ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — This year’s finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame include trailblazers in esports, electronic pets and portable gaming, as well as the arcade favorite brought to life in a 1998 episode of “Seinfeld.”
The Hall of Fame revealed the 12 finalists up for induction on Thursday and opened a week of public voting. The winners will be enshrined May 8 at the hall’s new space inside The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester.
The 2025 finalists are: Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Defender, Frogger, Golden Eye, Golden Tee, Harvest Moon, Mattel Football, Quake, NBA 2K and Tamagotchi.
“This year’s finalists span the decades and range from arcade classics to one of the most popular mobile games of all time,” Jon-Paul C. Dyson, director of The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games, said in a news release. “All of these games have enormously influenced pop culture or the game industry itself.”
Released in 1977, Mattel Football was the first blockbuster handheld electronic game. It paved the way for systems like Nintendo’s Game Boy and today’s mobile devices, according to the hall. Three decades later, cellphones put another nominee into the hands of countless players. Rovio’s 2009 Angry Birds was downloaded billions of times and launched movies and merchandise.
Notable for their influence on esports, according to the Hall of Fame, are nominees: Golden Tee: Fore! by Incredible Technologies, the 1989 arcade golf game whose sequels included a 1995 version that allowed for tournaments; Sega’s 1999 NBA 2K, which inspired a professional esports league, and Id Software’s Quake, one of the first esports whose first-person shooter’s 3D engine became an industry standard.
Tamagotchi, which created a digital pet for its owner to raise, earned a nomination for bridging toys and video games in 1996. It was reborn as an app in 2013.
The nominees also include two arcade games released in 1981: Defender, by Williams Electronics, which the Hall of Fame said proved players would embrace more complex and challenging games; and Frogger, developed by Konami. Frogger cemented a place in pop culture with a 1998 episode of “Seinfeld,” in which George navigates a Frogger-style arcade cabinet across a busy road, mimicking the game’s frogs.
Microsoft’s 1997 Age of Empires was the company’s bestselling PC game to that date and is still played by millions around the world, the Hall of Fame said. Farming game Harvest Moon, released in 1996, offered a peaceful alternative to the combat and action games that dominated the industry — and would be central to fellow nominees Goldeneye 007, released by Rare and Nintendo in 1997; and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the 2007 installment of Activision’s hit franchise.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame gets thousands of nominations online each year for arcade, console, computer and handheld games. Staff members choose the finalists based on the their longevity, geographical reach and influence on game design and pop culture. The inductees are then chosen in a ballot vote by an international committee of experts.
The three games that receive the most public votes count as one ballot in the final tally. Public voting closes March 13.