2017 Gaming Year In Review
With the year coming to a close, it's good to look back and review how the year went in terms of gaming. The industry as a whole seems to be more visible than ever before. A new console entry set the industry ablaze with no signs the tempest will die down. This will be a more 1st person kind of piece compared to other articles I've written before.
Switch It Up
The Nintendo Switch entered the "new gen" console market later than Sony and Microsoft but seems to have the biggest fervor out of all 3 consoles. The hype of the uniqueness and versatility of the Switch seems to have drowned out the fact that its library is currently lackluster. First party titles Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart Deluxe, Super Mario: Odyssey are system sellers but after that there isn't much. 3rd party developers are committing more Switch ports of games like Skyrim and Doom, but it will take some time before the Switch has a notable catalog. Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Splatoon 2, and Persona 5 among others have found some success when it comes to 3rd party titles, with more expected within the next year or two. Still a strong start to Nintendo's new system.
Revival
In 2016, Call of Duty was a laughingstock of gaming. Most disliked video of all time on YouTube, and cheap tactics of packaging a remaster of a fan favorite title into Infinite Warfare to boost sales because of its lack of popularity made the haters tear with joy at the sight of an impending doom for their favorite target of hate.
Assassin's Creed took 2016 off in terms of gaming after putting out the terrible AC: Unity and the passible AC: Syndicate. Instead they made a movie with some heavy hitting Hollywood names... and it was panned by gamers, critics, and the general public alike. There was legitimate concern if this was the end of a popular title.
Both IPs (Intellectual Properties) made a big comeback in 2017. Call of Duty went back to its origins in WWII and fans clamored back to the title. Sales projections are up over 50% from 2016. Even though there have been some issues with new mechanics of the COD ecosystem, fans are just happy they don't have to deal with futuristic settings and 3D movements.
Assassin's Creed made a triumphant return with the Egypt-set AC: Origins and a new battle system gave new life to the game. AC: Origins is the most deep and historically aware of all the games with items in the world that give historically accurate stories of ancient Egypt thus giving the game a different and unique dimension, even saying that there is an upcoming game mode that will be solely for educational purposes based around these interact areas.
2017 also saw the trend of nostalgia continue to show profit with Nintendo releasing the SNES-mini following what they did the year before. Remastered versions of Crash Bandicoot and Sonic both made waves on their release. And even more remasters are set to come soon, most notably Shadow of the Colossus.
Controversy
The business practices of the gaming industry have been put in the spotlight and probably the most since the controversies that led to the ESRB. I won't go into those topics that deep because I've written at length about this issue twice already. With EA trying to save face in the business world, Bungie trying to save face with the Guardians, and gamers finding the power they wield in what they allow to let fly in the industry, it will be interesting to see if developers and publishers will heed the warnings the debacles of this year or will they continue to test the patience of the fans. Also with the threat of the rollback of Net Neutrality and its potential impact, gaming has spent more time on mainstream media channels than in past years.
EA caused issues this year on multiple fronts. The horrendously mishandled development and release of Mass Effect: Andromeda and the subsequent closure of the BioWare, followed by news they were "restructuring" the next Star Wars game claiming "fans don't want single player games" and shutting down that studio, along with its current debacle with Battlefront II has left the EA coffers a little lighter, losing billions in company net worth and leaving a bad taste in consumer mouths. The controversies have been the butt of many jokes within the industry from development companies that thrived on single player games like Bethesda (Skyrim, Fallout), Sucker Punch (Infamous) and Naughty Dog (Uncharted, Crash, The Last of Us) just to name a few.
Looking Ahead
With the industry finding more growth now with all 3 big console brands performing well, we look at the potential games coming to the platform in 2018 or later.
Sony is expected to release at least 2 console exclusive titles next year with Detroit Become Human and God of War 4. XBOX will continue to flex into 2018 with the most powerful console in the One X and potentially lock in some console exclusives. Nintendo is expected to gain more 3rd party titles for the Switch as sales continue to be strong and developers continue to see that people want to see their titles ported over to the Switch while continuing to play their own game and not directly try to compete with the aforementioned duo who are constantly going at each other.