Sony's PlayStation was the year's best-selling video game console worldwide for the second year in a row, while also being the annual best-selling console in Japan for the first time (overtaking the Game Boy and Sega Saturn). The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Squaresoft's Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, while the year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Sega's Virtua Fighter 3 and Print Club 2.
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are online aggregators of video game journalism reviews. Note that their coverage of print magazines at the time was limited, with numerous print magazines not listed on their sites.
1997 games and expansions scoring at least 88/100 (MC) or 87.5% (GR)[25][26]
The following video game releases in 1997 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.[31]
4 – Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997) dies after a double car accident.
November – Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) launched.
December 16 – A scene from the Pokémon anime (based upon the highly successful games) causes 685 Japanese children to have seizures. Nintendo makes a statement proclaiming the safety of the Pokémon games from fear that the games would cause a similar effect, the episode to be permanently removed from circulation, and the featured Pokémon in the episode (Porygon) has not made an appearance in the Pokémon anime since.
August 14 – Intermetrics. Inc and Looking Glass Studios announce the merger of their gaming operations to form Intermetrics/Looking Glass Studios, LLC.[73], which was renamed to Intermetrics Entertainment Software, LLC on September 17[74]
Nintendo vs Games City: Nintendo sues Games City for selling the Game Doctor and Doctor V64 backup devices for the SNES and N64 consoles. Nintendo wins the suit.
Nintendo vs Prima Publishing: Nintendo sues Prima over copyrights to maps of the N64 video game GoldenEye 007. Nintendo loses the suit.
^"振動機構を標準装備したアナログコントローラ 発売" [Analog controller with vibration mechanism as standard equipment released] (PDF). Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (in Japanese). March 11, 1997. Archived from the original(PDF) on September 8, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2026.
^Johnston, Chris (September 12, 1997). "Tiger's Game.com Pounces". GameSpot. Retrieved February 1, 2026. Article date is mislabeled as April 26, 2000; the correct date can be viewed by the article's headline on this page.
^Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (September 24, 1997). "2種類の振動を再現できる アナログコントローラ"DUAL SHOCK"発売" [Release of the analog controller "DUAL SHOCK," which can reproduce two types of vibrations] (PDF) (in Japanese). Archived from the original(PDF) on September 8, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2026.
^"SCPH". maru-chang.org. Archived from the original on May 12, 2006. Retrieved February 1, 2026.
^Wilton Magazine Gives Awards. The Wilton Bulletin. December 10, 1997. the awards go to: Best Overall Game — GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo); Best Nintendo 64 Game — GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo);
^"Electric Playground: FEATURE - EP's Best of 1997: The "Blister" Awards - Pg. 1". Electronic Playground. February 11, 1998. Archived from the original on February 11, 1998. Retrieved October 8, 2024. Game of the Year Winner - GoldenEye (Nintendo 64) - His name's Bond, James Bond. And our name is absolutely hooked on his game. Rare Entertainment hit the stratosphere with this one. With tons of detailed missions and multiplayer games that were impossible to stop playing, Goldeneye became the title that halted production at EP.
^"Nintendo Power Issue 108: Power Award Winners". Nintendo Power. May 1998. Retrieved October 8, 2024. The Best Games of 1997: GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64) - With more than 5 times the number of votes of second place Diddy Kong Racing, the Game of the year proved to be GoldenEye 007
^"週刊ファミ通クロスレビュープラチナ殿堂入りソフト一覧" [Weekly Famitsu Cross Review Platinum Hall of Fame Software List]. Geimin (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 27, 2008. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
^ ab小川 (Ogawa), 純生 (Sumio) (December 14, 2010). "テレビゲーム機の変遷 —ファミコン、スーパーファミコン、プレステ、プレステ2、Wiiまで—" [Recent Developments in Video Game Technology in Japan — Famicom, Super Famicom, Play Station, Play Station 2 and Wii —] (PDF). 経営論集 (Keiei Ronshū) (in Japanese) (77) (published March 2011): 1–17 (2). ISSN0286-6439. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 25, 2015. Retrieved December 6, 2021 – via Toyo University Academic Information Repository (Toyo University).
^The Oriental Economist Report. Toyo Keizai. 1998. p. 16. Square's Final Fantasy VII software has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest selling Playstation software.
^ abcdThompson, Adam (October 22, 1997). "The pain of addiction". Oshkosh Advance-Titan. University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. p. 9. Retrieved April 9, 2022. Last month Final Fantasy VII hit the stores and sold 1.5 million copies the first week.
^ ab"96年9月~97年8月" [1996.09~1997.08]. TV Game Ranking Databook: 1995.9~1998.8 (in Japanese). ベストセラーズ (Bestsellers). December 15, 1998. p. 17. ISBN 978-4-584-16090-9.
^"1997年ゲームソフト年間売上TOP100" [1997 Game Software Annual Sales Top 100]. Famitsū Gēmu Hakusho 1998 ファミ通ゲーム白書1998 [Famitsu Game Whitebook 1998] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Enterbrain. 1998. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved February 17, 2021.
^"IRRATIONAL GAMES, INC". Massachusetts Corporations Division. Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. May 5, 1997. Retrieved February 15, 2026. Requires search for "Irrational Games, Inc." with "Exact match" search type to locate the actual data.
^"Wisconsin One Stop Business Portal - Search for Business". Wisconsin One Stop Business Portal. State of Wisconsin. August 28, 1997. Retrieved February 15, 2026. Requires search for "Human Head Studios, Inc." to locate the actual data.
^"Handelsregisterauszug HRB 56490 – AHEAD Entertainment Software GmbH". Handelsregister. Amtsgericht Hannover. October 27, 1997. Retrieved February 15, 2026. Requires search for "AHEAD Entertainment Software" with the "You can also find closed register sheets..." option checked; the actual data is available under the "HD" link in the found entry.
^Jebens, Harley (December 1, 1997). "Activision Grabs CentreSoft". GameSpot. GameSpot. Retrieved February 14, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) Article date is mislabeled as April 26, 2000; the correct date can be viewed by the article's headline on this page.
^"4D Rulers Company". www.4drulers.com. 4D Rulers Software, Inc. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
^"4D Rulers Software, Inc". Nebraska Secretary of State Business Services. Nebraska Secretary of State. January 29, 1998. Retrieved February 15, 2026.
^"天外魔境ホームページ:新着情報" [Tengai Makyou Homepage: Latest News]. www.hudson.co.jp. Archived from the original on February 6, 1997. Retrieved January 31, 2026.