News 2009: In Review

2009: A year in news.

Today I’ll be taking you through the biggest stories of 2009, from the falling of studios to some of the biggest hits, with a few epic controversies along the way.

Let’s start with one of the year’s biggest fighters. Street Fighter 4 was announced with a flashy trailer, and shortly after, Capcom announced the Street Fighter 4 Collector’s Edition RRP set at $199.99. For the extra cash gamers would get a couple of figures and an exclusive Blu-ray movie.

A few months later Super Street Fighter 4 was announced, adding eight new characters and arenas. The news divided the fanbase – some complained that they had just bought Street Fighter 4 and now it’s outdated, while the others said it would be keeping the console in line with the arcade version. However, both sides of the debate were wrong; Super Street Fighter 4 wasn’t an arcade port and once Super Street Fighter 4 drops to $60 it would work out cheaper than buying eight characters worth of DLC.

Next up, Konami had a countdown to Metal Gear producer, Hideo Kojima’s next title. One publication speculated about it being Lord of Shadow. However, at E3 they finally revealed Metal Gear Solid Rising, a new installment starring Raiden – it’s interesting to note that both Xbox incarnations of Metal Gear Solid have starred Raiden.

Also announced at E3 - and one of its biggest surprises: Team Ninja’s Metroid: Other M. No doubt they’ll be giving Samus a couple of aesthetic upgrades – if you know what I mean.

Then tragedy struck in late June as the music and gaming industry lost an icon when pop legend Michael Jackson died. We named an edition of our weekly What’s New? post in honor of his work in gaming, and EA stuck him (and his brothers) in Lego Rock Band.

In more upbeat news, the Tekken 6 Limited Editions were announced – one with a hoodie, another with an arcade stick, both with high price tags - the latter proving to be the year’s most expensive limited edition.

EA announced that Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight would be arriving next year. It may contain traces of sparkling vampires - or worse yet, sparkling Mammoth Tanks.

Blizzard announced a World of Warcraft expansion titled Cataclysm at Blizzcon. Mass “nerdgasms” ensued; a few months later the Warcraft series turned 15.

Tokyo Game Show rolls around and…
Square-enix shows off the longest Final Fantasy 13 trailer shortly after they release an English version, and then a release date.

2009 was also big on hardware news:
Nintendo unleashed the DSi - I liked it. Closing in on GamesCom, some shots of a slimmed down PlayStation 3 were leaked from a Chinese factory causing a fuss. Some claimed they were fakes - they were wrong.

In one of the more disturbing things to come out of 2009, social networking site Facebook began to invade consoles, starting with the DSi. Months later the Xbox followed, as did the PlayStation 3.

In the industry companies were folding and early reports indicated 3D Realms’ demise. Fortunately, it turned out that they just fired the Duke Nukem Forever team - after they failed to complete the game they had been working on for the past ten plus years.

Elsewhere Bionic Commando developer Grin wasn't looking so cheerful, laying off 100 employees. Shortly after, they folded, and some former staff formed Outbreak.

A few companies weren’t just doing well, they were in the mood for some shopping…
In a surprise move, Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax bought id software. The buyouts continued as Namco Bandai picked up Atari’s PAL distribution network and renamed it Namco Bandai Partners, while Square-Enix bought Eidos and renamed them Square-Enix Europe.

Midway went backrupt and started selling assets. Most of it, including Mortal Kombat, was purchased by Warner Brothers. Midway San Diego was picked up by THQ and Newcastle closed because they couldn’t find a buyer.

And you can file these under "WTF":

In a stroke of insanity, the Venezuelan government tried to stop kids picking up guns by banning violent games, while forgetting to ban the real thing (oops).

The world shrugged and sighed as a Japanese man became the first person to legally wed a game character.

Bungie’s Halo franchise expanded into the world of tentacles and school girls with a series of anime shorts called Halo Legends.

Activision caused a stir when they resurrected Kurt Cobain as a playable character in Guitar Hero 5, allowing players to use him in any song.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition did well, considering the large price tag, while later on a trailer depicting the Russian Airport level surfaced and Michael Laws called gamers a bunch of serial killers.

Sony promoted the release of inFamous with free runners In Auckland, and e-black Massiah did pretty well at the World Cyber Games Asia championship.

Micosoft’s Xbox Live rules denied under 18’s their content; Fair Go’s advice: buy a PlayStation.

The Australian OFLC goes on a rampage, banning Left 4 Dead 2 - which eventually got released in a watered down version - and Aliens vs Predator. Unfortunately (for the Australians) the developer refused to strip their game of anything fun, meaning they will miss out.

Metal Gear Solid arrived on PlayStation Store everywhere except New Zealand. We eventually got it a few weeks later when Metal Gear Solid arrived to snake-hungry fans.

In the last big story, an Aucklander announced he is remaking Commander Keen, and has the blessing of id Software, likely thanks to John Carmack’s attitude to open source software.

That’s the news, and this is Morgan Bates saying "Keep it locked on NZGamer.com".

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