Let's Remember What Video Game Websites Looked Like In The 90s

Yesterday, I used to be casually searching Bluesky and got here throughout this pleasant thread:

Man, I really like late-’90s/early-’00s web sites, don’t you? The simplicity. The goofy fonts. The customer counters. The character! That entire thread is gold, really, not only for the retro vibes but in addition for the sheer hilarity that’s seeing web sites which might be large, corporate-owned mazes at present of their primaeval varieties as private running a blog areas about marriage, rising older, faith, journey, and different humdrum human actions.

The thread above canvases earlier incarnations of websites together with doordash.com, hulu.com, slack.com, x.com (not almost the worst place on the net!!!!), and extra. Nevertheless it made me curious: what about online game web sites? Have been any of the favored recreation web sites we all know at present initially one thing else? Maybe one thing extra private, or foolish?

Utilizing the great ol’ Web Archive, I began with some massive AAA gaming corporations. Sadly, a lot of the ones I appeared up have been solely ever web sites for these corporations, versus as soon as being somebody’s weblog. Nonetheless, it’s not all unhealthy. Let’s stroll collectively by way of a short tour of what main gaming web sites appeared like 20-30 years in the past.

Right here’s EA, circa 1997. The little squares round “welcome to ea on-line” flip-flop forwards and backwards between totally different photographs. Deliciously retro. I needed to search for what “Jane’s” was (Jane’s Fight Simulations). The Bullfrog website is fairly humorous too, particularly the “Your Browser Window Ought to Be Set To This Width” line, whose really useful dimensions solely take up a couple of third of my monitor house.

©Digital Arts

Now let’s go see what Ubisoft is as much as across the identical ti-wow! “the pod GAME SERVICE IS HERE!! Obtain it Now!!” is perfection. Oh, and look, Ubi Smooth merchandise can be on show at E3! I guess that’ll be good!

Ubisoftwebsite1998 — ©Ubisoft. Or, I suppose, UbiSoft?

Right here’s what GameFAQs appeared like on the finish of 1996. Bear in mind when web sites have been up to date by similar to, one individual, who might go on trip each time?

Right here’s Nintendo from 1997, when it was nonetheless targeted across the Nintendo Energy journal.

It’s simple to neglect that Blizzard’s Battle.internet has been round because the Stone Age or so. The oldest variations of that website aren’t a lot to have a look at, however Blizzard dot com in 1996 is pleasantly retro. And look, there are employment alternatives out there!

However not all game-related web sites have been round that lengthy. Let’s check out some that have been actually totally different as soon as.

Most video games media web sites both don’t have anything archived from that way back, or already existed, however I did discover the outdated Polygon dot com web site and, you already know what, you’re proper, I’m unsure I’ve the appropriate Polygon!

Screenshot 2026 05 05 150212 — ©Polygon???

EpicGames dot com in 1996 definitely does appear to be a purveyor of video video games, although I’m unsure yow will discover Fortnite right here. Nevertheless, these video games ARE on the Video games Sampler 2 for Home windows 95!

This subsequent one is what actually satisfied me to do that publish, and I feel solely works as a result of “Discord” is such a standard phrase however the product is comparatively latest. Again in ’96, Discord dot com belonged to somebody who was actually into MUDs, the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sondheim musicals, and The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Good style!

Alongside the identical strains, my seek for different gaming-related web sites that haven’t been round that lengthy however have fairly primary names led me to seek for “elgato.com”, which is now the web site of the streaming equipment maker. Round 1996, I used to be anticipating one thing cat-related. I used to be not anticipating a cigar store:

And at last, I couldn’t not go take a look at Kotaku dot com. Its earliest archives are simply an expired area, sadly, however right here it’s in October 2004, in all of its glory: