Halo, Flight Simulator and Minecraft make Time Magazine’s 50 Best Video Games of All Time

Laurent Giret

While the Redmond giant is mostly focused on empowering everyone and every organization to achieve more nowadays, there is no denying that entertainment has definitely remained in the king of productivity’s DNA. Obviously, Microsoft remains committed to making Xbox the best gaming ecosystem for both console and PC gamers, and new initiatives such as Xbox Play Anywhere and the upcoming Project Scorpio definitely proves it.

Moreover, Microsoft already achieved a great deal with its first-party games over the last 20 years or more. Indeed, it’s likely that many of Microsoft’s games will leave their mark on the history of video games (yes, even the Windows 95-era Minesweeper and SkiFree games).

As proof, Time Magazine released this week a list of their 50 best video games of all time, and three Microsoft Studios game made it into the list:

https://twitter.com/MSStudiosBlog/status/768476797264498688

Here is what Time Magazine said about the ranking:

Representing multiple generations of gamers, TIME’s tech team put more than 150 nominees through a multistage ranking process to compile a cross-section of gaming’s best ideas across nearly four decades.

To begin, Halo: Combat Evolved ranked 25th in the list. If you’re not familiar with it, the sci-fi shooter launched in 2001 on the original Xbox console to critical acclaim, and the game developed by Bungie proved to PC gamers that first person shooters could be enjoyable on consoles (the multiplayer experience was especially praised, and this component definitely remains a highlight in Halo 5: Guardians as well ). Over the years, Halo went on to become one of Microsoft’s most successful game franchises ever, and the first opus developed was remastered for the Xbox 360 in 2011 and is also included in Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One.

Next, Microsoft Flight Simulator X ranked 23rd in the list. The game launched in 2006 on Windows and is the tenth installment of the popular flight simulation game series. While the franchise is definitely not as mainstream as Halo, Flight Simulator is still praised for its realism and attention to details. Furthermore, the game still claims an important base of players including professional pilots who use it to train with its 24 aircrafts, 38 cities, and realistic air traffic control system.

Lastly, Minecraft claimed the sixth rank in the list and ended between The Legend of Zelda and Ms. Pac-man. While Microsoft acquired Minecraft developer Mojang in September 2014, the sandbox game initially launched in November 2011 and has since become one of the most popular games ever with over 100 million copies sold worldwide. The game is today completely ubiquitous and really popular on mobile devices, and the growing interest for the game in the Education sector also led Microsoft to release an Education Edition of Minecraft earlier this year.

A few additional notes: Rise of the Tomb Raider, which was published by Microsoft and Square Enix (but was developed by Crystal Dynamics) and is still an Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive claimed the 18th spot. Goldeneye, a cult-classic shooter which was developed by Rare (acquired by Microsoft in 2002) for the Nintendo 64 ended on the 22th spot. And if you’re wondering, the top 3 games on the podium are all Nintendo games: Tetris ranked first, followed by Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

We invite you to check the full list over here. Let us know what you think of this list in the comments below!