With the final hours and minutes having trudged by like an asthmatic slug slowly forcing its way through a large treacle spillage, the time has come for MCV to say farewell for 2014.
The last few brave souls who haven’t already departed for a fortnight of mince pies, booze and the purple ones from the chocolate assortment tin are finally downing tools for the festive break and what we hope is a well deserved break.
MCV will be back on January 2nd, although should anything significant happen in the world of gaming in the interim you will of course find it on MCVuk.com. Provided it doesn’t clash with the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Or any Doctor Who re-runs. Or our dinner. Or when we’re asleep. We hope to do LOTS of sleeping, incidentally.
2014 has been a mixed bag for gaming overall. The ongoing success of PS4 hardware and the ever so strong resurgence of Xbox One has been excellent news for Sony and Microsoft respectively. And who could have anticipated the sheer scale of the success enjoyed by the rejuvenated GAME?
But we knew long before Metacritic’s 2014 roundup that it was far from a vintage year for software. That’s not to say there weren’t plenty of decent games, though – there were, and you can see MCV and Develop’s top picks here.
But software sales have once again failed to impress. And if behind the scenes whinging is a barometer of tension within the secretive corridors of gaming’s biggest and brightest, there are a small handful of companies who remain very nervous about the immediate future and about their market position as the big IP of today begins to fade and the market leaders of tomorrow start to emerge.
One sector that has undoubtedly had little to cheer in 2014 is games journalism. Not only has the near implosion of Future seen dozens of our very best tossed to the curb, but several of our strongest and most promising writers have simply turned heel and walked away from a backdrop of online hostility, baseless conspiracy and what has become an established culture of harassment, bullying and general group idiocy.
There are many of us who expect 2014 to be our last Christmas as a games writer.
Which is all very Scrooge McDuck when really we should be spending more time thinking about The Snowman and the Snowdog, Christmas crackers and Elf. There’s also our 14 Moments of 2014 feature here to have a gander at which balances the woe with the glee and even has a picture of PewDiePie. And a skinless revolutionary eye ghoul, but then you can’t have it all.