Notable years in gaming?

Ever look back at a year's events in terms of video games and think "Wow, that was a packed year"? I know I have. This is a topic I've always been fascinated about, so I'd like to ask, what would you consider some of the more notable or even best years in gaming in terms of events and/or releases?

The exact criteria is up to you. It can be important influential releases and events, or it could just be personal ones that you like a lot, or maybe you had distinct fond gaming memories within that year? It also doesn't matter if you count the original release dates or when they were released in your country or even both.

Years like 1987, 1996 1997, 2007, and 1998 are all years I see thrown around legacy-wise, and for good reason, but for my nomination, one more modern year (if you count 7 years ago (geez) modern) I think that has already reached the statuses of those is 2017

Here's just a couple notable releases and events from 2017 that I feel are notable in some way and brought up to this very day:

• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
• Horizon: Zero Dawn
• The Nintendo Switch
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Persona 5 (Western release at least. Was a late 2016 release in Japan)
• Nier: Automata
• Cuphead
• Sonic Mania
• PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
• Fortnite
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Star Wars Battlefront II's whole lootbox controversy bringing national attention to the exact depths of microtransactions
• Nioh

And that's just scratching the surface. It really felt like there was a big notable thing happening every month or so then.

I'd also like to give shout-outs to 1991 2001, 2008, 2013, and the aforementioned 1996, 1998, and 2007, but I'd be here all day, if I went fully in-depth on those.