1991 in video games

Events

Notable releases

• Electronic Arts releases motorcycle racing combat game Road Rash for Sega Genesis, starting the series.
• AOL, SSI, TSR and Stormfront Studios collaborate and launch Neverwinter Nights, credited as the first graphical MMORPG.
• Delphine Software releases cinematic action-adventure game Another World for the Amiga, which uses polygons instead of sprites.
• February 14 – DMA Design releases Lemmings, a puzzle game that requires the player to lead a group of lemmings through a dangerous environment to an escape portal.
• February 6 – Capcom releases Street Fighter II for arcades. It becomes highly successful and is routinely listed as the grandfather of the fighting game genre. It is also credited with revitalizing the arcade game industry at the time, and popularizing direct tournament-level competition between players.
• May 6 – Sierra On-Line releases The Sierra Network, which is also credited as the first graphical MMORPG, TSN would later become its more memorable name, ImagiNation Network, after a total buyout from AT&T in 1994.
• June 23 – Sega releases Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis which later becomes the pack-in game and defining title for the console. It introduces the eponymous character, who would go on to be Sega's mascot. Sega also releases a version of the game for the Master System and Game Gear.
• July 19 – Square releases Final Fantasy IV in Japan, the first Final Fantasy game for the Super Famicom.
• August 23 – Nintendo releases Super Mario World and F-Zero along with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America. Super Mario World was the original pack-in game for the SNES. The game introduces the Yoshi character to the Mario series.
• September – Namco releases Starblade for arcades, featuring one of the earliest instances of real-time 3D graphics in video games.
• November – Nintendo releases ' for the Game Boy in North America.
• November 21 – Nintendo releases ' for the Super Famicom in Japan.
• December 1 – LucasArts releases for Amiga, MS-DOS, Macintosh, and FM Towns.
• December 4 – Konami releases Super Castlevania IV for SNES in North America.
• December 6 – Mega Man 4 is released in Japan.
• December 13 – Tecmo releases Tecmo Super Bowl for NES, the follow-up to 1989's Tecmo Bowl.
• December 16 – MicroProse releases Civilization. As of 2005, it is still Sid Meier's most successful game.
• Team17 release Alien Breed, the first of the series, for the Amiga.

  Hardware

• July – Atari updates their Lynx handheld system with a smaller form-factor, better screen, and longer battery life.
• August 23 – Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in North America.
• December 1 – Sega releases the Mega-CD in Japan.
• September – S3 launches with the 86C911, often regarded as the first significant graphics accelerator chip for the Microsoft Windows platform.

  Business

• New companies: Vicarious Visions, Inc, id Software, Bungie, Silicon & Synapse, The 3DO Company, Cyberdreams

  Highest-renting titles according to Blockbuster Video