Events
Notable releases
- Bullfrog Productions releases Populous on June 5, 1989, which was one of the first commercially successful god games.
- Namco releases Winning Run; Rompers; Blast Off, which is the sequel to Bosconian; Valkyrie No Densetsu; Dirt Fox; World Stadium '89; Finest Hour; Burning Force; Winning Run Suzuka GP; Four Trax; Dangerous Seed and Marvel Land.
- Maxis releases Will Wright's SimCity, the first of the "Sim" games and a revolutionary real-time software toy.
- Tengen releases an unlicensed version of the Tetris video game, which is recalled after Nintendo sues Tengen.
- Wes Cherry writes Solitaire and Robert Donner writes Minesweeper, which are bundled with Microsoft Windows starting from version 3.
- Brøderbund releases the Prince of Persia game, the first in a series of games, noted for its advancements in animation.
- Nintendo of America introduces Enix's Dragon Warrior franchise to North America.
- Techno Soft releases Herzog Zwei (Mega Drive/Genesis) an important development in the real-time strategy genre.
- Psygnosis release Shadow of the Beast, demonstrating the capabilities of the Amiga and helping sales of the computer.
- Strategic Studies Group releases Warlords on December 6, 1989, which was one of the first fantasy turn-based strategy game.
Hardware
Business
- Hasbro, Inc. acquires elements of Coleco Industries, Inc.
- Trinity Acquisition Corporation founded (renamed THQ in 1990)
- Nintendo of America, Inc. v. Tengen
- Nintendo sues Tengen over the Tetris video game copyrights. Tengen loses and recalls all its Tetris games.
- November - Nintendo sues Tengen over production of unlicensed Nintendo games. Tengen loses. (Tengen originally sued Nintendo on December 12, 1988 for antitrust violations.)
- Nintendo v. Camerica Ltd. Nintendo sues Camerica over patent violations of the Game Genie for the NES console. Camerica wins the suit.
- Nintendo in business for 100 years.
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