Events

• Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts the 4th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards; inducts John Carmack of id Software to the AIAS Hall of Fame
• BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) hosts the 4th annual BAFTA Interactive Awards for multimedia technologies; 15 of 21 awards go to video games
• May 17-19 - 7th annual E³ (Electronic Entertainment Expo); the 4th annual Game Critics Awards For The Best Of E³
• Gama Network hosts the 3rd annual Independent Games Festival (IGF)
• Game Developers Conference hosts the 1st annual Game Developers Choice Awards
• Reuters reports that the Sega Dreamcast console has an estimated 800,000 online users playing its various online games already by midyear
  • reports that Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) and SEGA are cooperating to allow online users for the PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast consoles to play each other via the 1st ever cross-console network
• Sony cooperates with AOL to incorporate Internet features with the PlayStation 2 console; which include a browser, email, and instant messaging capabilities
• 2nd annual Sega Dreamcast Championships (featuring the Crazy Taxi 2 video game)
  • 1st place: Lindsay Gall ($15,000 & Jamaica resort trip)
  • 2nd place: Michael Pirring ($10,000)
  • 3rd place: Roger Mogle ($5,000)
• Nikkei News reports that the video game Phantasy Star Online (for Sega Dreamcast) has had 300,000 worldwide users login already by midyear
• December 31 - Jez San is awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours, becoming the first person awarded specifically for services to computer and video games.

Notable releases

• Microsoft publishes Halo: Combat Evolved by Bungie Studios. It becomes the Xbox's "killer app" and is the most popular console first-person shooter since GoldenEye 007 (1997).
• Squaresoft releases Final Fantasy X, which is the first game in the series for the PlayStation 2, to exclusively use 3D graphics, and to have a direct sequel (Final Fantasy X-2, 2003).

Hardware

• March 21 - Nintendo's Game Boy Advance (GBA) handheld console in Japan (in the US on June 11 and Europe on June 22)
• April - Indrema closes and its L600 Entertainment System multimedia home console is never released.
• September 14 - Nintendo releases the GameCube home console in Japan (released in the United States on November 11 and in Europe on May 3, 2002)
• November 15 - Microsoft's Xbox home console in the US (in Europe on March 14, 2002)
• November 23 - GamePark releases the GP32 (GamePark 32) wireless-multiplayer multimedia handheld console in South Korea
• December - Panasonic's Q multimedia console

Business

• Activision acquires Treyarch Invention LLC
• PCCW (Pacific Century CyberWorks Japan Co., Ltd.) acquires VR1 Entertainment
• Midway Games announces that it will no longer manufacture arcade games
• SEGA announces that it will no longer develop home consoles, in order to focus on game development
• Sega of America Inc. v. Kmart Corporation; Sega sues Kmart over an unpaid debt of over USD$2 million dollars
• Uri Geller v. Nintendo; Geller sues Nintendo over his resemblance to a Pokémon character. The suit is dismissed.