2011: The Year That Was
Feature
Shit went down in 2011, a recap of what was important and what was just meh.
May
Following April's catastrophe for Sony the PlayStation Network was still down to kick off May. The company apologized extensively for the intrusion of their personal information and promised that they were doing everything in their power to bring the service back online. While everyone was feeling a bit of remorse for Sony and thinking the worst was behind them, BAM!, Sony Online Entertainment was hacked. Over 12,000 credit cards were compromised in the separate attack. Sony spent the entire month defending the timeline of their reveal that the service had been hacked with pundits stating that had the company came right out and admitted that they had been hacked, personal and financial information could have been saved. Analysts estimated that the intrusions had cost Sony a whopping $100 million in lost revenue.
Anonymous continued their denial over the Sony attacks but rumors persisted that the hacking group was gearing up for another round of attacks on the company's online offerings.
Rumors continued to swirl over Nintendo's next home console as the company confirmed at the end of the month that they would be revealing the Wii's successor at June's E3 in Los Angeles.
May was a bit of a lull for video game releases as L.A. Noire and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings were the only two big name releases in the month. L.A. Noire, Rockstar's first published title since the huge hit of Red Dead Redemption, was a critical success in the sales department and the review category. The Witcher 2 also enjoyed its share of success being released strictly on the PC. Other releases included Section 8: Prejudice, Brink, MX vs. ATV Alive, DiRT 3, and Hunted: The Demon's Forge.
June
With the PSN fiasco winding down and being restored in the US and Europe, Sony took E3 as an opportunity to take center stage with their apologies and gift giving. However, Sony also took E3 as an opportunity to put Hack-gate behind them and focus on the future. The PlayStation Vita. The name of the device was revealed at the show as well as the device's launch video game line-up and pricing. Set to cost you $350 in the US for the 3G version (brought to you by AT&T) and $250 for the wifi version. Marking a realistic possibility that Sony had actually learned for their last faux pas with the pricing and release of the PlayStation 3 ($600 will get you nowhere fast).
For the first time in the year, Microsoft made headlines with the reveal of Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition at E3. It was also revealed that the Kinect motion controller would be getting a AAA first-party title in Fable: The Journey. It was not well received as fans quickly pointed out that the game was an on rails "shooter" and would set the franchise back. Lionhead boss man Peter Molyneux quickly went on the defense by stating that the game's E3 demo was perhaps not the best representation of the game and that the game would not be an on-rails shooter. The Xbox 360 also saw a demo at the show of Square Enix upcoming reboot, Tomb Raider.
Nintendo continued their up and down year with the actual reveal of their next home console, the Wii U. In perhaps the worst reveal for a video game console ever, Nintendo opted to focus on the console's tablet-like controller and ignore the actual console. This led many (all?) gamers to wonder if the Wii U was an actual peripheral to add life to the dying Wii or was the Wii U an actual handheld gaming system? Nintendo's stock fell to an all-time low over the disappointing reveal as a result. Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata later admitted that the company did a poor job at describing the console at E3. No pricing or release date were revealed for the Wii U but it was announced that games such as Darksiders 2 and Batman: Arkham City would be launch titles.
Other reveals at E3 included Hitman: Absolution, PS3 HD Collections in Metal Gear Solid/Zone of the Enders and Silent Hill sets. Far Cry 3 was shown off while Battlefield 3 stole the show.
June was a rather big month for video game releases as F.E.A.R. 3 finally saw the light of day, Duke Nukem Forever was met to much disappointment and Ocarina of Time 3D became the first must own title on the Nintendo 3DS. Other releases included inFamous 2, Red Faction: Armageddon, Alice: Madness Returns, Dungeon Siege III, and Shadows of the Damned.
July
EA started off the month with the biggest news announcing that they had acquired casual gaming developer PopCap Games. The acquisition was made for a cool $750 million. It was later revealed that other casual gaming developer Zynga had made an offer of $1 billion to buy PopCap Games but was refused.
Disney made headlines for the wrong reasons as they announced that their long time in-house studios, Black Rock Studios and Red Fly would be closing their doors.
Team Bondi was hit by accusations that they were running a "sweatshop" there in Australia, all coming on the heels of L.A. Noire's success. This bit of news would turn out to be a bit of foreshadowing.
July marked the first month of 2011 that would see no "must-have" titles being released. Releases included Call of Juarez: The Cartel, Bastion, El Shaddai, Ascension of the Metatron, Catherine, and From Dust.
August
Nintendo started out the month once again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. They company announced that disappointing sales of the 3DS thus far in Japan, US, and Europe were sparking them to cut the price of the 3D handheld. From $250 to $150 Nintendo was effectively admitting that they had made a massive pricing mistake at release. Most handhelds and consoles get their first price slash one year after release, the 3DS got one in four months. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took the blame for the pricing mess and offered to cut his salary by nearly 50% in its wake.
While speculation still persisted over the PS Vita's release date in Japan and in the west, Sony announced that a new PSP model would be hitting retail shelves costing sub-$100. The announcement was made at Gamescom and was revealed as the PSP E1000. The only thing different about the PSP E1000 would be that it did not have access to a wifi connection.
August was the last month of the summer video game lull as only one title released in the month could be classified as a must-own. Square Enix released their long awaited Deus Ex: Human Revolution to much critical success. Madden NFL 12 was delayed to the end of the month due to the then ongoing NFL lockout. While Bodycount was also released to disappointing results.