10 Biggest News of 2017

While this year wasn’t nearly as crazy as, say, 2013 in terms of console launches and game reveals, there were still plenty of blockbuster news to go around. The gaming industry has seen its share of controversies and missteps but let’s take a look at the nominees for the Biggest News of 2017.

Nintendo’s Second Mario Film

The Super Mario Bros. movie in 1993 was one of the most wretched things ever committed to film. Nintendo didn’t abandon the film industry entirely though – rumours have emerged of talks with Illumination Studio (of Despicable Me and Minions fame) to make a new Mario Bros. film. While not officially announced, this film won’t be live-action and instead goes the animated route. Interestingly, it’s already in production. We’ll have to wait for the reveal to get truly hyped but this is still incredible news.

Nintendo Announces SNES Classic

We knew it would happen, especially as Nintendo dashed all hopes and dreams of the NES Classic being restocked. But the SNES Classic was a thing and packed tons of our favourite titles into one awesome box. Even Star Fox 2 was included!

SAG-AFTRA Strike Resolution

Tucked away amidst the major announcements and crazy happenings was the news that the strike against video game publishers and developers by SAG-AFTRA would finally come to end. The strike was on behalf of voice actors across the industry and it became the longest strike ever for the organization before finally ending on September 23^rd. And thankfully, both sides came to an amicable agreement on the matter.

Metroid Prime 4

It never seemed like Nintendo would actually return to the Metroid Prime series. However at E3 2017, it finally confirmed what the rumours have said for so long – Metroid Prime 4 is coming and it’s for the Nintendo Switch. Who’s developing it? When will it be out?

Pokemon Switch

Probably not as tremendous or surprising as the Metroid Prime 4 announcement but Nintendo confirmed a new Pokemon title…for the Switch. Furthermore, this would be a core RPG title from Game Freak and the first in the series to ever debut on a home console. That’s big news, even if – once again – we have no information on a release date or even a name.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

We’ve said it enough time but it bears repeating – it’s simply unbelievable that a game like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds would come out of nowhere from a relatively decent-sized studio and perform as well as it has. The crazy part? The game accomplished all of this while in Early Access. It’s set to release version 1.0 for PC on December 20^th but still.

Xbox One X Reveal And Price

After a year of teasing, the Project Scorpio codename and plenty of speculation, Microsoft finally confirmed its new Xbox console’s name as the Xbox One X. Not only that but at E3 2017, it also announced a retail price of $499 and a range of impressive specs. The console still has a ways to go but the Xbox One X dominated its fair share of reveals at E3.

Nintendo Switch Beats Wii U’s First Year Sales

It’s no secret that the Nintendo Switch has been a rousing success this year, overtaking the company’s earlier Wii U console in every way. However, it’s crazy to put that first year of sales into context. When the Wii U launched in November 2012, it sold about 13.56 million units as of March 2017. The Nintendo Switch has already sold 10 million units and it hasn’t been a full year since its launch. Think about that, especially when most of us wrote Nintendo off completely at several points.

Bayonetta 3 Announcement

Reggie Fils-Aime accomplished two tasks at this year’s The Game Awards – he silenced host Geoff Keighley and debuted something we’ve all wanted since forever. That something was Platinum Games’ Bayonetta 3 which saw our favourite bullet witch returning. When and how has yet to be revealed but it’s Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch and that’s enough.

Soulcalibur VI Announcement

“Do your souls still burn?” With that announcement, Bandai Namco ignited the crowd at The Game Awards and announced Soulcalibur VI. Sophitia and Mitsurugi were showcased in the glory of their younger days. Ring-outs, eight way direction and all sorts of classic mechanics returned with some new ones. Soulcalibur VI will be out in 2018 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC and we can’t wait.

Winner: PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

 

Over 25 million copies sold, a 24 hour concurrent player peak on Steam of 2.8 million players, 1 million copies sold on the Xbox One in 48 hours, the most popular game on Twitch – this year was simply dominated by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Whether you loved it and bought into the hype despite its performance issues or hated it but kept coming back, Brendan Greene’s magnum opus was the star of 2017 in terms of sales and headlines.

Note: GamingBolt’s Game of the Year categories, nominations and awards are selected via an internal nomination, voting and debate process. You can check the rest of categories and the respective winners here.

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