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,
July 2016
The second half of the year was welcomed in with a generous boon; the most talked about title was Pokemon Go, which continues to dominate top grossing charts on the mobile platforms. Hawken (Xbox One), The Banner Saga 2, and Kerbal Space Program (PS4) made their way to home consoles, while Starbound finally reached 1.0 on PC. Headlander, Hyper Light Drifter (Xbox One, PS4), Quadrilateral Cowboy (PC), Death Road to Canada (PC), 10 Second Ninja X, and Song of the Deep also launched during the month.
- Daybreak Game Company closed off the servers for Planetside -which have been running since May 2003- with and explosive aerial bombardment dealing out permadeath to those who had remained with the title rather than moving on it its sequel -which launched in 2012.
- Investigations into CS:GO’s marketplace earlier in the year came to a hot-point as Youtube member HonorTheCall revealed that several youtubers including TmarTn and ProSyndicate had been using the platformer to promote gambling on a website that they both owned without disclosing as much.
- Later in the month another youtuber, PSISyndicate, revealed that they had partaken in fixed gambles on a similar website as part of an undisclosed promotion. (VG247)
- TmarTn later posted -and then removed- an apology video for taking part in the scandal. (Eurogamer) word the retraction, and investigation into, the apology on their website.
- A mass of e-mails were leaked to youtuber Richard Lewis regarding a Twitch streamer who it also turned out was likely to be running and manipulating their own CS:GO Trade website for profit.Similar leaks continued until later in the year, when Youtube amended their terms and conditions to require users state when a video is advertised and sponsored; enforcing stricter guidelines on creators to prevent further scandal.
- Sega completed the acquisition of Amplitude Studios the developer behind the Endless series, including Endless Space, Endless Legend, and Dungeon of the Endless. The studio had been originally formed in 2011 by a small group of former Ubisoft employees. On the company’s development blog two of the founders told of how the promise of working alongside RTS giants like Relic and Creative Assembly was more than enough to swing them.
- Leyou Technologies (AGD) acquired Dirty Bomb, Brink, and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, developer Splash Damage as part of its manoeuver from the poutry buisness into gaming. This follows on from their taking 58% ownership of Digital Extremes (The Darkness 2, Warframe) in July 2015, which they later increased by a further 30% later that year.
- Rocket League hit its one year anniversary, celebrating 19 million players for the game.
- Finally, Pokemon Go launched onto mobile devices, dominating headlines with stories of silly-people not looking where they were going, and mega-bucks being coughed up on poké balls. The game has remained relevant since, and continues to validate Nintendo’s decision to move it’s long-serving IPs onto different platforms.
As for Big Boss Battle? Two months after setting up we were up to six contributors, we achieved 71 articles in the month, 10 reviews and features, and 56 Greenlight Highlights (Goodness).
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