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Numerous video games were released in 2011. Many awards went to games such as Batman: Arkham City , Portal 2 , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword , Madden NFL 12 , NBA 2K12 , WWE '12 , WWE All-Stars and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception . 2011 also marked the worldwide release of the Nintendo 3DS.
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
| Month | Day(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 6 - 9 | International Consumer Electronics Show 2011 held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA [4] |
| February | 26 | The Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo's newest handheld console, releases in Japan. [5] |
| February 28 – March 4 | Game Developers Conference 2011 held in San Francisco, California. [6] | |
| March | 11 | As a result of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, certain video game releases were cancelled or postponed. Additionally, several servers used for Internet gaming were shut down temporarily. |
| 11 - 13 | PAX East 2011 held in Boston, Massachusetts. [7] | |
| 25 - 31 | The Nintendo 3DS released in America, Europe and Australia. | |
| April | 20 | PlayStation Network services were suspended by Sony. The suspension lasted for 23 days. |
| May | 19 | South Korea passes a law known as the "Youth Protection Revision Act", which regulates children under the age of sixteen playing online video games. |
| June | 6 | Twitch.tv, a video game livestreaming service and website that focuses on video game content and esports is launched. |
| 7 - 9 | E3 2011 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. [8] | |
| 23 | The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all-time, celebrated its 20th anniversary. | |
| 27 | The Supreme Court of the United States issues their ruling on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association , declaring video games as protected free speech. | |
| August | 4 - 7 | QuakeCon 2011: The massive annual LAN party held in Dallas, Texas. |
| 15 - 17 | Game Developers Conference 2011 Europe held in Cologne, Germany. | |
| 18 - 22 | Gamescom 2011 held at Cologne, Germany | |
| 26 - 28 | PAX Prime 2011 held in Seattle, Washington. [9] | |
| September | 15–18 | Tokyo Game Show 2011 |
| 22–25 | Eurogamer Expo 2011 held in Earls Court in London, England. | |
| October | 15–16 | EB Games Expo 2011 held in Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia. |
| 21–22 | BlizzCon 2011 held in Anaheim Convention Center in California. | |
| November | 18–19 | Minecon held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Minecraft gets its full release on the 18th. |
| December | 3 | 10th anniversary of the Jak and Daxter series. [10] |
| 10 | Spike Video Game Awards. | |
| 17 | PlayStation Vita was released in Japan. | |
| 31 | Artech Studios disbanded. |
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (April 2024) |
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| February | 26 | Nintendo 3DS JP |
| April | 1 | Xperia Play [13] |
Series with new installments in 2011 include Ace Combat , Alice: Madness Returns , Assassin's Creed , Batman: Arkham , Battlefield , Call of Duty , Call of Juarez , Cities XL , Crysis , Dead Space , Deus Ex , Dragon Age , Driver , Duke Nukem , Dynasty Warriors , The Elder Scrolls , F.E.A.R , Forza Motorsport , Gears of War , Infamous , Killzone , The Legend of Zelda , LittleBigPlanet , Mario Kart , Modern Combat , Mortal Kombat , MX vs. ATV , Need for Speed , Operation Flashpoint , Pokémon , Portal , Rayman , Red Faction , Red Orchestra , Resistance , Saints Row , Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic , Super Mario , Total War , Tropico , Uncharted , Sonic the Hedgehog , and The Witcher .
2011 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Bastion , Dark Souls , Dead Island , Homefront , L.A. Noire , Minecraft , Rage , and Skylanders .
The list of games released in 2011 in North America.
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| Title | Date | Director | Distributor(s) | Franchise | Original game publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Player | March 13, 2011 | Damon Santostefano | Nickelodeon | — | — | [18] |
| Mortal Kombat: Legacy | April 11, 2011 | Kevin Tancharoen | Machinima, Inc. | Mortal Kombat | Midway Games | [19] |
| Victini and Reshiram/Victini and Zekrom | July 16, 2011 | Kunihiko Yuyama | Toho | Pokémon | Game Freak | [20] |
| Tekken: Blood Vengeance | July 26, 2011 | Yōichi Mōri | Asmik Ace | Tekken | Bandai Namco | [21] |
| Dragon Age: Redemption | October 10, 2011 | Peter Winther | — | Dragon Age | BioWare | [22] |
| Assassin's Creed: Embers | November 15, 2011 | Laurent Bernier | Ubisoft | Assassin's Creed | Ubisoft | [23] |
The fighting game genre of video games involves combat between multiple characters, often one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attacks together into "combos". Characters generally engage hand-to-hand combat, often with martial arts, but some may include weaponry. Battles are usually set in a fixed-size arena along a two-dimensional plane, where characters navigate the plane horizontally by walking or dashing, and vertically by jumping. Some games allow limited movement in 3D space, such as Tekken and Soulblade while some are set in fully three-dimensional environments without restricting characters' movement, such as Power Stone and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm; these are sometimes referred to as "3D arena" fighting games.
Essentials is the Sony PlayStation budget range in the PAL region, which covers Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Australia and South Asia. It was launched in 1997 as the Platinum range but was later renamed for PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. After reaching the required level of sales, Sony often dropped the prices of the original title to Platinum pricing levels, as a way to clear inventory for retailers. Similar budget ranges from Sony include the Greatest Hits and The Best labels for the North American and Japanese markets, respectively.
The year 2000 saw the release of numerous video games as well as the launch of the PlayStation 2. Critically acclaimed games originally released in 2000 include sequels such as Madden NFL 2001, NBA Live 2001, NBA 2K1, WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role, Baldur's Gate II, Diablo II, Dragon Quest VII, Final Fantasy IX, Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, NFL 2K1, Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, along with new intellectual properties such as Deus Ex, Jet Set Radio, Perfect Dark, Skies of Arcadia, The Sims, SSX, Vagrant Story, and Sin and Punishment. The year's best-selling home video games worldwide were Pokémon games for the third year in a row, while the highest-grossing arcade game in Japan was Virtua Striker 2.
Mortal Kombat is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992.
GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley is a television show about video games hosted by video game journalist Geoff Keighley. Originally titled Game Head, on January 25, 2008, the show relaunched under its current name with a slightly different format and further incorporation of GameTrailers hosts, Amanda MacKay and Daniel Kayser. The series ran from 2008–2013, with the GameTrailers site being shut down in 2016.
The year 2009 saw many sequels and prequels in video games. New intellectual properties include Batman: Arkham Asylum, Bayonetta, Borderlands, Demon's Souls, Dragon Age: Origins, Infamous, Just Dance, Minecraft, Madden NFL 10, NBA Live 10, NBA 2K10, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 and Prototype.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman and written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini, Arkham Asylum was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game's main storyline, Batman battles his archenemy, the Joker, who instigates an elaborate plot to seize control of Arkham Asylum, trap Batman inside with many of his incarcerated foes, and threaten Gotham City with hidden bombs.
Batman: Arkham City is a 2011 action-adventure game developed by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Based on the DC Comics superhero Batman, it is the sequel to the 2009 video game Batman: Arkham Asylum and the second installment in the Batman: Arkham series. Written by veteran Batman writer Paul Dini with Paul Crocker and Sefton Hill, Arkham City was inspired by the long-running comic book mythos. In the game's main storyline, Bruce Wayne is incarcerated in Arkham City, a super-prison enclosing the decaying urban slums of Gotham City. He dons his alter ego, Batman, and goes on a mission to uncover the secret behind a sinister scheme orchestrated by the facility's warden, Hugo Strange.
NetherRealm Studios is an American video game developer based in Chicago and owned by Warner Bros. Games. Led by video game industry veteran and Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, the studio is in charge of developing the Mortal Kombat and Injustice series of fighting games.
Numerous video games were released in 2013. Many awards went to games such as Madden NFL 25, NBA 2K14, WWE 2K14, NBA Live 14, BioShock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, The Last of Us and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. New video game consoles released in 2013 include the PlayStation 4 from Sony Computer Entertainment and the Xbox One from Microsoft.
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 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.
Iron Galaxy Studios, LLC is an American video game developer studio founded on August 14, 2008, and based in Chicago, Illinois, with a second studio in Orlando, Florida that was opened in 2012, a third studio in Nashville, Tennessee in 2022, and a fourth in Austin, Texas. Iron Galaxy often collaborates with publishers and developers to provide "technical consulting", port games to different platforms, co-development, lead development, and support.
Batman: Arkham is a superhero action-adventure video game series based on the DC Comics character Batman, developed by Rocksteady Studios, WB Games Montréal and Camouflaj, and published originally by Eidos Interactive and currently by Warner Bros. Games. The franchise consists of four main installments and a spin-off, along with four smaller titles for mobile devices, two virtual reality games, tie-in comic books, and an animated film. The continuity established by the games is often referred to as the Arkhamverse.
The 2020s is the sixth decade in the industry's history. The industry remains heavily dominated by the actions of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, but it remains unforeseen how their dominance will be affected by cloud gaming and the smartphone and tablet market. Virtual reality headsets are expected to become more popular over the course of the decade. The industry was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ninth generation of video game consoles went on sale, beginning with the Xbox Series X and Series S and the PlayStation 5. Notable games released in the 2020s included Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Fall Guys,Hades, Genshin Impact, It Takes Two, Forza Horizon 5, Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, Stray, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Cult of the Lamb, God of War Ragnarök, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Tekken 8, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Astro Bot, and Grand Theft Auto VI. Game development companies have come under increasing criticism for "crunch" practices, forcing workers to work long hours in the build-up to release.
The D.I.C.E. Award for Fighting Game of the Year is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award recognizes "titles that offer the use the virtual experience of controlling a character engaging in individual combat with another character usually from a fixed camera perspective. The opponent can either be controlled by another player or by the game". All active creative/technical, business, and affiliate members of the Academy are qualified to vote for this category. It was originally titled Console Fighting Game of the Year, before it was simplified to just Fighting Game of the Year. It is one of two categories, the other being Online Game of the Year, that is not limited to release within the calendar year but must be supported by significant new content.
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