2008-A year in gaming

December 24, 9:59 AMLA Video Game ExaminerKenneth Wesley

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Even though there will still be some Christmas shopping madness, now would be a great time to look back on the year that was 2008. Barack Obama's victory was the perfect ending to one the biggest political campaigns, Michael Phelps had earned more medals than most countrys, The Dark Knight is probably the only thing that made more in Nintendo. 

Speaking of Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, and Sony for that matter, 2008 had a hell of lot to live up to after 2007, After a year of Bioshock, Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Uncharted, the gaming industry had it's share of peaks and valleys. This article will take a look at the good, bad, and ugly in stories and events that made 2008 a wonderful year. There is no order for these stories and I'll try to give out mini-awards for the things that deserve it.

Sony beats Microsoft in the sales charts-Even though not a lot has gone right for the Playstation 3, January and February told a different story as the PS3 actually outsold the 360 for the first two months of the year and most of the summer months. After the price cut for the Arcade SKU of the 360, things went upward for the 360 and just stalled for the PS3, causing many people to speculate on whether or not the PS3 is out of the console war already.

Nintendo beats...everyone and a recession-In the middle of every month, the NPD Group trouted out a familiar, repetitive, and exhilariting story: The Wii and DS were the top selling systems each month. The DS and DS Lite sold so well in the US, that we can't have the DSi until next year. And the Wii sold enough to take the number one spot in the US, evaporating the lead the 360 had and forcing many people to say that the Wii isn't competing with the 360 and PS3.

The reaction to Nintendo's success-Nintendo's accomplished far more than they ever had dreamed of with the Wii, so why should they be worried? The perceived lack of great, hardcore software (isn't that a oxymoron?) compared to the 360 and PS3, which was at times a valid argument. Even Nintendo acknowledge that their E3 conference was severely lacking for 'core' gamers. But Nintendo's message and plan of not just satisfying the hardcore has paid off financially. But it's great to read message boards whenever we find out how much money Nintendo is printing.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl-This game surprised no one with it's awesome multiplayer and great content. But online play....Lag, limited action, no message sending: this is not what you expect for the Wii's killer app. But that soundtrack and the addition of Sonic and Snake was superb.

Suda 51-In a year where Japan's one-time stranglehold on the video game was severly loosenend and are forcing Japanese publishers and developers to re-think their development strategies, Goichi Suda has become a rising developer with the release of the compelling and awesome No More Heroes, which was a bigger hit outside of Japan. He's got more projects in the works, including a NMH sequel, Fatal Frame IV, and a untitled project with Shinji Mikami at EA. Meet the new rising son.

Studio closures-Ensemble Studios, Black Box, Free Radical and Factor 5 (maybe) will have thousands and thousands of employees in the unemployment line. Even though the video game industry is making tons of dough this year, not everyone is raking it in and when we lose talent, this is bad news for everyone. Especially for Ensemble, who's getting the axe after they finish Halo Wars-that's a f***ed up bonus.

EA-For years and years, EA has had to live with the stigma that they retreaded the same ground each year for profits and so what happened this year? They released new IPs (Facebreaker, Army of Two, Boom Blox) on the market to a resounding 'meh', which sucks because it proves that new IPs are just hard to launch.

E3-For years, it was full of babes and crowds and no one liked it. Then in 2007, it was downscaled and everyone hated it. Even the bigger publishers held their own events to reveal their biggest, upciming titles. Now it's going back to the spectacle that made it the expo gamers really wanted to get into. Now, if they can only figure out a way to let gamers actually come in.

Wiiware, Playstation Network, Xbox Live Arcade-While the consoles slugged it out at retail, indie developers finally released games that celebrated the joy of playing games and showed that not every great game has to have a bloated budget and sold for nearly 60 bucks. Each system had excellent offerings all around and ensures that the online market will have a fixture in the future for the industry.

Best video game song: Mercenaries 2' "Oh No You Didn't"-Nothing was more catchier and attention-grabbing than this hilarious hip/hop song played on a piano. Even if the game wasn't spectacular, the song will forever be remembered.

Spore DRM-There wasn't a gamer who wasn't looking forward to Will Wright's uber galaxy/civilization sim. Too bad EA's need to thwart piracy caused such a huge backlash and tainted what was a unique hybrid of different genres.

Used game sales-Gamestop had a successful year and most of that came from used game sales. The problem with that was that the publishers and developers didn't get a cent of that pie and while most developers so no problem with it, others are seeing red and are trying to come up with way to thwart it. Even though it's the only way most gamers will actually buy a game nowadays. This story will get bigger in 2009.

The music industry loves/hates Guitar Hero & Rock Band-There used to be a time when bringing in licensed songs could send a game's budget skyrocketing, now artists can't wait to get their music into both games as they rightly concluded that it's a new way to get their music to a new audiences. Metallica released their new album, 'Death Magnetic' that same day it hit stores and The Beatles will have their own game in the future. It's great to know that the music industry is be resuscitated by video games and they can't gouge people out of enjoy their music. It would've been perfect if Activision CEO Bobby Kotick would've been humble and never said that 'the music industry should pay us more'. And Nickelback said something negative about both games but screw them.

Tecmo vs. Itgaki-Tomonobu Itgaki usually makes a lot of noise whenever his games are getting ready for release (he had two of them) but after both games (Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword and Ninja gaiden II) were released, he was making more noise about Tecmo after leaving and filing a lawsuit. This goes to show how the games industry will never be on par with the movie industry because the movie industry does their best to keep the talent happy. And when our talent (the developers) are just treated like disposable product, then it thwarts video games from becoming art.

Grand Theft Auto IV-Like Brawl, the gameplay brilliance and expansion on the sandbox genre surprised no one and it shattered sales records in late April. The biggest news was how quickly it disappeared from the charts. After the last generation of GTA titles topped the charts for months on end (Grand Theft Auto III was knocked from the top spot when Grand Theft Auto: Vice City came out), this was supposed to be a bigger juggernaut for Take-Two and now won't be the best-selling game in 2008. That honor will go to Wii Fit.

Game announcements-For some reason, gaming news is just full of announcement for games you probably won't play for about two years. But they're exciting to hear. Wii owners finally had reason to keep their beyond '09, 360 owners know the fight isn't finished with the Halo franchise. But the boggest announcement was...Diablo 3! Any announcement that has people staying up until 3 a.m. to see a slowly revealing JPEG has to be a megaton of a bombshell and a sequel to a game that has influenced so many other titles is a megaton.

EA wants Take-Two-Early in the year, EA made public it's plans to acquire publisher Take-Two interactive, which housed a number of development studios, namely Rockstar & 2K Games, which have been responsible for some big hits in this current gen (Bioshock, NBA 2K, Grand Theft Auto IV). The offer was huge at nearly $25 per share, which was rejected and led to one of the biggest business dramas seen in the game industry. Take-Two wanted more money and rejected the deal and EA tried a hostile takeover. Eventually, the deal expired after the summer due to dwindling GTA IV sales and might be going on behind closed doors.

Activision and Blizzard join forces and kicks Sierra to the curb-Both companies got together to become one of the biggest video game publishers in the world. The downside? Sierra, which was acquired by Activision a year earlier, had a number of upcoming games which Activision had no interest in releasing because according CEO Kotick, there was no chance for the publisher to exploit the franchise for millions of dollars on a yearly basis. The games included Brutal Legend, 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand, and Ghostbusters (which all have found different homes and will be released in 2009).

Wii Fit, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Wii Music-What else do they have in common despite the fact that they're developed by Nintendo and are aimed squarely at the casual market? They continue to pop up on the sales chart months after they were released (not so much with Wii Music...yet). Which goes to show that people really dig peripherals with their games (which makes it harder to resale and buy it used). Or maybe there's just more to Nintendo than delivering a hardcore experience year after year.

Eidos creates a review controversy...again-Days before Tomb Raider: Legend was set be released, they were reports that a PR company working for Eidos wanted some websites to hold back on reviews that would affect the Metacritic score, which to them meant that sales could be affected. Just a year after the whole Gamespot/Kane & Lynch controversy, this is a definite way to turn some people off from buying a game. That and a debilitating glitch towards the end of the Wii version.

Gears of War 2-This game surprised nobody with it's awesome graphics and killer gameplay. What was surprising was how little activity was found online. While many of the modes got high marks in reviews, none of them seem prepared for how stricter the lobby got and how many glitches popped up online.

Metal Gear Solid 4-This game surpised nobody with it's incredible graphics, new gameplay additions, and a compelling end to a series....after a cut-scene finished. As intense as some of the battles were, they were no match for all the damn cutscenes you had to go through. I mean, you could skip it, but then the zany plot would make even less sense.

Little Big Planet-A funny thing happened to retail for this game: It was ready to go but a potential controversy with certain song lyrics had to be averted, which meant a delay. Then, the servers had to be fixed. Overall, this game was one of the few gems for the PS3 in 2008 and while it hasn't burned up the sales charts in first two months, keep in the mind that Wii Play never did the same. This may turn out to be a big blockbuster for Sony after all.

Sonic the Hedgehog-When you found out that Sonic transforming into a werewolf was part of the game, you knew it wouldn't end well and this made 'Sonic Unleashed' one more piss-poor platformer from Sega. What makes it more tragic was the two great games he was in this past year wasn't even developed by Sonic Team.

Insane Predictions for 2009:

The Wii's momentum will finally pop and sales will plummet and lead people to abandon Nintendo for not making enough hardcore games. Kidding! I've been reading too many message boards. The Wii contiunue to have stellar sales and they'll announce a new project about a core franchise at E3, only to save the good stuff for October 2009.

The Wii's third party lineup will be up to par with Nintendo's first party stuff finally when MadWorld, The Conduit, Tenchu, and House of the Dead: Overkill will be released in the first half of 2009 and when the Wii Motion Plus hits, look for third-party publishers to scramble madly to make a game that takes advantage of it.

Many third parties will announce that many hit franchises will make it some form to the Wii, keep up the trend of publishers wanting to cash in on the Wii without taking a genuine, creative risk.

Microsoft will do well of the back of Halo: Recon and then....it's time for some more sequels to be announced at E3.

Splinter Cell: Conviction will actually get a holiday release date in 2009 but will probably feel rushed out.

Guitar Hero: Metallica will be the last GH hit because Activision will create a brand new sequel that no one want to pick up.

The DSi will sell tons of copies in 2009 in the US, as will the DS Lite-There's really no stopping that machine.

Nintendo will proabbly come up with a solution to the Friend Code and probably create a whole new channel where you can meet other Wii owners and exchange friend codes easier.

Resident Evil 5 will be really awesome. Not really a prediction, but who isn't excited for Resident Evil 5?

The PS3 won't drop in price until October 2009.

I will spend too much time with Sin & Punishment 2.

The Virtual Console will finally see Yoshi's Island and Majora's Mask and Mother 3. I'm basing this on the fact that the excellent Phantasy Star IV was snuck into the lineup on 12/22.

A major publisher will actually make a decent game that's only available online and will not just be DLC.

There's not going to be any kind of remote device for the 360 and PS3, no matter how much it might bring in sales.

Cheers to 2008 and here's to a great 2009!