| |||
|---|---|---|---|
| +... |
2017 saw the release of numerous video games as well as other developments in the video game industry. The Nintendo Switch console was released in 2017, which sold more than 14 million units by the end of the year, exceeding the under-performing Wii U lifetime sales. This has helped to revitalize Nintendo, with the "retro" Super NES Classic Edition console, the refreshed New Nintendo 2DS XL handheld and a strategy for mobile gaming. Microsoft also released the higher-powered Xbox One X targeted for 4K resolutions and virtual reality support.
Top-rated games in 2017 included Madden NFL 18 , NBA 2K18 , NBA Live 18 , WWE 2K18 , The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild , Super Mario Odyssey , Persona 5 , Divinity: Original Sin II and Horizon Zero Dawn . One of the most influential games of 2017 was PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds , which was released in early access for personal computers in March 2017 and by the end of the year had sold 30 million units, [1] breaking several concurrent player count records and established the battle royale genre. The highest-grossing game of the year was the mobile game Honor of Kings , known as Arena of Valor internationally. Considerable debate was held over the use of loot boxes in video games and whether they constituted gambling, coming to a head with the release of Star Wars Battlefront II .
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.
| Game | Developer | Publisher | Release Date | Platform | Average Score out of 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | March 3, 2017 | NS | 97 |
| Super Mario Odyssey | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | October 27, 2017 | NS | 97 |
| The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | March 3, 2017 | Wii U | 96 |
| Divinity: Original Sin II | Larian Studios | September 14, 2017 | Win | 93 | |
| Persona 5 | P-Studio | Atlus | April 4, 2017 | PS4 | 93 |
| What Remains of Edith Finch | Giant Sparrow | Annapurna Interactive | July 19, 2017 | XBO | 92 |
| Undertale | 8-4 | August 15, 2017 | PS4 | 92 | |
| Ōkami HD | Capcom | December 12, 2017 | Win | 92 | |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe | Nintendo EPD | Nintendo | April 28, 2017 | NS | 92 |
| SteamWorld Heist: Ultimate Edition | Image & Form | December 28, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove | Yacht Club Games | March 3, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Retro City Rampage DX | Vblank Entertainment | August 3, 2017 | NS | 91 | |
| Bayonetta | PlatinumGames | Sega | April 11, 2017 | Win | 90 |
| Opus Magnum | Zachtronics | December 8, 2017 | Win | 90 | |
| Pinball FX 3: Universal Classics Pinball | Zen Studios | September 26, 2017 | XBO | 90 | |
| Linelight | My Dog Zorro | January 30, 2017 | Win | 90 | |
According to analyst firm Newzoo, the video game industry had $116.6 billion in global revenues, a 10% growth from 2016. This growth was primarily driven by mobile gaming, as 43% ($50.4 billion) of those revenues came from this sector, a growth of 23.3% from 2016. Of the remaining, 29% (US$33.3 billion) came from consoles hardware and games, and 28% ($32.3 billion) from personal computer games. [8] SuperData similarly estimated the global video game market in 2017 was around $108.4 billion, driven heavily by free-to-play mobile and computer games. [9] Analyst firm Sensor Tower, which tracks revenue within the mobile industry, reported that of the $58.6 billion in total revenues in 2017, $48.3 billion came from mobile games. [10]
Within the United States, the video industry grew from 2016 by 18% to a total revenue of $36 billion, with $6.9 billion from hardware sales (gaining 19% from 2016) and $29.1 billion (18%) from software and microtransactions, according to NPD Group and the Entertainment Software Association. [11] Further, $10.7 billion was spent on mobile gaming in 2017 in the United States, according to Sensor Tower. [10]
The following were 2017's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide revenue (including physical sales, 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, including the top three titles.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre | Platform(s) | Business model | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $2,400,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | Mobile | Free-to-play | [12] |
| 2 | League of Legends | $2,100,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | PC | Free-to-play | [13] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,900,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | PC | Free-to-play | [12] |
| 4 | Monster Strike | $1,641,000,000 | Mixi | Physics | Mobile | ||
| 5 | Crossfire | $1,605,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | PC / Mobile | Free-to-play | [a] |
| 6 | Fantasy Westward Journey | $1,500,000,000 | NetEase | MMORPG | Mobile | Free-to-play | [13] |
| 7 | Clash Royale | $1,200,000,000 | Supercell (Tencent) | Strategy | |||
| 8 | Clash of Clans | $1,200,000,000 | |||||
| 9 | Call of Duty: WWII | $1,000,000,000 | Activision (Activision Blizzard) | FPS | Multi-platform | Buy-to-play | [15] |
| 10 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $982,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | Mobile | Free-to-play | [13] |
The following were the top ten highest-grossing free-to-play games in 2017. Six of the top ten titles were published or owned by Tencent, including the top three titles.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre | Platform(s) | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $2,400,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | Mobile | [12] |
| 2 | League of Legends | $2,100,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | MOBA | PC | [13] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,900,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | PC | [12] |
| 4 | Monster Strike | $1,641,000,000 | Mixi | Physics | Mobile | |
| 5 | Crossfire | $1,605,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | PC / Mobile | [a] |
| 6 | Fantasy Westward Journey | $1,500,000,000 | NetEase | MMORPG | Mobile | [13] |
| 7 | Clash Royale | $1,200,000,000 | Supercell (Tencent) | Strategy | ||
| 8 | Clash of Clans | $1,200,000,000 | ||||
| 9 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $982,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | ||
| 10 | Lineage 2: Revolution | $980,000,000 | Netmarble Games | MMORPG |
Sensor Tower reported that the highest-grossing mobile games were the free-to-play titles Monster Strike, Honor of Kings, Fate/Grand Order, Clash Royale, and Candy Crush Saga . [10] The top-grossing mobile games in the United States were Candy Crush Saga, Game of War: Fire Age , Clash of Clans, Mobile Strike , and Clash Royale. [10]
The following were the top ten best-selling premium games (including buy-to-play titles) in 2017. Four of the top ten titles were published by Nintendo.
The following were 2017's top ten best-selling video games by country, in terms of software units sold (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for the United States, Japan, and United Kingdom.
| Month | Day(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 3–7 | The 2017 Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas, Nevada. |
| 9 | Video game writer Corey May leaves Certain Affinity to work for 2K Games. [28] | |
| 13 | Nintendo's Nintendo Switch console reveal, detailing its release day, price, and technical specifications, was held at Tokyo Big Sight, and livestreamed online on Nintendo Direct. | |
| Sony Interactive Entertainment closes Guerrilla Cambridge. [29] | ||
| 16 | Hidetaka Suehiro announces that he has formed a new independent studio called White Owls. [30] | |
| 19 | Ubisoft acquires FreeStyleGames from Activision. FreeStyleGames is renamed into Ubisoft Leamington. [31] | |
| Video game designer Kim Swift is hired by Electronic Arts into their Motive Studios division. [32] | ||
| 22 | Masaya Nakamura, the founder of Namco, died at the age of 91. | |
| 24 | Avalanche Software, previously shuttered by Disney in May 2016, is acquired by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and re-opened. [33] | |
| 31 | Global production of the Wii U has officially ended. [34] | |
| February | 1 | ZeniMax Media acquires Escalation Studios. [35] |
| Take-Two Interactive acquires Social Point. [36] | ||
| ZeniMax Media is awarded $500 million from Oculus VR over intellectual property and contract issues over the virtual reality technology used in the Oculus Rift. [37] | ||
| 17 | Writer Erik Wolpaw leaves Valve. [38] | |
| Alan Stone, co-founder of Nintendo of America, died at age 71. [39] | ||
| 21–23 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit and 20th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, [40] Todd Howard inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. [41] | |
| 23 | Irrational Games is rebranded as Ghost Story Games. [42] | |
| 27 | Peter Moore steps down as head of EA Sports to become CEO of the Liverpool Football Club. [43] | |
| 27–28 | The 2017 Game Developers Conference held in San Francisco. | |
| March | 1–3 | |
| 15 | Kevin Bruner steps down as CEO of Telltale Games, with Dan Conners replacing him. [44] | |
| 30 | Club Penguin shutdown its servers after 12 years. | |
| 31 | Square Enix withdraws from IO Interactive. [45] Nintendo closes the Nintendo DSi Shop on the DSi and DSi XL. [46] | |
| April | 3 | Christophe Balestra steps down as co-president of Naughty Dog. Evan Wells remains in his role as sole president. [47] |
| May | 2 | Chet Faliszek announced he has left Valve. [48] [49] |
| 10 | Owlchemy Labs is acquired by Google. [50] | |
| June | 7 | Jay Pinkerton announces he has left Valve. [51] |
| 10–12 | EA Play was held at the Hollywood Palladium. [52] | |
| 13–15 | E3 2017 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. | |
| 16 | IO Interactive becomes an independent studio from Square Enix, retaining rights to the Hitman franchise. [53] | |
| 27 | Arkane Studios founder Raphaël Colantonio leaves the company. [54] | |
| 30 | Triumph Studios, the developer of the Age of Wonders series, is acquired by Paradox Interactive. [55] | |
| July | 18 | Casey Hudson replaces Aaryn Flynn as the General Manager of BioWare. [56] |
| August | 1 | Electronic Arts confirmed that BioWare Montreal, the developer of Mass Effect: Andromeda , was absorbed into Motive Studios. [57] |
| 5 | Daniel Licht, composer of the Dishonored series and Silent Hill games died at the age of 60. [58] | |
| 8 | Ubisoft announced the establishment of a new studio in Stockholm, Sweden. [59] | |
| 7–12 | The International 2017, one of the highest paying eSports tournament in history, was held at the KeyArena in Seattle. [60] | |
| 22–26 | Gamescom 2017 was held at Koelnmesse. | |
| September | Unknown | People Can Fly opened a new studio in Newcastle, UK; their first outside of Poland. [61] |
| 13 | Bruce Straley, co-director of The Last of Us and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End departed from Naughty Dog after 18 years [62] | |
| October | 3 | Andrew House, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment announced his departure from the company. [63] |
| 12 | Mike Laidlaw, the creator director of the Dragon Age franchise, left BioWare. [64] | |
| 13 | IGN acquires Humble Bundle. [65] | |
| 17 | Visceral Games, the developer of the Dead Space series, was shut down by owner Electronic Arts. [66] | |
| November | 3 | Perfect World Entertainment shut down Runic Games and Motiga. [67] |
| 9 | Electronic Arts announced that they had acquired Respawn Entertainment, the creators of the Titanfall series. [68] | |
| 20 | 100 Thieves is founded. | |
| December | 7 | The Game Awards 2017 were held. [69] |
| 14 | Private Division, a new publishing subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive is formed. | |
| 28 | A swatting in Wichita, Kansas, caused by a dispute between two Call of Duty: WWII gamers over a $1.50 wager leads to a man unrelated to the dispute being shot and killed by police. |
The list of game-related hardware released in 2017 in North America.
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| January | 10 | New Shield Android TV |
| March | 3 | Nintendo Switch [75] |
| July | 28 | New Nintendo 2DS XL [76] |
| September | 29 | Super NES Classic Edition [77] |
| November | 7 | Xbox One X |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Series with new installments in 2017 include Assassin's Creed , Bomberman , Bubsy , Call of Duty , Crash Bandicoot , Danganronpa , Dawn of War , Destiny , Digimon , Dragon Quest , Doom , Dynasty Warriors , Final Fantasy , Fire Emblem , Forza Motorsport , Gran Turismo , Gravity Rush , Halo Wars , Injustice , Kingdom Hearts , Kirby , Life Is Strange , Marvel vs. Capcom , Mass Effect , Metroid , Need for Speed , Nier , Persona , Planescape: Torment , Pokémon , Prey , Professor Layton , Resident Evil , Sniper Elite , Sniper: Ghost Warrior , Sonic the Hedgehog , Splatoon , Star Wars Battlefront , Super Mario , Tekken , The Evil Within , The Legend of Zelda , Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon , Uncharted , Wipeout , Wolfenstein , WWE 2K , Xenoblade Chronicles , Yakuza and Yoshi .
In addition, 2017 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Arms , Cuphead , Doki Doki Literature Club! , ELEX , Fortnite , Hellblade , Hollow Knight , Horizon , Nioh , and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds .
| Title | Date | Type | Distributor | Franchise | Original game publisher(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akiba's Trip: The Animation | January 4, 2017 | Anime television series | Funimation | Akiba's Trip | Acquire | [597] |
| Granblue Fantasy: The Animation | April 1, 2017 | Aniplex | Granblue Fantasy | Cygames | [598] | |
| Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light | April 17, 2017 | Drama miniseries | Netflix | Final Fantasy | Square Enix | [599] |
| The King's Avatar | April 19, 2017 | Chinese animated series | YouTube | — | — | [600] |
| Resident Evil: Vendetta | May 27, 2017 | CG animated film | Kadokawa | Resident Evil | Capcom | [601] |
| Castlevania | July 7, 2017 | Animated series | Netflix | Castlevania | Konami | [602] |
| Candy Crush | July 9, 2017 | Game show | CBS (United States) | Candy Crush Saga | King | [603] |
| Parker Plays | July 15, 2017 | Television series | Disney XD | — | — | [604] |
| Player Select | — | — | [605] | |||
| Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You! | Anime film | Toho (Japan) | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company | [606] | |
| Polaris Primetime | Television series | Disney XD | — | — | [607] | |
| The IGN Show | July 17, 2017 | Disney XD/YouTube | — | — | [608] | |
| Play With Caution | Disney XD | — | — | [609] | ||
| The Attack | July 31, 2017 | — | — | [610] | ||
| ESL Speedrunners | August 1, 2017 | — | — | [611] | ||
| Waypoint Presents | August 16, 2017 | — | — | [612] | ||
| Good Game | August 30, 2017 | YouTube | Game Grumps | — | [613] | |
| Overwatch Contenders | September 16, 2017 | Disney XD | Overwatch | Blizzard Entertainment | [614] | |
| Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle | December 20, 2017 | Feature film | Sony Pictures Releasing | Jumanji | — | [615] |
Marvelous USA Inc.,, is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. Founded in 2004, the company became a subsidiary of Japanese game company Marvelous in 2011, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related materials. In 2024, the company only retained the Xseed Games brand for third-party published titles.
CyberConnect2 Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer. They are closely affiliated with Bandai Namco Entertainment, being best known for its work with the company on the .hack series, along with a series of fighting games based on the Naruto franchise. They are also known for creating the Little Tail Bronx series. In 2016, they expanded their workforce into the international market by opening a studio in Montreal, Canada; however, the studio ceased operations in July 2023 after seven years of service.
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. 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 of Clans, and Dungeon Fighter Online.
Numerous video games were released in 2018. Best-selling games included Madden NFL 19, NBA 2K19, NBA Live 19, WWE 2K19, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Marvel's Spider-Man, Red Dead Redemption 2, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Far Cry 5, God of War, Monster Hunter: World, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and Dragon Ball FighterZ. Games highly regarded by video game critics released in 2018 included Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Marvel's Spider-Man, Forza Horizon 4, Monster Hunter: World, Dead Cells, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Celeste. The year's highest-grossing games included Fortnite, Honor of Kings/Arena of Valor, Dungeon Fighter Online, League of Legends, and Pokémon Go.
Playism is a Japanese independent video game publisher operated by Active Gaming Media. Playism started as a digital distribution platform for PC games in May 2011.
Nacon is a French video game publisher, holdings company and gaming peripherals manufacturer based in Lesquin. It designs and distributes gaming accessories, and publishes and distributes video games for various platforms. In 2020, Bigben Group was consolidated to form Nacon.
In the video game industry during 2019, both Sony and Microsoft announced their intent to reveal their next-generation consoles in 2020, while Nintendo introduced a smaller Nintendo Switch Lite, and Google announced its streaming game platform Stadia. The controversy over loot boxes as a potential gambling route continued into 2019, with some governments like Belgium and the Netherlands banning games with them under their gambling laws, while the United Kingdom acknowledging their current laws prevent enforcing these as if they were games of chance. The first video cards to support real-time ray tracing were put onto the consumer market, including the first set of games that would take advantage of the new technology. The Epic Games Store continued its growth in challenging the largest digital PC game distribution service Steam, leading to concern and debate about Epic Games' methods to seek games for its service. Dota Auto Chess, a community-created mod for Dota 2, introduced a new subgenre of strategy games called auto battlers, which saw several games in the genre released throughout the year. Blizzard Entertainment faced criticism due to their involvement in the Blitzchung controversy, which began after they had banned a Hearthstone player for making comments during a tournament regarding the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests.
In the video game industry, 2020 saw the launch of the next generation of video game consoles, with both Microsoft and Sony Interactive Entertainment having released the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 consoles, respectively, in November 2020. The industry was heavily affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which had begun in March and was characterized by COVID-19 lockdowns and remote work. While this caused numerous delays in software and hardware releases and the cancellation of live conferences and events in favor of virtual shows, it also created a boom for the industry as people turned to gaming as a means to pass the time. The industry also reacted to various political/cultural events.
In the video game industry, 2021 saw the release of many new titles. The numerous delays in software and hardware releases due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted development schedules, leading to several games being delayed into 2022 or even postponed indefinitely. Additionally, computer and console hardware were impacted by the combined effects of a semiconductor shortage and a rising growth of bitcoin mining that strained the supply of critical components.
In the video game industry, 2022 saw the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry, slowing hardware sales for most of the year as well as development delays for major titles. The industry continued its trend of acquisitions and mergers, highlighted by Microsoft announcing its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. The industry as a whole continued to deal with issues such as workplace harassment and discrimination, alongside crunch periods, leading to at least the quality assurance staff at three separate studios to vote to unionize.
In the video game industry, 2023 saw significant changes within larger publishers and developers. Microsoft, after having satisfied worldwide regulatory bodies, completed its US$69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making them the third largest game publisher in the world. Embracer Group, which had been in an acquisition spree over the previous few years, had an estimated $2 billion deal fall through, causing many of the studios under Embracer to either lay off staff or close entirely. Similar layoffs were seen at Unity, Amazon, ByteDance, Epic Games, Bungie, and Ubisoft, leading to over 9,000 jobs lost in the industry in 2023 and part of a larger trend of layoffs at technology companies in 2023.
Serenity Forge LLC is an American video game developer and publisher based in Boulder, Colorado. The studio was founded in 2014 by Zhenghua "Z" Yang.
In the video game industry, 2024 saw job losses that continued from 2023, including large cuts from Microsoft Gaming, Electronic Arts, and Sony Interactive Entertainment, with 14,600 jobs cut through the entire year.
In the video game industry, 2025 will see the release of Nintendo's next-gen Nintendo Switch 2 console and many new video games.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
