Deus Ex.

14:11Diablo 2 was actually released just a few days after Deus Ex. Jokes aside, we called it an incredible improvement over the original Diablo. It was much bigger than Diablo 1, offered new classes, a more customizable skill system, faster combat, and revolutionary multiplayer with Battle.net integration. Diablo 2 became hugely influential, but not just to other fantasy ARPGs like Path of Exile. The looter shooter genre, i.e. Borderlands or Destiny, owes a great debt to Diablo 2. A controversial shooter arrived on PC in June in the form of Soldier of Fortune. Created by Raven Software, which then was known for Heretic and HexSim, but today is a successful Call of Duty studio, Soldier of Fortune's wholesaling point was the 26 points on enemy bodies you could shoot off or explode.

14:57Gamers loved it, and we gave it a 9 out of 10. Next Gen Magazine called it as good an FPS as you could ever ask for. But there was some pearl clutching around the world. In Canada, it was labeled an adult motion picture and given the same rating as a pornographic film. And in Germany, it was officially deemed harmful to young persons. Despite this criticism, Soldier of Fortune would go on to have two sequels in 2002 and 2007. Now in 2000, esports was in the early stages of building an audience and hadn't broken through to the mainstream. But a mod released for Half-Life the year prior called Counter-Strike would not only help but revolutionize the space.

15:35Half-Life developer Valve would go on to hire Counter-Strike's two developers and acquire the intellectual property, which resulted in the official release of Counter-Strike on November 9, 2000. As the first esports teams and leagues were being formed, Counter-Strike was the flagship title being played. Its easy-to-understand objectives and high-stakes rounds made it an entertaining spectator sport. Later series like Rainbow Six and Valorant would adopt and iterate on Counter-Strike's tactical, objective-based gameplay. Today, its sequel, Counter-Strike 2, is typically the most played game on Steam on any given day.

16:06Sega, despite being in its Deaththrow era, managed to secure an important Dreamcast exclusive in the next mainline entry in the Resident Evil series, Code Veronica. Not only did it make the leap from the aging PlayStation 1 to Sega's fancy new console, it also ditched the pre-rendered backgrounds of the original trilogy and gave us fully 3D environments to explore. We thought it was the best entry in the series yet and gave it a 9.5. Because of its lasting popularity, fans are still asking Capcom for a Code Veronica remake today, and there are rumors of just such a thing.

16:39Dreamcast got another critical hit in March with Choo Choo Rocket. We thought it was the best multiplayer game we'd played in years on any console, so take that, Mario Party 2. Not only was it a cute and addictive game in its own right, it was one of the very first online games for the Dreamcast or any console. Even though it was limited by the Dreamcast's 56k modem, Sega was really innovating in the console space here If this were to be Sega's last hardware release, you can't say they weren't really giving it their all In 2000, Ubisoft was mostly known for Rayman and had yet to produce any Tom Clancy, Assassin's Creed, or Far Cry games But the French developer made an important acquisition this year with Red Storm Entertainment RedStorm was founded with the intention of making games based in the Tom Clancy series, and Clancy himself was one of the founders.

17:26The following year, Ubisoft would publish RedStorm's first Ghost Recon game. Tom Clancy games, many of which would be developed by RedStorm, would go on to be a main staple for Ubisoft. May saw the 6th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3. The biggest game of the show this year was Metal Gear Solid 2. Konami showed a five-minute video clip on a giant scream outside its booth every hour on the hour. Although it wouldn't be out for another year, Nintendo demonstrated Conker's Bad Fur Day at its E3 booth. The squirrel had received a makeover since the last time he was shown as a family-friendly mascot.

17:58Now he was leading an edgy, M-rated game full of violence, profanity, and lewd humor. I am the great Mighty Poo and I'm going to throw my shit at you. Developer Rare already had a cutesy 3D platformer series with Banjo-Kazooie, so Conker's new M rating was partly to differentiate it from Banjo and to try and attract an older audience to the N64. It won us over. IGN gave Conker's Bad Fur Day its Nintendo Game of the Show award, beating out games like Banjo-Tooie, The Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask, and Paper Mario. According to Newsweek, Infogram CEO Bruno Bonnell was in opposition to Nintendo's new grown-up attitude.

18:37Infogram's was basically Atari in 2000. Bonnell is quoted as saying, it was a mistake and I told him that. He roundly criticized Conker's Bad Fur Day for its inclusion of the word f**k. What is that word doing in a Nintendo game? Bonnell asked. You still here? F**k up. Oh, charming. Another game intended to woo an older audience to the N64 was the aforementioned Perfect Dark, the spiritual sequel to GoldenEye 007. It bested GoldenEye in every way with more weapons, more levels, more cheats, better AI, and a great single-player story. First-person shooters on consoles were still a bit of a rarity at the time, but until Halo would come along, Perfect Dark was the new gold standard for the genre.

19:16We said, if you don't own Perfect Dark, you don't deserve to own a Nintendo 64. Perfect Dark would go on to be the best-selling game of June in North America, quite impressive considering the sales charts had been dominated by Pokemon each prior month this year. An infamous game was released for PC on May 23rd. John Romero's Daikatana. Known for Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, this was Romero's first effort since leaving id Software. This new game had been officially announced three years prior with an ad that simply said, you know it, John Romero's about to make you his bitch. The ad made no mention of the title Daikatana or anything about the game itself, and it did not have the desired effect.

19:59Instead, it soured people on Daikatana years before its eventual release. Daikatana turned out to be a pretty dull first-person shooter. After four years in development, Daikatana was eviscerated in reviews. It ran on the Quake 2 engine, which itself was three years old at that point. In spite of the edgy marketing setting it up as the next Doom, we said, after all that time, all that work, the end product feels like the designers weren't trying to excite or impress us at all. It goes exactly where you'd expect, does what it's supposed to do, and nothing more. We gave it a 5.8. As an interesting footnote to Daikatana's sad tale, the only home console it was ported to was the Nintendo 64, which was actually a timed blockbuster rental exclusive before it was available at retail.

20:44We gave the N64 port a 4 out of 10, and EGM called it poop. He called the s*** poop! Romero would move on to making mobile games. Who's the bitch now? Remember that Perfect Dark was the best-selling game of June? Well, the N64 did it again, as Kirby 64 was the best-selling game of July. Maybe things were turning around for the N64 after all. By August, even though it was releasing great games and offering incredible incentives to buy a Dreamcast, the writing was starting to appear on the wall for Sega. The company posted its third annual loss in a row, leading to the resignation of its president.

21:19His replacement said in a statement, We aim to revive the company by focusing on growing internet-related services by using Dreamcast. This would not be enough to save the console. Rumors were also circulating that Sega was talking with third-party developers about creating games based on its properties for competing consoles. The idea that Sega could exit the hardware market altogether was even being floated. At the time, the communications director for Sega of America, Charles Belfield, told EGM, Sega has no plans to support any other game console whatsoever, period, and I can categorically deny that Sega will exit the hardware market.

21:52On August 31st, Sega dropped the price of the Dreamcast from$200 to$150. Also in August, Madden NFL 2001 was released. This was the first game in the series to de-emphasize Madden on the cover and gave the spotlight to a player instead. In this case, Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George. We thought it was the best football game ever made and gave it a 9.4. Madden 2001 would also be a PS2 launch game in October, with Next Gen Magazine calling it the reason to buy the console at launch. But EA would not support the Dreamcast at all, despite being a huge partner with Sega during the Genesis years.

22:25In a 2009 retrospective on the Dreamcast, former Sega exec Charles Belfield told GameDeveloper.com, The fact that EA didn't support us was a ding against us, but I'm not sure what breakthrough game EA would have given the platform from September 1999 through January 2001 that we hadn't already got in the same genre. Indeed, Sega's own NFL 2K1 and NBA 2K1, both released in 2000, are two of the system's highest rated games. On September 9th, Sony released a smaller redesign of the PlayStation with a nice$99 price point called the PS1. Ai-jen wrote at the time that it was flying off shelves and spanking the Dreamcast and N64.