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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. [1] 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.
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities.
SuperData Research estimated that the video game industry grew 4% in 2019, reaching $120.1 billion in global revenues. SuperData stated the market was dominated by mobile games which made up $64.4 billion, with personal computer games at $29.6 billion and console games at $15.4 billion. [6]
App Annie, which tracks all mobile app sales, estimated that mobile games accounted for 72% of the $120 billion spent on the various app stores in 2019, or $86 billion, with the potential to exceed $100 billion by 2020. Mobile game expenditures made up 56% of all video game-related revenues in 2019. [7]
The following were 2019's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide digital revenue (including digital purchases, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms). The top ten highest-grossing digital games of the year were all free-to-play games, each grossing more than $1 billion worldwide in 2019. [6] Six of the top ten highest-grossing games, including the top five titles, are published and/or owned by Chinese conglomerate Tencent.
| Rank | Game | Revenue | Publisher(s) | Genre(s) | Business model | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortnite | $3,709,000,000 | Epic Games (Tencent) | Battle royale, survival | Free-to-play | [8] |
| 2 | PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) | $1,788,000,000 | Bluehole / Tencent | Battle royale | Free-to-play / buy-to-play | [a] |
| 3 | Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) | $1,600,000,000 | Nexon / Tencent | Beat 'em up | Free-to-play | [6] |
| 4 | Honor of Kings / Arena of Valor | $1,600,000,000 | Tencent | MOBA | ||
| 5 | League of Legends | $1,500,000,000 | Riot Games / Tencent | |||
| 6 | Candy Crush Saga | $1,500,000,000 | King (Activision Blizzard) | Puzzle | ||
| 7 | Pokémon Go | $1,400,000,000 | Niantic / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company | Augmented reality | ||
| 8 | Crossfire | $1,400,000,000 | Smilegate / Tencent | FPS | ||
| 9 | Fate/Grand Order (FGO) | $1,200,000,000 | Aniplex (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) | RPG | ||
| 10 | Last Shelter: Survival | $1,100,000,000 | Long Tech | Simulation |
The following were 2019'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 | 10 | Bungie terminated its publishing deal with Activision, maintaining rights to the Destiny series. |
| 30 | Nintendo ceases service operations of the Wii Shop Channel app for the Nintendo Wii. [13] | |
| February | 4 | Respawn Entertainment and Electronic Arts surprise-released Apex Legends , a battle royale game that within a week gained 25 million players and challenged the dominance of Fortnite Battle Royale . [14] |
| 11–13 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2019 D.I.C.E. Summit and 22nd Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, [15] Bonnie Ross inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. [16] | |
| 12 | Activision Blizzard announced that despite a record quarter, it would be laying off about 8% or 775 positions, primarily from non-development sectors. [17] | |
| 13 | THQ Nordic acquired Warhorse Studios. [18] | |
| March | 18–22 | The 2019 Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco. |
| 19 | Google revealed Stadia, a game streaming service. | |
| 26 | Electronic Arts announced it would be cutting about 350 jobs or about 4% of its workforce. [19] | |
| 28–31 | PAX East was held in Boston. | |
| 31 | Dies irae and Silverio developer Light suspended activity as its parent company Greenwood dissolved. [20] [21] | |
| April | 13–14 | The inaugural Twitchcon Europe was held in Berlin. |
| 15 | Reggie Fils-Aimé retired as president and CEO of Nintendo of America and was replaced by Doug Bowser. [22] | |
| May | 1 | Epic Games acquired Rocket League developer Psyonix. [23] |
| 7 | Microsoft released the "All-Digital" version of the Xbox One S console, which lacks an optical drive for a lower price point. [24] | |
| 10 | Sega acquired Two Point Studios, the creator of Two Point Hospital . [25] | |
| June | 9 | Xbox Game Studios announced their acquisition of Double Fine, the developers of the Psychonauts series. [26] |
| Microsoft announced their next-generation Xbox console, Project Scarlett. | ||
| 11–13 | E3 2019 was held in Los Angeles, California. | |
| 18 | Kaz Hirai retired from Sony Corporation after serving the company for 35 years, most recently as CEO and chairman for 6 years. [27] | |
| 19 | Popular streamer and YouTuber Etika disappeared; [28] his body was discovered in the East River five days later in an act of suicide by drowning. [29] [30] | |
| July | 12 | Chiyomaru Studio acquired Science Adventure developer Mages. [31] |
| 26–28 | The inaugural Fortnite World Cup was held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. | |
| August | 16–18 | The Pokémon World Championships was held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., United States; [32] it was also the last Championships event to be held in North America. |
| 19 | Worldwide Studios announced the acquisition of Insomniac Games for $229 million. [33] [34] The deal was completed on November 15. [35] | |
| 20–24 | Gamescom 2019 was held in Cologne, Germany. [36] | |
| 20–25 | The International 2019, the ninth iteration of the annual Dota 2 global esports tournament, was held in Shanghai. [37] | |
| 28 | LCG Entertainment acquired the remaining assets of Telltale Games and relaunched it as a new company. [38] | |
| 31– | PAX West was held in Seattle. | |
| September | 3 | |
| 12–15 | Tokyo Game Show was held in Chiba, Japan. [39] | |
| 17 | Valve lost a lawsuit in France, requiring the company to allow users to resell games on Steam required by Directives from the European Union. [40] [41] | |
| 19 | Apple Arcade, a game subscription service, launched. [42] | |
| 27–29 | TwitchCon was held at San Diego, California | |
| 29 | The San Francisco Shock won the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals over the Vancouver Titans | |
| 30 | Shawn Layden announced his departure as CEO of Worldwide Studios. [43] | |
| October | 1 | Japanese developer AlphaDream filed for bankruptcy. [44] |
| 6–11 | Blizzard Entertainment dealt with fallout from issuing bans related to pro-Hong Kong speech at the Hearthstone Grandmasters event. | |
| 11–13 | PAX Australia was held in Melbourne. | |
| 25 | The defunct developer Light was revived to finish their Silverio series in a collaboration with Ares Co. and Nexton. [21] | |
| 29 | Electronic Arts announced they would begin to publish games again on Valve's Steam service. They had originally stopped in 2011. [45] | |
| November | 1–2 | BlizzCon was held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. |
| 7 | Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that Hermen Hulst would become the new head of Worldwide Studios, while Shuhei Yoshida became the "Head of Independent Developer Initiative" at PlayStation. [46] | |
| 13 | Human Head Studios closed down while transitioning its employees to the newly formed Roundhouse Studios under Bethesda Softworks. [47] | |
| 27 | Facebook acquired Beat Games. [48] | |
| 28 | Codemasters acquired Slightly Mad Studios for $30 million. [49] | |
| December | 6 | Starbreeze Studios completed a year-long restructuring process. [50] |
| 12 | The Game Awards 2019 were held at Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. | |
| Microsoft unveiled the design and name of their next-generation Xbox console previously known as Project Scarlett, the Xbox Series X, set for a late 2020 release. | ||
| 19 | Stadia Games and Entertainment acquired Typhoon Studios. [51] |
The list of game-related hardware released in 2019 in North America.
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| March | 25 | Mega Sg |
| May | 7 | Xbox One S All-Digital Edition |
| 21 | Oculus Rift S | |
| Oculus Quest | ||
| June | 28 | Valve Index |
| September | 19 | Sega Genesis Mini |
| 20 | Nintendo Switch Lite | |
| October | 10 | Atari Flashback X |
| 25 | Capcom Home Arcade | |
| November | 7 | HoloLens 2 |
| 11 | NEOGEO Arcade Stick Pro | |
| 19 | Stadia | |
| December | 5 | THEC64 |
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Series with new installments in 2019 include Ace Combat , Age of Wonders , Bloodstained , Borderlands , Bubsy , Call of Duty , Contra , Crackdown , Crash Bandicoot , Dead or Alive , Devil May Cry , Digimon , Dr. Mario , Earth Defense Force , Far Cry , Final Fantasy , Fire Emblem , Gears of War , God Eater , Kingdom Hearts , Kirby , Luigi's Mansion , Mario & Sonic , Marvel: Ultimate Alliance , MediEvil , Metro , MLB The Show , Mortal Kombat , Need for Speed , No More Heroes , Onimusha , Persona , Pokémon , Rage , Resident Evil , Rivals of Aether , Science Adventure , Shantae , Shenmue , Sonic the Hedgehog , Star Wars , Super Mario , Terminator , Tetris , The Legend of Zelda , Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon , Tom Clancy's The Division , Total War , Trials , Tropico , Umihara Kawase , Vampire: The Masquerade , Wolfenstein , WWE 2K , Yooka-Laylee , Yoshi , and Yu-Gi-Oh! .
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.
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.
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.
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, 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 many events including job losses extending from 2023, including large cuts from Microsoft Gaming, Electronic Arts, and Sony Interactive Entertainment, with over 10,000 jobs cut by May.
In the video game industry, 2025 is expected to see the release of many new video games.
Samurai Warriors 4 DX first launched for PlayStation 4 and Switch on March 14, 2019 in Japan, and was never released in the west.
Touhou Shoujo: Tale of Beautiful Memories first launched for PC via Steam and DLsite on August 22, 2019.
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