THE LAST OF US, WII SPORTS ENTERING VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME

The first commercial video game and the first one marketed to girls are headed to the World Video Game Hall of Fame, alongside a postapocalyptic nail-biter and a system that made gamers out of grandparents

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Computer Space, Barbie Fashion Designer, The Last of Us and Wii Sports were announced Thursday as the Hall of Fame's class of 2023.

The Hall of Fame honors arcade, console, computer, handheld and mobile games that have influenced popular culture or the video game industry. This year's additions bring to 40 the number of games to be enshrined since its opening at The Strong museum in 2015.

The winners were voted in by a panel of experts from a field of finalists that also included Age of Empires, Angry Birds, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, FIFA International Soccer, Goldeneye 007, NBA 2K, Quake and Wizardry.

Nutting Associates' coin-operated Computer Space appeared in 1971 as the first commercial video game and was recognized for proving that video games could reach paying audiences outside of the labs where they were being developed. It didn't garner the kind of commercial success that would bring video games to the masses, according to the hall, but it did lay the foundation for the gaming industry: The developers went on to establish the gaming giant Atari Inc.