Which year do you think is the golden era of games?

2015 could be the best year in gaming in terms of high-profile new releases since 2007. That's according to Xbox product manager calling this period as the "golden era of games."

Here's a short list of some of the games comparing the titles of the holiday 2015/early 2016 season to that of holiday 2007/early 2008:

What do you think, GameSpot? "Is this the golden era of games?"

Don't think 2007 or 2015 was a "golden era" for games? What year do you think deserves that title and why?

The lack of Mario Galaxy in the 2007 list is depressing when the first Assassins Creed in considered "Golden" in its stead. Then again I look at the 2015 list and notice two games missing (Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V). Hmm. . . I'm noticing a pattern.

Moving on,

I call 2005 because I was young and so many games I enjoyed came that year. Resident Evil 4, Devil May Cry 3, Phantom Kingdom, Tekken 5 (console release), God of War, Ninja Gaiden Black, & Shadow of the Colossus.

I would agree, 2015 looks to be the best year ever in gaming.

Hard to say, as different people have different years they thought were amazing in terms of gaming importance.

1998 hasn't been topped.

That had Half-Life, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Thief, Grim Fandango, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Banjo-Kazooie, Baldurs Gate, Resident Evil 2, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Xenogears, Turok 2, and much more...all released in the same year.

Many of those are foundational games in their respective genres, and are still considered among the best games of all time. 2015, in comparison, has a lot of really good sequels.

^^^

1998. Not just nostalgia googles either, at the time and for the most part, now, the games listed here are still very playable.

@Archangel3371: Possibly. 2007 was a great year for fps's. This year looks like it's good for everyone. RPG fans especially, Fallout 4, Witcher 3, are great.

You kinda forgot a few other small titles:
Marvel vs Capcom. Tenchu. Unreal. Medievil. Pokemon red\blue. Also sorry to break it but Starcraft is from 1997, Brood War is from 1998.

But yeah, 1998 was the best year in gaming and 1995-1999 was the golden era of gaming in terms of innovation and masterpiece titles. Today it's just colour and fluff.

Damn that's hard to pick... On the one hand we've had some awesome games this year with plenty more to come for the rest of 2015 & early 2016, but 07/08 had some of my favourite games of all time (ie. Bioshock, and the beginning of the Mass Effect series and Portal).

If I take some of the nostalgia out of the equation, probably have to go with 2015/early 2016... for the sheer number of brilliant games released & more still to come.

and Rush 2, Age of Empires!, Need for Speed III Hot Pursuit, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Unreal, Grand Turismo, 1080˚ Snowboarding!!!!!!!! totally kicks the crap out of this year!

1998 definitely. That year is basically untouchable tbh.

What's this? 2007 Golden Era???? The 80's and 90's were the Golden era of gaming.... I would sway towards the 90's though. The Megadrive/ Genesis and the SNES were the two most influential consoles ever. How old is the poll designer??? 15? In fact I would say 1991 would come close to being a year of Golden. Road Rash, Neverwinter Nights, Another World, Lemmings, Sonic The Hedghog, Street Fighter II, Final Fantasy IV, Super Mario World, F-Zero, The Legend Of Zelda (Famicom), and Civilisation. Harware wise we got the SNES and Mega/SEGA CD

Hold on, I need to find my bias 8-ball and crystal ball to tell you.

There has yet to be a golden era of games.

2004 for sure. San Andreas, Unreal Tournament 2004, Half-life 2, The Sims 2, Doom 3, Fable, the original Battlefront, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, World of Warcraft, NFS: Underground 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Katamari Damacy, Pandora Tomorrow, Halo 2.

Btw, I always thought that, it isn't something i made up just for this comment.

2004. Half Life 2, GTA San Andreas, World of Warcraft, Fable, Star Wars Battlefront, Far Cry, Need for Speed Underground 2, Halo 2

@Planeforger: THAT^

@Planeforger: Indeed, 1998 was the best year in gaming.

I think the mid 1990's to just over 2000's. Consoles started to really make their mark, RPG's started to become full blown worlds to roam and swear words started to appear in some games lol

@GameSpot: With the two years given I have to go with 2007/8 as the golden years because these games (and others not included in this particular list) have redefined games from then on - great games that were fun and made a difference. For 2015/16, these are all awesome games with great potential and represent a neo-resurgence, but to what degree they will define or change gaming from here-on is undetermined. But no question that this is one of the best line-ups in years (particularly for Xbox). And I agree with others that an argument could be made that the late 1990's was a classic time for games and game innovation. Games released back then began to show what was possible and were on the cutting edge of innovation. So we have the early years (1960-1984), the formative years (1984-1995), the classic years (1995-2002), the golden years, and now the neo-resurgence. At least that's one way of looking at it. But this is all very skewed because this poll (2007 vs 2015) is focused on a release suite of Xbox games, which is fine, but an intentionally selective view of games over the years. There have been MANY great games besides those released on Xbox. But hey, I love my Xbox consoles, so it's no big deal to me. Indeed, I am looking forward to many of the soon to be released games. Yippee ki-yay!

1998 was the best

It's already passed.

The ten-year period from the mid 90's to the mid 2000's showed more innovations than any other period.

3D-acceleration

Dual-analog sticks

The move from 16-bit to 32-bit gaming

Online Multiplayer

Cartridge to disc-based

For me it's a wider span. Something like from '95 to 2004.

Maybe it's just wishful thinking but I'm going to go ahead and say it's right now or will be just soon. I feel like the AAA devs took some misteps for the start of this new console gen but they seem to be righting themselves presently. All the while, indy devs are killing it w/ smaller titles left and right. Online options are better than ever. Gaming is becoming more accessible w/ actual good games on mobile devices. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty good time for gaming.

2001 was another good year

@Planeforger: Rainbow 6, unreal, need for speed 3 hot pursuit...

Right there , all fun games , can't beat 98.

I think Parasite Eve came at that time as well.

Personally, if choosing between the two, my vote is for 2007. Lots of ground being broken, plus this was during a time in my life where I could afford (both fiscally and time wise) to spend as much as I wanted on gaming.

The golden era of gaming was when nintendo released the golden sun and sony released uncharted the golden abyss

So many great games over the years, might be easier to list the years that didn't have a bunch of great games than all the years that did.

1994:

Streets of Rage 3, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Super Metroid, Mega Man X & X2 (depending on your region), Tie Fighter, Wing Commander III, Castlevania: Bloodlines, Contra: Hard Corps, Rocket Knight Adventures II, Sparkster, Mega Turrican, Crusader of Centy, Grind Stormer, and Maximum Carnage.

To me, it doesn't get any better than that, but I can pick a lot of good years from the 90's through '04.

1998. Because duh.

@GameSpot: Neither. 1998 or 1999. No other year in gaming will ever hold a candle to either of those.

Let me guess....you say this every new year.

@bussinrounds said:

@Archangel3371 said:

I would agree, 2015 looks to be the best year ever in gaming.

Let me guess....you say this every new year.

Nope.

2015/2016 looks to be a great year, but until all of these game release and I play them, I can't say this year is the best.

@Planeforger: Couldn't agree more!

Not sure, but 2016 looks promising. My favorite game as a kid was Ocarina of Time, so 1998 deserves another point, I guess. :P

Looks like this gen will finally get a real kick next year.

The choice of games like Forza 6 and Black Ops 3 for 2015/16, instead of others like Bloodborne/MGS5 is simply puke inducing...

1998 is still best; Half-Life, Starcraft, Fallout 2, Thief: The Dark Project, Grim Fandango, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Banjo-Kazooie, Baldurs Gate, Resident Evil 2, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Xenogears, Turok 2, Panzer Dragon Saga, System Shock 2 and so on.

And you are missing a lot of games on your 2007 list that make 2015 look like a joke; The Witcher, Crysis, Supreme Commander, STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Portal, Half Life 2: Episode 2, World in Conflict and so on... In battle between 2007 and 2015, 2007 wins and it's not even close. Overall, it's 1998.

Hard to pick:

-1993: MYST happened. CD-ROM based games took off.

-1995: Descent

-1998: Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit

And some others in the 2000's.

no, but it is a Golden Era of Bitching and Whining

I actually 2012 was the best year since 2007. So many good thing came out that year

2015 hasn't been that great. 1996, 1998, 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012 were all better years.

" Star Wars Battlefront Forza Motorsport 6 Rise of the Tomb Raider Call of Duty: Black Ops 3" Star wars looks sub par forza is a game people who don't know what to buy, and car enthusiasts play tomb raider is a ripoff of uncharted and call of duty is call of duty.Bloodborne and metal gear solid 5 are not in that list.Deux ex mankind divided and street fighter 5 could have been in that list for early 2016 games.How does call of duty get in there instead of street fighter.I don't even play street fighter games and know that doesn't make sense.Its street fighter.Also did you see the previews for the new deus ex?To be fair to call of duty 3 it does look better than star wars battlefront.Which is really disappointing, and shouldn't be the case.

Well, some of us would much rather play Forza 6 then either of those two games.

@GameSpot:

Clearly late 2015 since the only game that count is NFS. Enough said.