From Jason Rubin's rousing DICE speech early in the year where he proclaimed that game developers deserve more respect, to the emergence of the Nintendo DS to the release of Halo 2 and Half-Life 2, there were many events in 2004 that shaped the future of the gaming industry. Here are ten stories from this year that made an impact in how we play our games:
-Sequels flood the marketplace
Of course we see more and more sequels on the market with every year that passes by, but 2004 had a particular abundance of sequels to popular, well-received titles all released within the last two months of the year, which ended up leaving a notable few in the dust, including the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. By now, everyone knows that any game with the title "Grand Theft Auto" attached to it will sell more copies than Hilary Duff CDs in a room of preteen girls, so it was a no-brainer that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold millions since its release, despite what parents may think. And of course, there was Halo 2, which leads me to the next point...
-Halo 2 scores record sales
Though the frenzy for Halo 2 really started in the summer with the ILoveBees viral marketing campaign that hooked players in by confusing the hell out of everyone who had time to care, everyone knows that November 9 was Halo 2 day, and offices around the nation suffered low productivity as workers called in sick to hop on Xbox Live and get fragging. With launch parties nationwide attended by hardcore gamers, casual gamers and celebrities alike, it was as G4techTV associate manager of games editorial Ted Regulski says, "the Halo 2 launch day is the closest thing to mainstream that gaming has ever seen." Some figures for you: Microsoft and Bungie racked up $125 million in sales on the game's release date alone, and have sold over 5 million copies of the game to date.
-Half-Life 2 finally comes out, declared "most important game you'll ever play"
In a year heavy with sequels, no one dared bemoan the release of Valve's Half-Life 2, for which many gamers had anxiously waited for six years to play the game in full. Of course, the release of the game was not the first time anyone had seen the game due to last year's theft and leak of the incomplete game on the internet, but the actual game blew everyone away. PC Gamer awarded Half-Life 2 the title of the "most important game you'll ever play" a month before its release and both critics and fans alike did not disagree with that statement. G4techTV senior games editorial manager Justin Keeling indeed found a new favorite game in Half-Life 2.
"Half-Life 2 is my game of the year. That’s especially relevant as someone who spends most of their time with console games. The crucial first hour of Half-Life 2 is the best video game experience I’ve had since the opening moments of Super Mario 64. A quantum leap in technology demonstrated with rare design subtlety, intelligence, and respect for the player. The environment consistently rewards observation and interaction - I could have happily spent five hours walking around and experiencing that universe without a gun. As it happens, the game moves at the pace of a blockbuster sci-fi action movie and nearly every moment is beautifully orchestrated entertainment."
-EA metastasizes, plays Evil Empire, treats folks badly, takes over the NFL, and we still buy their stuff.
Independent game developers have long quivered in the shadow of Electronic Arts, a company so huge it seems to swallow up everything around it and make it its own, but EA has done much to vilify itself in the gaming community this year, ranging from the purchase of Criterion and its Renderware technology to its exclusivity bid with the NFL. If you happened to enjoy football games other than the Madden series, your game tournaments will have to be put on ice for another five years when the exclusivity deal ends. This year, EA has also made attempts to purchase Swedish developer Digital Illusions CE and French developer Ubisoft; though analysts predict EA will get its way eventually, the French government has stepped in and vowed to interfere with the buying-out process. Finally, the company has come under fire for mistreatment of employees, specifically for forcing them to work overtime hours without adequate pay for extended periods, which was detailed in the EA Spouse blog that became famous this year.
However, business is business, and though Electronic Arts is gaining a reputation as the 'Microsoft of Gaming,' there's no doubt that they're raking in the cash. Wouldn't you do the same?
-Gaming grows up
Though adult themes have been present in games since the dawn of gaming (anyone remember Custer's Revenge?), some game developers really tried to turn up the heat this year with the AO-rated titles Singles: Flirt Up Your Life and Leisure Suit Larry: Uncut & Uncensored, and the pathetic The Guy Game that featured a premise as uncreative as its title would imply. However, for many folks, playing ridiculous trivia games to see girls on spring break flash the camera just didn't inspire any excitement that couldn't be topped by watching Girls Gone Wild, which is essentially the same thing, without the work, is it not?
A few other characters were found this year getting on the fleshwagon that rolled in to town last year when Tecmo sassed up their Dead or Alive girls in DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball, most notably Bloodrayne's nude Playboy spread. Other men's and gaming magazines also featured female characters in sexy getups, leaving one to wonder if anyone's truly turned on or if this is just an elaborate PR gimmick.
In other M-rated news, both Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Halo 2--the biggest sellers of the year--were both rated 'Mature' yet found their way into the homes of gamers of all ages, no doubt.
-Katamari Damacy becomes most overexposed underrated game ever, and we love it.
Whether or not you care about Japanese import games, chances are you heard of Katamari Damacy this year, and if you're a PS2 owner, you probably played it as well. Namco's action-puzzle game about a little alien prince charged with rolling up items on Earth à la the dung beetle made nearly everyone's list of games one should play, and was certainly described as "quirky" and "very Japanese" more times than you could roll up in five minutes.
-MMORPGs aren't just for geeks anymore
Before this year, most people with a social life tended to cringe slightly if you mentioned to them that you had just started playing a new MMORPG, no doubt envisioning you a few weeks down the road wearing the very same clothes--only with more stains, greasy hair and enormous bags under your eyes. However, games such as NCsoft's City of Heroes proved this year that you don't have to spend a sum equivalent to the cost of a new Honda Accord on virtual items to enjoy playing massively-multiplayer online role-playing games, but that you can get in the action and still have time to wash and iron your clothes. To expand the popularity of the former geek genre, developers have also began to bring out MMOs based on popular series such as Final Fantasy (Final Fantasy XI) and the Matrix and even such franchises as Hello Kitty. However, before you get your Ashlee Simpson-obsessed teenage sister to come join your clan, keep in mind that these games still aren't for everyone. As Regulski suggests,"taking the games out of a fantasy-themed world will help push the MMO boundary, but don’t look to the Matrix to bring it into pop culture."
-Current console war: Nintendo DS vs. Sony PSP.
With the recent release of the Nintendo DS, Sony's PlayStation Portable has a lot of catching up to do once it hits stores in North America in early spring, though the handhelds are likely to be fierce competitors once the market for both is raging here. For now, with the Nintendo DS sold out virtually everywhere and with the PSP not yet released, the console war is all about hype, and if you're impressed by the PSP's sleek design, or you know that "touching is good," both sides are doing their jobs well. However, don't dismiss this battle for the ultimate handheld as a kiddie war; both Sony and Nintendo are aiming for a more sophisticated market with their new products, adding features such as a music player and Bluetooth-like connection respectively. However, "but as is the case with all consoles, software will be what decides the war," says Regulski.
-Console makers prepare for next-gen consoles, building hype and collecting fanboys along the way.
Though the successor to Microsoft's Xbox, Xenon, won't be arriving until at least fall or winter of '05, many gaming news sites spent much of this year reporting on rumors surrounding the Xenon, Sony's PlayStation 3, and the Nintendo Revolution. Though expectations are certainly high for all three, very little concrete data has emerged about any of them, especially the Nintendo Revolution. While we have heard who will providing what technology to the other consoles, the sole bit of news regarding the Nintendo Revolution recently has been that the controller will no longer feature the famous D-pad design made popular by controllers for the Nintendo Entertainment System. However, if you were dying to see what tomorrow's games will look like, Digital Extremes released a demo of a potential Xenon/PS3 game called Dark Sector to stir up some always-needed hype for the next generation of consoles.
-Gaming goes mainstream, but at what cost?
Lots of positive gaming stories in the mainstream media this year, but with a very backwards, 1995-ish understanding of games. Peruse any technology section of a major news site this year and you were bound to see headlines such as "Video Games can calm kids before surgery" and "Surgeons may err less by playing video games," but does this imply that folks have now accepted gaming into mainstream culture? Most of these articles that praise gaming make references to puzzle games and simple online games, but rarely is it mentioned that someone learned valuable skills from playing a title such as Halo 2. If gaming is now considered as another facet of popular culture by the mainstream press and other measures of culture, do they perceive gaming the way gamers understand it? Likely not.
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