The gaming industry remains one of the fastest evolving industries in the world, one that constantly adapts, and one that is increasingly expanding its reach and grasp on the citizens of the world’s free time. As such, there’s rarely a month go by which can be called a bad month in the industry, especially not when we look at it as players rather than puppet-masters and suits.
To wave out the old, and welcome in the new we’ll be going through some of the defining factors of each of the months of the year. We’ll be listing some of the games that launched, discussing some of the events that happened, and discussing some of the implications that they had throughout the year, or might have going into the next.
So, without further ado,
August 2016
August saw the release on the Xbox One S, as well as Overcooked, Abzu (PS4, PC), No Man’s Sky, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Hue, N++ (PC), Metrico+, This is the Police, as well as The Turing Test, the World of Warcraft Legion expansion, and console versions of Verdun; among other titles.
- Near the start of the month Valve made changes to the way that gifting worked on Steam; specifically the ones with the VAC and Game Ban anti-cheating protection on them. The changes meant that players with a VAC ban could no longer trade extra copies of the game away, nor could they receive it as a gift. Players now have to redeem or instantly send copies of the effected games. (Steam)
- Unity support was announced for the Facebook platform; while there’s only been minor movements in this direction since, it spells further integration of gaming into the platform. (Facebook Developer Blog)
- Sony announced that the Playstation Now, streaming & subscription service would be coming to PCs before the year ended. Meanwhile, the PS4 Slim started showing up at various media outlets, however Sony was quick to deny the existence of the systems, and all of a sudden -and a bit weirdly- most of the outlets fell silent
- No Man’s Sky launched onto PS4 and PC after a very long, very hyped build up. The title was initially lauded following successful sales (VG247), however discontent started to spread about the game’s content versus it’s marketing which led to a lot of refunds, as well as calls for boycotting. A follow-up post (also, VG247) details the massive slump in players for the title.
- Later in the year the Advertising Standards Agency would launch an investigation into false advertising of the game, the claims were found to be false as displayed elements were running in engine. Personally, I think that if we are going to question such things then we must also question trailers, teasers, and ‘in-engine’ footage, which is a farcical idea.
- Valve would later make changes to the ways reviews are displayed, and the requirements on store page’s images and videos later in the year, while possibly not reactions, they certainly were relevant.
- Sleeping Dogs developer United Front Games launched a new free-to-play title called Smash & Grab. The title launched into early access where it received moderate attention – clearly not enough however, as the developer shut its doors in October without citing a reason.
As for Big Boss Battle? We posted 74 articles, including 18 features & reviews, and 51 Greenlight Highlights.
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