Dungeon Defenders is a hybrid multiplayer video game developed by Trendy Entertainment that combines the genres of tower defense and action role-playing game. It is based on a showcase of Unreal Engine 3 named Dungeon Defense. The game takes place in a fantasy setting where players control the young apprentices of wizards and warriors and defend against hordes of monsters. A sequel titled Dungeon Defenders II was released in 2015.
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.
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.
Pokémon Rumble World is an action video game in the Pokémon series developed by Ambrella and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth game in the Pokémon Rumble subseries, and features toy versions of at least 719 creatures from the first six generations. The game was first released worldwide as a freemium, free-to-start download title on the Nintendo eShop on April 8, 2015, with complete, physical, retail versions available in Japan the following November, Europe in January 2016, and North America in April 2016.
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon is a roguelike video game in the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series developed by Spike Chunsoft and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS handheld game console. Like its predecessors, players control a human who has awoken as a Pokémon in a world filled entirely by Pokémon and must travel through dungeons, completing missions and battling enemies. The game was released in Japan on September 17, 2015; in North America on November 20, 2015; in Europe on February 19, 2016; and in Australia on February 20, 2016;
The Japanese video game magazine Famitsu reviews video games by having four critics each assign the game a score from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest score. The scores of are then added together for a maximum possible score of 40. As of 2024, thirty games have received perfect scores from Famitsu.
Spike Chunsoft Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game development and localization company specializing in role-playing video games, visual novels and adventure games. The company was founded in 1984 as Chunsoft Co., Ltd. and merged with Spike in 2012. It is owned by Dwango.
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star is an action video game developed and published by Marvelous. The game is the third installment in the universe that began with Fate/Extra and the second one to be released outside of Japan. It was first announced in March 2016 and released in Japan in November 2016 for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita consoles; its release in North America and Europe occurred in January 2017. Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows versions were released in July 2017 for all three regions. The game's plot involved the conflict between two factions led by Nero and Tamamo from Fate/Extra fighting each other over control of the Moon Cell and the Holy Grail. They are soon joined by a third faction led by Altera who has the intent of destroying civilization as well as Saber from Fate/stay night who wishes to stop the conflict between the three factions. A direct sequel titled Fate/Extella Link was released for PS4 in Japan in 2018, and later worldwide for PS4, Switch and PC in 2019.
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.
Blue Reflection is a role-playing video game developed by Gust. It was published by Koei Tecmo in March 2017 in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, and was released in September 2017 in North America and Europe for the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows. The player takes the role of Hinako Shirai, a ballet dancer who due to a knee injury no longer can dance, but who is given magical power allowing her to fight and move freely. The game follows a day cycle, which sees Hinako attend school and spend time with classmates, and visit another world where she fights monsters in a turn-based battle system. By becoming close friends with her classmates, Hinako can use support abilities from them in battle.
Portkey Games is a video game label owned by Warner Bros. Games founded in 2017 and dedicated to creating gaming experiences related to the Wizarding World. In the beginning, the company's primary focus was on publishing mobile games, but in 2023, they diversified by launching Hogwarts Legacy for both PC and consoles.
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.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is a 2021 action role-playing video game developed by Team Ladybug and co-published by Playism and Why so serious? for Microsoft Windows. Versions for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and Series S were also released. It is based on Ryo Mizuno's Record of Lodoss War series, taking place before the events of The Crown of the Covenant. Controlling the high elf Deedlit, who finds herself in a strange interconnected labyrinth filled with her past foes and companions, the game focuses on exploration and searching for items and power-ups in the vein of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, fighting bosses and minibosses. During gameplay, the player also locates two elemental spirits and swaps between each one.
In the video game industry, 2025 is expected to see the release of many new video games.
Palworld is an upcoming action-adventure, survival, and monster-taming game created and published by Japanese developer Pocketpair. The game is set in an open world populated with animal-like creatures called "Pals", which players can battle and capture to use for base building, traversal, and combat. Players may also assign the “Pals” to bases where they will automatically complete tasks for the player. Palworld can be played either solo or online with up to 32 players on one server. It was announced in 2021 and launched through early access for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in January 2024, and for the PlayStation 5 in September 2024.
Cataclismo is an upcoming real-time strategy tower defense video game developed by Digital Sun and published by Hooded Horse. In the game, the player is tasked with collecting resources and constructing a stronghold using a building system inspired by Lego during daytime, while defending against large hordes of enemies at night. The game was released in early access on July 22, 2024 for Windows PC.
