The 2023 Biggest Game Industry Events of 10 With the year almost behind us, it's hard not to look at 2023 with conflicting feelings. It was a great year for gamers at home, with big releases from PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, as well as some excellent indie games. In the coming years, we will all argue that 2023 is one of the best years, if not the best year, for games. But it was also a terrible year for the people who make games, with more than 10.000 developers laid off, studios closing, and more.
Between major video game releases, heartbreaking layoffs, record-breaking acquisitions and box office reports, and more, 2023 contained plenty of news that had us talking for weeks, speculating about the future of the industry, and reshaping the way we view game development. Here are the 2023 biggest gaming news of 10.
PlayStation Cancels Naughty Dog's Last Of Us Multiplayer Project
Naughty Dog announced in June 2022 that the new Last of Us multiplayer project will be an independent game. In May of this year, the studio announced that it needed more time for the game, while also announcing that it was working on a new single-player experience. But a few months later, Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 developers and reports emerged that the Last of Us multiplayer project was "on hold." Between reports of layoffs and improvements to the game, players realized this game might be further away than expected.
Naughty Dog surprised many by announcing earlier this month that it was ending development of the online multiplayer game Last of Us. Looking back, it's not the most shocking development, but it's extremely rare to see an announced PlayStation first-party game canceled in this way – first-party games are canceled, but usually before the game has reached the point of becoming a public project – and so it's one of the most shocking developments of the year. It was one of the great stories.
PlayStation Boss Leaves, Xbox Boss Rises
Both PlayStation and Xbox had a tremendous year. The former launched the PSVR2, the PlayStation 5 Slim, and the PlayStation Portal remote, and has had great releases like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarök's Valhalla DLC. Xbox acquired Activision Blizzard through Microsoft, released Starfield, released Forza Motorsport, surprise-released Hi-Fi Rush, and more.
Both of these companies have experienced some significant executive changes. PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced in September that he was leaving the company after more than 30 years at Sony. Ryan was appointed president and CFO of Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2018 and will officially leave his position and the company next spring.
A month later, Microsoft restructured itself, with Microsoft corporate vice president Sarah Bond promoted to president of Xbox and Microsoft studios president and corporate vice president Matt Booty promoted to president of gaming content and studios. Chief marketing officer Chris Capossela announced that he was leaving Microsoft after 32 years, and Microsoft vice president and chief commercial marketing officer Takeshi Numoto took over the role. As part of the restructuring, Yusuf Mehdi was promoted to vice president and consumer marketing manager of Microsoft. Microsoft's consumer sales organization has moved to the Microsoft Gaming CEO team led by Ami Silverman.
Executive changes this big are rare at PlayStation and Xbox. But both companies experienced major changes in 2023, and it was hard to ignore and speculate how these might affect the future.
Video Game Adaptations Enter the Mainstream
Look, there have been so many great video game adaptations over the years, but it's hard not to look at 2023 and say it's the best year for video game adaptations.
On the movie side, The Super Mario Bros. is the most acclaimed adaptation of the year. We liked the movie. The film, which was released in April, did not take long to break records at the box office after having the best opening for an animated film. It was also the best-opening film of 2023 and Illumination's most successful opening ever. It also had the best opening for any video game adaptation and the biggest five-day premiere, a record previously held by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As if that wasn't enough, The Super Mario Bros. The movie had the biggest IMAX opening weekend of all time with $21,6 million worldwide. Although the sequel to the film, which ended its reign at the box office after earning a whopping $1,36 billion during its release, has not yet been approved, Nintendo is using this success to make a live-action Legend of Zelda movie.
But the year of major adaptations kicked off with HBO's The Last of Us, which premiered in January. The first season covered the events of the first game (and its Left Behind DLC), and HBO has confirmed that the series will have a second season premiering in 2025. We loved the first season and can't wait to see how it adapts The Last of Us Part II (which will be remastered next month). And it turns out we're not alone – The Last of Us' premiere was HBO's second-biggest debut since 2010, and viewers stuck with the series all season long.
Sony broke into the box office with Gran Turismo: Based On A True Story in August, and the film won over audiences with a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Elsewhere during this great year of adaptations, Peacock's surprisingly great Twisted Metal TV series and Netflix's Castlevania: Nocturne, a great follow-up to the streaming services' original Castlevania animated series. Let's hope 2024 does the same.
Rockstar Games Finally Announced Grand Theft Auto VI
Developer Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto series has sold more than 370 million units. Grand Theft Auto V, first released in 2013, accounts for more than half of those sales. Between its PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 launch, its PlayStation 2014 and Xbox One port in 4 (which also hit PC that year), and its next-gen update for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series it quickly reached $1 billion in retail sales. Additionally, in terms of both dollar sales and units sold, Grand Theft Auto V is the best-selling game of the 2010-20 decade in the United States. In summary, Grand Theft Auto is the video game juggernaut.
For this reason and more, millions of players have been patiently waiting for a sequel. In early December, Rockstar tweeted that it would release the first trailer for the next Grand Theft Auto game the following week, and it didn't take long for it to become the most liked gaming tweet of all time. This trailer was supposed to be released at 5 am on December 9, but it leaked online the night before. Rockstar acted quickly to remove the leaked trailer and released the official trailer online on December 4.
Today, the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer has been viewed more than 150 million times, breaking the record for most views in 24 hours in the process – surpassing 100 million views in less than a day.
Grand Theft Auto VI, like its predecessor, will likely take over the gaming world when it launches on PlayStation 2025 and Xbox Series X/S in 5, and we can't wait.
This is the World of Baldur's Gate 3 – We're Just Living in It
If you went online in August of this year, you probably encountered some form of praise for Baldur's Gate 3 – RPG fans and newcomers alike fell in love with developer Larian Studios' latest game. He took over the month of August. And the PlayStation 6 launch on September 5th made the game exclusive to the PlayStation 5 console for a few months, only increasing the game's reception as more players stepped into the Forgotten Realms.
Baldur's Gate 3 subsequently received more than a dozen nominations for The Game Awards 2023, ultimately winning six awards, including Game of the Year. On the same night it won this prestigious award, Larian Studios surprise-released Baldur's Gate 3 on Xbox Series X/S, capping off its big year with a bang.
Charles Martinet Says Goodbye to Voice Mario
Super Mario Bros., one of the top 2023 games of 10. If you played Wonder this year, you may have noticed that Mario and Luigi's voices are different. That's because the Mario brothers are no longer voiced by longtime actor Charles Martinet, who has voiced Mario for over 25 years. He became the voice of Mario (and various others in the Mushroom Kingdom) starting with Super Mario 1996 in 64, but he bid farewell this year to take a new position at Nintendo: Mario Ambassador. It was later revealed that Mario's new voice actor would appear in Super Mario Bros. We learned that Wonder was Genshin Impact player Kevin Afghani, who did a great job filling in for Martinet.
E3 Is Officially Dead
The last in-person E3 took place in 2019. Then the COVID-19 pandemic happened, canceling E3 2020 plans and returning with a digital-only event in 2021. Then the 2022 E3 was canceled, and this year's initiative with PAX organizer ReedPop was also canceled. While the writing has been on the wall for years, E3 organizer Entertainment Software Association announced earlier this month that E3 is officially dead.
Unity Breaks the Trust of Game Developers
Popular video game development engine Unity announced on September 12 that it has updated its pricing and packaging plans. These changes included a fee that would activate and charge developers of high-performance games every time a user or player installed the game, and it didn't take long for developers to point out various problems with this policy, all of which felt like a punishment for those making games.
With these changes, Unity caused outrage on social media channels and blogs from developers around the world, with many stating that they would abandon Unity and move on to other development platforms. Unity closed two of its offices for a day after receiving death threats on September 14. Fortunately, Unity eventually rolled back some of these changes, but for many the damage was done and developers were questioning how they could ever trust Unity again. A few weeks later, Unity CEO John Riccitiello resigned.
Microsoft's Record-Breaking Acquisition of Activision Blizzard (And Court Leaks)
Xbox's first-party studio lineup in 2017 consisted of five studios and one publishing arm: Rare, Turn 10, 343 Industries, The Coalition, Mojang Studios, and Xbox Game Studios Publishing. Now, six years later, Microsoft has more than 50 studios thanks to various acquisitions it's made over the years. That number increased greatly in October after Microsoft officially acquired Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68,7 billion – Xbox is home to all 19 of Activision Blizzard's studios and King's 11 mobile game studios .
This acquisition is also the reason for Xbox's massive leaks in September, after Microsoft accidentally handed over confidential (and unredacted) documents to federal courts that were publicly viewable. These documents (which should be taken with a grain of salt, as some of them contain potentially outdated information) reveal that Xbox head Phil Spencer at one point discussed Nintendo and Warner Bros. Games, Xbox is planning an Xbox Series We learned that they have plans for .
The Best Year for Games, The Worst Year for Those Who Make Them
This year was arguably the best of all time for video games; they were undoubtedly one of the worst for the people who made them. Throughout the year, studios were shut down, thousands were laid off, and developers were, disrespectfully, given 2023 seconds to shine on The Game Awards 30 stage after winning an award. More than 2023 developers have been laid off in 10.000, and depressingly, it seems like we're writing a story about studio layoffs once a week.
In January, Microsoft laid off 69 employees during its $10.000 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, which it completed in October.
Striking Distance Studios, the team behind last year's The Callisto Protocol, laid off more than 30 employees in August. That same month, Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare laid off 50 employees, including longtime studio veterans. The following month, in September, Ascendant Studios, developer of Immortals of Aveum, laid off approximately 45% of its employees, and Epic Games, developer of Fortnite, laid off 830 employees.
In October, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 employees and Telltale Games also suffered layoffs, though the actual number of affected employees has not yet been disclosed. Dreams developer Media Molecule laid off 20 employees at the end of October.
In November, Amazon Games laid off 180 employees, Ubisoft laid off more than 100 employees, Bungie laid off nearly 100 developers, and 505 Games' parent company Digital Bros laid off 30% of its staff.
Just this month Embracer Group shut down restructured TimeSplitters studio Free Radical Design, and earlier in the year Embracer shut down Saints Row developer Volition Games, which had a development history spanning more than 30 years. A few weeks before the holidays, Hasbro, owner of Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering, laid off 1.100 employees.
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