Good Year / Bad Year?

Returns to Form

Every year the gaming release schedule is packed with sequels, spin-offs, rehashes and re-releases. So it has always been, and so it will always be. (For evidence of this, get a copy of the 2011 schedule and put a tick next to every title without a number in it. You won't blunt your pencil.)

At least in 2010, some of those sequels and reboots turned out to be well worth the wait. There was downloadable offering Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, for example – the game which finally proved SEGA was wrong about the series needing to go 3D, and that everyone else in the world was right.

Meanwhile, Donkey Kong Country Returns might as well have had "To Form" tucked in on the end of the title. The lush visuals, pacy gameplay and serious difficulty curve were so well-designed it was almost possible to forget the Ant and Dec advert entirely.

And finally, 2010 saw the release of another series instalment we'd been waiting seven thousand years for. Gran Turismo 5 scored highly on Eurogamer and was a huge commercial hit, knocking Black Ops from its perch at the top of the chart. Or should that be screeching past Black Ops to race into pole position before burning rubber all the way to the top of the winner's podium oh God I'm going to kill myself.

Motion Control

To be specific, it was a good year for fans of motion control. We've no idea whether it was a good year for the motion controllers themselves or the people who make them – because it's still not clear just how many people have actually bought Move and Kinect.

Back in November Sony announced 4.1 million Moves had been shipped. This was in response to Microsoft's news that 2.5 million Kinect units had been sold. Shipped and sold are quite different things so it's hard to draw a direct comparison, but one thing's for sure: Nintendo's still winning.

Since then everyone's been mysteriously quiet. Except, of course, for leading industry clairvoyant Michael Pachter, who claimed sales of Kinect and Move were neck-and-neck. And who, nine days later, revealed Kinect bundles were outselling Move bundles 5 to 1.

The point is, it was a good year for anyone who likes waving round plastic sticks with magic light-up ping pong balls on the end, or who enjoys the unrivalled freedom of controller-free gaming, as long as they have a lounge like an empty swimming pool.

Bad Year For...

Electronic Arts

Poor old EA. First the publisher came under fire for introducing Project Ten Dollar, an initiative designed to discourage second-hand sales. It proved particularly unpopular in the UK, perhaps due to the less catchy brand name of Project £6.38.

Then there was Talibangate. EA ended up cancelling plans to feature the big T in the multiplayer mode of Afghanistan-based shooter Medal of Honor, following pressure from politicians and the media. It's all right to shoot foreigners, see, just not empathise with them.

Weeks later, the publisher hit the headlines once again when a disgruntled employee wrote an online rant against EA and BioWare Mythic. The self-titled "EA Louse" claimed forthcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic had cost more money to make than Avatar, and that it would be rubbish.

BioWare doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk hit back, telling Eurogamer: "It is not going to be rubbish." (May be paraphrasing here.)

Tim Langdell

At least EA won a whole new legion of new fans in 2010 by taking on litigious pantomime villain Tim Langdell. Eurogamer had been reporting on Langdell's crusade to protect his "Edge" trademark since August of the previous year, but it was EA's legion of lawyers who finally delivered justice back in October.

Six days later, Langdell lost his trademarks. He was also forced to write to everyone he'd ever sued to let them know. What this will cost him in stamps and biro ink alone would render anyone bankrupt.

By the end of the same week, Langdell had been booted out of the International Game Developers Association. He was dismissed for displaying a "lack of integrity" and "unethical behaviour".

Not many people cried very hard.