Release

The game was first announced in a pre-launch on March 15, 1995 at the New Media Expo at the Writers Guild booth. It was later shown at the first E3 in May the same year. Sean McGowan, an analyst for research boutique Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. estimated that the game needed to sell 100,000 copies to break even.

William Gibson helped promote the game by making an on-line appearance on CompuServe and ZiffNet on May 18, 1995. The game was shipped on May 26, 1995. Shortly after its release, Douglas Gayeton left Propaganda Films to work on other projects. The developer Propaganada Code also closed, with Johnny Mnemonic as their only game. In July 1995, Sony Imagesoft was folded into Sony Computer Entertainment of America due to Sony Corporation of America restructuring their video games operations to prepare for the release of the PlayStation. The game was planned as a launch title for the PlayStation but was never released. A version for the Sega CD was also announced but was also unreleased.

Reception

Johnny Mnemonic received polarizing reviews from video game critics. Christopher Allen from Allgame described the game as "a painful example of why FMV so often fails to achieve significant interactive gameplay." The Los Angeles Times felt the game found ways to make the generally "deadly" genre of interactive movies interesting and exciting. The Seattle Times felt it was a "breakthrough" as the first electronic game to be considered a true interactive movie with Hollywood standards. Andy Grieser from The Chicago Tribune was so engrossed in the "addictive" title that he began shouting out loud during the fight sequences.

Charles Ardai for Computer Gaming World remarked that the game suffered from "Dragon's Lair syndrome", noting that the player is only given one chance of success or else clicking the mouse too early or too late causes a game over.

Hardcore Gamer considered the game to be one of the lowest points for publisher Sony Imagesoft.