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USgamer Community Question: What is the Greatest Year in Gaming History?

After a week of looking back through video gaming's first five decades, it's now down to you to decide which year is the greatest of them all.

This article first appeared on USgamer, a partner publication of VG247. Some content, such as this article, has been migrated to VG247 for posterity after USgamer's closure - but it has not been edited or further vetted by the VG247 team.

USG's community question this week is a hugely important one. We've spent the last five days combing through gaming history, and have compiled a comprehensive feature covering the most important software, hardware and events that have happened over the last five decades.

We've also chosen our five personal favorite years, and have written in-depth features about them.

Now it's up to you

However, we want you to decide which year you think is the greatest. Perhaps you agree with one of the years nominated by the USG team - or maybe you believe a different year deserves the accolade as the greatest.

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Here's all the information you need to help make your decision: Our Greatest Year in Gaming History hub has links to each of our articles, and also features the gaming highlights from every year since 1972.

Please nominate your year in the comments section, and feel free to add any personal notes or reasons why. We'll tally the results next week and announce which year the USgamer readership has voted as the greatest in history.

If you just want to read our individual articles, here they all are:

USGamer Staff Picks: The Five Greatest Years in Gaming History

Jeremy Parish, Editor-in-Chief

YEAR: 1983

If not for the events of 1983, gaming as we know it would be a far different, and likely far lesser, creature. It was gaming's first truly great year, and the basis for every great year since.

Jaz Rignall, Editor-at-Large

YEAR: 1991

Perhaps the most important period so far in video game history was the early 90's, and one year in particular stands out. That's 1991, a twelve month period that in many respects represents a temporal watershed between the early days of the games industry, and the true beginnings of the modern era.

Kat Bailey, Senior Editor

YEAR: 1995

It's one of the only years I can think of in which something truly interesting happened within the industry every single month. Whether it was Nintendo finally pulling the plug on NES production in January, the appearance of Windows 95 in August, or the dramatic rise of the real-time strategy and 3D fighter genres in the fall, there was always something to talk about.

Bob Mackey, Senior Writer

YEAR: 1998

In our modern age of gaming, it seems progress comes solely in baby steps. But you only have to peer back into the '90s to witness a time when each new technological advancement shot us light years forward into a brave, new frontier. In 1998, it still seemed as if gaming had an unlimited potential for surprise.

Mike Williams, Associate Editor

YEAR: 2007

While the rest of my compatriots are choosing numbers prior to 2000 for their own personal greatest years in gaming, I'm drawn to a year within the last decade. My choice may not be as pivotal or historic as some of the previous choices, but a number of great games and franchises were launched during the halcyon days of 2007.

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