With the online game business in fixed progress mode, it’s uncommon we ever get by way of a yr with out some huge bombshell announcement with enormous implications for the long run. In 2021, as an example, we noticed Epic waging battle towards Apple’s enterprise practices, Valve disrupting {hardware} with its Steam Deck announcement, and a harrowing Activision Blizzard scandal that acted as a tipping level for the business and its typically tough working circumstances.
The information didn’t decelerate in 2022 — if something, it escalated. The Activision Blizzard revelation particularly had one thing of a snowball impact this yr, rolling its means into a number of main threads. Between high-profile acquisitions and a push for unionization, this yr very a lot felt like a direct continuation of 2021. Nothing was a one-off story, however fairly a part of a historic second that would make the 2020s probably the most pivotal decade in gaming historical past when all is alleged and achieved.
These are the 4 tales that made 2022 a key yr for gaming’s future.
Microsoft strikes to accumulate Activision Blizzard

Coming out of a tumultuous 2021, all eyes have been on Activision Blizzard. The firm was the topic of damning studies about its poisonous office tradition and the business was calling for change. That wasn’t misplaced on Microsoft, which made a drastic transfer in January by asserting its intention to accumulate the Call of Duty writer for $68.7 billion. To put that quantity into perspective, it’s the biggest recreation studio acquisition of all time by over $50 billion.
The transfer was met with combined reactions. Some felt that it was a needed step to wash up an Activision Blizzard that was spiraling uncontrolled on the expense of its staff. Others felt that the transfer might result in a monopoly, as Microsoft would acquire publishing rights to a number of the business’s most worthwhile titles. The transfer led to a excessive profile dispute between Microsoft and Sony, the latter of which painted it as an egregious anti-consumer transfer, at the same time as Microsoft dedicated to releasing Call of Duty on platforms like PlayStation.
Regardless of what gamers personally felt, the Federal Trade Commission noticed a pink flag. Just this month, the FTC introduced its intention to dam the deal citing antitrust considerations. Now in jeopardy, the deal’s closing destiny might develop into the one most essential gaming story of the last decade. If the deal is struck down, it might set a brand new precedent for acquisitions, stopping the “big three” console corporations from getting too large. Regulations like that would put a agency nail in gaming’s waning Wild West days for good.
Unionization takes middle stage
The results of the Activision Blizzard scandal weren’t simply felt at an govt degree; in addition they led to a serious milestone for staff rights. Discussions round office tradition in video games led to critical conversations round unionization, an idea that was beforehand international to the online game business. Rumblings of a union push started in late December 2021 when Vodeo Games created the primary gaming union in North America, however that push obtained extra high-profile with every month.
It was no coincidence that the primary main gaming union would come from inside Activision Blizzard. QA testers at Call of Duty developer Raven Software efficiently organized in May by a 19-3 vote. With such a high-profile group effort at considered one of gaming’s largest corporations, there was a renewed sense of momentum for unionization throughout the business all through 2022. Whether or not that turns right into a wider development in 2023, it’s a historic second for an business that has struggled with toxicity, abuse, and a crunch tradition for many years.
Grand Theft Auto 6 leaks

At a excessive degree, the online game business’s largest corporations function in secrecy. While there’s at all times an occasional launch date leak, it’s very uncommon that we see a lot of a recreation greater than a month out from any official press reveal. So it was particularly surprising when a hacker obtained entry to an enormous folder of Grand Theft Auto 6 movies and casually posted it on-line on a Saturday evening. The clips confirmed an extremely early and tough construct of the sport — part of the event course of that’s often left at nighttime.
The leak led to some sophisticated feelings across the business. Many criticized the legal act, empathizing with builders whose work had been shared earlier than they have been prepared to point out it off. Others discovered a silver lining within the leak, utilizing it as an academic second to point out gamers how a lot work goes into video games behind the scenes.
Wherever you landed on it, the story was a part of a a lot greater development this yr, which noticed curiosity in “leak” tradition attain a boiling level as followers started taking the phrase of “insiders” as their Bible. That led to a number of factors of confusion through the yr, from a shortly debunked story about Amazon buying EA to an misguided declare that two traditional Legend of Zelda video games have been Switch-bound. To cap all of it off, we obtained a brand new video games media web site within the type of Insider Gaming, which has struggled to ship constant reality since its inception. It was a yr the place empires have been constructed on impatience.
Cloud gaming takes a left flip

For the previous couple of years, we’ve heard corporations declare that cloud gaming is the long run. Though the tech has obtained a good quantity of pushback from conventional gamers, 2022 proved that executives weren’t simply stuffed with sizzling air — although combined messaging made it particularly laborious to get a learn on the tech. One of this yr’s largest tales got here when Google introduced it was shutting down Stadia, a service that helped kick off the present wave of cloud tech.
That might have gave the impression of the start of the top for cloud gaming, however that’s removed from what occurred. If something, it merely noticed corporations transferring away from cloud subscription companies as they seemed for a extra pure option to combine the tech into our lives. Samsung, as an example, made an influence play this yr by introducing its Gaming Hub on sure good TVs, a transfer that might all of a sudden give numerous households entry to companies like Xbox Game Pass and not using a console or PC.
Other corporations diversified their method to cloud gaming much more. Logitech launched a cloud-focused handheld and Razer’s personal is on the horizon. Though the tech definitely discovered itself in an experimental and sometimes complicated place in 2022, its future is changing into clearer. Rather than residing and dying primarily based on subscription prices, count on to see it on the coronary heart of each new units and those you already personal going ahead.

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