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The 50 Biggest Gaming Events of 2007 49

The Next Generation site has up an article looking back on the 50 biggest gaming events of 2007. From the launch of Burning Crusade in January all the way through to 'Gerstmann-gate', the list is highly eventful ... it's been a big year for games. "The removal of Super Columbine Massacre RPG from the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemaker competition sent shockwaves through the independent game community, but the event did bring two very important things to light. Firstly, it showed that even the independent art community has a clear delineation between how it treats games and how it treats other mediums. But even more importantly, the voluntary withdrawal of many other entrants in the competition showed the solidarity of the independent community, and emphasized their dedication to the progression of the medium."
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The 50 Biggest Gaming Events of 2007

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  • Why limit yourself? Man!

    Howzabout the 10,000 most important events in gaming for 2007?
  • And then... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:48PM (#21754424)
    As if to justify all those people who claim these lists come too early to include all the big events of 2007, 3D Realms had to go and release a Duke Nukem Forever Teaser [3drealms.com]. I certainly think this qualifies to be on a revised version of the list.
  • by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @01:51PM (#21754444)
    Sorely missing - the abyssmal sales figures for Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. Neither game managed to sell 100,000 copies the first month, November 2007. THAT was a big, unexpected news item considering the hype.

    Read, e.g. "Crysis and UTIII sales bomb" at http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=177667 [computeran...ogames.com]

    Most speculations on why concern too demanding graphics.
    • System requirements that are too demanding could definitely be an issue. Though what about the holidays right around the corner? I'd like to try crysis and UT3, but I didn't buy them because I figured I'd ask for them for Christmas, see if I get them and if I don't buy them later.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by MistrBlank ( 1183469 )
        The system requirements on PC games are getting out of hand. Basically nvidia hands XYZ a system with the top tier next generation graphics card and tells them to go at it. The company then expects everyone that buys it to have that card. Then doesn't realize that graphics card generations are basically 3-4 months apart and people aren't willing to pay $500-600 that frequently to upgrade systems. Game never quite catches on. If the game developers would just do what console developers are required to
        • by Creepy ( 93888 )
          The system requirements for UTIII aren't too bad - it will run on my 3 year old mid-tier machine with an upgraded graphics card and I consider 2-3 years a necessity if you want high volume sales. The problem is I don't think it generated a lot of buzz, and the demo didn't wow me like the 2004 demo did (a demo of the new mode or at least would have helped). The significantly higher retail price doesn't help, either (UT2004 released at about $20-$25, III at $50+).

          Crysis is all about system requirements. My
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by edremy ( 36408 )
        I honestly wonder how much of the success of World of Warcraft is due to this. WoW isn't the best looking game out there by a long shot, but it runs on junky hardware just fine if you turn down the graphics a bit. It doesn't require any funky OS version or patch level either, nor DX10. Couple that with the "I don't need to find a CD and stuff it in the drive" insta-play and perhaps the eye candy just isn't worth the hassle.
        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Tink2000 ( 524407 )
          If you don't think that WoW is one of the best looking games out there, you should really play it on a nice machine with everything cranked up. I play it on my late-2006 20" iMac with everything maxed out except for antialiasing and still manage framerates of 30fps ... and it's gorgeous. Simply stunning.

          Well, it's a long way from Asheron's Call, anyway.
    • I suspect it has more to do with the huge number of good FPSes that were just released, from Halo 3 to Orange Box.
      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        I think the FPS is a dying breed of game personally. I haven't played a single one since Battlefield 1942 that came out 5 yeas ago that I thought was truly revolutionary. Many have even regressed, in terms of having a truly sandbox like experience (CoD 4 I'm looking at you).

        It's been years since GTA III came out - I want open worlds with lots of vehicles and toys dammit.
        • Not discounting your opinion...because you are right, a lot of FPS are not sandboxy.

          But I for one do not like sandbox games. I would much rather have a shooter with a *few* options, but a lot of set-piece battles. Rainbow Six Vegas was a perfect example of this. It could not be done as a sandbox game, yet it was an incredible single player experience.

          To me, saying that every game should be a sandbox game is like saying every game should be first person. A lot of RTS players would disagree very strongly
    • Well Crysis was kinda of expected to "fail" at launch if you knew anything about the company's history. The only other game the company has released was Far Cry and when that came out, people still complained about its high system requirements. Furthermore, although Far Cry "failed" in its first month, the game sold relatively well over its lifetime.

      As for UT3, lack of marketing, lack of hype and confusing titling definitely hurt it. Why buy UT3 for $60 when you can buy the UT collection pack for $50? And U

  • I thought Activision merged with Blizzard, not Vivendi as the heading for that section indicates. Am I wrong, or is the article inaccurate?
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by vecctor ( 935163 )
      Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Vivendi and Activision merged, they called the joint gaming division "Activision Blizzard".
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by varcher75 ( 800974 )

        Vivendi owns Blizzard. When Vivendi and Activision merged, they called the joint gaming division "Activision Blizzard".

        To be exact: Vivendi Universal owns 100% of Vivendi Universal Games who owns 100% of Blizzard Entertainment. The merger is between Vivendi Universal Games and Activision, which tacks on the Blizzard name due to brand recognition, although Blizzard Entertainment remains a quasi-autonomous entity in the new structure as well. The resulting operation is that Vivendi Universal will own 52 to 6

  • I don't trust that list. Instead I only play games endorsed by the Oprah Game Club - all the games that the big Op' plays and recommends.
  • Today a new teaser was released for Duke Nukem Forver was released.
    Since it's been 6 whopping years since the last one I think this could qualify as one of the 50 biggest Gaming Events this year.

    You can find links to it at http://www.3drealms.com/ [3drealms.com] but beware, there is some servermelting going on right now (and a slashdotting wont help either).
    • by edwdig ( 47888 )
      The game has dark lighting.

      There are aliens.

      Duke looks like he takes more steroids than all pro sports players combined.

      That's really all you can get out of the trailer. Most of the video is Duke lifting weights in a really dark room.
      • by clem ( 5683 )

        Most of the video is Duke lifting weights in a really dark room.
        That would be the weight lifting mini game they've included. Just keep tapping A,B,X,Y and pretend you're having fun.
    • by Chris Burke ( 6130 ) on Wednesday December 19, 2007 @02:58PM (#21755350) Homepage
      Since it's been 6 whopping years since the last one I think this could qualify as one of the 50 biggest Gaming Events this year.

      Actually I'd say that it's been 6 years since the last teaser of this perpetual piece of vaporware is exactly why this isn't a significant event in gaming.

      At this point, the only possible significant event that can involve DNF is the release of the actual game. Anything else is *yawn* more of the same empty promises that we've been hearing for what, a decade now?
  • Who would have thought that a list of events would be, you know, "eventful"?
  • What, not Quakecon?
  • One page print copy [next-gen.biz].
  • this story will long stand as a grim reminder
    Ha, it's not even mentioned in Wikipedia's entries for "Gamespot" [wikipedia.org] or "Kane and Lynch" [wikipedia.org]. "Long stand," my ass.
    • I agree it's overrated--I mean I read online about a planned CNet protest related to it, firgued "why not--I'll stop by and see who's there, since CNet is a block from my office". A total of zero people showed up. I'd estimate there's maybe 10,000 people who even know about the incident, and the majority of them either don't care that much about it, or do care...but don't want to venture out of their parent's basement.
      • by Aladrin ( 926209 )
        I call bullshit.

        http://davedragon.rilysi.com/2007/06/25-most-popular-blogs-of-june-2007.html [rilysi.com]

        Kotaku has 372,000 RSS subscribers. Every single one of them knows about this incident.

        Joystiq has 274,000 RSS subscribers. Every single one of them knows about this incident.

        I know both of those carried articles about this. Even assuming every single Joystiq RSS subscriber is also in the Kotaku one, there's at least 37 times as many people as you say know about it. I told a few people that aren't even gamers, an
        • by elrous0 ( 869638 ) *
          Jeez, come on, no one even bothered to mention it in their wikipedia entry. It's already forgotten.
        • I used to visit GameSpot occasionally for guides or news. I know I'm not alone in moving over to 1up or Joystiq. I voted with my (advertising) dollar.
        • I call bullshit.

          Kotaku has 372,000 RSS subscribers. Every single one of them knows about this incident.

          Joystiq has 274,000 RSS subscribers. Every single one of them knows about this incident. ...
          I'd bet there are easily a million people who know about this. ...
          Let me make this very clear: They got heard.
          "Knowing" is orthogonal to "caring"
  • Of all the things that were mentioned in that article, not once did I see anything on the controversy surrounding Jade Raymond and Assassin's Creed. In particular, the comic depicting Jade whoring herself out to geeks just so they would buy the game. It was a disgusting and misogynistic piece that discourages women's involvement in video game development. I can't for the life of me understand how this was ignored.
  • July 24th: Activision Becomes Industry Sales Leader

    November 13th: Atari Exits Production Business


    While I do know these aren't the same companies as they used to be, it would be highly amusing if Activision finally bought out Atari.

    Revenge of the third parties!

Business is a good game -- lots of competition and minimum of rules. You keep score with money. -- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari

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