We are approaching the middle of 2021 and we are very close to E3 2021, the event that we hope will mark a before and after in our perspective of this year. 2021 has been marked by the aftermath of the coronavirus in all areas, which is why we have heard a lot of delays of AAA titles and little of fixed dates.
And it is that the year has not gone quite well, we have had many more controversies than memorable releases. In these first 5 and a half months, games as a service have become strong simply by existing, while new releases have been scarce since most have been delayed until 2022 for different reasons, although the one usually cited is the coronavirus.
Old acquaintances
Let’s start with the big companies: Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. The big N was absent almost all of 2020 and when he returned he did not talk about Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, Metrod Prime 4 or Bayonetta 3. More has been said about the Switch Pro, too much in fact, since the leaks basically have it confirmed but Nintendo does not release information.
Therefore, the beginning of the year for Nintendo has been marked by a hype of a console that remains undisclosed. On the other hand we have Microsoft that only had one major release, Medium, which unfortunately received very bad reviews. However, its powerful console, the X Series, has emerged as the most powerful console and the one suitable for playing cross-platform titles.
For its part, the Xbox Game Pass continued to grow and release AAA games at no additional cost and in March the purchase of ZeniMax (Bethesda) and its games was made official. As a negative point we have that they were about to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold, but finally they backed off and ended up even offering free online for free-to-play such as Fortnite.
Lastly, Sony successfully released Returnal and will release Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart soon. Sony has not fared badly, which had negative moments anyway: initially they announced the closure of the PS3, PS Vita and PSP stores, but like Microsoft, they recoiled from criticism and only closed the PSP store. In addition, little by little they have closed Japan Studio and it seems that they will forget about the exclusive Japanese AAA, a pity.
Of course, its image in terms of AAA games remains pristine, great things are expected for PS5 and even for PC since Layden confirmed that more Sony games will arrive on Windows 10.
Game and people streaming
Moving on to streaming games and streamers we have to highlight the bad news for Google Stadia. The person in charge of the project, Jade Raymond, was fired from Google and now has a studio that will make exclusive games for PS5. Stadia staggered after Google itself spoke of restructuring, something that resulted in the closure of two internal studios that were going to make exclusive titles for Stadia.
Google claimed that the project is going ahead, but people have doubts. Games have certainly continued to be released, so it’s a bit early to bury them.
In another type of streaming we have Twitch that is still stronger than ever, the Amazon website updated its terms of service to be clearer (although it is still very gray), and announced a price reduction for the Prime subscription in countries of Eastern Europe and Latin America. To all these Ibai Llanos does not rest and recently offered “The evening of the year.”
The content brought together video game streamers to fight in a boxing ring and became the most watched stream of the year, reaching 1.5 million simultaneous viewers. So streaming, both gaming and entertainment in general, has grown, even though it has been at the cost of offering videos not directly related to games.
An epic battle
Another relevant issue is the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple that has thrown all kinds of surreal news. The first sessions were made public in May and we learned that Walmart offered a game streaming service to Epic Games, that Epic offered Sony $ 200 million to launch their games at EGS, and that Apple used as an argument in favor that In Fortnite there are “naked banana” skins, something that could negatively affect your audience.
The matter is still far from being settled as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers wants to find out how the industry works first, so she has requested collaboration from Valve, Microsoft and Google. These at first have refused to share their data, but have been forced, so this legal battle is the closest to a sitcom with a serious ending that we will have in the industry.
Achievers and disappointments
Going back to games we have disappointments in the AA industry. Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood, Biomutant, Outriders, Balan Wonderworld and Destruction AllStars were released by more or less well-known studios and even some supported by AAA publishers. However, they have not passed 6/10 and some like Balan Wonderworld have become the worst games of the decade.
However, Biomutant may be the biggest disappointment because a lot was expecting a lot from an open world game of cats with guns and big swords. However, it seems that the title developed by 25 people tried to cover too much and could not squeeze enough in what it did best.
The indies have given more face with Loop Hero, Valheim, Cyber Shadow and Curse of the Dead Gods, all above 8/10 and some even with the development of only one person as Cyber Shadow.
Finally, the AAA have been absent, but the few that have been do not clash, such as Capcom with Monster Hunter: Rise and Resident Evil: Village, the two contenders for the game of the year, especially the latter that is on its way to sell more than Resident Evil 7. They are joined by Returnal, Nier: Replicant, Hitman II, It Takes Two, Little Nighmares II, and New Pokémon Snap which are not “Game of the Year” material, but they are pretty cool and safe options for kids. fans of his genre.
Existing content
For their part, titles such as Fortnite, Apex Legends, Call of Duty: Warzone, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Minecraft, GTA Online, Valorant, League of Legends or Rocket League have simply continued to update every so often as always and see their numbers grow . The formula for success already works and they have no reason to change it.
In fact, the pandemic has only pushed people to play more than they already did, so those who can develop content with less effort because they have already established a base in a game as a service have had it easier than those who must create AAA, AA, or narrative indies. We will continue to see this trend in which successful grows bigger while the pandemic lasts.
Delays and more delays
The beginning of the year was marked by tacit and explicit delays of games such as: Hogwarts Legacy, Gotham Knights, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, Deathloop Far Cry 6, God of War: Ragnarok, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Vampire : The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, Gran Turismo 7, Forspoken and several more. And most likely, this practice will be seen more widely for a while.
The delays are due to having to work from home and other complications related to the pandemic. However, they have also become a good way to delay projects that went wrong with an excuse that everyone will understand, it is a strategy that we cannot criticize since certainly many times the criticism for delays is very harsh.
In addition, it will always be better to delay than to crunch and affect the health of employees, so a consequence of the coronavirus has ended up being positive for the development of video games.
Most of the titles are now scheduled for 2022 and some are even going for their third delay, this is something that usually means that something is going wrong, but we will not be able to verify it until 2022 when most of AAA are finally released.
Players without PC
PC gaming, meanwhile, has been seriously affected by the shortage of components. Currently it is practically impossible to get a graphics card and SSDs and RAMs are also somewhat scarce. Basically building a gamer PC right now is quite complicated and everything indicates that it will not be fixed until 2022 if we are lucky.
The fault lies with the cryptocurrencies that are becoming more profitable every day to mine and the pandemic itself that has broken the production chain and has increased the demand for electronic components due to the need to work from home and the search for other ways of entertainment to a population that could not leave home. The shortage of consoles is also palpable, but the situation is not as dire as that of graphics cards that are sold second-hand with a 300% markup.
The only good news is a rumor, Steam may be preparing a Switch-style portable console, but for PC games. In addition, Sony and Microsoft are increasingly committed to launching exclusive titles on Steam, which is not bad at all.
Movies and attractions
On issues not related to gaming as such we have The Last of Us series, the Uncharted movie, the Borderlands movie and the Mortal Kombat movie. The latter was decent and paved the way for a sequel, it had mixed reviews but overall it was better than what video game movies have gotten us used to.
For its part, Uncharted is already ready and opens next month, while Borderlands and The Last of Us confirm casts, Borderlands has stars such as Kevin Hart, Joe Black and Cate Blanchet, while Pedro Pascal has been confirmed. like Joel from The Last of Us.
We must also mention that Nintendo released the Nintendo World amusement park, it seems a final celebration of video games, our own Disneyland in Japan. And the best of all is that it will also reach the West, although there are at least a couple of years to go before it opens in Florida.
E3 is back
Finally, 2021 has meant that digital events have more prominence. The truth is that not all have been good but this is because the same pandemic has pushed many games to 2022. However, the events are increasingly seen and perhaps that is why the ESA decided to return with an E3 2021 fully digital.
Today we will know what Devolver Digital and Ubisoft are preparing, while over the weekend we will hear from Nintendo and Microsoft. In parallel we will have the Summer of Games Fest that can have announcements from any company and in July we will have the EA Play, so the best of the year begins right after its second half.
It is good news that events like E3 are back, we will see if it is worth your return. Many expect it to be a failure as they now prefer the State of Play or Nintendo Direct format. But the truth is that E3, the biggest video game event, begins today and we hope that its return will only bring good news.
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