Gaming has endured quite a number of ups and downs throughout the years, with the downs often crashing rather abruptly.
Remember when Guitar Hero was the hottest thing since sliced bread? Seemed like yesterday, and it indeed wasn’t that many years ago. Now the music game is considered dead and gone, yesterday’s news.
And of course Atari had its biggest year, then the bottom abruptly fell out with the gaming crash of 1983. But as of right now, with the huge success of Halo 4 and Call of Duty Black Ops 2, gaming has been having a hell of a fourth quarter this year.
As USA Today notes, the good times in gaming are just getting started, and 2013 will likely be an even better
year for the industry. Indeed, the success of Halo 4 and Call of Duty is expected to spill over into next year, and Grand Theft Auto V should also be huge when it’s finally unleashed. At the same time, Marc Saltzman of USA Today points out that it’s not just the big titles that will generate excitement, but the mobile and casual games, and mainstream reboots of indie games like Minecraft as well.
Along with Grand Theft Auto V, the other big blockbuster games coming next year include The Last of Us, which Saltzman called “one of the most talked-about games at the 2012 E3 expo,” and it’s a post apocalyptic game where you travel along with a 14 year old girl and protect her as you navigate through a mostly dead planet.
There’s also going to be BioShock Infinite, which takes place in the air instead of underwater. (USA Today remarks that the new BioShock has a “stunningly detailed world.”) In addition, there will be a reboot of Tomb Raider, and it’s somewhat of a prequel where Lara Croft is younger and doesn’t have as much action experience under her belt, and she grows stronger as the game progresses.
Other games that are expected to be big hits next year include Pikmin 3, Beyond: Two Souls from Sony, Watch Dogs, which USA Today calls “a jaw-dropping, action-heavy adventure set in the near future,” and more. With all this action lined up, the future for gaming indeed looks very bright, and we’ll be very curious to see what’s going to be successful and keep the industry going strong.
