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In the video game industry, 2024 saw job losses extending from 2023, including large cuts from Microsoft Gaming, Electronic Arts, and Sony Interactive Entertainment, and with over 8,000 jobs lost during the months of January, February, and March. [1] [2] [3]
The following table lists the top-rated games released in 2024 based on Metacritic, which generally considers expansions as separate entities.
Title | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) | Release | Platform(s) | Average score |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | Square Enix | February 29, 2024 | PS5 | 92 | |
Balatro | LocalThunk | Playstack | February 20, 2024 | PC | 90 |
The Last of Us Part II Remastered | Naughty Dog | Sony Interactive Entertainment | January 19, 2024 | PS5 | 90 |
Tekken 8 | Bandai Namco Studios / Arika [5] | Bandai Namco Entertainment | January 26, 2024 | PS5 | 90 |
Month | Day(s) | Event |
---|---|---|
January | 3 | Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson became the first person known to "beat" the NES version of Tetris by reaching its killscreen. [6] |
8–11 | Unity Technologies, Twitch, and Discord separately announced layoffs affecting 1,800, 500, and 170 jobs, respectively. [7] [8] [9] | |
22 | Riot Games laid off about 530 staff. [10] | |
25 | Microsoft Gaming laid off 1,900 staff, and the President of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, left the company. [11] | |
29 | Eidos-Montréal laid off about 100 staff as part of the continuing Embracer Group restructuring. [12] | |
February | 7 | The Walt Disney Company announced a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games. [13] |
13–15 | The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2024 D.I.C.E. Summit and the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada; [14] Koji Kondo inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. [15] | |
27 | Sony Interactive Entertainment laid off 900 employees across various studios. [16] | |
28 | Electronic Arts laid off 670 staff. [3] | |
Toys for Bob split from Activision and became independent. [17] | ||
March | 8 | Sega of America laid off 61 employees across its Q&A and localization departments. [18] |
600 Activision Q&A workers unionized under CWA, creating the largest video game union in North America. [19] | ||
14 | Embracer Group divested Saber Interactive and a portion of its studios to a private firm for $249 million. [20] [21] | |
18–22 | The 2024 Game Developers Conference was held in San Francisco. [22] | |
27 | Take-Two Interactive announced its intention to acquire Gearbox Software from Embracer Group for $460 million [23] | |
28 | Relic Entertainment was sold by Sega to an unspecified investor. 240 employees were laid off across multiple Sega of Europe studios. [24] [25] | |
April | 8 | Nintendo discontinued the online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. [26] |
16 | Take-Two Interactive announced plans to reduce its workforce by 5% by December 2024. [27] | |
27–29 | The 2024 EVO Japan is scheduled to be held in Tokyo. [28] | |
June | 7 | The 2024 Summer Game Fest is scheduled to be held at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles. [29] [30] |
July | 26–28 | The 2024 Evolution Championship Series is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. [31] |
September | 26–29 | The 2024 Tokyo Game Show is scheduled to be held at Chiba, Japan. |
December | 12 | The Game Awards, honoring the best video games of the year, will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. [32] |
Month | Day | Console |
---|---|---|
February | 2 | Apple Vision Pro [39] [40] |
March | 28 | Atari 400 Mini [41] |
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Month | Day | Title | Platform(s) | Genre(s) | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
O C T O B E R | 10 | Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time | NS | Role-playing | Level-5 Comcept | Level-5 | [290] [291] |
N O V E M B E R | 12 | Antonblast | Win, Mac, NS | Platform | Summitsphere | [292] | |
Title | Release / premiere date | Type | Distributor | Franchise | Original game publisher | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ark: The Animated Series | March 21, 2024 | Animated series | Paramount+ | Ark: Survival Evolved | Studio Wildcard | [444] |
Blue Archive the Animation | April 7, 2024 | Anime television series | TV Tokyo (Japan) | Blue Archive | Nexon | [445] [446] |
Fallout | April 10, 2024 | Television series | Amazon Prime Video | Fallout | Interplay Productions | [447] [448] |
Knuckles | April 26, 2024 | Paramount+ | Sonic the Hedgehog | Sega | [449] | |
Borderlands | August 9, 2024 | Feature film | Lionsgate Films | Borderlands | 2K | [450] |
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 | December 20, 2024 | Paramount Pictures | Sonic the Hedgehog | Sega | [451] | |
Dead Cells | TBA | Animated series | TBA | Dead Cells | Motion Twin | [452] |
Devil May Cry | Anime series | Netflix | Devil May Cry | Capcom | [453] | |
Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin | Anime television series | TV Tokyo (Japan) | Sakuna | Xseed Games | [454] | |
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft | Animated series | Netflix | Tomb Raider | Eidos Interactive | [455] |
Xseed Games is an American video game company founded by former members of Square Enix USA. It later became a subsidiary of the Japanese game company Marvelous, providing the localization and publishing services for video games and related materials.
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