2021 Summarized For Me | And Everybody Else
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2021 was a surprisingly mixed year. 2020 had so many games to look back at, but 2021 felt it flew past by, with a number of things happening, both good and bad. The pandemic hasn't made it easy for everyone, even though vaccine shots were given out in the middle of the year.
Japan still managed to get people to work in their offices since they do more a better job of maintaining safety and sanitation than others I guess. But it still hasn't washed away the sting we got from big corporate gaming companies. This was also the year that AAA companies struggles due to various outcomes like strikes, class-action lawsuits, big controversies, being greedy(that's nothing new), and well our favourite subject, employee mistreatment.
So I want to categorize a bunch of things, about both the good and the bad. Understandably, this post will try to be as neutral as possible, since nobody wants to deal with negativity at the moment. Let's all read this with an open mind and being clear-headed, before we all reach that collective sigh of disappointment.
P.S: Am sorry it took this long to make this post, even if it's 12 days from the new year.
The Good: This Year Had Good Exclusives
Disclaimer: Though it sucks that not many people can get access to or even be in the right situation to purchase the new consoles. Considering where things are now, this section is going to be on a fair basis to picking the popular titles. Yes, that also means putting up games exclusive to the 9th gen systems.
Last year wasn't good for exclusives if you know what I mean, Nintendo won, but they are always consistent with their releases. This year, Microsoft and Sony gave it their all.
Personally, since I've played most of Xbox exclusive games, I can vouch that they've taken over this year. Halo Infinite, Psychonauts 2, and Forza Horizon 5 were my favorite picks this year for the top 10. Yes, they were released for the PC, but more affirmatively Microsoft ecosystem exclusives.
Sony had major games like the new Ratchet n Clank sequel, Rift Apart and indie titles like Returnal, making huge splashes. Thankfully, no games like TLOU2, and they made MLB: The Show multi-platform. Meaning both Xbox and PlayStation only. Sure, there were director's cut releases like Death Stranding and Ghost of Tsushima, but those games would hugely benefit from the PS5. Sadly this also meant that Sony is drifting away from the PS4, least Microsoft released Halo Infinite for their last-gen system.
Then there's Nintendo, it's redundant to say anything more, they've done it again. Shin Megami Tensei V, Monster Hunter Rise, Super Mario 3D World: Bowser's Fury, and Metroid: Dread. 2022 is going to be lit with BOTW sequel and Bayonetta 3.
The Bad: Activision Blizzard Lawsuit And Workplace Abuse
Nothing sure drives home than news about corporate establishment being accused of sexual harassments and toxic workplace for gender discrimination.
And to add more injury to the workplace mistreatment, the developers behind Raven Software were relieved without any proper reasons behind them. For that reason, the ex-employees and the current ones went out on strikes, calling out an Activision's corporate mismanagement.
Bobby Kotick, a man I despise so much because of his undoings of the gaming industry, finally got exposed for the creep he is. As he became allegedly part of the sexual abuse accusations. My money is on the guilty verdict.
Here is an interesting bit, but even employees have started to leave Ubisoft as well. There's a big tectonic shift coming from the gaming industry, and everything's going to be different from this point on.
The Good(Rejoice Peakd): Rise In Crypto-Based And NFT Video Games
I signed up for Gods Unchained a few years ago, but I never got around to playing it because I never touched a card game before. Now am kind of regretting it. This year things have gone up the stratosphere. Cryptocurrency has gotten large recognition from across the world, of which all major establishments have joined in.
Be it NFTs or token based rewards, this industry has seen rapid progression so far.
We have our Axie Infinity, Splinter Lands, and Gods Unchained raking in money by the billions. By October last year, Axie Infinity has made Sky Mavis reach at 3bn dollar evaluation. That's good for this platform, and us gamers in general. Be it for pocket money, becoming our main source of income, or an investment for the foreseeable future. Least we get to have some fun in it.
Because I can mostly see these kinds of applications to be trustful than the predatory video game industry that we kind of spite.
The Pretty Bad: AAA Gaming Got Into NFTs
Speaking of predatory gaming, Square Enix within the first day of this year announced that they're moving forward with NFT developments from their games. Seeing the CEO all jolly about his company getting into NFTs pretty much riles up my gears.
You can probably tolerate, be a part of it if you want, I won't stop you there. But this is bad for a lot of people. We have major companies like Take-Two trying to get into it and Ubisoft's Quartz beta is a terrible joke.
These guys don't actually care about transparency and wants to suck the joy out of people's lives just to fill their grubby little pockets and leave it overflowing with cash.
Square Enix, I literally couldn't care less, I just want my 3rd Deus Ex game. But we're never getting that since your studios are busy and miserable making Marvel licensed based games.
The Mixed: Was A Down Turn For Gaming Overall
Was this a weird year for video games? I mean, we got some crazy good Indie games, a good list of AAA releases. Yet, something feels off. Oh yeah, we are still reeling off from 2020. I think that year in particular had a really strong surge for video game activities since nobody had anything better to do.
This year was...well challenging to say the least. Right after March, computer parts have started to get more expensive, especially graphics cards. I bought my GPU right around that time, just before it ballooned to over twice the price that it was released for. This GPU is nearly 4 years old and yet people are scalping it at 600 USD in eBay.
As time went on, everything got more expensive. Especially the PlayStation 5. We now also have 70 USD price range for video games. I am happy that we have cross-gen releases for both 8th and 9th gen systems. I mean, it wouldn't make sense not to, they're both x86 based systems. Basically miniature PCs. But I have to pay 10 dollars more for an upgrade to next-gen? Really? It just feels artificial and forced.
While it was a depressing year in some shape and form, am happy that I got a better gaming system and this was the year I got my Nintendo Switch to kick off. Some of the big changes I mentioned earlier are that people working in the industry have started to unionize, which will lead to better treatment of game developers and fostering good ethics, that we need really badly right now.
There were games that came out worse than what we'd expected(ala Back 4 Blood), and my favourite Halo game has a terrible progression system and greedy in-game cosmetic market. I played the multiplayer for over 20hrs, and yet I haven't gotten anything noteworthy to change my Spartan's appearances. The backlash worked, and they said they are fixing it. It's been over a month now and not much of that change has been...yet.
Am sorry if this post got a bit on the negative side, just wanted to paint a clearer picture. So that hopefully in the future, we can try to see if things work out better than they did now.
Overall, the net positive is that my time in Peakd isn't over yet, and I got plenty of stuff to talk about this year. Also, sorry if this got really long. There was a lot I had to say, and I hope we can continue talking about it more for this year. I'll be back with a wrap up for half of 2022 right around July. So expect big things from me 👍.
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