Welcome back once more as we discuss the last decade in games and the first year of the eighth console generation, 2014. A brief reminder, these posts are leading up to a Game of the Decade vote using a brand new voting system. So keep thinking about these games and which will be making it to your ultimate list come July 8th (date subject to change slightly stay tuned). In case you missed them take a look back at our previous posts for 2010 / 2011 / 2012 / 2013. Without much more delay lets move onto the year 2014.
2014 is somewhat different from the years we have previously discussed. Opening a new year we saw the new console generation kicking off but game dev stepping quite slowly into it. If you owned a PS3 or Xbox 360 you could largely keep using it without missing out in 2014. Nonetheless, there were some big steps being taken to build up the next generation. First echos of 2010 as cloud gaming and gaming services were announced and launched. First up we had, PlayStation Now, a cloud streaming games service from Sony that allowed users to stream games without downloads at the click of a button. Next for the year, we saw Electronic Arts launch EA Access exclusively for the Xbox One. EA Access was a catalog of EA games that could be downloaded and played for any subscriber. These two services had different approaches, but the end result was games and services coming closer together. A trend that would build as the years went on.
Closing 2013 we discussed the closure of LucasArts and sadly that trend continues into 2014 and the years that will follow. With the explosive growth of the industry, it also brought an unsteadiness to some studio's work. Starting the year in February we saw Irrational Games, the creator of the BioShock series shutter as Ken Levine decided he wished to step back from AAA game dev. In May, Electronic Arts shut down Mythic Entertainment as they pivoted their mobile development to plans that did not include Mythic. In June, following months of financial difficulties and missed wage payments and bonuses Crytek USA and Crytek UK were shut down. In some good news for these layoffs, many former Crytek UK staff would transfer quickly to Dambuster Studios. Finally, in July, Airtight Games was shut down following the commercial failures of Murdered: Soul Suspect.
In the same realm of closure we also have acquisitions, come 2014 major acquisitions in the industry were really taking off. The biggest of the year is certainly the $2.5 billion acquisition of Minecraft developer Mojang by Microsoft Studios. A big purchase for one of gamings most defined brands. In the VR space, Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion another large purchase showing a commitment to the growth of VR. Streaming too was on the rise as Twitch was acquired by Amazon.com for $970 million. These purchases are all indicative of one thing, gamings transformation into the mainstream that corporate consolidation was here and here to stay. Finally, we also saw a new start for Nordic Games as they acquired the publishing label of THQ.
Before we get too far away from it VR was also starting to find a foothold in the industry, beyond the acquisition of Oculus we also saw Project Morpheus announced. From Sony Project Morpheus promised a fully integrated VR system for the home consoles. At E3 for the year there was much of the usual, with the new hardware out focus was much more on software this time around. One key takeaway from E3 2014 was Microsoft's continued apology tour for the Xbox One stripping the Kinect out of the package and promising the hardware still had promise. In other major show announcements for the year in general, we also saw the end of the Spike VGA/VGX, in its place came The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley the show promised to bring more to the awards compared to prior years of Spike's show.
One final note about 2014, this was the year controversy and harassment campaigns really began to dominate the social discourse. It wasn't okay then and as it has continued to happen through the years it is still not okay. Although these postings are not the forum for such discussion remember to treat people well and be an active participant in building up good in your communities, online or otherwise.
Come 2014 we have a lot of game releases, even in just the past few lists, you might have seen your favorite game left out. So going forward we will instead be breaking down the year into three separate lists without summary, a bit boring sure but hopefully, it will do its job of refreshing your memory for the year. So for 2014, we had a slower year with some publishers finishing their commitments to the seventh generation while others were stepping into the next generation while keeping one foot planted in the past year with cross-gen releases. Take a look and see which games you might have forgotten from the year or which were your definitive favorites.
In franchises:
Indie dev as we have shown in the Indie Spotlight the indie space had arrived to the mainstream by and large. There were many games releasing and many of them hit upon the same successes as some games in the AAA space. One place to start might be with Divinity: Original Sin which takes lessons from other major classic RPG and dedicates itself to using those lessons to make a new classic RPG on an indie budget scale. This passion for the genre has led to greater success for developer Larian Studios but also aided in blurring the line between indie and Triple AAA game dev. "Indie" today is a much blurrier line. Part of that is when the small independent studios throw themselves into a project completely and use their creativity to create something they are proud of and that people can enjoy.
Part of this growth of the independent studio can also bee seen in Telltale Games continued success with The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Wolf Among Us. While it is agreed upon that the second season of The Walking Dead does not necessarily hit the same highs is still widely regarded as another touching season in which character is front and center. Similarly, The Wolf Among Us remains a cult hit with a second season still a hotly anticipated title even after the death of Telltale and its rebirth under a new studio. Transistor too a symbol of indie studios learning and growing as they move past their first success with Supergiant Games creating something new and different that players took to quickly for its compelling gameplay and storyline. Plus it has a killer soundtrack that is absolutely amazing.
Story in the indie space was also becoming central, storytellers found freedom and used that freedom to tell stories they cared about. Including the previous examples, we also have This War of Mine a survival story, not about the soldiers but the civilians as they try and survive under siege. Further, The Banner Saga a turn-based strategy game that explored a Norse society as they explore two stories as they come together driven by player choice. These stories would build into further installments makings this series the saga promised in the title.
Finally, we have the Kickstarter success story of Shovel Knight. A careful homage to classic platformers Shovel Knight is a love letter just as much as Divinity: Original Sin is to its genre. Beyond that, it was something people took to and supported funding the game and stretch goals that would turn into such expansive DLC packs it would take years for each to be finished as full titles in their own right. 2014 for the indie space was a symbol of passion, something that truly has to be paid attention to as the years went on.
For 2014 critics and readers alike were a bit more split with a much wider spread on the ultimate winner as seen on gotypicks. Nonetheless, there was a definitive winner with Dragon Age: Inquisition taking 134 total awards. Runners up include Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor with 49 awards, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U with 28 each, and Far Cry 4 with 26. The major awards shows, including the newly minted Game Awards taking the place of VGX, are as follows,
Special thanks to B-Dubs for help in putting together and revising things, to Delphine for help putting together graphics, to pjl93 for help compiling games and events for each year, and to the entirety of the Game of the Year team for their input.
2014 is somewhat different from the years we have previously discussed. Opening a new year we saw the new console generation kicking off but game dev stepping quite slowly into it. If you owned a PS3 or Xbox 360 you could largely keep using it without missing out in 2014. Nonetheless, there were some big steps being taken to build up the next generation. First echos of 2010 as cloud gaming and gaming services were announced and launched. First up we had, PlayStation Now, a cloud streaming games service from Sony that allowed users to stream games without downloads at the click of a button. Next for the year, we saw Electronic Arts launch EA Access exclusively for the Xbox One. EA Access was a catalog of EA games that could be downloaded and played for any subscriber. These two services had different approaches, but the end result was games and services coming closer together. A trend that would build as the years went on.
Closing 2013 we discussed the closure of LucasArts and sadly that trend continues into 2014 and the years that will follow. With the explosive growth of the industry, it also brought an unsteadiness to some studio's work. Starting the year in February we saw Irrational Games, the creator of the BioShock series shutter as Ken Levine decided he wished to step back from AAA game dev. In May, Electronic Arts shut down Mythic Entertainment as they pivoted their mobile development to plans that did not include Mythic. In June, following months of financial difficulties and missed wage payments and bonuses Crytek USA and Crytek UK were shut down. In some good news for these layoffs, many former Crytek UK staff would transfer quickly to Dambuster Studios. Finally, in July, Airtight Games was shut down following the commercial failures of Murdered: Soul Suspect.
In the same realm of closure we also have acquisitions, come 2014 major acquisitions in the industry were really taking off. The biggest of the year is certainly the $2.5 billion acquisition of Minecraft developer Mojang by Microsoft Studios. A big purchase for one of gamings most defined brands. In the VR space, Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion another large purchase showing a commitment to the growth of VR. Streaming too was on the rise as Twitch was acquired by Amazon.com for $970 million. These purchases are all indicative of one thing, gamings transformation into the mainstream that corporate consolidation was here and here to stay. Finally, we also saw a new start for Nordic Games as they acquired the publishing label of THQ.
Before we get too far away from it VR was also starting to find a foothold in the industry, beyond the acquisition of Oculus we also saw Project Morpheus announced. From Sony Project Morpheus promised a fully integrated VR system for the home consoles. At E3 for the year there was much of the usual, with the new hardware out focus was much more on software this time around. One key takeaway from E3 2014 was Microsoft's continued apology tour for the Xbox One stripping the Kinect out of the package and promising the hardware still had promise. In other major show announcements for the year in general, we also saw the end of the Spike VGA/VGX, in its place came The Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley the show promised to bring more to the awards compared to prior years of Spike's show.
One final note about 2014, this was the year controversy and harassment campaigns really began to dominate the social discourse. It wasn't okay then and as it has continued to happen through the years it is still not okay. Although these postings are not the forum for such discussion remember to treat people well and be an active participant in building up good in your communities, online or otherwise.
Come 2014 we have a lot of game releases, even in just the past few lists, you might have seen your favorite game left out. So going forward we will instead be breaking down the year into three separate lists without summary, a bit boring sure but hopefully, it will do its job of refreshing your memory for the year. So for 2014, we had a slower year with some publishers finishing their commitments to the seventh generation while others were stepping into the next generation while keeping one foot planted in the past year with cross-gen releases. Take a look and see which games you might have forgotten from the year or which were your definitive favorites.
In franchises:
- Alien: Isolation – The Creative Assembly
- Assassin's Creed Unity – Ubisoft Montreal
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel - 2K Australia
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Sledgehammer Games
- Dragon Age: Inquisition – BioWare
- Elite Dangerous - Frontier Developments
- Far Cry 4 – Ubisoft Montreal
- Forza Horizon 2 - Playground Games
- The Last of Us: Left Behind – Naughty Dog
- South Park: The Stick of Truth – Obsidian Entertainment
- Wolfenstein: The New Order - MachineGames
- Child of Light – Ubisoft Montreal
- Destiny – Bungie
- The Evil Within - Tango Gameworks
- Hearthstone – Blizzard Entertainment
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Monolith Productions
- Sunset Overdrive – Insomniac Games
- Titanfall – Respawn Entertainment
- Valiant Hearts: The Great War - Ubisoft Montpellier
- Bayonetta 2 – PlatinumGames
- Bravely Default – Silicon Studio
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Spike
- Dark Souls II – FromSoftware
- Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo EAD
- Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes - Kojima Productions
- Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire – Game Freak
- Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U – Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Games
- Tomodachi Life – Nintendo SPD
Indie dev as we have shown in the Indie Spotlight the indie space had arrived to the mainstream by and large. There were many games releasing and many of them hit upon the same successes as some games in the AAA space. One place to start might be with Divinity: Original Sin which takes lessons from other major classic RPG and dedicates itself to using those lessons to make a new classic RPG on an indie budget scale. This passion for the genre has led to greater success for developer Larian Studios but also aided in blurring the line between indie and Triple AAA game dev. "Indie" today is a much blurrier line. Part of that is when the small independent studios throw themselves into a project completely and use their creativity to create something they are proud of and that people can enjoy.
Part of this growth of the independent studio can also bee seen in Telltale Games continued success with The Walking Dead: Season Two and The Wolf Among Us. While it is agreed upon that the second season of The Walking Dead does not necessarily hit the same highs is still widely regarded as another touching season in which character is front and center. Similarly, The Wolf Among Us remains a cult hit with a second season still a hotly anticipated title even after the death of Telltale and its rebirth under a new studio. Transistor too a symbol of indie studios learning and growing as they move past their first success with Supergiant Games creating something new and different that players took to quickly for its compelling gameplay and storyline. Plus it has a killer soundtrack that is absolutely amazing.
Story in the indie space was also becoming central, storytellers found freedom and used that freedom to tell stories they cared about. Including the previous examples, we also have This War of Mine a survival story, not about the soldiers but the civilians as they try and survive under siege. Further, The Banner Saga a turn-based strategy game that explored a Norse society as they explore two stories as they come together driven by player choice. These stories would build into further installments makings this series the saga promised in the title.
Finally, we have the Kickstarter success story of Shovel Knight. A careful homage to classic platformers Shovel Knight is a love letter just as much as Divinity: Original Sin is to its genre. Beyond that, it was something people took to and supported funding the game and stretch goals that would turn into such expansive DLC packs it would take years for each to be finished as full titles in their own right. 2014 for the indie space was a symbol of passion, something that truly has to be paid attention to as the years went on.
For 2014 critics and readers alike were a bit more split with a much wider spread on the ultimate winner as seen on gotypicks. Nonetheless, there was a definitive winner with Dragon Age: Inquisition taking 134 total awards. Runners up include Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor with 49 awards, Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U with 28 each, and Far Cry 4 with 26. The major awards shows, including the newly minted Game Awards taking the place of VGX, are as follows,
- The British Academy Games Awards - Destiny
- Game Developers Choice Awards - Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
- D.I.C.E. Awards - Dragon Age: Inquisition
- The Game Awards - Dragon Age: Inquisition
Special thanks to B-Dubs for help in putting together and revising things, to Delphine for help putting together graphics, to pjl93 for help compiling games and events for each year, and to the entirety of the Game of the Year team for their input.
