2014 in video gaming
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The year 2014 saw the release of numerous games, including new installments for some well-received franchises, such as Assassin's Creed, Bayonetta, Borderlands, Call of Duty, Castlevania, Civilization, Dark Souls, Divinity, Donkey Kong, Dragon Age, The Elder Scrolls, Elite, Far Cry, Final Fantasy, Forza Horizon, Infamous, Kinect Sports, Kirby, LittleBigPlanet, Mario Golf, Mario Kart, Metal Gear, MX vs. ATV, Ninja Gaiden, Persona, Pokémon, Professor Layton, Shantae, Sniper Elite, Sonic the Hedgehog, Strider Hiryu, Super Smash Bros., Tales, The Sims, Thief, Trials, Tropico, Wolfenstein and World of Warcraft. In addition, it saw the release of many new intellectual properties, such as Destiny, Five Nights at Freddy's, Sunset Overdrive, Titanfall, The Evil Within and Watch Dogs. Many awards went to games such as Bayonetta 2, Dark Souls II, Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mario Kart 8, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Amiibo from Nintendo was also released this year.
Major awards
The following table lists major game awards to video games and individuals within the field for games released during 2014.
1These awards are sometimes given as one (e.g. Best Mobile/Handheld, Excellence in Audio) or two awards (e.g. Best Mobile, Best Handheld; Audio Achievement, Best Music).
Events
Month | Date(s) | Event |
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January | unknown | Atari emerges from Bankruptcy and plans to enter the Social Casino market. |
6 | 2K Games discontinued the MLB 2K series. | |
7 | PlayStation Now, a cloud-streaming from Sony Computer Entertainment was announced. | |
15 - 16 | Steam Dev Days held in Seattle, Washington. | |
27 | Microsoft acquired the Gears of War franchise from Epic Games. | |
February | 5 | Double Helix Games was acquired by Amazon.com |
18 | Irrational Games, the creator of the BioShock series was shut down. | |
March | 12 | 10th British Academy Video Games Awards held in Tobacco Dock, London. |
17 – 21 | Game Developers Conference 2014 held in San Francisco, California. | |
18 | Project Morpheus, a virtual reality initiative from Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4 is announced. | |
25 | Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for $2 billion. | |
28 – 30 | Rezzed 2014 held at the NEC Birmingham. | |
April | 11 – 13 | PAX East 2014 held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. |
12 – 13 | Midwest Gaming Classic 2014 held at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin. | |
May | 20 | Nintendo discontinues the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection servers for Wii and Nintendo DS games. |
29 | Electronic Arts shut down Mythic Entertainment | |
June | 10 – 12 | E3 2014 held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.[1] |
12 | Nordic Games acquired the publishing label of THQ. | |
14 – 17 | DreamHack-Summer held in Jönköping, Sweden. | |
30 | Crytek's IP's Homefront: The Revolution was acquired by Koch Media. Crytek UK, formerly Free Radical Design, and Crytek USA was shut down. | |
Deep Silver set up a new subsidiary known as Deep Silver Dambuster. | ||
Electronic Arts shut down more than 50 multiplayer games.[2] | ||
July | 10 | Tony Hawk's Pro Skater's creator Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward by Activision. |
17 – 20 | QuakeCon 2014: The massive annual LAN party held in Dallas, Texas. | |
24 – 27 | SDCC 2014 held at the San Diego Convention Center. | |
Unknown | Airtight Games was shut down approximately one month after the release of Murdered: Soul Suspect. | |
August | 7 | Activision revived the brand of Sierra Entertainment. |
11 | Electronic Arts launched a subscription gaming service called EA Access for the Xbox One. | |
13 – 17 | Gamescom 2014 held in Cologne, Germany. | |
20 – 22 | Unite 2014 held in Seattle, Washington. | |
25 | Twitch was acquired by Amazon.com for $970 million. | |
28 | The Gamergate controversy came to public attention due to the introduction of the GamerGate hashtag.[3] | |
29 | Nintendo announced the New Nintendo 3DS XL. | |
29 – September 1 |
PAX Prime 2014 held at the Washington State Convention Center. | |
September | 18 – 21 | Tokyo Game Show 2014 at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo. |
25 – 28 | EGX London 2014 held in Earls Court, London. | |
27 | Naughty Dog celebrated its 30th anniversary. | |
October | 2 – 5 | GIGACON 2014 held in Telenor Arena, Oslo, Norway. |
3 – 5 | EGS 2014 held in Centro Banamex, Mexico City, Mexico. | |
6 | Ubisoft Reflections, formerly known as Reflections Interactive, celebrated its 30th anniversary. | |
11 – 12 | Play Expo 2014 held at EventCity, Manchester. | |
11 – 12 | FirstLook 2014 held at Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the Netherlands. | |
19 | 2014 League of Legends World Championship was held at the Seoul World Cup Stadium | |
24 | 32nd Golden Joystick Awards was held | |
24 - 26 | Milan Games Week held at Fieramilanocity in Milan, Italy. | |
November | 31 – 2 | PAX Australia 2014 held at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in Melbourne, Australia. |
6 | Microsoft Studios acquired Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion. | |
7 – 8 | BlizzCon 2014 held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. | |
12 - 17 | E-Sports World Championship 2014 was held in Baku, Azerbaijan | |
27 – 30 | DreamHack-Winter held in Jönköping, Sweden. | |
December | ||
4 | 2K Games announced a new subsidiary called Hangar 13. | |
5 | The Game Awards 2014 held in Las Vegas. | |
6 | Ralph H. Baer, credited as the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey, died at the age of 92. | |
6 – 7 | PlayStation Experience held at The Venetian Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. |
Game releases
The list of games released in 2014 in North America.
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January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Critically praised games according to Metacritic
Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities. (Games originally released before 2014 with ports or expansions that came out in 2014 are marked as such in the final column.)
# | Game | Developer | Platform | Release Date | Average score | # of reviews | Port? |
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1 | Grand Theft Auto V | Rockstar North | PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
November 18 | 97 | 66 reviews (PS4) 14 reviews (XB1) |
Port |
2 | The Last of Us Remastered | Naughty Dog | PlayStation 4 | July 29 | 95 | 69 reviews | Port |
3 | Super Smash Bros. for Wii U | Sora Ltd. Bandai Namco Games |
Wii U | November 21 | 92[5] | 77 reviews | |
4 | Dark Souls II | From Software | PlayStation 3 Windows Xbox 360 |
March 11 | 91 | 69 reviews (PS3) 36 reviews (PC) 30 reviews (XB360) |
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4 | Bayonetta 2 | PlatinumGames | Wii U | October 23 | 91[6] | 80 reviews | |
6 | Shovel Knight | Yacht Club Games | Nintendo 3DS Wii U PC |
June 26 | 90 88 85 |
9 reviews (3DS)[7] 24 reviews (WiiU) 46 reviews (PC) |
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6 | Rayman Legends | Ubisoft | PlayStation 4 | February 18 | 90 | 16 reviews | Port |
6 | Velocity 2X | FuturLab | PlayStation Vita PlayStation 4 |
September 2 | 90 86 |
10 reviews (Vita) 38 reviews (PS4) |
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6 | Fez | Polytron Corporation | PlayStation 4 | March 25 | 90 | 17 reviews | Port |
6 | Diablo III: Reaper of Souls (PC) Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition (PS4, XB1) |
Blizzard Entertainment | Windows PlayStation 4 Xbox One |
March 25 (PC) August 19(PS4, XB1) |
87 90 86 |
75 reviews (PC) 63 reviews (PS4) 30 reviews (XB1) |
Expansion (PC) Port (PS4, XB1) |
11 | Dragon Age: Inquisition | BioWare | PlayStation 4 PC Xbox One |
November 18 | 89[8] 85 85 |
43 reviews (PS4) 45 reviews (PC) 28 reviews (XB1) |
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11 | Minecraft | Mojang | PlayStation 4 | September 3 | 89 | 14 reviews | Port |
13 | The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth | Nicalis | PlayStation 4 PC |
November 4 | 88 86[9] |
15 reviews (PS4) 10 reviews (PC) |
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13 | Mario Kart 8 | Nintendo EAD | Wii U | May 30 | 88[10] | 82 reviews | |
13 | Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft | Blizzard Entertainment | PC, iOS, Android | March 11 | 88 | 42 reviews | |
Highly scoring games released in 2014 with fewer than 10 reviews include Kentucky Route Zero - Act III, Out of the Park Baseball 15, Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, and the PS3 version of Child of Light.[4][11]
References
- ↑ "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
- ↑ "50 EA games will have their servers shut down • Eurogamer.net". archive.org. June 5, 2014. Retrieved March 21, 2018.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/AdamBaldwin/status/504801169638567936
- 1 2 "Best Video Games for 2014". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 29, 2017.
- ↑ "Reviews for Super Smash Bros. fot Wii U". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for Bayonetta 2". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for Shovel Knight". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for Dragon Age: Inquisition". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for Mario Kart 8". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
- ↑ "Reviews for Child of Light". Metacritic. Retrieved January 13, 2015.