The 12 months 2022 definitely had its excessive factors – however even worse lows.
It wasn’t all unhealthy in 2022, after all, as we loved indie gems like Stray and Cult of the Lamb, navigated our method via a surprisingly stable technique lineup from Dune: Spice Wars to the fourth season of Anno 1800, after which there was Elden Ring.
Still, 2022 leaves a stale aftertaste, as a result of it confirmed us too typically what the game trade (with emphasis on “trade”) remains to be ailing from. Micha discusses this within the Year in Review podcast with Dimi and Peter.
And we do not imply the postponements of games like Forspoken, Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo 4 or Starfield. On the opposite, they may (hopefully!) be spared what haunted too many games this 12 months: the curse of unfinishedness.
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Modern Warfare 2 specifically enraged folks not solely on the Internet, but in addition within the editorial workplace. For Dimi, the shooter sequel shouldn’t be solely one of many largest disappointments of the 12 months – Modern Warfare 2 additionally illustrates a common downside with its buggy launch.
And then there was the dialogue about Diablo Immortal and its monetization, which shook the belief in Blizzard (key phrase “We do not promote tools, however gems aren’t tools”).
Speaking of cash, the consolidation of the gaming trade continued to progress in 2022, by no means earlier than have such sums of billions been pumped into acquisitions. The largest of those – the deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard – is way from sure on the time of our podcast recording, nevertheless, as a result of the U.S. antitrust company FTC remains to be objecting.
The takeover battle reveals one factor above all: The huge market gamers are bringing their weapons into place for the platform wars. At the identical time, new opponents, akin to Amazon and Netflix, are getting concerned. We already mentioned the unusual blossoms that is inflicting in our podcast concerning the platform wars:
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