Last year, 2014 saw the birth of many moments of gaming history. We saw new installments of Assassin’s Creed, Borderlands and Civilization, as well as some new releases and hits such as Destiny, Watch Dogs and Titanfall.



Late 2013 was the birth of the next-gen consoles. Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. This left 2014 open for plenty of console gaming opportunities.

In January, Sony announced the new PlayStation feature “PlayStation Now“, a cloud-streaming service for PlayStation games. This had both positive and negative feedback from customers. Many people had problems with verifying ownership of the consoles and games.

Microsoft also got busy in January, purchasing the “Gears of War” franchise from Epic Games. SEGA also released Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed for iOS and Android. Don’t Starve also arrived to the PS4. The infamous game, “Octodad” created a sequel as well, “Octodad: Dadliest Catch“, which was quite successful!



In Febuary, fans were disappointed to see that Irrational Games, creators of the famous BioShock series was shut down. Thief was also released, on Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Febuary also saw the release of Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, exclusive to Xbox consoles.



The biggest thing that happened in March was probably the purchase of the hugely successful company “Oculus VR“, creators of the Oculus headsets. Surprisingly, this war purchased by Facebook for a whipping $2 billion. Crikey! March also saw the releases of South Park: The Stick Of Truth, Dark Souls II, Titanfall and Infamous: Second Son.



In April, many game developers and companies did a great April Fools joke! Dark Souls II got an “Easy Mode”, EA’s Origin offered a “Boxed Service”, where you used your 3D printer to print your games at home. Mojang made everyone a long-nosed villager in Minecraft. Arma 3 got a kart DLC. Sony pranked everyone by offering “Sony Power Food“, enabling you to charge your phones, batteries and tablets by plugging them into cakes, energy bars and cereal. Titanfall got the Transformers Optimus Prime DLC. Worst of all, VALVE left thousands depressed and disappointed after confirming Half-Life 3, again… This time, they included what looked like promotional packaging for an exclusive Half-Life 3 Xbox One. No Portal 3 or Left 4 Dead 3 either… Well, thanks VALVE.

Goat Simulator was also released in April, originally thought to be a joke, however, it was not and the game became quite successful. April also saw the releases of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 game, which had terrible reviews and feedback from customers. Titanfall was also released on the Xbox 360.



In May, Nintendo discontinued the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection servers for the Wii and Nintendo DS games. “Goodbye, old classic multiplayer fun” says Nintendo, “come and buy our new Wii U!” May saw the releases of BattleBlock Theater, Tropico 5 and Watch Dogs, which was promoted largely by the Yogscast team.



The E3 2014 took place at Los Angeles in June and Nordic Games, creators of Red Faction and Alan Wake, bought THQ. EA also shut down more than 50 multiplayer games, leaving avid gamers devastated. June also saw the release of a new GRID game, GRID Autosport.

In July, Team Reptile, creators of Megabyte Punch, released Lethal League on Windows. I personally expected a bigger success from this, as Team Reptile definitely have potential.

In August, Activision revived the brand of Sierra Entertainment and EA released a subscription gaming service called EA Access for the Xbox One. Game streaming site Twitch was purchased by global online shopping company Amazon. Nintendo also announced the “New Nintendo 3DS XL“. Yes, they actually called it that.

August birthed the hugest and most memorable horror game of 2014, Five Nights At Freddy’s, a small game developed independently by Scott Cawthon. Instantly, thousands of Five Nights At Freddy’s videos spawned all over YouTube with people like Pewdiepie (Felix Kjiellberg), Markiplier (Mark Ficshbach) and iHasCupquake (Tiffany Herrera) playing it. By far, definitely a huge success for Scott. August also saw the final episode of The Walking Dead Season 2 game, “No Going Back“.



The biggest thing in September was definitely the purchase of Mojang, creators of Scrolls, Cobalt and of course..Minecraft. That’s right, Microsoft purchased Mojang for a huge $2.5 billion. This left Minecrafters either hopeful for the future, or devastated for it. September also saw the releases of Fifa 15, Forza Horizon 2 and Disney’s Skylanders replica ‘Disney Infinity‘ got a sequel. Disney Infinity 2.0. As well as releasing Fifa 15, EA also released The Sims 4, which had an uproar of short success.



Skylanders fought back in October with a new Skylanders game, Trap Team. The 2014 League of Legends world championship was also held in Seoul World Cup Stadium. The 32nd Golden Joystick Awards was also held. Alien: Isolation was released for Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. For a next-gen game, it was quite buggy and you had to play for a couple of hours to actually see an alien. Costume Quest 2 was also released for Windows, as well as Final Fantasy XIII. Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel was released and Minecraft was released for the PSVita. This was surpirsing for Minecrafters, as some expected the game to become Microsoft exclusive, for Windows and Xbox only. Although this did not happen. The Evil Within was also released, and had a large negative feedback from customers, stating that the game was not even scary a bit and “The horror game you’ve all been waiting for” was a huge overstatement. October also saw the releases of Just Dance 2015, F1 2014, Civilization: Beyond Earth and WWE 2K15.



The biggest thing in November was probably the massive balls-up from Ubisoft, Assasin’s Creed: Unity for Windows, PS4 and Xbox One. The gameplay was repetitive, the game was hugely infested with bugs and glitches and was overall a complete disappointment. Ubisoft also released Far Cry 4, with beautiful graphics. Call Of Duty saw a new sequel in November, Advanced Warfare, which was quite a success. November also saw the quickly released and rushed Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel. Although Scott Cawthon had success again, for a game released that quickly, it was bug-free, enjoyable and brought all the fun of the first game back, but made it a lot more tense and exciting. November also saw the release of indie title ‘This War Of Mine‘, blowing up the Steam store. After purchasing it, I found it quite underrated, but still a great game. BlizzCon 2014 was also held in Azerbaijan. The 16th of November also marked the 10-year anniversary of Half-Life 2.



In December, the Game Awards 2014 were held in Las Vegas. Minecraft was released on the Windows phone, Rockstars Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars came to android, finally. Open world driving game, The Crew was released, soon after its beta testing. Both the Five Nights At Freddy’s games came to the Windows phone and Super Mario World: Advance 2 was released for the Wii U.

2014 was a big year for gaming. Let’s hope for an even bigger year this year, with the release of Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell, Don’t Starve Together, Evolve, Battlefield Hardline, Batman Arkham Knight, The Witcher 3 and more…

For updates on gaming, check out my channel, The Wonder Spud here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheWonderSpud