2006 in video games explained

2006 saw the release of many sequels and prequels in video games, prominently including , Madden NFL 07, NBA Live 07, NBA 2K7, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, Tony Hawk's Project 8, New Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, and , alongside many prominent new releases including Bully, Company of Heroes, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Just Cause, , Ōkami, Prey, , Saints Row, and Thrillville. Two new home consoles were released during the year: Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3.

The year's best-selling game console was the Nintendo DS, while the year's best-selling video game was New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. The year's most critically acclaimed title was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for Nintendo's GameCube and Wii consoles.

Events

Month	Date(s)	Event
January	26	Nintendo announces its newly redesigned handheld, the Nintendo DS Lite. The new model is lighter, smaller, has configurable brightness and features an improved user interface.^[1]
		Konami Corp. announces the list of titles it expects to ship in 2006, ranging from Beatmania to Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, and covering multiple platforms.^[2]
		Public schools in West Virginia will add Dance Dance Revolution by Konami to their curriculum, in an effort to combat obesity.^[3] ^[4]
	27	Players of the Horde clan from World of Warcraft start the "Gamers Against No Kash" charity, to pay the subscription fees for valuable players strapped for cash.^[5]
		Microsoft of Japan made a statement to Japanese game magazine Famitsu regarding the Xbox 360 launch. "It was a lot more difficult than we had imagined. We couldn't prepare the launch titles that we had promised, and it made an impact," said Microsoft of Japan Xbox chief of operations Yoshihiro Maruyama. At the launch of the first Xbox in Japan, more units were sold in three days than have been sold of the Xbox 360 in one month.^[6]
		The PlayStation Portable 2.01-2.50 firmware versions, previously considered unhackable, are hacked by Fanjita.^[7]
		The Los Angeles attorney's office sues Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive over the Hot Coffee mod.^[8]
	30	A mandatory update for Xbox Live on the Xbox 360 was released. Microsoft claimed the update was for bugfixes and improvements. Members of the modding community claim that "the true purpose of this update was to halt the progress of the modding community".^[9]
		Nintendo released a statement regarding the Red Tulip phenomenon on , stating "We have isolated the problem and determined that there was a temporary error with the upload tool when this letter was posted". Earlier, there had been speculation that the tulips were a result of black hat hackers.^[10]
	31	Sony is reportedly building an Xbox Live-killer for the PlayStation 3.^[11]
		StarForce, a DRM maker for computer games, threatens to sue popular weblog Boing Boing for criticising its products.^[12]
		Blizzard Entertainment responds to the LGBT debate happening in World of Warcraft. The company stated: "To promote a positive game environment for everyone and help prevent such harassment from taking place as best we can, we prohibit mention of topics related to sensitive real-world subjects in open chat within the game, and we do our best to take action whenever we see such topics being broadcast."
		Sony announces that ten servers will be merged with ten others on Everquest 2. Players are cautiously optimistic.^[13] ^[14]
February	6	After Tiger Telematics' bankruptcy, the Gizmondo handheld console is discontinued, only selling nearly 25,000 units.^[15]
May	10–12	The 12th annual E3 is held in Los Angeles, California, United States.^[16]
November	7	Left Behind Games releases amid much controversy.
	17	Sony releases the PlayStation 3 in North America.
	19	Nintendo releases the Wii.

Business

Month	Date(s)	Event
January	5	Vivendi Universal Games acquires High Moon Studios (formerly Sammy Studios, Inc), which gained independence from Sammy in 2005.^[17]
	9	Take-Two Interactive acquires Irrational Games.
	26	Sony reports that strong sales of the PlayStation Portable helped the company make a profit of ¥70 billion, the first time in 11 years that the company has managed to avoid an annual loss.^[18]
		Microsoft announces $293 million losses in its Home and Entertainment division, record revenues overall.^[19]
		Nintendo reports declining GameCube and Game Boy Advance sales but increased profits: ¥92.2 billion.^[20]
	27	The Nintendo DS returns to the top of the weekly Japanese charts, with 64,515 units sold compared to 38,271 for the PlayStation Portable. The PlayStation 2 is third with 26,135 units sold, while the Xbox 360 continues to sell poorly (just 3,616, less than the GameCube). The five best-selling games were Brain Training for Adults 2, , Super Mario Strikers, Brain Training for Adults and Mario Kart DS, all published by Nintendo.^[21]
		Microsoft lowers its estimate of Xbox 360 sales in its first 90 days from 2.75-3.0 million units to 2.5 million due to supply shortage. The yearly estimate (4.5 to 5.5 million) is unchanged since Microsoft plans to increase its console production with the help of a new manufacturer, Celestica.^[22] Meanwhile, Microsoft postpones the Australian 360 launch from March 2 to 23, 2006 due to a "short term manufacturing challenge".^[23]
	30	Shares of Take-Two Interactive, the controversial creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, rose Monday after news that the company was in takeover talks with an unnamed buyer.^[24] ^[25] ^[26]
	31	CNET reports that Cisco Systems might be interested in buying Nintendo.^[27] ^[28]
February	15	ScrewAttack, a video game-related website is launched.
	Unknown	Tiger Telematics, the manufacturer of the Gizmondo handheld console, files for bankruptcy.^[29]
May	Unknown	IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) successfully merged with VSDA (Video Software Dealers Association) to form combined organization EMA (Entertainment Merchants Association)
July	Unknown	ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) formed.
July	Unknown	Atari plans to sell-off their game development studios.
October	Unknown	ECA (Entertainment Consumers Association) soft-launched.
Unknown		Esports organization OpTic Gaming is founded.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

2006 games and expansions scoring at least 88/100 (MC) or 87.5% (GR)^{[30] [31]}

Game	Publisher	Release Date	Platform	MC score	GR score
	Nintendo	December 2, 2006	GameCube	96/100	95%
	Nintendo	November 19, 2006	Wii	95/100	94.58%
Gears of War	Microsoft Game Studios	November 7, 2006	Xbox 360	94/100	93.97%
	2K Games	March 20, 2006		94/100	93.85%
	2K Games	March 20, 2006		94/100	93.29%
Company of Heroes	THQ	September 13, 2006	Microsoft Windows	93/100	93.93%
Ōkami	Capcom	April 20, 2006	PlayStation 2	93/100	92.65%
Guitar Hero II	RedOctane	November 7, 2006	PlayStation 2	92/100	92.07%
Final Fantasy VI Advance	Square Enix	November 30, 2006	Game Boy Advance	92/100^[32]	91.02%^[33]
Final Fantasy XII	Square Enix	March 16, 2006	PlayStation 2	92/100	90.77%
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter	Ubisoft	March 9, 2006	Xbox 360	90/100	90.47%
GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game	10tacle Studios	September 29, 2006	Microsoft Windows	90/100	89.4%
	Ubisoft	November 22, 2006	Xbox 360	88/100	89.39%
	Ubisoft	October 24, 2006	Xbox	89/100	89.31%
New Super Mario Bros.	Nintendo	May 15, 2006	Nintendo DS	89/100	89.07%
Burnout Revenge	Electronic Arts	March 7, 2006	Xbox 360	89/100	88.57%
Armadillo Run	Peter Stock	April 22, 2006	Microsoft Windows	88/100	89%^[34]
Elite Beat Agents	Nintendo	November 6, 2006	Nintendo DS	87/100	88.33%
	Namco Bandai Games	July 6, 2006	PlayStation Portable	88/100	88.27%
NCAA Football 07	EA Sports	July 18, 2006	Xbox	88/100	88.12%
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition	Capcom	January 24, 2006	PlayStation 2	87/100	88%
	Sega	November 10, 2006	Microsoft Windows	88/100	87.18%
Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness	Nippon Ichi Software	November 30, 2006	PlayStation Portable	87/100	87.77%

Financial performance

Best-selling game consoles

See also: List of best-selling game consoles.

Best-selling game consoles of 2006 in Japan, Europe and North America

Rank	Console	Manufacturer	Sales
			Japan	Europe & North America	Combined
1	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	8,862,969	11,700,000	20,562,969
2	PlayStation 2	Sony	1,547,866	10,700,000	12,247,866
3	PlayStation Portable	Sony	1,946,911	7,000,000	8,946,911
4	Xbox 360	Microsoft	208,697	5,900,000	6,108,697
5	Wii	Nintendo	998,118	1,800,000	2,798,118
6	PlayStation 3	Sony	466,716	700,000	1,166,716

Japan

Best-selling consoles in Japan (Famitsu)^[35]

Rank	Console	Manufacturer	Units sold
1	Nintendo DS Lite	Nintendo	7,526,038
2	PlayStation Portable	Sony	1,946,911
3	PlayStation 2	Sony	1,547,866
4	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	1,336,931
5	Wii	Nintendo	998,118
6	PlayStation 3	Sony	466,716
7	Game Boy Advance SP	Nintendo	275,779
8	Xbox 360	Microsoft	208,697
9	Game Boy Micro	Nintendo	157,557
10	GameCube	Nintendo	89,775

Europe

Best-selling consoles in Europe (Electronic Arts)^{[36] [37]}

Rank	Console	Manufacturer	Units sold
1	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	6,400,000
2	PlayStation 2	Sony	6,000,000
3	PlayStation Portable	Sony	4,000,000
4	Xbox 360	Microsoft	2,000,000
5	Wii	Nintendo	700,000

North America

Best-selling consoles in North America (Electronic Arts)

Rank	Console	Manufacturer	Units sold
1	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	5,300,000
2	PlayStation 2	Sony	4,700,000
3	Xbox 360	Microsoft	3,900,000
4	PlayStation Portable	Sony	3,000,000
5	Wii	Nintendo	1,100,000
6	PlayStation 3	Sony	700,000

Best-selling video games

See also: List of best-selling video games.

Best-selling video games worldwide in 2006

Rank	Title	Platform(s)	Sales
			Japan	United States	Europe	Worldwide
1	New Super Mario Bros.	Nintendo DS	3,840,296^[38]	2,000,000^[39]	1,000,000+^[40]	8,640,000^[41]
2	Madden NFL 07	Multi-platform	2,063+^[42]	3,900,000+		5,000,000+^[43]
3	Pokémon Diamond / Pearl	Nintendo DS	4,355,495			4,355,495
4	Pro Evolution Soccer 6 (Winning Eleven 10)	Multi-platform	1,292,472+		3,000,000+^[44]	4,292,472+
5	(Brain Training)	Nintendo DS	1,991,116	1,100,000	1,000,000+	4,091,116+
6	Final Fantasy XII	PlayStation 2	2,400,000+^[45]	1,500,000+		4,000,000^[46]
7	More Brain Training (Brain Age 2)	Nintendo DS	3,748,638^[47]			3,748,638
8	(Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori)	Nintendo DS	2,485,264		1,000,000+	3,485,264+
9	FIFA 07	Multi-platform				3,000,000+^[48]
		Multi-platform	24,904+	871,600+		3,000,000+
		Multi-platform	2,229+			3,000,000+

Japan

1	Pokémon Diamond / Pearl	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	4,355,495
2	New Super Mario Bros.	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	3,840,296
3	More Brain Training (Brain Age 2)	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	3,748,638
4	Oideyo Dōbutsu no Mori (Animal Crossing: Wild World)	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	2,485,264
5	Final Fantasy XII	PlayStation 2	Square Enix	2,400,000+
6	Brain Training (Brain Age)	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	1,991,116
7	English Training	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	1,662,573
8	Winning Eleven 10 (Pro Evolution Soccer 6)	PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable	Konami	1,292,472
9	Mario Kart DS	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	1,115,082
10	Tetris DS	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	985,246

United States

Best-selling video games in the United States

Rank	Title	Platform(s)	Publisher	Sales
1	Madden NFL 07	PlayStation 2, Xbox 360	EA Sports	3,900,000
2	New Super Mario Bros.	Nintendo DS	Nintendo	2,000,000
3	Gears of War	Xbox 360	Microsoft Game Studios	1,800,000
4	Kingdom Hearts II	PlayStation 2	Square Enix	1,700,000
5	Final Fantasy XII	PlayStation 2	Square Enix	1,500,000+
6		Wii, GameCube	Nintendo	1,500,000
7	Guitar Hero II	PlayStation 2	RedOctane	1,300,000
8		Nintendo DS	Nintendo	1,100,000
	Call of Duty 3	Multi-platform	Activision	1,100,000
10		Xbox 360	Ubisoft	1,000,000
	NCAA Football 07	PlayStation 2	EA Sports	1,000,000

Best-selling video games by platform (NPD Group)

Platform	Title	Publisher	Sales
GameCube	Sonic Riders	Sega		^[49]
Nintendo DS	New Super Mario Bros.	Nintendo	2,000,000	^[50] ^[51]
PC	World of Warcraft	Blizzard Entertainment		^[52]
PlayStation 2	Madden NFL 07	Electronic Arts	2,800,000	^[53]
PlayStation 3		Sony Computer Entertainment		^[54]
Xbox	Madden NFL 07	Electronic Arts		^[55]
Xbox 360	Gears of War	Microsoft Game Studios	1,800,000
Wii		Nintendo		^[56]

United Kingdom

Best-selling video games in the United Kingdom (ELSPA)^{[57] [58]}

Rank	Title	Publisher
1	FIFA 07	EA Sports
2	Pro Evolution Soccer 6	Konami
3		EA Games
4		Rockstar Games
5		LucasArts
6		EA Games
7	Cars	THQ
8		Eidos Interactive
9	The Sims 2	EA Games
10	WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007	THQ

Hardware releases

Month	Day	Console
March	2	Nintendo DS Lite
November	11	PlayStation 3
November	19	Wii

Notable releases

Notable releases of the year 2006

Release	Title	PC	6th Gen	7th Gen	Handheld
January 9	Electroplankton				NDS
January 10	Mega Man X Collection
	Nicktoons Unite				NDS
					PSP
January 17	25 to Life
	Ape Escape 3
January 18	Samurai Shodown V
January 23	True Swing Golf				NDS
January 25	Marble Blast Ultra
January 31					NDS
February 6	Drill Dozer				GBA
February 7	Resident Evil: Deadly Silence				NDS
	Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX				PSP
	Tales of Legendia
	The Rub Rabbits!				NDS
February 9	Siren 2 (Japan)
February 14					NDS
	Drakengard 2
	Exit				PSP
	Full Auto
	Grandia III
	State of Emergency 2
February 18
February 21
	Sonic Riders
					NDS
February 22	TOCA Race Driver 3
February 27
					PSP
February 28	Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
	Black		PS2, Xbox
	Generation of Chaos				PSP
	Tokyo Xtreme Racer				PSP
March 2
March 6	Pokémon Trozei!				NDS
					PSP
	Tales of Phantasia				GBA
March 7	Burnout Revenge
					PSP
					GBA
March 8
March 9	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter		Xbox
March 13	The Outfit
March 14			PS2, Xbox
	Ice Age 2: The Meltdown	Win	PS2, Xbox, GCN		GBA, NDS
	Mega Man Powered Up				PSP
	Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
					PSP
					PSP
March 15
March 16	Final Fantasy XII (Japan)
March 17
		Win (EU)
	Keepsake	Win (EU)
March 20	Metroid Prime Hunters				NDS
	Tetris DS				NDS
March 21	Metal Gear Acid 2				PSP
	Me & My Katamari				PSP
	Suikoden V
					NDS
			PS2, Xbox
					PSP
March 22					PSP
					NDS, PSP
March 23
	Cooking Mama				NDS
March 24
March 26
March 28
	Dynasty Warriors 5: Empires
	Far Cry Instincts: Predator
	Kingdom Hearts II USA/EU		PS2
	Rumble Roses XX
	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter		PS2
					PSP
March 31	(Europe)				NDS
April 3	James Bond 007: From Russia with Love				PSP
April 4	Bust-a-Move Deluxe				PSP
	Tourist Trophy
April 6	The Silent Hill Experience				PSP
April 11
		Win
	Odama
			PS2, Xbox
April 13	Auto Assault
April 17					NDS
April 18
	Final Fantasy XI
	Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan
	Blades of Thunder II				NDS
	The King of Fighters Neowave
April 20	Mother 3 (Japan)
April 24	Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods
April 25			PS2
	Guilty Gear Dust Strikers				NDS
	LostMagic				NDS
			PS2, Xbox		PSP
April 27	KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (Japan) ^[59]
April 28
May 2	Seed^[60]	Win
May 3	Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
May 9					PSP
May 10
May 15	New Super Mario Bros.				NDS
May 16	Heroes of Might and Magic V
			PS2, Xbox, GCN		GBA, NDS
May 19	The Da Vinci Code
May 23			PS2, Xbox
	Lemmings				PSP
	Monster Hunter Freedom				PSP
	Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
	Steambot Chronicles
May 30			PS2, Xbox
June 1
June 5	Magnetica				NDS
June 6	AND 1 Streetball
	Cars		PS2, Xbox, GCN		NDS, PSP, GBA
	Gradius Collection				PSP
			PS2
	Race Driver 2006				PSP
June 12	Major League Baseball 2K6
	MotoGP '06
June 13	(USA)
	Mega Man Battle Network 6				GBA
June 14	Point Blank DS				NDS
June 15	Gorky 17
	Rugrats Go Wild				GBA
June 20	Break 'Em All				NDS
	NFL Head Coach
					PSP
June 21					PSP
June 26	Sudoku Gridmaster				NDS
	Titan Quest
June 27	Astonishia Story				PSP
					NDS
	Over G Fighters
June 28	Babar to the Rescue				GBA
					PSP
	MTX Mototrax				PSP
		Win	PS2
June 29	Panzer Command
June 30	Flatout 2 (Europe)
July 5
July 11	Chromehounds
	Prey
July 18					PSP
					PSP
	NCAA Football 07				PSP
	Super Dragon Ball Z
	Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth				PSP
July 19	Cloning Clyde
July 20	AFL Premiership 2006 (AUS)
July 24
July 25					PSP
July 26					GBA
August 1	Flatout 2 (North America)
	Dungeon Siege II: Broken World
	Super Monkey Ball Adventure
August 2	Street Fighter II' Hyper Fighting
August 3	Rhythm Tengoku				NDS, GBA
August 4	Cold War
August 8	Dead Rising
August 15			PS2
	Ninety-Nine Nights
	Xyanide
August 18	Pathologic	Win (UK)
August 21	Freedom Wings				NDS
					NDS
August 22	Pac-Man World Rally				PSP
August 28	Star Fox Command				NDS
August 29
					PSP
	Enchanted Arms
	Saints Row
	Super Monkey Ball Adventure				PSP
	Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins				PSP
			PS2
August 30	The Ship	Win
September 1	ROBLOX
September 5	Call of Juarez	Win (EU)
	Go, Diego, Go!				GBA, NDS,
	LocoRoco				PSP
September 6	Bad Day L.A.
September 7	Kengo: Legend of the 9
September 12	Bomberman PSP				PSP
	Company of Heroes
	Joint Task Force
	LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy		PS2, Xbox, GCN		NDS, PSP
	MechAssault: Phantom Way				NDS
	NHL 07		PS2, Xbox GCN,
					PSP
	Rule of Rose
	Mega Man ZX				NDS
September 14	The Cheetah Girls				GBA
September 15		Win (EU)
	W.I.T.C.H.				GBA, NDS
September 18					GBA, NDS
					NDS
					GBA
September 19	Ōkami		PS2
	The Godfather: The Game				PSP
	EverQuest: The Serpent's Spine
	Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
September 22	Just Cause
	^[61]	Win (EU)
September 25					GBA, NDS
	Baten Kaitos Origins (North America)		GCN
	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
					NDS
September 26	Caesar IV
	Dance Dance Revolution SuperNova
	The Fast and the Furious
					NDS
					PSP
September 28	Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (Japan)				NDS
	Kingdom Hearts II (Australia, Europe)		PS2
September 29	(Europe)
October 2	Family Guy Video Game!
	Unfabulous				GBA
October 3	Gangs of London				PSP
	Mercury Meltdown				PSP
October 4
October 5	Desperate Housewives: The Game
October 6	Heroes of Annihilated Empires
	Stacked with Daniel Negreanu				PSP
October 8
October 9
October 10	Crash Boom Bang!				NDS
	God Hand
	Gun				PSP
	Tales of the Abyss
					GBA
October 11
October 12					NDS
	American Dragon: Jake Long – Rise of the Huntsclan				GBA
October 13	Gothic 3
	Microsoft Flight Simulator X^[62]	Win
October 16	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy				GBA
October 17
	Battlefield 2142
	Bully
	Family Guy Video Game!				PSP
	Justice League Heroes				NDS
					GBA
	Sid Meier's Railroads! (North America)
					GBA
					NDS
	Zoo Tycoon 2: Zookeeper Collection
October 18	Football Manager 2007
	Lumines
		Win (US)
October 19	Contact				NDS
	Destroy All Humans! 2		PS2, Xbox
	Disney's Kim Possible: What's the Switch?
October 20					PSP
October 22	Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
October 23	Cars
	Magical Starsign				NDS
	Work Time Fun				PSP
October 24	Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
	F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
	Juka and the Monophonic Menace				GBA
			PS2, Xbox		GBA
	Nacho Libre				NDS
					GBA, NDS
	Phantasy Star Universe
	Reservoir Dogs
					GBA, NDS
	Tokobot
			PS2, Xbox, GCN
	Touch Detective				NDS
October 26	ATV Offroad Fury Pro				PSP
	Guild Wars Nightfall
		Win (AU)
	Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots				GBA
October 30	Dungeon Siege: Thorne of Agony				PSP
	Pokémon Ranger (North America)				NDS
October 31	ATV Offroad Fury 4
	Catscratch				GBA, NDS
					PSP
					PSP
	Final Fantasy XII (United States)		PS2
					PSP
	Konductra				NDS
			PS2, Xbox, GCN
	Neverwinter Nights 2
	Power Stone Collection				PSP
	Tom and Jerry Tales				GBA, NDS
November 2	Dave Mirra BMX Challenge				PSP
November 3	Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends				GBA
November 6	Elite Beat Agents				NDS
	Final Fantasy V				GBA
	Lumines II				PSP
November 7	Call of Duty 3		PS2, Xbox
	Every Extend Extra				PSP
	Guitar Hero II		PS2
	Gears of War
			PS2
	Tony Hawk's Project 8		PS2, Xbox
November 8	Bomberman Land Touch!				NDS
November 9					NDS
November 13	Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
	Polarium Advance				GBA
	Yoshi's Island DS				NDS
	Mortal Kombat: Unchained				PSP
November 14	Bionicle Heroes				GBA, NDS
	Charlotte's Web				GBA, NDS
	EA Replay				PSP
	Eragon				GBA, NDS, PSP
	Final Fantasy III				NDS
	Gitaroo Man Lives!				PSP
	Gunpey				PSP
	Sonic the Hedgehog
			GCN		GBA, NDS
	Xiaolin Showdown		PS2		PSP
	WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007		PS2
November 15
	Xiaolin Showdown
November 16	Sega Genesis Collection				PSP
	Sonic Rivals				PSP
	The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
November 17	Blast Factor
					NDS
	Call of Duty 3
	Cash Guns Chaos DLX
	Ridge Racer 7
	Tony Hawk's Project 8
					GBA
November 19	Avatar: The Last Airbender
	Barnyard
	Call of Duty 3 (America)
	Excite Truck (America)
	(America)
	PocketBike Racer
	Rayman Raving Rabbids (America)
	Red Steel (America)
	Sneak King
	(America)
	(America)
	(America)
	Wii Sports (America)
November 20
November 21	The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine
	Rapala Tournament Fishing
	Thrillville				PSP
					GBA
November 22	Justice League Heroes				PSP
	Rapala Tournament Fishing
	Small Arms
	Superman Returns		PS2, Xbox		NDS
	Tony Hawk's Project 8				PSP
November 27					NDS
November 28
	Online Chess Kingdoms				PSP
	Xiaolin Showdown				NDS
November 29	Garry's Mod
November 30	Final Fantasy VI Advance (Japan)				GBA
December 4	Cartoon Network Racing				NDS
					NDS
	Mercury Meltdown Remix
December 5					PSP
	Fight Night Round 3
	WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007				PSP
					NDS
December 7		Win
					PSP
	Yakuza 2 (Japan)
December 11
December 12
					NDS
	Elebits
	Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing				PSP
	Zatch Bell! Mamodo Fury
December 13	Mashed
			GCN
December 14					NDS
December 19	Bubble Bobble Evolution				PSP
December 20	3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures
	Novadrome
December 21	FlatOut 2 (Steam)
December 27	New Rally-X
December 29

Video game-based film and television releases

Title	Date	Director	Distributor(s)	Franchise	Original game publisher
Grandma's Boy	January 6, 2006	Nicholaus Goossen	20th Century Fox			^[63]
Silent Hill	April 21, 2006	Christophe Gans		Silent Hill	Konami	^[64]
Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea	July 15, 2006	Kunihiko Yuyama	Toho	Pokémon	Game Freak	^[65]
Viva Piñata	August 26, 2006	Paul Griffin	4Kids Entertainment	Viva Piñata	Rare	^[66]
	September 7, 2006	Corey Yuen	Dimension Films	Dead or Alive	Team Ninja
Dance Revolution	September 16, 2006	Keegan Martin	CBS	Dance Dance Revolution	Konami	^[67]
Mega Man Star Force	October 7, 2006	Takao Kato	Xebec	Mega Man	Capcom	^[68]
Gekijōban Dōbutsu no Mori	December 16, 2006	Jōji Shimura	Toho	Animal Crossing	Nintendo	^[69]

See also

• 2006 in esports
• 2006 in games

Notes and References

1. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143136.html GameSpot
2. http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/10114/Konami-Announces-2006-LineUp/ TeamXbox
3. http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2006-01-26T014440Z_01_N1P346561_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-MEDIA-KONAMI-DC.XML&archived=False Reuters
4. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143007.html GameSpot
5. Web site: Gameshout . Gameshout . December 8, 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120204042952/http://www.gameshout.com/news/012006/article2889.htm . February 4, 2012 .
6. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7956 Gamasutra
7. http://pspupdates.qj.net/2006/01/homebrew-games-and-emulation-on-psp.html PSP Updates
8. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7945 Gamasutra
9. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7968 Gamasutra
10. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7967 Gamasutra
11. http://www.joystiq.com/2006/01/31/sony-declares-full-on-assault-on-xbox-live/ Joystiq
12. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7976 Gamasutra
13. http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive.vm?id=695&section=News&month=current Sony
14. http://www.darniaq.com/phpNews/news.php?action=fullnews&showcomments=1&id=192 Darniaq
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17. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vivendi-universal-games-acquires-high-moon-studios-53154337.html Prnewswire
18. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7b9f35e6-8e86-11da-ae63-0000779e2340.html Financial Times
19. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7938 Gamasutra
20. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143188.html GameSpot
21. https://web.archive.org/web/20050223025324/http://www.m-create.com/eng/e_ranking.html Media Create
22. http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/10124/Microsoft-Cuts-Xbox-360-Sales-Target/ TeamXbox
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65. Web site: Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea . 2024-03-16 . Box Office Mojo.
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