Piracy was definitely a hotter topic in this period. SecuROM was pushing online authentication checks and limiting how many times we could use a CD key to install a game, which sounds like a nightmare from here. Spore required online authentication, initially limited to three total activations. Mass Effect was even worse : SecuROM required online activation every 10 days when it first launched on PC, though the three-activation limit wasn't a better solution.
I'll admit, as a poor college student, I was totally immersed in the world of ISOs and virtual disc drives, especially those lovely no-CD fixes to bypass disc checks. Being a pirate was easy. The virus-ridden horrors of early P2P programs like Limewire and Kazaa were buried by popular torrent sites, where downloads were faster and content was cleaner or at least easier to verify as such. But was also the year that the founders of The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular torrent warehouses, were found guilty of assisting copyright infringement and sentenced to prison.
Around then you'd read the occasional horror story about some kid getting sued for millions of bucks because he downloaded an MP3. Do we prefer the old problems or the new problems? The Sims 3 Electronic Arts 2. World of Warcraft Blizzard, Activision 7. Spore Maxis, Electronic Arts 9. With Steam as the earliest source of daily gaming stats we can get a look at what people were still playing near the end of , just keep in mind Steam's library and audiences weren't representative of the entire industry.
Here's a peek at the top games on Steam on December 26, , as preserved by the Internet Archive. This snapshot certainly sends the message that multiplayer first-person shooters were still super popular. Audiosurf, Torchlight, and Killing Floor stand out as prominent indies.
Today's Steam charts don't look terribly different except for a massive growth in players across all games and genres, with some good diversity and new genres peppered in: car soccer, survival games, MOBAs, farming sims, and a bit of battle royale.
Most accolades went to big budget projects from established studios and series. This run of Metacritic's highest-rated PC games for would be the middle of the pack in recent years, with a few exceptions. The PC has always been the best place for indie games, but it wasn't until the last decade that we saw those games catch fire in a big way.
Steam and XBLA brought smaller developers to a bigger stage, giving cerebral side-scrollers like Braid a place to thrive. Today, the PC is flooded with games of a similar calibur. I doubt a Terraria or Stardew Valley would stand out in the indie game market of today, where excellent games like Wargroove and Lost Ember show up and seemingly disappear in the same week.
PC gaming was 'dying' in Widespread digital distribution felt like a distant dream for some, and rightfully so. High-speed internet access was spreading, sure, but most Americans were still without. The Pew Research Center points to the higher adoption rate of smartphones to a stagnation of growth in home high-speed internet services.
Attention had shifted from PCs to consoles and the doe-eyed dreams of smartphone-driven lives. We were so naive. In the looming shadow of mobile technologies, expensive gaming PCs didn't quite fit.
Publications took pause to analyze the state of our strange, seemingly arcane hobby. There were tons of editorials like this one from IGN , which somewhat accurately points to microtransactions and subscription-based behemoths like WoW as the future. True on both accounts. WoW is still chugging along with its traditional subscription model, but games like Destiny 2 are constantly changing the shape of their monetization model to see what works.
As long as we leave loot boxes behind, I'm happy. I'm a big fan of this dour brand of premature PC gaming funeral bell. Here's a bit from a CinemaBlend article calling on PC gamers to accept the inevitable:. The same story cites the growth of digital sales, so it's a weird take even for the times. No need to retroactively flinch, though. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a defensive 'PC Gaming is fine' editorial hanging out somewhere in the PC Gamer mag archives.
And if it exists, I'm sure it's airtight. Now the moribund conversations have shifted to VR, an expensive platform for a niche audience with tech that, at times, feels too bulky and far-fetched to ever find safe footing.
Sounds familiar. Everybody was making an MMO, or had already tried and failed. With retail sales of traditional PC games dying down, and microtransaction sales up, WoW was the golden goose of videogame profits. It was and still is a cutthroat scene. The original Defense of the Ancients Warcraft 3 mod was killing it, one of the biggest free-to-play 'unofficial' games. I remember seeing it start as a palette cleanser between Quake matches at LAN parties, only to become the main event among my groups a few months in.
The success of DotA caught the eye of the industry at large and birthed a new genre and, eventually, two of the biggest games in the world: Riot's League of Legends and Valve's Dota 2. League of Legends was just coming onto the scene in I remember passing Riot's tiny booth at PAX and thinking it looked like garbage. The common denominator: game designer Tim Schafer. Recognize him? Keep an eye on this game. Promises, promises from Double Fine Productions.
If Diablo and Mad Max were to have a baby, it would probably look like this game. Imagine random levels, random creatures, random creature tactics, and a massive arsenal of recombining weaponry, from revolvers that fire shotgun shells to rifles that spit rockets.
Tina Turner and the Thunderdome. Factor in the customizable cars from 50 manufacturers that you can hurtle around tracks, the personalized racing events, the vehicle rollovers, and the long-overdue in-car driving view, too.
Not that the plot about kidnapped robots and interstellar archvillains really matters, since this action-adventure series has always been about clever puzzles and even smarter team-based acrobatics. Before everyone swoons over Mass Effect 2 early next year, folks will want to check out Dragon Age: Origins this November.
The Best PlayStation Games of Published: January 4, The Best Xbox Games of The Best PC Games of Published: January 3, The Best Switch Games of Published: January 2, Published: December 29, The 10 Worst Video Games of Published: December 20, January 7, - 6 comments.
Best Video Games of the Decade December 6, - 30 comments. December 27, - comments. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Users vented their anger about developer Infinity Ward's decision not to permit dedicated servers for this title by hammering the game on Metacritic. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Street Fighter IV. God of War Collection.
Batman: Arkham Asylum.
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