2014 in video games
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The year 2014 saw a number of events in the video game industry. No new major consoles were released, but updates and upgrades were: the New Nintendo 3DS was released in Japan and Oceania, and Sony Interactive Entertainment released new model 2000 PS Vita systems in Europe & North America. In video game-related corporate acquisitions, Amazon purchased the online video game streaming service Twitch, and Facebook acquired the virtual reality company and product Oculus. Nintendo released Amiibo in 2014, companion figurines that could be scanned by the 3DS and Wii U systems. On Twitter and other Internet social media, the Gamergate controversy began.
Among video games originally released in 2014, critics gave the highest reviews to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, Dark Souls II, Bayonetta 2, Shovel Knight, Velocity 2X, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mario Kart 8, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Other significant games that won awards included Destiny, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Monument Valley, Grand Theft Auto Online, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and Watch Dogs.
Series with new installments in 2014 include Assassin's Creed, Bayonetta, Borderlands, Call of Duty, Castlevania, Civilization, Dark Souls, Divinity, Donkey Kong, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Elite, Far Cry, Final Fantasy, Forza Horizon, Infamous, Kinect Sports, Kirby, LittleBigPlanet, Mario Golf, Mario Kart, Metal Gear, MX vs. ATV, Ninja Gaiden, Persona, Pokémon, Professor Layton, Shantae, Sniper Elite, Sonic the Hedgehog, Strider Hiryu, Super Smash Bros., Tales, The Sims, Thief, Trials, Tropico, Wolfenstein, and World of Warcraft.
In addition, 2014 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Destiny, Five Nights at Freddy's, Shovel Knight, Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall, The Evil Within and Watch Dogs.
Highest-grossing games
The following were 2014's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide revenue (including physical sales, digital purchases, subscriptions, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC, and console platforms).
| No. | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre(s) | Platform(s) | Business model | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Puzzle & Dragons | $1,500,000,000 | GungHo Online Entertainment (SoftBank Group) | Puzzle | Mobile | Free-to-play | [1] |
| 2 | Crossfire | $1,400,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | PC | Free-to-play | [2] |
| 3 | Candy Crush Saga | $1,330,000,000 | King Digital | Puzzle | Mobile | Free-to-play | [3] |
| 4 | Clash of Clans | $1,000,000,000 | Supercell (SoftBank Group) | Strategy | Mobile | Free-to-play | [4] |
| 5 | League of Legends | $946,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | PC | Free-to-play | [5] |
| 6 | Dungeon Fighter Online | $891,000,000 | Neople / Nexon | Beat 'em up | PC | ||
| 7 | Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | $840,000,000 | Activision (Activision Blizzard) | FPS | PC, Console | Buy-to-play | [6] |
| 8 | Grand Theft Auto V | $750,000,000 | Rockstar Games (Take-Two Interactive) | Action-adventure | PC, Console | Buy-to-play | [7][8][9] |
| 9 | World of Warcraft | $728,000,000 | Blizzard Entertainment (Activision Blizzard) | MMORPG | PC | Subscription | [5] |
| 10 | Destiny | $500,000,000 | Activision (Activision Blizzard) | FPS | Console | Buy-to-play | [10] |
Top-rated games
Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
| Game | Publisher | Release date | Platform | MC score | GR score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Theft Auto V | Rockstar Games | November 18, 2014 | XBO | 97/100 | 98.33% |
| Grand Theft Auto V | Rockstar Games | November 18, 2014 | PS4 | 97/100 | 96.33% |
| The Last of Us Remastered | Sony Computer Entertainment | July 29, 2014 | PS4 | 95/100 | 95.7% |
| Shovel Knight | Yacht Club Games | June 26, 2014 | 3DS | 90/100 | 93.67% |
| Fez | Trapdoor | March 25, 2014 | PSV | 91/100 | 92.5%[13] |
| Super Smash Bros. for Wii U | Nintendo | November 21, 2014 | WiiU | 92/100 | 92.39% |
| Rayman Legends | Ubisoft | February 18, 2014 | XBO | 91/100 | 92.17% |
| Bayonetta 2 | Nintendo | September 20, 2014 | WiiU | 91/100 | 91.38% |
| Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition | Blizzard Entertainment | August 19, 2014 | PS4 | 90/100 | 91.25% |
| Dark Souls II | Bandai Namco Games | March 11, 2014 | PS3 | 91/100 | 89.68% |
| Kentucky Route Zero – Act III | Cardboard Computer | May 6, 2014 | WIN | 91/100 | 89% |
| Dark Souls II | Bandai Namco Games | March 11, 2014 | X360 | 91/100 | 88.95% |
| Dark Souls II | Bandai Namco Games | March 11, 2014 | WIN | 91/100 | 88.3% |
| Out of the Park Baseball 15 | Out of the Park Developments | April 24, 2014 | WIN | 89/100 | 90.71% |
| Velocity 2X | FuturLab | September 2, 2014 | PSV | 90/100 | 90.56% |
| Rayman Legends | Ubisoft | February 18, 2014 | PS4 | 90/100 | 90.45% |
| Metro Redux | Deep Silver | August 25, 2014 | WIN | 90/100 | 90.2% |
| The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | Nicalis | November 4, 2014 | WIN | 86/100 | 90.2% |
| Child of Light | Ubisoft | April 29, 2014 | PS3 | 89/100 | 90%[14] |
| Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition | DrinkBox Studios | July 2, 2014 | WiiU | 90/100 | 88.86% |
| Fez | Trapdoor | March 25, 2014 | PS4 | 90/100 | 88.46% |
| The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II | Nihon Falcom | September 25, 2014 | PS3 | 90/100[15] | 87.5%[16] |
Major awards
- Certain award presentations combine these categories.
Events
| Date | Event | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| January | Atari emerges from Bankruptcy and plans to enter the Social Casino market. | [citation needed] |
| January 6 | 2K Games discontinued the MLB 2K series. | [citation needed] |
| January 7 | PlayStation Now, a cloud-streaming from Sony Computer Entertainment was announced. | [citation needed] |
| January 15–16 | Steam Dev Days held in Seattle, Washington. | [citation needed] |
| January 27 | Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games. | [citation needed] |
| February 5 | Double Helix Games was acquired by Amazon.com | [citation needed] |
| February 18 | Irrational Games, the creator of the BioShock series was shut down. | [citation needed] |
| March 12 | 10th British Academy Video Games Awards held in Tobacco Dock, London. | [citation needed] |
| March 17 – 21 | Game Developers Conference 2014 held in San Francisco, California. | [citation needed] |
| March 18 | Project Morpheus, a virtual reality initiative from Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 is announced. | [citation needed] |
| March 25 | Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. | [citation needed] |
| March 28 – 30 | Rezzed 2014 held at the NEC Birmingham. | [citation needed] |
| April 11 – 13 | PAX East 2014 held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. | [citation needed] |
| April 12 – 13 | Midwest Gaming Classic 2014 held at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin. | [citation needed] |
| May 20 | Nintendo discontinues the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection servers for Wii and Nintendo DS games. | [citation needed] |
| May 29 | Electronic Arts shut down Mythic Entertainment | [citation needed] |
| June 5 | Nintendo announces that their president, Satoru Iwata won't attend E3 due to medical issues. | [citation needed] |
| June 10 – 12 | E3 2014 held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. | [18] |
| June 12 | Nordic Games acquired the publishing label of THQ. | [citation needed] |
| June 14 – 17 | DreamHack-Summer held in Jönköping, Sweden. | [citation needed] |
| June 25 | Google releases the Google Cardboard a VR accessory designed for smartphones. | [19] |
| June 30 | Crytek's IP's Homefront: The Revolution was acquired by Koch Media. Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical Design, and Crytek USA was shut down. | [citation needed] |
| June 30 | Deep Silver set up a new subsidiary known as Deep Silver Dambuster. | [citation needed] |
| June 30 | Electronic Arts shut down more than 50 multiplayer games. | [20] |
| July 10 | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's creator Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward by Activision. | [citation needed] |
| July 17 – 20 | QuakeCon 2014: The massive annual LAN party held in Dallas, Texas. | [citation needed] |
| July 24 – 27 | SDCC 2014 held at the San Diego Convention Center. | [citation needed] |
| July 29 | The Nvidia Shield Tablet is released in North America. | [citation needed] |
| July | Airtight Games was shut down approximately one month after the release of Murdered: Soul Suspect. | [citation needed] |
| August 7 | Activision revived the brand of Sierra Entertainment. | [citation needed] |
| August 11 | Electronic Arts launched a subscription video game service called EA Access for the Xbox One. | [citation needed] |
| August 13 – 17 | Gamescom 2014 held in Cologne, Germany. | [citation needed] |
| August 20 – 22 | Unite 2014 held in Seattle, Washington. | [citation needed] |
| August 25 | Twitch was acquired by Amazon.com for $970 million. | [citation needed] |
| August 28 | The Gamergate controversy came to public attention due to the introduction of the GamerGate hashtag. | [21] |
| August 29 | Nintendo announced the New Nintendo 3DS XL. | [citation needed] |
| August 29 – September 1 | PAX Prime 2014 held at the Washington State Convention Center. | [citation needed] |
| September 18 – 21 | Tokyo Game Show 2014 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo. | [citation needed] |
| September 25 – 28 | EGX London 2014 held in Earls Court, London. | [citation needed] |
| September 27 | Naughty Dog celebrated its 30th anniversary. | [citation needed] |
| October 2 – 5 | GIGACON 2014 held in Telenor Arena, Oslo, Norway. | [citation needed] |
| October 3 – 5 | EGS 2014 held in Centro Banamex, Mexico City, Mexico. | [citation needed] |
| October 6 | Ubisoft Reflections, formerly known as Reflections Interactive, celebrated its 30th anniversary. | [citation needed] |
| October 11 – 12 | Play Expo 2014 held at EventCity, Manchester. | [citation needed] |
| October 11 – 12 | FirstLook 2014 held at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Netherlands. | [citation needed] |
| October 19 | 2014 League of Legends World Championship was held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium | [citation needed] |
| October 24 | 32nd Golden Joystick Awards was held | [citation needed] |
| October 24–26 | Milan Games Week held at Fieramilanocity in Milan, Italy. | [citation needed] |
| October 31 – November 2 | PAX Australia 2014 held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Australia. | [citation needed] |
| November 6 | Microsoft Studios acquired Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion. | [citation needed] |
| November 7 – 8 | BlizzCon 2014 held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. | [citation needed] |
| November 12–17 | E-Sports World Championship 2014 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan | [citation needed] |
| November 27 – 30 | DreamHack-Winter held in Jönköping, Sweden. | [citation needed] |
| December 4 | 2K Games announced a new subsidiary called Hangar 13. | [citation needed] |
| December 5 | The Game Awards 2014 held in Las Vegas. | [citation needed] |
| December 6 – 7 | PlayStation Experience held at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. | [citation needed] |
Notable deaths
- January 23 – Justin Carmical, 42, retro game enthusiast known online as JewWario.[22]
- February 14 – Harold Ramis, 69, actor, writer, and director who created the Ghostbusters franchise and co-wrote the 2009 video game.
- April 19 – Bob Hoskins, 71, actor who played Mario in 1993's Super Mario Bros..[23]
- April 8 – The Ultimate Warrior, 54, pro wrestler who appeared in WWE games (cover star of WWF WrestleMania Challenge, WWF European Rampage Tour, WWF Superstars, and WWE All Stars).[24]
- August 11 – Robin Williams, 63, actor who appeared in ads for The Legend of Zelda alongside his daughter whose name originates from the series.[25][26]
- December 6 – Ralph H. Baer, 92, game designer credited for creating the first home console.[27]
- December 22 – Christine Cavanaugh, 51, voice actor best known for the voice of Chuckie in the Rugrats franchise.[28]
Hardware releases
The following is a list of game consoles released in 2014.
The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One made their launch releases in Asian countries.
Nintendo released their newest revision models of the Nintendo 3DS this year, the New Nintendo 3DS and the New Nintendo 3DS XL.[a] The New Nintendo 3DS' included brand new features like better 3D viewing, a C-stick for enhanced camera controls, 2 extra shoulder buttons named ZL & ZR, and a built in NFC reader for Amiibo figures.
| Date | Console | Manufacturer | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 22 | PlayStation 4JP | Sony | [29] |
| September 4 | Xbox OneJP | Microsoft | [30] |
| September 29 | Xbox OneCHN | [31] | |
| October 11 | New Nintendo 3DSJP | Nintendo | [32] |
| New Nintendo 3DS XLJP[a] | |||
| November 21 | New Nintendo 3DSAU | [33] | |
| New Nintendo 3DS XLAU |
Games released in 2014
Video game-based film and television releases
See also
Notes
- Named "New Nintendo 3DS LL" in Japan.