Site icon The Avocado

New Game Releases: Notable Events – ’84/’94/’04/’14

Andy Tuttle

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday’s everyone! The 2024 video game season is pretty much over at this point, with another year of notable releases and events going by and entering the history books, but what about video games of year’s past? As I do every week where I highlight a notable title released 10, 20, 30, and sometimes 40 years ago, I thought it would be fun to look back at not only the biggest games of the year, but also some of the most noteworthy and interesting things happening in the entire video games industry. Take a break from all that crass materialism the Holiday’s demand of us for a few minutes and read about some of the big things that happened in gaming from 1984, 1994, 2004 and 2014.

1984:

Highest Grossing Film of 1984: Beverly Hills Cop
*Click here to watch the trailer*
Best Selling Album of 1984: Michael Jackson – Thriller
*Click here to listen to the album*
Highest Grossing Arcade Game and Best Selling Console Game of 1984: Pole Position
*Click here to see a retro commercial*

The video game crash of 1983 was still being felt a year later, with home console revenue dropping to $800 million after taking in $3.8 billion in 1982 and $2 billion in 1983. However, PC business was steady, not seeing much of a decline in revenue. In fact, developer/publisher Sierra On-Line flourishes in the post 1983 video game crash, seeing sales increase by 20%. Sierra’s success likely comes as a result of the game King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown, the first game in what will become one of their most popular and successful franchises.

In the world of PC hardware, Apple makes a huge splash in 1984 with a Super Bowl commercial that both confuses and excites audiences. Its bleak, conformist world aims to tear down their biggest competition, IBM, and showing consumers that it’s an Apple product, the Macintosh 128k, that will return some kind of freedom and joy to their lives. Directed by Ridley Scott, the spot was meant to be a show stopper, a head turner, and to jolt the viewer into thinking about computers and their relationship to it. While the commercial was controversial at Apple headquarters, its impact was immense, with $3.5 million dollars’ worth of Macintoshes sold immediately after the ad ran.

The first successful all-in-one PC to hit the mass market with a graphical user interface (or GUI), the Macintosh becomes one of the most important pieces of technology in the 1980’s. It’s ideas would be copied and iterated on by their chief rival, Microsoft, for their own GUI operating system, Windows, which would debut a year later. Today, a GUI operating system is found on just about every device imaginable. Long gone are the days of manually typing in commands to get the computer to do something, now you can get anything you want with a click of the mouse.

While PC hardware and software were having banner years in terms of sales and recognition, video game consoles were having a tough time in North America, particularly Atari. Their parent company, Warner Communications (a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), decides to sell off all of the home console business to the co-founder of Commodore, Jack Tramiel, and his new company Tramel Technology (Warner would retain the arcade business). If you’re wondering why they left the “i” out of Tramel it’s because they wanted people to pronounce it “Tra-mel” instead of “Tra-meal” (whatever).

If Tramiel was hoping that he could do something extraordinary with the Atari home console business, he was sadly mistaken. The public was just not interested in what Atari was offering. Even worse, Tramiel had a contentious relationship with just about everyone in the video game industry, from developers to publishers, even with the retailers. No developers wanted to make games for Atari, license holder didn’t want to make deals with Atari, and retailers didn’t want to buy Atari hardware or software.

It should come as no surprise, then, the Atari 2600 failed to crack the top ten of best-selling consoles in 1984, despite selling 3 million units the previous year. In fact, not a single Atari console or home computer landed in the top ten, despite the 2600 dropping to its lowest price to date, $49.99 (about $100 in 2024). Instead, the console market was dominated by Trameil’s old company and their machine, the Commodore 64, in the US and Europe. Meanwhile, over in Japan, Nintendo’s brand new home console, the Famicom, was flying off shelves in Japan, moving nearly 3 million units in the small country. The Famicom is still one year away from its North American debut, where it will be known as the Nintendo Entertainment System, and we’ll have more to say about that in our 1985 retrospective, next December.

That’s not all for Atari, though. The company announces that they are working on their next home console, the Atari 7800. However, because of the sale to Tramel Technology, the console is put on the back burner as they prepare to create a PC that they hope will rival Apple’s Macintosh. Going back to the announcement of the 7800, Atari also uses this press conference to let the world know that it was discontinuing the troubled, and much maligned, Atari 5200. The 5200 would only stay in the market for two years, selling less than one million units, worldwide. One of the biggest issues with the console was its terribly designed controllers which were easy to break and nearly impossible to replace, as they were connected directly to the console.

Atari wasn’t the only company to feel the sting of the 1983 crash in 1984. Developer Synapse Software, who bet big on Atari’s 8-bit computers, lost almost all of their liquid capital when Atari was sold to Tramel Technologies. Tramiel, who hated everyone and, in turn, was hated by everyone, refused to pay Synapse for of nearly 40,000 units of software that Synapse produced for Atari. This would lead directly to Synapse’s demise, allowing rival company, Broderbund, to swoop in and purchase the company, absorbing it into their own.

Over at Mattel, owners of the Intellivision game console, they sell off all of their video game assets due to the crash of 1983, thinking that the video game bubble had burst. All software, hardware, IP and assets are sold to a Mattel executive, who still believed that the best years in video games were yet to come, and he founds the company INTV Corporation. The company would stay competitive in the video game market until 1990, succumbing to the industry juggernauts Nintendo and Sega.

Quite a few game studios were founded in 1984; here are some of the most notable:

Accolade – Founded by former Atari programmers Alan Miller & Bob Whitehead (their second company after co-founding and leaving Activision), Accolade would release its first games in 1985; Law of the West, an adventure game with gunfighting elements, and the baseball game Hardball!, which is their first major success.

Naughty Dog – Initially called JAM Software, Naughty Dog is founded by two teenagers, Jason Rubin and Andy Gavin; JAM is an acronym for Jason and Andy’s Magic. Their first game comes out in 1986 for the Apple II, called Math Jam, but it’s their 1987 title, Ski Crazed, that get people to start paying attention to them. The studio would go on to create some of the biggest, most iconic games of the next three decades including Crash Bandicoot, Jak & Daxter, Uncharted, and The Last of Us.

New World Computing – Founded by husband & wife Jon and Michaela Van Caneghem, and their friend Mark Caldwell. They are best known for creating the Might & Magic series, first released in 1986. The Van Caneghem’s and Caldwell would stick with the company through most of its existence, with the studio closing in 2003.

Psygnosis – A British developer who would find major success with Lemmings in 1991. In 1999 they would become Studio Liverpool, a Sony subsidiary, that mostly worked on the racing games Wipeout and Formula One.

Reflections Interactive – Founded in 1984 by two British men, Martin Edmondson and Nicholas Chamberlain, Reflections releases their first game, Ravenskull, in 1986. Reflections would go on to create the Destruction Derby and Driver franchises in the 1990’s. Now owned by Ubisoft, the studio has been quiet recently, with their most recent game, Ode, being released in 2017.

Sculptured Software – In their early days, Sculptured would develop console ports of already successful PC games (including Accolade’s Hardball!). They would finally find major success with Super Star Wars in 1992. In 1995, Sculptured Software was purchased by Acclaim, changing their name to Iguana West, and then change it again in 1999 to Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. The company would be dissolved in 2002 while working on Legends of Wrestling II.

It isn’t just video game companies that would be founded in 1984, retailer Game Stop would open their first store in 1984 in Dallas, TX. Originally called Babbages, the stores would initially only carry Atari software, and wouldn’t carry any Nintendo games until 1987. Today, GameStop is the world’s largest video game retailer, that is, if you can find any on shelves that are not taken up by Funko Pop’s, Magic the Gathering cards, and anime t-shirts.

For the second year in a row, Namco’s Pole Position is the highest grossing arcade game of 1984. It would also be the best selling console game of the year as well, one of the few successes of the Atari 2600 in 1984.

The 6th annual Arkie Awards, held by Electronic Games magazine, celebrated the best games of 1983-1984, giving out Best Console Game to Space Shuttle (Atari 2600), Best Arcade Game to Star Wars, Best Computer Game to Ultima III: Exodus, and Game of the Year to One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird.

As for the rest of 1984, there’s quite a bit to get excited about here, with major titles in both the arcade an on PC.

1994:

Highest Grossing Film of 1994: Forrest Gump
*Click here to watch the trailer*
Best Selling Album of 1994: Elton John and Various Artists – The Lion King Soundtrack
*Click here to listen to the album*
Best Selling Console Game of 1994: NBA Jam
*Click here to see a retro commercial*
Highest Grossing Arcade Game of 1994: Mortal Kombat II
*Click here to see a retro news story*

1994 starts things off with a bang, as congress holds their second round of congressional hearings on video game violence. While the first round of hearings was mostly a public flogging of the industry and their “disgusting” games like Night Trap, Lethal Enforcers, and Mortal Kombat, the second round of hearings was all about how the video game industry would handle violence and what, if any, measure they were taking to make it easier for parents to figure out if a video game contained appropriate content for the children.

Key speakers in the second round of hearings included: Jack Heistand, Senior VP for EA; Mary Evan, VP of store operations at Babbages; and Chuck Kerby, Divisional merchandise manager for Walmart. Heistand was there to discuss a pact that several game companies had signed into, including EA, Nintendo, Sega, and Atari, in which they would work together to create a rating system. A few companies were still holding out, feeling like they were being censored, but congressional leaders threatened that government regulation if the software publishers could not reach an agreement on how to regulate themselves. Mary Evans and Chuck Kerby were there to represent retailers, indicating that the three largest video game sellers, Toys R Us, Babbages, and Walmart, would not carry any game that did not contain a rating, putting further pressure on the video game industry to regulate itself.

It wouldn’t take long, as less than a month after the Congressional hearings, the Interactive Digital Software Associate is created with the sole purpose of designing a ratings system. By September of 1994 they would have it, the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). This new rating system would allow the video game industry to both self-regulate and give parents guidance on what games were and were not appropriate for their children. The first five games to receive a rating were announced on Sep. 16th, the same day the ESRB was announced; they are, Doom (32X) – Rated M, Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure (SNES) – Rated T, and Super Punch-Out!! (SNES), Sonic Triple Trouble (Game Gear), & Donkey Kong Country (SNES) – All Rated K-A.

1994 was a banner year for Nintendo, finding themselves to be the kings of the video game industry. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Nintendo announces that 1994 will be known as “The Year of the Cartridge”, with consumers projected to purchase 112 million cartridges across all home consoles and handheld systems. Nintendo is so sure that cartridges will remain the dominant format for video games that they announce their next system, the Ultra 64, will still use them.

The first public images of the Ultra 64 design and name came in the Spring of 1994, but critics and industry analysts were skeptical of the choice to keep using cartridges. Nintendo, on their part, indicated that they felt the long load time of CD-ROM’s was not consumer friendly. Chief rival Sega, as well as newcomer Sony, were getting ready to launch their own CD-ROM based consoles in Japan in 1994, and the rest of the world in 1995. Nintendo was about to get a rude awakening.

That’s the future, though, because in 1994 Nintendo had the best-selling handheld worldwide, Game Boy, the best-selling home console worldwide, Super Nintendo, and the best-selling video game worldwide, Donkey Kong Country. However, in the U.S., DKC was not the top seller, instead, that honor went to the console release of Midway’s NBA Jam. Coincidentally, Midway happened to be working with Nintendo to license their name for two arcade titles that came out in 1994, Killer Instinct and Cruis’n USA.

That’s not all for Nintendo, though, as the company also released the Super Game Boy adapter for the Super Nintendo. Players could insert this adaptor into their SNES, like a cartridge, and then take their Game Boy games and insert those into a slot on the Super Game Boy, allowing them to play their Game Boy games on the television (I said “game” five times in that sentence). Playing GB games on the television was cool enough, but the Super Game Boy also gave players the opportunity to play them in color. Some games, like 1994’s Donkey Kong, came with preset colors built into the cartridge, while other games allowed you to pick generic colors from a variety of palettes.

We can’t, of course, forget about Sega, and their big year. The company started things off huge with the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 which, when combined with Sonic & Knuckles, makes it the fifth best-selling Genesis game of all time. While Sega’s next console, the Saturn, was due out in Japan by the end of 1994, it was unlikely the console would make it to North America in 1994. Sega was also feeling pressure from Atari’s Jaguar, a 32-bit system (though it claimed to be 64-bit) that targeted the same demographic as Sega, teenage and adult men.

Sega’s US offices were confident the Genesis could survive another year before the Saturn came out, but Sega of Japan was not convinced. At January’s CES show, Sega executives met with various developers and designers to figure out a peripheral for the Genesis that could play 32-bit games. The idea was to use two 32-bit processors, like the Jaguar and the upcoming Saturn. Stunningly, Sega had the 32X ready for public viewing by that Summer’s CES show, where it was met with a collective shrug.

Critics and industry analysts were puzzled as to why Sega was promoting two 32-bit systems, the 32X and the Saturn, and were even more puzzled as to why they were not compatible with each other. Well, allegedly not compatible with one another; Sega was silent on this point when asked about it. (of course, we know the answer). While it’s low price point of $160 was attractive when faced with the astronomical prices of the upcoming Saturn and PlayStation, the 32X was seen for exactly what it was, a quick cash grab to help squeeze a few more dollars out of the aging Genesis.

The 32X would hit store shelves in November of 1994, if you could find it. Despite the reservations of critics, consumers were demanding the 32X. Initial stock would sell out almost immediately and Sega had a hard time keeping up with demand. There were only a handful of games available at launch, including Star Wars Arcade, Doom, and Virtua Racing Deluxe. Despite the strong sales in the first couple of months, the 32X was a bust. Developers had no desire to make games for the console, focusing their efforts instead on the upcoming Saturn, PlayStation, and Ultra 64. By the end of 1995, the 32X was being cleared out of retailers, going for as low as $20.

However, the 32X wasn’t Sega’s only new thing in 1994, in December, they would launch the Sega Channel, an online video game distribution service. Partnering with cable television providers, players could sign up for a $15 monthly subscription (plus $25 activation fee, which included the necessary hardware), to download and play games over the internet using what was, essentially, a cable modem. The service was a modest hit, going defunct in 1998.

In that same timeframe, a California company called Catapult Entertainment released the XBAND, a console peripheral that allowed people to play games online with each other. It worked in the same way as a Game Genie, in that it would manipulate a game’s code to allow you to imitate local co-op over the internet. The price for using the XBAND was pretty steep, requiring you to buy the device for $20, pay a $10 monthly subscription fee, and pay $4 an hour if you played against someone outside of your local phone area. On top of that, you could buy a separate keyboard attachment for $30. After some time, Sega would partner with XBAND, making them the official distributor of the Sega Channel.

The cost of running the XBAND service and low subscriber base meant that the company never turned a profit. Catapult Entertainment would rarely advertise, saying that word of mouth was their best source of growth. The company even ran promotions where you could purchase up to 6 XBAND devices for friends at a massive discount, as long as they subscribed to the service. Other high costs included the need to manually hack the code of existing games to make it run smoothly online. This meant that only a handful of games actually worked with the system, which were mostly sports titles like Madden and NBA Live, as well as fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. The financial struggles of XBAND would never be alleviated, forcing the system offline in 1997.

In the other corners of the video game industry…

Appogee, the popular PC shareware company, develops separate internal development houses for their different genres of games. The most popular of these would be 3D Realms, who would go on to develop and release Duke Nukem 3D in 1996, with Apogee eventually changing the name of their entire company to 3D Realms in late 1996.

After finding success with the Commodre 64 in the 1980’s, Commodore would struggle to keep with competition from Nintendo, Sega, and the growing PC gaming market. The failure of the Amiga CD32 in 1993 would only make things worse, causing Commodore to fold in 1994, selling off its assets to a company called Escom who would further liquidate and sell off various pieces of Commodore to the highest bidders.

Neversoft is founded by three former employees of Malibu Interactive, Joel Jewett, Mick West, and Chris Ward (Malibu folded when its parent company was purchased by Marvel Comics). Their first game, the licensed title Skeleton Warriors, would release in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation to soft praise. It would take another three years for Neversoft to get their big break with the game Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. We’ll have more to say about Neversoft in the 2014 write-up; stay tuned…

SSI, the developer of multiple strategy and RPG games for the PC, including the Gold & Silver Box Dungeons & Dragons titles, would merge with the company Mindscape after losing the D&D license to Interplay. This joint company would eventually be purchased by Ubisoft, who would retire the SSI name in 2002. Tradewest, the company behind the Battletoads franchise fell into some financial trouble in 1994, which allowed them to be by Midway Games. This would turn Tradewest into a Midway subsidiary under the name Williams Entertainment, with Midway looking to develop and publish their own home console games, instead of relying on third party publisher Acclaim. Their first two titles under this new name are 1994’s Troy Aikman Football and Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls.

Multiple outlets would give out “Game of the Year” awards in 1994/1995. The biggest winner was Donkey Kong Country, winning the award from both EGM and Game Informer. GameFan named Earthworm Jim their GOTY, while the Video Software Dealers Association picked the console version of NBA Jam as their top game.

2004:

Highest Grossing Film of 2004: Shrek 2
*Click here to watch the trailer*
Best Selling Album of 2004: Usher – Confessions
*Click here to listen to the album*
Best Selling Console Game of 2004: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
*Click here to see a retro commercial*

After losing ground to Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s future in the home console business wasn’t looking promising. Their main rival, Sega, had already bowed out of the home console market and there were critics and industry analysts who felt that maybe it was time for Nintendo to do the same. However, Nintendo wasn’t about to go down without a fight. Their handheld business was still dominating the market, with sales of the Game Boy Advance remaining strong against almost no competition. At E3, Nintendo would come out swinging, with a new hand held and a new, bolder, voice.

After showing a brief sizzle reel of upcoming titles for the GameCube, a large, hulking man in a gray suit and a crew cut walks out onto the stage, declaring, “My name is Reggie. I’m about kickin’ ass, I’m about takin’ names, and we’re about makin’ games”. That line from Nintendo’s new VP of sales and marketing, Reggie Fils -Aimé, was a massive moment for the usually shy and conservative company. The “kiddie” stigma had stuck with Nintendo since Sega’s “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” marketing strategy in the early 1990’s. Players, critics, and the general public viewed Nintendo as a family friendly platform for children.

With Reggie’s declaration was Nintendo throwing down the gauntlet, they were ready to get back on top and they had plan for it, make games that are fun to play. That was the core message of Nintendo’s E3 presentation, the company and everything and nothing to lose here. Much of the press conference touted their more mature audience, even going as far as to say that a third of GBA owners were over the age of 18 and they hoped to increase that number with an entirely new handheld, the Nintendo DS.

Featuring two screens, the DS would be as powerful, it not more, than the Nintendo 64 was. It was a hand held that could finally play games that were as good as the current generation of games. Not only that, but it was backwards compatible with the entire GBA software line. The launch titles for the system were Asphalt: Urban GT, Feel the Magic: XY/XX, Madden NFL 2005, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario 64 DS, The Urbz: Sims in the City, and was bundled with a demo for Metroid Prime Hunters, called First Hunt. The DS was not the only new piece of hardware, though, Nintendo also announced that they were working on a brand-new console to replace the GameCube, the code name was “Revolution” and it would do just that when it debuted in 2006 as the Wii.

The last thing Nintendo debuted at E3 was a trailer for a brand-new Legend of Zelda game, which featured realistic graphics and a darker tone. The reception was ear shattering, according to people who attended the event. After it was over, developer Shigeru Miyamoto appeared on stage holding a replica of Link’s shield and the Master Sword, giving minor details on the game that would eventually become Twilight Princess. By the end of 2004, Nintendo went from being a bit of a joke in the industry to being the one company that everyone couldn’t wait to see would do next.

Meanwhile, over at Sony’s E3 press conference, they were getting ready to show off a device that they hoped would cut into Nintendo’s dominance of the hand-held market, the PlayStation Portable, or PSP. Featuring a 480 x 272 resolution, the PSP was not considered an HD system, but it’s graphics were far beyond what the Game Boy Advance was capable of, and was still better than the upcoming Nintendo DS.

Sony showed off several games that were to release at or near launch for the PSP, including new games in the Ape Escape, Ridge Racer, Twisted Metal, and Dynasty Warrior franchises. Other big announcements at Sony’s E3 press conference included a lenggthy demo of the new Ratchet & Clank game, and a brief mention of both the God of War and Killzone franchises, though I don’t know if I saw any footage of the games in the video above. Regardless, Killzone would come out in November of 2004, and God of War would release in 2005.

Microsoft’s E3 press conference felt like it was coming from a company that was finally finding their footing. While the Xbox still trailed the PlayStation 2 and GameCube in Japan by a large margin, the console was gaining traction in the US largely due to two things, Halo and Xbox Live. Funny enough, the majority of Microsoft’s show focused on these two things.

First up was Xbox Live with Microsoft talking about how much growth the platform had seen over the past year, and how it would continue to revolutionize the games industry through things like video chat (which would only release in Japan), and their upcoming digital store, Xbox Live Arcade. Through this service, players could purchase and download digital videogames, mostly small, casual games, as well as select arcade classics from publishers like Namco and Atari.

As for hardware, Microsoft didn’t have anything to say about that, though they had been working on their follow-up system, Xbox 360, behind the scenes since 2003. Instead, the company was banking on a strong slate of titles for the upcoming holiday season, including the aforementioned Halo 2, as well as the highly anticipated Fable, the new racing game series Forza Motorsport, a new BioWare RPG called Jade Empire, and another highly anticipated title, the Obsidian developed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2.

Elsewhere around the video game industry…

Founded in 1987, game publisher Acclaim Entertainment closes its doors in 2004 after a string of poorly selling titles in the early part of the 2000’s. The company would liquidate their assets, selling off their IP to various companies over the next two years. THQ would purchase the racing series Juiced, Crave Entertainment would purchase the Dave Mirra and ATV: Quad Power racing titles, while the Canadian company Throwback Entertainment would purchase the vast majority of Acclaim’s leftover titles including Re-Volt, Extreme-G, Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance, Vexx, and Fur Fighters. Turok license holders, Classic Media, revoked Acclaim’s rights to the property and continue to maintain it themselves.

Airtight Games is founded this year, made up of developers who worked on the Xbox game Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. They wouldn’t release their first game, Dark Void, until 2010, and then closing in 2014; more on that later.

Hoping to kill rising competition in the American Football video game market, EA sings an exclusivity deal with the NFL for their Madden franchise, meaning they are the only game developer that can use NFL logos and team names. This immediately killed rival Sega’s NFL 2K series, ensuring that no one would ever make a rival football game again (at least not one that featured anything related to the NFL). On top of this, EA also signed a 15-year deal with ESPN to use their name, logo, graphics, and personality likenesses in their sports games.

Midway went on a buying spree in 2004, grabbing Surreal Software (known for the Drakan series), Inevitable Entertainment (an FPS focused studio that would go on to make the console game Area 51 and its sequel), and Paradox Development (best known for making licensed fighting games like Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots Arena, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, X-Men Mutant Academy, and Backyard Wrestling).

Sammy, best known for their pachinko and slot machines, purchases Sega in what is, essentially, a hostile takeover after a proposed merger in 2003 fell apart. Sammy would purchase 22.4% of Sega and used that power to force out several top executives who killed the 2003 deal, installing Sammy’s president as chairman. After this the merger was, of course, approved, creating what is now known today as the conglomerate Sega Sammy Holdings Inc.

Warner Bros. Games (initially called Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment) is founded by the famous movie studio and run by Monolith Productions co-founder Jason “Jace” Hall. Instead of making games themselves, Warner Bros. Games buys already existing studios and acts as a publisher. Their first purchase is Monolith, tasking them with working on the 2005 MMO The Matrix Online (with some help from Sega); Monolith would eventually create the Shadow of Mordor series. WB Games’ first fully published title would be the 2005 party game Friends: The One with All the Trivia, from developer Artech Studios.

The second annual Spike VGA’s are held in Santa Monica, CA on Dec. 14th, hosted by rapper Snoop Dogg. Game of the Year goes to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, beating Burnout 3, Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and Metal Gear Solid 3. The star-studded show featured several musical performances, including Sum 41, Ludacris, and Snoop Dogg featuring the surviving members of The Doors, bafflingly.

Like The Game Awards, the Spike VGA’s were also used as a marketing tool for upcoming video games. Some Notable game announcements included The Godfather: The Game, Need for Speed: Underground Rivals for the upcoming PSP, and a Midway Games title called Fear & Respect. If you haven’t heard of this game, that’s because it never came out. This was to be an open world title, similar to Grand Theft Auto, that would have featured a character named Goldie, played by Snoop Dogg.

Fear & Respect was to be written and directed by John Singleton, famously known for the film Boyz n the Hood, but it was cancelled in March of 2006. No official reason was ever given as to why the game was cancelled, though it was rumored to be due to a growing competition from other “Urban” themed games. According to website Unseen64, this was the first known Xbox 360/PS3 game to be cancelled during development.

The best selling game of the year, worldwide, is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The final mainline series on the PS2, with the next major entry, GTA IV, arriving on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2008. It was a mostly calm launch for San Andreas without any major controversies, until December that is, when a modder uncovers several files for a cut minigame called “Hot Coffee”. The fallout from this wouldn’t be felt until 2005, check back here next December to see what happened (or just, like, look it up)

2014:

Highest Grossing Film of 2014: American Sniper
*Click here to watch the trailer*
Best Selling Album of 2014: Taylor Swift – 1989
*Click here to listen to the album*
Best Selling Console Game of 2014: Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
*Click here to see a retro commercial*

The biggest event in video games this year was, undoubtedly, GamerGate; a targeted hate campaign disguised as a movement to ensure journalism in video games was fair and ethical. The root of the campaign began in 2013 when an independent developer named Zoe Quinn released the game Depression Quest, a narrative, choose your own adventure style game about someone living with depression. The game’s social message and unconventional genre led to Quin receiving threats of rape and death, eventually leading to Quinn fleeing their home after being doxed.

In August of 2014, Quinn’s ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, wrote a blog post about Quinn, saying that she had cheated on him with a Kotaky reporter named Nathon Grayson. Readers then took this to mean that Quin’s game Depression Quest received a favorable review on Kotaku in exchange for sexual favors with Grayson. Gjoni would deny that this was true, saying he never meant to imply that Quinn offered sexual favors for positive coverage, but the anti-Quinn brigade took this small kernel of info and spun it into a massive lie.

What this all comes down to is pretty simple. By 2014, the idea of the stereotypical gamer (straight, white, & male) was starting to dissolve. The audience for video games was growing beyond these types of gamers who, to be honest, were the majority for 3 decades. Over the course of the late 2000’s, early 2010’s, video games had started to become more mainstream.

The Wii console and the Xbox’s Kinect were key in bringing more women and families into video games, the rise of smartphones and their casual games, as well as the DS to an extent, also brought in more “non-traditional” gamers. Finally, the rise of indie games led to more left leaning, artistic games that catered to an entirely different crowd. The age of games only being ultra-violent gore fests with a lot of sexy women to look at was coming to an end. Diversity and audience tastes were pushing out these titles and that, friends, is why GamerGate was allowed to manifest and grow.

To really get into the whole GamerGate controversy it would take a massive amount of writing just to get it all down, so I’m not going to do that. Suffice to say, we’ll be talking about GamerGate’s impact over the next few years in these Notable Events articles; hooray. Without getting too far into the weeds, the rest of 2014 saw GamerGate’s list of supporters grow, including a young journalist at Breitbart named Milo Yiannopoulos, who saw this as an opportunity to help push his alt-right, male supremacist agenda.

Aside from Zoe Quinn, other high-profile targets of GamerGate included developer Brianna Wu, who was a vocal critic of the movement, and Anita Sarkeesian, a media critic who was already despised for her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games web series. Beyond these three women, anyone who defended them, said GamerGate was bad, or supported non-traditional video games, was perceived as a “social justice warrior”, or SJW.

GamerGate’s influence was all over the political and social landscape for the next two years and led to an increased presence of alt-right ideas in Republican politics. Channeling this young, male, aggression was key to victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential election and, sadly, this same demographic was energized again, again through video games, to elect him again in 2024.

For the second year in a row, Nintendo did not hold a live press conference at E3, opting instead  to put out another “Nintendo Digital Event”, which his basically a fancier name for a Nintendo Direct video. The presentation opens with a stop motion film by the studio behind Robot Chicken, and appear every so often throughout the 48-minute presentation. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U & Nintendo 3DS receives major coverage, with two new characters announced, Mii Fighter and Palutena.

To accompany Smash Bros., Nintendo reveals a new like of NFC enabled figurines, called Amiibo, that can be used to store fighter data. The plan is to have multiple games support Amiibo over time, with their specific functionality TBD (as we now know, this would include things like granting players items, to unlocking new costumes). While Nintendo would show off a few more games, including Bayonetta 2, Super Mario Maker, and a new franchise, Splatoon, the biggest announcement of the show was a new entry in the Legend of Zelda series.

It is revealed that this new Zelda game will feature a massive, open world, with players given the choice on how their story plays out. The trailer ends with an impressive skirmish between Link and a machine-like creature, and shows Link jumping off of his horse, in slow motion, readying an arrow in this bow. A tentative “2015” date is given, however we all now know that this new Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, would be delayed to 2017 so that it can be a launch title for the Nintendo Switch, a console that the public wouldn’t hear about until March of 2015.

While Nintendo showed a lot of stuff at their digital event, one thing or, I should say, one person was absent, Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata. Two weeks before E3, Nintendo announced that Iwata would miss E3 due to an undisclosed illness. It was later discovered that he had undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his bile duct. Iwata returned to work in October and appeared in a Nintendo Direct video that November, noticeably gaunt and pale. While he claimed to be feeling better and stronger than ever, Iwata would not survive another full year, passing away in July of 2015 at the age of 55.

Sony’s live event was used as a platform to debut their new CEO, Shawn Layden, because who doesn’t love a good CEO debut! The major game announced at the show was Uncharted 4, thought it was still two years out from release. Other notable game reveals included Infamous: Second Son, Little Big Planet 3, a remaster of Grim Fandango, and a PS4 version of Grand Theft Auto V.

In other major announcements, Sony reveals that the PlayStation Network will have its first streaming show, Powers, based on the comic book by Brian Michael Bendis; this show is no longer available to stream on the PSN. The company also announces that the PlayStation Now service is going well in beta and should arrive on PS4 in July (it would eventually be available on PC, PS4, PS Vita, PSTV, and PS5). PS Now was an online service allowed subscribers to play select PSX, PS2, and PS3 games over the cloud, with the ability to download some games to be played locally. PS Now would eventually get folded into the PlayStation Plus service as a premium add-on.

Microsoft, now being headed up by Phil Spencer, comes out swinging with trailer after trailer for a bunch of games that all look really, really cool. The problem, the vast majority of these are third party titles that are also going to be available on the PS4 and PC. There are a few console exclusives show, including Sunset Overdrive, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Crackdown 3, and a promising new title from Platinum called Scalebound (which is eventually cancelled).

In further Microsoft news, after eight years of console exclusivity, the company purchases the Gear of War IP from Epic Games. Microsoft hand’s the property over to one of their second party developers, The Coalition, who put out Gears of War: Ultimate Edition in 2015 and a brand-new entry, Gears of War 4, in 2016.

However, the biggest deal Microsoft made in 2014 was their acquisition of Mojang for a whopping $2.5 billion, giving them full control of the hit game, Minecraft. There is some fear that Microsoft will take the popular game and turn it into an Xbox exclusive, though the company says they will continue to release Minecraft on all consoles and for PC. This purchase is just one of many that Microsoft will make over the next few years.

VR continues to find its footing in 2014, showing some staying power. Sony announces that they are looking into the possibility of creating a VR headset for the PS4, so there’s that (it would come out in 2016).

Valve announces a partnership with HTC Corporation to create a VR headset for PC that will integrate seamlessly with Steam; it will arrive in 2015 and be called Vive. Not content to just work with HTC, though, Valve also adds support for the Oculus Rift VR headset on Steam. Google releases a faux-VR headset called Google Cardboard which allows you to slip your smartphone into a slot on a cardboard box you wear around your head, simulating the experience of a VR headset; it sucks.

It is Facebook, however, that makes the biggest splash in VR, purchasing Oculus for a cool $2 billion dollars. Both Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Oculus’ Palmer Luckey promised current Oculus VR owners that they would never make it mandatory to have a Facebook account in order use Oculus headsets. In 2020 it became mandatory to have a Facebook account in order to use Oculus VR headsets.

In other gaming news…

Activision announces that they are reviving the Sierra brand, promising to re-release many of the games from the beloved company’s library. To coincide with this, Geoff Keighly’s new venture, The Game Awards, bestows Ken and Roberta Williams (on behalf of Sierra) with an industry icon award. The duo then debuts footage of the upcoming King’s Quest reboot, developed by The Odd Gentlemen, that is scheduled for release in 2015.

Airtight games, founded in 2004, is shuttered after releasing their sixth game, Murdered: Soul Suspect. The company just couldn’t find themselves a hit, despite putting out some decent games, including 2012’s Quantum Conundrum.

Amazon purchases Double Helix Games, makers of Silent Hill: Homecoming, Front Mission Evolved, and 2014’s Strider reboot. They are folded into Amazon Games, becoming their Orange County office, where they develop and release the MMO New World in 2021.

That’s not all for Amazon, as they purchase the streaming website Twitch. Sources say that a deal with Google to purchase Twitch, worth $1 billon, was in the works, which would have seen Twitch integrated directly into YouTube. However, the deal fell through and Amazon was able to swoop in and acquire Twitch for $970 million, all cash. Sources say that Google was worried about a potential antitrust lawsuit being brought against the company, and decided to remain a competitor.

Comedian and media critic James Rolfe releases The Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie, which The Hollywood Reporter calls “overly long and almost obsessively self-indulgent” but concedes that it will likely aspire to cult film status.

Atari, a shell of its once former glory, announces that they are positioning themselves for a comeback. The company will focus on games with a strong, socially conscious message that will cater to the LGBTQ crowd. Their plan to do this, invest more in online gambling and making YouTube videos. I mean, I guess that covers all the bases?

After the bankruptcy and dissolution of THQ, the studio Crytek UK is purchased by Deep Silver (and, by extension, Embracer Group) and turned into Dambuster Studios. They continue to work on the game they had already invested time & money into, Homefront: The Revolution, which is released in 2016.

The game studio Hanger 13 is created by 2K Games as a subsidiary, with the sole purpose of developing new entries in the Mafia franchise. Their first game, Mafia III, releases in 2016.

Irrational Games, the studio behind the Bioshock series, shuts down and rebrands as Ghost Story Games, laying off nearly their entire staff in the process. Ghost Story Games is currently working on an FPS title called Judas, though there is no release date/window.

Neversoft, which was founded in 1994, is merged with Infinity Ward to create, what parent company Activision calls, a super-studio, allowing them to focus even more attention on the Call of Duty franchise. Neversoft employees reportedly hold a vigil in front of their offices, burning a statue of their kidna/sorta mascot, an eyeball impaled on a spike. Their final release as sole developer was the 2010 game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The staff will continue to work on Call of Duty games moving forward.

Speaking of Call of Duty, its latest entry, Advanced Warfighter, is the best selling game of 2014. It does not, however win any of the prestigious Game of the Year awards put out by any of the various outlets or awards shows, including a brand new one, The Game Awards.

2014 marks the first year of The Game Awards, started by Geoff Keighly, which is an offshoot of his previous show, the Spike VGA’s. His new show aims to be a bit more like the Oscars and a little less like the MTV Video Music Awards. However, while there are many awards given out, and not just to “gamer” shit like Madden and Call of Duty, it becomes clear that the main focus of the show is on the world premier trailers (2014 featured trailers for Breath of the Wild, Metal Gear Solid V, and The Witcher 3, among others), a practice that has become only more and more pronounced over the years.

For Game of the Year, The Game Award goes to Dragon Age: Inquisition, beating out Bayonetta 2, Dark Souls II, Hearthstone, and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. Dragon Age would also win big at the DICE Awards, while the Golden Joystick Awards GOTY went to Dark Souls II, the New York Game Awards would honor Wolfenstein: The New Order, the GDC Awards would give top honors to Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and the BAFTA’s recognized Destiny.

Finally, in some sad news for 2014, actor and comedian Robin Williams dies in August at the age of 63. Williams, an avid gamer, was a big fan of The Legend of Zelda franchise, going so far as to name his own daughter Zelda. The two of them would appear together in a series of commercials for various Legend of Zelda games, starting in 2011.

You know what, you could have just ignored everything I wrote about 2014 and just watched this amazing year in review by Mega64’s own media critics, Todd & Aaron!

Wow! That’s going to do it folks. I had a ton of fun reading up on video game history as I did research for this, and took some lovely trips down memory lane. I hope you stay safe this holiday season; don’t drink & drive, try and get some rest, and be sure to hug your loved ones. Thanks for reading, everyone! Don’t forget, next week, we’re talking about the upcoming 2025 releases.

Finally, I leave you with the official New Game Releases holiday song:

Exit mobile version