Q.
It’s fair to say that 2022 wasn’t the greatest year for quality releases or launches… or was it?
Alex Verrey, Embracer Freemode: No, I think that’s largely fair. The industry is still catching up after the pandemic of course, and certainly the first half of the year seemed quiet (apart from Elden Ring). Like most of us however, I would much rather a project was delayed to polish the quality rather than rushed out to hit a deadline for shareholders.
Dieter Marchsreiter, Marchsreiter Communications: For us it was a great year for quality releases and launches. We couldn’t have done more PR for great games, and are happy about any additional delays!
Dean Barrett, Bastion: Maybe not a classic year, but 2022 certainly produced some cracking games that delivered on promises, and a few that achieved great cut through. I’m always impressed by any game that can bring new players into the community and I thought Stray was a brilliant example of that. And the global fascination of the Wordle story neatly highlighted how we’re all games players at heart.
Julia Herd, Five in a Boat: The satisfaction of players and communities are the yardstick here. Many will have been happy that their favourite franchise got another title, others will be continuing to wait for their long-delayed favourites to emerge. But 2022 was different because of the pandemic, and we must be cognisant of the fact that the previous two years were mired in uncertainty for development. Many teams developing new projects which would have been released in 2022 were shuttered. Companies with established games - especially those with live games services - defocused other projects and new IP and redoubled their efforts on what was already working. In that regard, players of live games and MMOs generally received more content updates more regularly over the last couple of years, although this did return to a more normal cadence in the back half of the year. As the pandemic effect subsides and so too does the revenue from those live game services back to more stable levels, developers have reinvested in new projects. What we’ll see this year and next is the release of many titles that were originally slated for 2022, so ultimately the effect is net neutral.
James Kaye, Big Games Machine: When looking at the AAA names, there’s the argument that a good number failed to live up to the hype and expectations, but many exciting indie games continued to push the envelope. No single genre seemed to dominate the release calendar, which was a benefit, making games such as Stray and Scorn stand out regardless of perceived quality.
Stefano Petrullo, Renaissance: I think we probably saw fewer traditional AAA releases as some important games from big publishers were hit by delays. Nevertheless, I still think we saw a good number of decent games launch across the course of the year. I checked earlier and I spent 161 hours completing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, as well as playing Immortality, Pentiment, and Somerville to name a few. My general feeling is we have a higher number of really good non-traditional AAA productions compared to previous years. I personally found 2022 a really refreshing experience.
Rana Rahman, Raptor PR: Looking at the games industry in its entirety, I think we were still spoilt for choice. The games industry is more than AA or AAA - mobile generates a majority of the revenue and dominates in terms of the scale of its player base. Yes, AAA saw a shortage due to console supply chain issues, and development delays due to the pandemic hangover, but overall I’d say it was a solid year for gaming content.
Mike Hendrixen, Vertigo 6: The popular opinion might be different but with games like Horizon Forbidden West, Elden Ring, God of War, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Mario + Rabbids and new instalments of FIFA, Call of Duty and lots of great indie games, 2022 was a good year in our opinion! Some highly anticipated games slipped into 2023, but as the official calendar year may end on December 31st, most publishers have their financial year until March 31st. So we can still expect some highly anticipated titles ‘this year’ such as Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the long awaited Hogwarts Legacy.
“For us it was a great year for quality releases and launches, we couldn’t have done more PR for great games, and are happy about any additional delays!”
Dieter Marchsreiter Marchsreiter Communications
38 | MCV/DEVELOP January 2023
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