2016 in video games

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Numerous video games were released in 2016. New hardware came out as well, albeit largely refreshed and updated versions of consoles in the PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Xbox One S. Commercially available virtual reality headsets were released in much greater numbers and at much lower price points than the enthusiast-only virtual reality headsets of earlier generations. Augmented reality also became mainstream with Pokémon Go.[1] Top-rated games originally released in 2016 included Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Inside, Overwatch, Forza Horizon 3, Madden NFL 17, WWE 2K17, NBA 2K17, Dark Souls III, and Battlefield 1 and Doom 2016. The top five highest-grossing video games of 2016 were League of Legends, Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Monster Strike, Clash Royale, and Dungeon Fighter Online.

Series with new installments in 2016 include Ace Attorney, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Civilization, Cossacks, Dark Souls, Dead Rising, Deus Ex, Dishonored, Digimon, Doom, Driveclub, Far Cry, FIFA, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Forza Horizon, Gears of War, Hearts of Iron, Hitman, Homefront, Homeworld, Kirby, Mafia, Mario Party, Master of Orion, Metroid, Mirror's Edge, Paper Mario, Persona, Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, The Playroom, Pokémon, Ratchet & Clank, Shadow of the Beast, Shadow Warrior, Sonic the Hedgehog, Star Fox, Star Ocean, Street Fighter, Titanfall, Total War, Uncharted, Watch Dogs, XCOM, and Zero Escape.

In addition, 2016 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Abzû, Hyper Light Drifter, Inside, The Last Guardian, No Man's Sky, Owlboy, Obduction, Overwatch, Quantum Break, Stardew Valley, Tom Clancy's The Division, and The Witness.

Financial performance

Analysis firm SuperData estimated that the global video game software market brought in $91 billion in revenues in 2016; this was an increase over the $74 billion estimated for 2015, but SuperData noted that their 2016 estimates included a larger data set. Of the $91 billion, $41 billion was attributed to mobile gaming, particularly the titles Clash Royale and Pokémon Go, with the largest mobile gaming section in Asia with total revenues near $25 billion.[2] Personal computer video games made up $34 billion, with $19 billion contributed from free-to-play games, and console games, retail and downloadable, were $26 and $6.6 billion, respectively.[3] The firm also identified that virtual reality (VR), professional video game sports, and streaming were still growing markets in the year.[3] DFC Intelligence reported similar numbers for revenues in the various sectors, and noted that mobile gaming revenues overtook both console and personal computer revenues in 2016.[4]

Newzoo estimated that $70.4 billion of video game revenues were made by the top 25 publicly-trading companies, led by Tencent ($10.2B), Sony ($7.9B), Activision Blizzard ($6.6B), Microsoft ($6.5B) and Apple, Inc. ($5.9B). The top ten companies brought in more than 54% of total revenues during 2016, up from 43% in 2015.[5]

IHS Markit estimated that worldwide revenue related to console hardware, software, and services was $34.7 billion, down about 2.5% from 2015; hardware sales were down from $12.8 billion to $10.5 billion, while software and service revenues were up. Sony held about 57% of the market share during 2016, followed by Microsoft and Nintendo.[6]

Within the United States, revenues from the video game industry in 2016 was estimated at $30.4 billion by the Entertainment Software Association and NPD Group, slightly up from 2015's $30.2 billion. Of that, $24.5 billion was spent on video game software, an increase of 6% from 2015. Digital purchases, which included full game purchases, downloadable content, game subscriptions, and mobile game microtransactions, made up 74% of this number, continuing a steady increase of digital sales over retail since 2010.[7] Sales were driven by the introduction of VR, Pokémon Go and Pokémon Sun and Moon, and the games Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Madden NFL 17, NBA 2K17 and Tom Clancy's The Division.[8]

Highest-grossing games

The following were 2016's top ten highest-grossing video games worldwide in terms of digital revenue (including digital purchases, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including Mobile, PC and console platforms). Six of the top ten highest-grossing games are published or owned by Tencent.

More information Rank, Game ...
Rank Game Revenue Publisher(s) Genre Platform Ref.
1 League of Legends $1,700,000,000 Riot Games / Tencent MOBA PC [9]
2 Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor $1,610,000,000 Tencent MOBA Mobile [10]
3 Monster Strike $1,300,000,000 Mixi Physics Mobile [9]
4 Clash of Clans $1,200,000,000 Supercell (Tencent) Strategy Mobile
5 Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) $1,100,000,000 Nexon / Tencent Beat 'em up PC
6 Clash Royale $1,100,000,000 Supercell (Tencent) RTS Mobile
Crossfire $1,100,000,000 Smilegate / Tencent FPS PC
8 Puzzle & Dragons $955,000,000 GungHo Online Entertainment Puzzle Mobile [11]
9 Pokémon Go $950,000,000 Niantic / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company AR Mobile [12]
10 Game of War: Fire Age $910,000,000 Machine Zone Strategy Mobile [9]
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Top-rated games

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

More information Game, Publisher ...
2016 games and expansions scoring at least 90/100 (MC) or 90% (GR)[13][14]
Game Publisher Release Date Platform MC score GR score
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine CD Projekt May 31, 2016 XBO 94/100 94%
Persona 5 Atlus September 15, 2016 PS4 93/100[15] 93.3%[16]
Inside Playdead June 29, 2016 XBO 93/100 92.81%
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Sony Interactive Entertainment May 10, 2016 PS4 93/100 92.71%
Odin Sphere Leifthrasir Atlus January 14, 2016 PSV 93/100 89.25%[17]
Forza Horizon 3 Microsoft Studios September 27, 2016 XBO 91/100 92.14%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine CD Projekt May 31, 2016 WIN 92/100 91.58%
Out of the Park Baseball 17 Out of the Park Developments March 22, 2016 WIN 92/100 91.25%
SteamWorld Heist Image & Form June 7, 2016 PSV 90/100 92%[18]
Inside Playdead August 23, 2016 PS4 91/100 91.38%
Overwatch Blizzard Entertainment May 24, 2016 WIN 91/100 91.26%
Stephen's Sausage Roll Increpare Games April 18, 2016 WIN 90/100 91.25%
Overwatch Blizzard Entertainment May 24, 2016 XBO 91/100 90.58%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine CD Projekt May 31, 2016 PS4 91/100 90%
Overwatch Blizzard Entertainment May 24, 2016 PS4 90/100 90.87%
Dark Souls III Bandai Namco Entertainment March 24, 2016 XBO 87/100 90.4%
Owlboy D-Pad Studio November 1, 2016 WIN 88/100 90.39%
Tadpole Treble BitFinity May 6, 2016 WIN 90/100 90%
NBA 2K17 2K September 20, 2016 WIN 90/100 90%[19]
N++ Metanet Software August 25, 2016 WIN 90/100 89.75%[20]
Kentucky Route Zero – Act IV Cardboard Computer July 19, 2016 WIN 90/100 88.17%[21]
NBA 2K17 2K September 20, 2016 XBO 90/100 87.5%
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Major awards

More information Category/Organization, 34th Golden Joystick Awards November 18, 2016 ...
Category/Organization 34th Golden Joystick Awards
November 18, 2016[22]		 The Game Awards 2016
December 1, 2016		 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards
February 23, 2017		17th Game Developers Choice Awards
March 1, 2017		 13th British Academy Games Awards
April 6, 2017
Game of the Year Dark Souls IIIOverwatchUncharted 4: A Thief's End
Independent / Debut[i] Firewatch Inside Firewatch
Mobile/Handheld[i]Mobile Pokémon GoPokémon GoPokémon Go
Handheld Pokémon Sun and Moon
VR/AR Game N/aRez InfiniteSuperhot VRJob SimulatorN/a
Innovation Pokémon GoN/aNo Man's SkyThat Dragon, Cancer
Artistic Achievement[i]Animation The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and Wine Inside Uncharted 4: A Thief's End Inside
Art Direction Inside
Audio[i]Music Fallout 4DoomDoomInsideVirginia
Sound Design Battlefield 1The Last Guardian
Character or Performance Doug Cockle as Geralt of Rivia
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine		Nolan North as Nathan Drake
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End		Trico
The Last Guardian		N/aCissy Jones as Delilah
Firewatch
Game Design
or Direction[i]		Game Design N/aOverwatchOverwatchOverwatchInside
Game Direction Inside
Narrative The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and WineUncharted 4: A Thief's EndFirewatchInside
Technical Achievement N/aUncharted 4: A Thief's EndN/a
Multiplayer/Online OverwatchN/aOverwatch
Action N/aDoomOverwatchN/a
Adventure N/aDishonored 2Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Family N/aPokémon GoRatchet & ClankN/aOvercooked
Fighting N/aStreet Fighter VN/a
Role-Playing N/aThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Blood and WineDark Souls III
Sports/RacingSports N/aForza Horizon 3Steep
Racing Forza Horizon 3
Strategy/Simulation N/aCivilization VI
Special AwardLifetime AchievementIndustry Icon AwardHall of FameLifetime Achievement AwardSpecial Award
Eiji AonumaHideo KojimaTodd HowardTim SweeneyBrenda Romero
Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill (Riot Games)[23]
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  1. [i]
    Certain award presentations combine these categories.

Events

More information Date, Event ...
Date Event Ref.
January 4 Activision Blizzard announced that they had acquired Major League Gaming. [24]
January 5 The Mixer streaming service is launched as Beam. [citation needed]
January 6 Square Enix closed cloud video game subsidiary Shinra Technologies. [25]
January 8 Marc Laidlaw, lead writer of the Half-Life series, retired from Valve. [26]
January 8 David Brevik, the CEO of Gazillion Entertainment, left the company. [27]
January 12 Electronic Arts introduced Origin Access, a new subscription service for Windows. [28]
January 13 Leslie Benzies, producer and president of Rockstar North, left the company after a 16-month sabbatical. His positions were taken up by Aaron Garbut and Rob Nelson. [29]
January 16 Brian Horton, director of Rise of the Tomb Raider, left Crystal Dynamics for Infinity Ward. [30]
January 22 David Gaider, lead writer of Dragon Age, left BioWare. [31]
January 28 Bungie announced that Pete Parsons had replaced Harold Ryan as the company's president. [32]
January 28 GOG.com launched Games in Development, their own early access program. [33]
January 28 Sumo Digital announced their plan of establishing a new studio in Nottingham. [34]
January 29–31 PAX South 2016 held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. [35]
February 8 Blizzard Entertainment celebrated its 25th anniversary. [36]
February 8 GameTrailers video game website was closed. [37]
February 15 Rapper Lupe Fiasco and esports player Daigo Umehara have an exhibition match of Street Fighter V to promote the game. [38]
February 16–18 Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2016 D.I.C.E. Summit and 19th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada; Hideo Kojima inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame, and Satoru Iwata received the Lifetime Achievement Award. [39][40][41]
February 27 The Pokémon franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary. [42]
February Ryan Barnard, game director of Tom Clancy's The Division, left Massive Entertainment for IO Interactive. [43]
March 7 Press Play, the developer of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Kalimba was closed by Microsoft Studios. [44]
March 9 Nexon acquired Big Huge Games, the developer of DomiNations. [45]
March 9 Riot Games acquired Radiant Entertainment, the developer of Rising Thunder. [46]
March 14–18 Game Developers Conference 2016 held in San Francisco, California. [47]
March 15 Jagex was acquired by Chinese mining company Shandong Honda. [48]
March 22 Bigpoint Games was acquired by Youzu Interactive. [49]
March 22 Evolution Studios, the developer of MotorStorm and Driveclub, was shut down by Sony Computer Entertainment. [50]
March 22 The Resident Evil franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary. [51]
March 24 Sony Computer Entertainment announced that they had founded a new studio, ForwardWorks to develop mobile games. [52]
March 31 n-Space, the developer of Sword Coast Legends, was closed. [53]
March 31 Sega completed its acquisition of Atlus. Future Atlus-developed titles localized for America will be published by Sega. [54]
April 5 Karthik and Guha Bala, founders of Vicarious Visions, left the company. [55]
April 11 Codemasters announced the company had employed the majority of Evolution Studios' employees. [56]
April 14 Leonard Boyarsky left Blizzard Entertainment to join Obsidian Entertainment. [57]
April 18 GameStop announced GameTrust, a new publishing division. [58]
April 20 Microsoft announced the discontinuation of the production of the Xbox 360. [59]
April 22 Tatsuya Minami, president of PlatinumGames, left the company. [60]
April 22–24 PAX East 2016 held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. [61]
April 25 Patrice Desilets gained back the rights to 1666 Amsterdam and settled the lawsuit with Ubisoft. [62]
April 26 NIS America announced that they had cut ties with Atlus after Sega's acquisition of Atlus. [63]
April 26 SNK Playmore was restructured to form SNK. [64]
April 29 Lionhead Studios was closed by Microsoft Studios. [65]
May 10 Avalanche Software was shut down by parent company Disney Interactive Studios. Disney decided they would not self-publish any titles in the future, and instead rely on external partners. [66]
May 13 Yahoo! Games was shut down by Yahoo!. [67]
May 18 Electronic Arts announced that they had formed a new studio called Frostbite Lab. [68]
May 18 The creator of the Madden NFL series, Rich Hilleman, left Electronic Arts. [69]
May 18 IGN purchased assets of GameTrailers from Defy Media. [70]
May 30 Starbreeze Studios acquired the Payday franchise from 505 Games. [71]
June 1 Vivendi succeeded in Gameloft's hostile takeover, seizing control from the Guillemot brothers. [72]
June 2 Techland established a new publishing label called Techland Publishing. [73]
June 3 Aaron Linde, the writer of Battleborn, left Gearbox Software. [74]
June 6 Future Publishing purchased Imagine Publishing, the owner of GamesTM. [75]
June 10 Ubisoft Casablanca was closed by Ubisoft. [76]
June 12–14 Electronic Arts held their first fan-orientated public event named EA Play. [77]
June 14–16 E3 2016 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. [78]
June 21 Supercell, the developer of Clash of Clans, was acquired by Tencent for $8.6 billion. [79]
June 21 The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary. [citation needed]
July 1 Josh Mosqueira, the director of Diablo III, announced that he had left Blizzard Entertainment. [80]
July 5 Sega announced that they had acquired Endless Space developer Amplitude Studios. [81]
July 8 Adam Boyes, VP of third party relations & developer technology group of Sony Interactive Entertainment, departed from the company. [82]
July 11 Splash Damage, the developer of the two Enemy Territory games, was acquired by Chinese chicken meat company Leyou. [83]
July 19 Dino Patti, co-founder of Playdead, departed the company. [84]
August 3–13 The International 2016, the second highest paying eSports tournament in history, was held at the KeyArena in Seattle. [85]
August 4–7 QuakeCon 2016 was held in Hilton Anatole in Dallas. [86]
August 5 Relentless Software, the developer of the Buzz! series, shut down. [87]
August 12 Nordic Games, the company that acquired most THQ's franchises, rebranded to THQ Nordic. [88]
August 15–16 Game Developers Conference Europe 2016 was held in Cologne, Germany. [citation needed]
August 17–21 Gamescom 2016 held in Cologne, Germany. [89]
August 21 Shinzo Abe appears at the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony out of a warp pipe while wearing Mario's hat to promote the 2020 Summer Olympics. [90]
August 29 Independent developer Renegade Kid was replaced by two companies: Atooi (who owns all of Renegade Kid's 2D IPs) and Infinitizmo (which owns all of Renegade Kid's 3D IPs). [91]
September 2–5 PAX West 2016 held at the Washington State Convention Center. [citation needed]
September 9 The Crash Bandicoot franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary. [citation needed]
September 13 Microsoft Studios launched Xbox Play Anywhere, a cross-play program between Windows 10 and Xbox One. [92]
September 13 Chris Metzen announced his departure from Blizzard Entertainment. [93]
September 15–18 Tokyo Game Show was held and celebrated its 20th Anniversary [citation needed]
September 21 Blizzard Entertainment announced that they would be phasing out their online system Battle.net. [94]
September 28 Ubisoft acquired Ketchapp, the developer of 2048. [95]
October 12–13 Steam Dev Days held in Seattle, Washington. [96]
October 17 United Front Games, the developer of Sleeping Dogs, shut down. [97]
October 20 Nintendo publicly announces its next home console, the Switch. [98]
October 21 The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists begins a strike against eleven American video game developers and publishers over payments of residuals to voice and motion capture artists in video games. [99]
October 25 The Tomb Raider franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary. [citation needed]
November 4–5 BlizzCon 2016 held in Anaheim, California. [100]
December 1 Annapurna Pictures establish video game division Annapurna Interactive. [101]
December 1 The Game Awards 2016 held in Los Angeles, California. [citation needed]
December 3–4 PlayStation Experience 2016 held in Anaheim, California. [citation needed]
December 16 Shinji Hirano, the former president of Konami Europe, became the CEO of Kojima Productions. [102]
December 20 Atlus formed a new development studio called Studio Zero. [103]
December 20 Crytek closed its studio in Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, South Korea, and China. [104]
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Notable deaths

Hardware releases

Xbox One S

The following is a list of game-related hardware released in 2016.

This year saw the launch of many Virtual reality headsets, such as the Oculus Rift CV1, Microsoft HoloLens, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and Google Daydream.

Microsoft released its first model revision of the Xbox One, the Xbox One S and Sony released its first and only two model revisions of the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 4 Slim & PlayStation 4 Pro.

More information Date, Console ...
Date Console Manufacturer Ref.
March 28 Oculus Rift CV1WW Oculus VR [citation needed]
March 30 Microsoft HoloLens Microsoft [citation needed]
April 5 HTC ViveWW HTC [citation needed]
August 2 Xbox One SWW Microsoft [citation needed]
September 15 PlayStation 4 SlimWW Sony [citation needed]
October 13 PlayStation VRWW [citation needed]
November 10 Google Daydream Google [citation needed]
PlayStation 4 ProWW Sony [citation needed]
NES Classic EditionJP/AUS Nintendo [citation needed]
November 11 NES Classic EditionNA/EU [citation needed]
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Games released in 2016

Main article: List of video games released in 2016

Cancelled games

Cancelled

Discontinued

Video game-based film and television releases

More information Title, Date ...
Title Date Type Distributor(s) Franchise Original game publisher(s) Ref.
Persona 3 The Movie: No. 4, Winter of Rebirth January 23, 2016 Anime film Aniplex Persona Atlus [129]
Dofus – Book 1: Julith February 3, 2016 Animated film Gebeka Films Dofus Ankama [130]
Beep: A Documentary History of Game Sound March 15, 2016 Documentary film Ehtonal N/a N/a [131]
Street Fighter: Resurrection Web series Machinima Street Fighter Capcom [132]
Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV March 30, 2016 Original net animation A-1 Pictures Final Fantasy Square Enix [133]
Ace Attorney April 2, 2016 Anime television series Funimation Ace Attorney Capcom [134]
Ratchet & Clank April 29, 2016 CGI animated film Focus Features Ratchet & Clank Sony Computer Entertainment [135]
The Angry Birds Movie May 20, 2016 Sony Pictures Releasing Angry Birds Rovio Entertainment [136]
ELeague May 24, 2016 Esports television series TBS N/a N/a [137]
Warcraft June 10, 2016 Feature film Universal Pictures Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment [138]
Dead Rising: Endgame June 20, 2016 Crackle Dead Rising Capcom [139]
Tales of Zestiria the X July 3, 2016 Anime television series Funimation Tales Bandai Namco Entertainment [140]
Puzzle & Dragons X July 4, 2016 Anime television series Funimation Puzzle & Dragons GungHo Online Entertainment [141]
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV July 9, 2016 CGI animated film Sony Pictures Entertainment Final Fantasy Square Enix [142]
Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel July 16, 2016 Anime film Toho (Japan)
Disney XD (United States)		 Pokémon Nintendo
The Pokémon Company		 [143][144]
Pokémon Generations September 16, 2016 Limited anime webseries YouTube [145]
Monster Hunter Stories: Ride On October 2, 2016 Anime television series Fuji TV Monster Hunter Capcom [146]
Skylanders Academy October 28, 2016 3D animated series Netflix Skylanders Activision [147]
Assassin's Creed December 21, 2016 Feature film 20th Century Fox Assassin's Creed Ubisoft [148]
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter December 23, 2016 Feature film Sony Pictures Releasing Resident Evil Capcom [149]
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See also

References

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