1993 in video games
1993 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden, Mortal Kombat II, Sonic CD, Secret of Mana, and Super Street Fighter II, alongside new titles such as Star Fox, FIFA International Soccer, Doom, Gunstar Heroes, Myst, Samurai Shodown, Ridge Racer, NBA Jam, Disney's Aladdin, Virtua Fighter, and Mystery Dungeon.
This year's highest grossing video game worldwide was Capcom's arcade fighting game Street Fighter II for the third year in a row, while again being the year's highest grossing entertainment product. The best selling home system around the globe was the Nintendo Super Famicom/SNES video game console.
Top-rated games
Game of the Year awards
The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1993.''Famitsu'' Platinum Hall of Fame
The following video game releases in 1993 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.| Title | Platform | Developer | Publisher | Genre | Score |
| Street Fighter II Turbo | Super Famicom | Capcom | Capcom | Fighting | 36 |
| Disney's Aladdin | Mega Drive | Virgin Games | Sega | Platformer | 35 |
| Dragon Quest I & II | Super Famicom | Chunsoft | Enix | Role-playing | 35 |
Financial performance
Highest-grossing arcade games
Street Fighter II was the highest-grossing entertainment product of 1993, earning more than the film Jurassic Park. The following table lists the year's top-grossing arcade games in Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide.| Market | Period | Title | Coin drop revenue | Inflation | Manufacturer | Genre | |
| Japan | Street Fighter II' Turbo | Capcom | Fighting | ||||
| United Kingdom | January–June | Street Fighter II | Capcom | Fighting | |||
| United States | NBA Jam | + | + | Midway | Sports | ||
| Worldwide | Street Fighter II | Capcom | Fighting |
Japan
The following titles were the top ten highest-grossing arcade games of 1993 in Japan.United States
In the United States, NBA Jam was the highest-grossing arcade game of 1993, followed by Mortal Kombat; both games exceeded the domestic box office gross of Jurassic Park that year.The following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of the year, according to the Amusement & Music Operators Association and American Amusement Machine Association.
Best-selling home video games
The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1993 with known sales figures.Japan
In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1993.| Rank | Title | Developer | Platform | Publisher | Genre | Sales | |
| 1 | Street Fighter II Turbo | Capcom | Super Famicom | Capcom | Fighting | 1,314,000 | |
| 2 | Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden | TOSE | Super Famicom | Bandai | Fighting | 1,300,000+ | |
| 3 | Seiken Densetsu 2 | Squaresoft | Super Famicom | Squaresoft | Action RPG | 1,002,000 | |
| 4 | Super Mario Collection | Nintendo EAD | Super Famicom | Nintendo | Platformer | 877,000 | |
| 5 | Romancing SaGa 2 | Squaresoft | Super Famicom | Squaresoft | RPG | 823,000 | |
| 6 | Dragon Ball Z: Super Butōden 2 | TOSE | Super Famicom | Bandai | Fighting | 740,000 | |
| 7 | J. League Soccer Prime Goal | Namco | Super Famicom | Namco | Sports | 610,000 | |
| 8 | Dragon Quest I & II | Chunsoft | Super Famicom | Enix | RPG | 567,000 | |
| 9 | Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon | Chunsoft | Super Famicom | Chunsoft | Roguelike | 510,000 | |
| 10 | Super Bomberman | Produce! | Super Famicom | Hudson Soft | Maze | 497,000 |
Europe
In Europe, the following titles were the top five best-selling 1993 releases during the first quarter of the year.| Rank | Title | Platform | Developer | Publisher | Genre |
| 1 | Super Mario Kart | Super [Nintendo Entertainment System] | Nintendo EAD | Nintendo | Kart racing |
| 2 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Mega Drive | Sega Technical Institute | Sega | Platformer |
| 3 | Streets of Rage II | Mega Drive | Sega, Ancient | Sega | Beat 'em up |
| 4 | Road Rash II | Mega Drive | Electronic Arts | Electronic Arts | Racing |
| 5 | Mario Paint | Super Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo R&D1, Intelligent Systems | Nintendo | Art tool |
In the United Kingdom, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1993.
| Rank | Title | Platform | Publisher | Genre | Sales |
| 1 | Mortal Kombat | Game consoles | Acclaim Entertainment | Fighting | 400,000+ |
| 2 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 | Mega Drive | Sega | Platformer | 400,000+ |
| 3 | Lemmings | Multi-platform | Various | Strategy | 400,000+ |
| 4 | Super Kick Off | Game consoles | Various | Sports | 400,000+ |
| 5 | FIFA International Soccer | Mega Drive | Electronic Arts | Sports | 400,000 |
| 6 | Ecco the Dolphin | Mega Drive | Sega | Action-adventure | 250,000+ |
| 7 | Super Mario Kart | Super NES | Nintendo | Kart racing | 250,000+ |
| 8 | Jurassic Park | Multi-platform | Ocean Software | Action | 250,000+ |
| 9 | Jungle Strike | Game consoles | Electronic Arts | Shoot 'em up | 250,000 |
| 10 | PGA Tour Golf II | Mega Drive | Electronic Arts | Sports | 200,000 |
United States
In the United States, the following titles were the top two highest-grossing home video game franchises in 1993.| Franchise | Publisher | Revenue | Inflation |
| Mario | Nintendo | $700,000,000 | $ |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | Sega | $500,000,000 | $ |
The following titles were the best-selling home video games of each month for video game consoles in 1993, according to Babbage's, Mega, and The NPD Group.
The following titles were the year's top six best-selling PC games on CD-ROM format in the United States.
Events
- March – In Sweden, the Swedish video game magazine Super Play starts. The original name is Super Power.
- April 27 – The book Game Over by David Sheff, devoted to the history of Nintendo, is published by Random House.
- May 11 – The first FuncoLand location in McHenry County, Illinois opens in Crystal Lake, bringing the chain's total number of locations to 62.
- May 24 – Sega of America introduces the first ever video game content rating system, the Videogame Rating Council.
- August 4 – FuncoLand parent company Funco Inc leases space for new locations in six shopping centers in the New York City area.
- October – Edge is a multi-format video game magazine published by Future plc, which began publication.
- October 1 – Nintendo and Silicon Graphics collaborate and begin work on "Project Reality".
- December 7 – The first of two congressional hearings on video games takes place. Topics for discussion include the depiction of violence and sexual content in video games, their influence on children, and the prospect of governmental regulation for video game content.
Business
- New companies: Croteam, nVidia, Take-Two Interactive, Shiny
- Defunct companies: DK'Tronics, Epyx
- Magnavox is acquired by the Carlyle Group
- MicroProse is acquired by Spectrum HoloByte
Notable releases
Hardware
- Sega releases the Model 2, an arcade system board that introduces 3D texture filtering. It becomes their most popular arcade system board.
- Fujitsu releases the FM Towns Marty in Japan, as the first 32-bit home console, starting the fifth console generation.
- Panasonic, GoldStar and Sanyo release the first versions of the 3DO 32-bit console
- Atari Corporation releases the Jaguar home console, calling it the first 64-bit video game system.
- Commodore Business Machines releases the Amiga CD32 multimedia home console.
- Nintendo releases a smaller redesigned NES, which allows cartridges to be inserted at the top of the console, instead of the front.
- Pioneer releases the LaserActive multimedia home console
- Sega's Mega-CD released in Europe and Australia.