The biggest video game news stories of 2019 aren’t just a collection of the most dramatic events the industry experienced over the course of the year, although there were plenty of those to choose from. 2019 was a remarkable year for video games for a number of different reasons, evoking several different sorts of emotional responses: anger at the state of the developer workplace, wistfulness over a career that felt like it would last forever, and excitement over the shifting landscape of streaming content as a new decade begins.
Sure, there were a bunch of milestones that developers and companies hit, and some of them are wildly impressive - the PlayStation 4’s lifetime achievement of incredible exclusives, for instance, or the Nintendo Switch’s rise to the top of the console heap thanks to its innovative design. More than that, though, there were a lot of major stories that focused on what makes the video game world go round - the people who make the games we love, or those who make the hard decisions about them before we even get a taste of what they might be. The biggest video game news stories of 2019 were grounded in humanity, even if they loudly announced that the industry as consumers and critics know it is changing faster than any of us can wrap our heads around or that there is still a lot of room for growth from both fans and companies in video games.
With that in mind, Screen Rant has collected some of the biggest video game news stories of 2019 that impacted the scene far beyond just causing a stir. 2019 was the year Sony and Microsoft began to gear up in earnest for each company’s next generation console, but that didn’t stop the rest of the industry from making so many moves it almost seemed like they were making up for the stagnant nature of two of the Big Three.
Bungie and Activision Split
One of the biggest events of the year also happened at the very beginning of it, as in January 2019 it was announced that Bungie and Activision ended their 10-year publishing partnership on Destiny ahead of schedule. Many took this as a Bungie-driven move, as Destiny 2’s quality was floundering under tight turn-around times for content releases. While exactly what happened isn’t clear, what is evident is just how beneficial this split was for fans of the Destiny franchise. Destiny 2 arrived on Steam and began to offer cross-platform play, giving those who had purchased the game on consoles a chance to try out the PC version. Bungie has also had a clearer direction for Destiny 2 content since the break-up, and with speculation that Destiny 3 could be on the horizon in the near future, it’s been a brave new world for Guardians, and one that they’re eager to continue exploring without Activision’s involvement.
Twitch No Longer Has A Monopoly on Streaming
While competitors like Mixer existed before the advent of 2019’s major changes, it was this year that saw them all become contenders to Twitch’s throne at the top of the streaming service heap. Whispers about potential shakeups began early in the year, but nothing concrete emerged - until suddenly Twitch’s empire began to collapse mid-summer, when Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, arguably the most important video game content creator and streamer, announced he was departing the platform for Mixer on an exclusive contract. The news challenged everything consumers knew about streaming as a platform, and began to ask some much-needed questions about content creator’s financial security and ability to produce new content unhindered. Ninja’s departure dramatically changed how content creators were valued by the platforms that hosted them, and news that his deal was in the eight-figure range only solidified the fact that streamers were the future for a lot of brands.
Since Ninja’s departure, Twitch has also lost shroud (to Mixer), CouRage (to YouTube Gaming) and DisguisedToast (to Facebook Gaming), among other popular content creators as well. Those three are notable because they are a collection of some of the hottest talents in the scene, and all of them chose to leave Twitch for a different platform. Diversity in streaming looks to be a key feature of 2020 moving forward and, for Twitch, the company will need to dramatically rethink how it acquires and manages talent now that the competition has suddenly become fiercer.
Google Stadia Might Be The Future, But Its Present Is A Disappointment
Google Stadia was tagged by many as a possible game-changer for video games at large, a streaming service that would make owning a console irrelevant. In the build-up to launch, Google did a good job selling consumers on some of the platform’s finer points, like access to an expanding library, a subscription model that had long-term applications, and a service that was housed by Google’s very powerful equipment. Unfortunately, in practice, there were simply too many issues with Stadia - the performance simply didn’t hold up for many users, not to mention that the bandwidth requirements for streaming 4K games absolutely destroyed consumers’ internet bills if they had a fixed rate. Despite having launched this year, Stadia feels very much like a relic of an older age. Perhaps it has laid the groundwork for successful future years once everyone’s home set up catches up to the service’s demands and Google can make it more broadly appealing, but at the end of 2019, Stadia is one of gaming’s biggest failures of the year.
2019 Becomes the Year of Indie Gaming & Horrible Geese
While there isn’t a singular news story that encompasses what became more of a trend during 2019, just take a quick look at The Game Awards nominees for best indie game this year: Disco Elysium, Baba Is You, Katana Zero, Outer Wilds, and Untitled Goose Game. Many of those games were also on short lists for game of the year 2019. It was an absurd year for indie developers who continue to push the medium forward, proving that AAA titles aren’t the only releases capable of financial success. Oh, and Reggie Fils-Aimé himself presented the award for indie games this year:
Pokemon Fans Complain, Then Buy Game Anyways
Pokemon Sword & Shield was the site of one of the biggest scandals in Pokemon franchise history when developer Game Freak announced that the new games would be getting rid of the National Dex, spurring on what fans would later call Dexit as an ode to the state of British politics in 2019. Fans were outraged that they would no longer be able to truly catch ’em all and, more importantly, that the Pokemon they had been shuffling between each subsequent release - some of whom had been with trainers for years - would now be stuck in the past iterations of the franchise. When Game Freak did not budge, fans swore that it would be to the series’ detriment.
It wasn’t. Pokemon Sword & Shield ended up being one of the best titles in the franchise, sold extremely well, and will probably be the recipient of even more inflated sales numbers thanks to its spot as one of the most desirable titles on the most desirable console this holiday season.
Blizzard’s Hong Kong Scandal Rocks Developer
The Blizzard Hong Kong scandal is so deeply embedded in 2019 that it’s hard to believe it was actually a late addition to the year’s proceedings. Blizzard made headlines for its mistreatment of a Hearthstone pro after he expressed support for Hong Kong during the political protests taking place during summer 2019, taking away his prizes from the months-long tournament and suspending him for a year. The backlash was swift and fierce, and Blizzard quickly addressed the situation by reinstating the pro’s prizes while also reducing his suspension to six months. Despite this, fans still lined up at BlizzCon 2019 to voice their displeasure, staging protests outside the venue. Blizzard doubled down on its terrible treatment of Hong Kong scandal by issuing a vague apology that never mentioned China once to kick off BlizzCon, indicating that the developer would be moving into 2020 hoping that it’s upcoming projects, like Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4, would be enough to earn forgiveness from fans without the company having to admit much wrong-doing.
Riot Games Gender Discrimination Lawsuit is Settled
The Riot Games gender discrimination lawsuit succeeding in establishing a better workplace for women - alongside paying out those who had been part of the toxic culture in years prior - was a major victory for the games industry as a whole. Whether or not it enacts lasting change in a space that is still debating crunch hours for developers, the fact that it happened at all is a testament that women in video games are making their voices heard and will continue to do so moving into the next decade. A big win for equality and, it should be said, an image overhaul for Riot Games, which now appears to have completely changed the experience in its workplace and, with League of Legends and more titles on the way, will be the developer to watch in 2020 and beyond.
Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aimé Retires
Reggie Fils-Aimé was the face of Nintendo of America for many years, comprising most of the company’s western showcases and also becoming a font of memes, like the popular “my body is ready” statement that made him the darling of internet comedians everywhere for far longer than was perhaps necessary. Reggie Fils-Aimé also helmed an incredibly successful Switch launch that shot Nintendo back into the spotlight, and the man who many associated with Nintendo’s past decade fittingly ended it by saying goodbye and moving on.
Next: Xbox Series X: Holiday 2020’s Xbox Scarlett Has Been Revealed
