Pedantic Question: Do you consider Diablo a 1996 game or a 1997 game?

Not that anyone particularly cares, but it came up during a conversation about how 1997 was an underrated year in video games.

I didn't know the release date but I thought I always saw it on 1996 lists so I always assumed it was a '96 game. It's so arbitrary that, for me, it's all about technicality. It was a great year and I would definitely count it as a punctuation to the year. Plus, for GOTY 1997, it would only qualify for old GOTY!

A game's release date is not determined by the day that people but their first full week into a game. It is determined by the day it is released which in this case is 1996. If the developers/publisher wanted the game to be a 1997 game they would have released it 24hrs later but, they didn't so it isn't.

The technicality you mention is the only thing that matters.

Ummmm, the date on this page says it was released in 1996. So I'm guessing 1996 is the correct answer?

@viking_funeral:

Ah the ole Talos Principle problem.

Well here is why your friend has a point even though I'm more in the 1996 camp myself.

game publications, and websites and such rarely ever include December releases in their GoTY discussions because they tend to publish those results in December. So if you don't make December games eligible for the following year they pretty much have no shot at any award. Since that those rubrics are how people debate which year is the best, it makes sense to go by their conventions when partaking in year vs year debates.

And there's some sense to using Thanksgiving as the end of the Video Game year, since most AAA games will be out by then to be available to holiday shoppers. That's historically been the seasonality of the business. So in my mind practically speaking the Video Game year for critics is December 1st through November 31st of the following year.

I guess what I'm really saying is that game publications should hold their GotY stuff in January. But since they don't, here we are and why I think you could very well say Diablo should get included with 1997 since it had no shot to be recognized along with other 1996 games.

I just recently played Diablo 1 in its entirety in one day. Regardless of that, I would still consider it 1996, because that's when it was released, and it really feels as simple as that.

If you were born on December 31, 1996, what year would you say you're born in?

Release date:

the time, as the day, part of the day, and sometimes the hour, on or at which release copy may be published or broadcast.

Date when a product, press release or news story will be released to the public. The release date is announced in advance to provide consumers and other interested parties specific details regarding the release. This may include the date, day, hour or even minute of the upcoming release.

It's 31 december 1996, 1996 in short.

It depends on context. If it's "list of games released in this year" then I would put it in '96, if it's a retrospective on years in gaming, it would be a footnote for '96 and a full-fledged write-up for '97 imo

1997. It was experienced by the public in 1997 and it was up for the 1997 award nominations. Blizzard knew this going in.

I have a sibling born at 11 PM on December 31st, so I'm authorized to make the call.

The year a game is released in is... well, the year of its release!

It doesn't matter if people play it in 1997 or 2097, the game is a game from 1996. A last minute release mind you, but a '96 release nonetheless.

@starvinggamer: Agreed. It was released in 1996 but only experienced in 1997. I think it's equally accurate to describe it as either, really. But then again, drawing such a sharp distinction between "years in gaming" is pretty silly, and this whole thing demonstrates exactly why.

@beachthunder: a more accurate comparison would be "what agegroup would you qualify as" and theres many different cases.

Its released 1996 noone argues that but it belongs to the gamingyear of 1997 for any relevant discussions.

I understand why someone would say the 1997 thing. But if I was doing Game of the Year lists then I would have put it in 1996.

I suspect if you were really into it, you could probably finish it at least once in that first day (it's NYE after all, so there's a decent chance you're on holiday).