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What was the worst year for gaming?

I'd have to go for 2012. Very dumbed down/mediocre sequels and "HD collections" galore! I think someone already mentioned the Tell Tale Walking Dead games winning this year's GOTY awards (nothing wrong with the games or point and click games in general, but given what you'd normally see hyped up by the mainstream press, yiiiikes). The WiiU had a mediocre launch line up, and by this point, EVERYONE was complaining that current gen tech wasn't enough to work with anymore. Unless you had a 3ds or a PC, I don't see how anyone can look at this year kindly.
 
For people saying 1983 because of Pac-Man and ET, remember that those actually came out in 1982. '83 was when all the fallout happened.
 
Rhomega Beta said:
For people saying 1983 because of Pac-Man and ET, remember that those actually came out in 1982. '83 was when all the fallout happened.
Click to expand...

Right, but when people start losing jobs and the entire industry crashes, that's the worst year (1983), not the year leading into it.
 
It would help if we could easily reference all the bad GOTY threads to help answer the question.

I have a hard time remembering what games came out what year sometimes.
 
AALLx said:
1983
Click to expand...

I'd actually say 1984, because by then the Atari was a wasteland and the NES wasn't out in NA yet. PC gaming and the mainly-European ZX Spectrum scene was thriving, but in the console space it was a desert.

Anyone who lists a year in modern gaming as the worst year has no idea how bad it was back then or how good we have it now. It was like the videogame equivalent of the Dust Bowl.
 
minameissteve said:
2014

Lackluster start for the new generation with hardly any truly great games. On top of that you had Gamergate and countless other controversies that made it feel like the medium regressed.
Click to expand...

Wii u had tropical freeze, mario kart 8, bayonetta 2, smash bros, captain toad.
 
AALLx said:
1983
Click to expand...

1983.
The Famicom, the SG-1000, the Apple //e, and the MSX. Mario Bros., Punch-Out, Track & Field, Xevious, Bomberman, the Portopia Murders, Nobunaga's Ambition, Lode Runner, and M.U.L.E. Dragon's Lair if that's your thing, and Bokosuka Wars which was a bad action RPG and a bad RTS but also a pioneering example of each. Yuji Horii and Yu Suzuki enter the industry, and while Falcom doesn't publish its first game it does publish #2-#16.

1983 was a really damn good year, unless you owned stock in Atari or Connecticut Leather.

Bad years have to be one of the bland slogs of the late '00s or mid-'10s which are only distinguished from each other by which samey box had the better ad campaign and which war within living memory the guaranteed-long-before-launch best-seller was about.
 
2014 was abysmal, aside from the WiiU. There aren't a lot of years that stand out as particularly terrible, though.... just ones that weren't very interesting.
 
2012 had Kid Icarus Uprising and Xenoblade in NA but yes pretty sad year otherwise

2008 was solid, the true year of disappointments/overhyped stuff was 2013 imo
 
2006 was a bit meh. The fact my favourite game that year was Half-Life 2: Episode 1, essentially an expansion, says it all for me.

2014 was also fairly dull, though Alien: Isolation and The Stick of Truth mean it just edges out 2006.
 
I don't know, all the years before 1958 were pretty barren.

The Danganronpa games and Mario Kart 8 came out in 2014 for the first time in English so that year is automatically not in the running for me.
 
2014 had Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros. Just because your HD twins sucked that year doesn't mean the year itself was bad.



2012 was a doozy, so many titles disappointed: Mass Effect 3, SF x Tekken, Resident Evil 6 and there's more I'm sure.
 
2015 and 2016 didn't do much for me.

2012 and 2014 are mentioned a few times in here, I liked both of those years.
 
Would have been far more helpful to ask for worst year post 1983.
I just KNEW 83 was going to be posted.

Pretty sure we had some real stinkers since then.
 
MrT-Tar said:
Are we just forgetting the fact that 2014 saw Bayonetta 2, DKC: Tropical Freeze, and Super Smash Bros for WiiU/3DS? I would say that those games alone put the year above 2012 and not far off 2009.
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Not sure why I keep forgetting Nintendo's output from that year. I'll take it back and say 2012 is the worst recent year, but 2014 still has some serious weak points.
 
2014 was BAD on top of being a rough year for me personally. the only games I remember were smash 4 and south park. I remember clamoring for a new game to play on my shiny new ps4.
 
minameissteve said:
2014

Lackluster start for the new generation with hardly any truly great games. On top of that you had Gamergate and countless other controversies that made it feel like the medium regressed.
Click to expand...
But... Bayonetta 2, Shovel Knight, Mario Kart 8, etc.

I think 1983 is still the right answer.
 
Mandoric said:
1983.
The Famicom, the SG-1000, the Apple //e, and the MSX. Mario Bros., Punch-Out, Track & Field, Xevious, Bomberman, the Portopia Murders, Nobunaga's Ambition, Lode Runner, and M.U.L.E. Dragon's Lair if that's your thing, and Bokosuka Wars which was a bad action RPG and a bad RTS but also a pioneering example of each. Yuji Horii and Yu Suzuki enter the industry, and while Falcom doesn't publish its first game it does publish #2-#16.

1983 was a really damn good year, unless you owned stock in Atari or Connecticut Leather.

Bad years have to be one of the bland slogs of the late '00s or mid-'10s which are only distinguished from each other by which samey box had the better ad campaign and which war within living memory the guaranteed-long-before-launch best-seller was about.
Click to expand...

'83 was not a damn good year if you lived in North America though, which is where the crash happened. Notice how your list is like 70% Japan-centric stuff. I agree though. The rest of the world never experienced a crash around that time. In Europe most people were gaming on computers which were still all the rage, and in Japan they got three new consoles, one of which would go on to become arguably the most iconic console ever.
 
It was a long ago in the mystical land of Cincinnati, Ohio in the wonderful year of 2008.
I was a 9 year old boy interested in video games but went to the game store and saw none. "What the fuck" I said when I saw the store empty with terrible new games. And hat is why 2008 is the worse year. The only bad year.
 
minameissteve said:
2014

Lackluster start for the new generation with hardly any truly great games. On top of that you had Gamergate and countless other controversies that made it feel like the medium regressed.
Click to expand...

Nintendo tho...

but yea, that was a real bummer year overall both for releases and the subject matter taking place throughout the industry.
 
minameissteve said:
2014

Lackluster start for the new generation with hardly any truly great games. On top of that you had Gamergate and countless other controversies that made it feel like the medium regressed.
Click to expand...
I was trying to think if any 2014 got lists would have been on any 2015 lists had they released that year
 
OfficerRaichu15 said:
It was a long ago in the mystical land of Cincinnati, Ohio in the wonderful year of 2008.
I was a 9 year old boy interested in video games but went to the game store and saw none. "What the fuck" I said when I saw the store empty with terrible new games. And hat is why 2008 is the worse year. The only bad year.
Click to expand...
Didn't Tales of Vesperia come out in 2008? And SSBB, MK Wii, Burnout Paradise, DMC 4 and many others?
 
Old School - 1983, easily

Modern gaming - Don't really remember the 90s that well, but of recent note, 2012 was boring as hell. Fall of 2011 had such great games (Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Dark Souls). 2012 was the year where the 360 and PS3 were showing their age, but the swan song titles (GTAV, TLOU, etc.) didn't come out until 2013. Frankly, it was just lackluster as hell. And the Wii U launch was...yeah.

Edit: Journey and TWD do not feel like 5 year old games. Damn. They still couldn't save 2012 lol
 
I found plenty of games to like in 2012, but the fact Journey and The Walking Dead led it does say something really bad about it. I think right behind it was stuff like Fez and Dear Esther. Simply on that fact, I wouldn't argue against it being a "weak year" in general reception. In it's defense though, I can list a lot of interesting games, stuff I would put above the GOTY favs. Here what were my ten favorite games of that year:

Chivalry
Super Mario Bros. U
Ys Origin
Ys The Oath in Felghana
Akai Katana Shin
Binary Domain
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Crusader Kings II
Skullgirls
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Resident Evil 6

And some more games which I also thought were decent to good or at least got a lot of buzz:
Armored Core V
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress
Far Cry 3
Persona 4 Arena
Dragon's Dogma
Xenoblade Chronicles
Hero Academy
Sleeping Dogs
XCOM
Tales of Graces F
Dishonored
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Soul Calibur V
Monster World IV
Gungnir
Legend of Grimrock
Max Payne 3

It was quite a banner year for fighting games.

And a lot of these games still get talked about to this day. Kid Icarus, Dragon's Dogma, Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs, Xenoblade Chronicles, Binary Domain, Crusader Kings II, Ys series, etc. have passionate fans who will talk about these games for years, something I think is more valuable than being the "GOTY".

EDIT: A way of looking at it is that even the worse years have a lot of good games to play.
 
2014 is the most recent.

2000 was pretty bland for me too.

Edit: 2012 was not great either, but it did have Borderlands 2 which was my personal GOTY.
 
2012 at least in my time playing games. Journey was beautiful but not something that lasted. Mass Effect 3 had some spectacular moments and a great multiplayer but the places where it fell short tanked it. The first 2/3 of Far Cry 3 was amazing but it took a sharp decline after it. The Walking Dead presented a great story but ran terribly on consoles and didn't have much "game" to it.

On top of that, disappointment was rampant. While, in hindsight, Halo 4 and Assassin's Creed 3 weren't the worst in their respective series, the final products were far from the expectations set beforehand. Paper Mario Sticker Star gutted one of my favorite series of all time. Sony's Smash Bros clone was soulless and devoid of anything that made its inspiration great. Resident Evil 6 was flat out garbage. The 360 and PS3 were showing their age more than ever and the Wii U did not launch with any notable games.

Honestly the GOTY of that year was a DLC for Dark Souls. Really the only thing that satisfied me all the way through from that year.

2014 was just mediocre. Dark Souls 2 was a great game but just not as good as the rest of the series. Shadow of Mordor took a mediocre open world game with above average combat and added an innovative system that fundamentally changed the game. Far Cry 4 and Dragon Age Inquisition were solid but had some notable flaws. But Nintendo had one of its best years ever, with Smash, Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, and Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze.
 
As of the last couple of decades, I'd say 2012. It just wasn't a good year for almost any system, really (though we did get Xenoblade in the US that year, so it wasn't all bad).

But in general, 1983 by far.
 
UK PS3 launch year, 2006?

FF12 was out, but I don't remember anything else of note, and that wasn't to my taste anyway.
 
-KRS- said:
'83 was not a damn good year if you lived in North America though, which is where the crash happened. Notice how your list is like 70% Japan-centric stuff. I agree though. The rest of the world never experienced a crash around that time. In Europe most people were gaming on computers which were still all the rage, and in Japan they got three new consoles, one of which would go on to become arguably the most iconic console ever.
Click to expand...

It's also specifically American, home console (Lode Runner, MULE, Ultima 3, Wizardry 3, Pinball Construction Set on PCs; Xevious, Mario Bros., vector Star Wars, Pole Position II, Spy Hunter in arcades ) core (casual? come on down to the $20 for a Colecovision and half its library firesale that my parents jumped on before I was even born) gamers that it was bad for.

I'm sorry, but if we're narrowing it to a specific format sucking ass for a market segment in a single major region I'd like to nominate 2007-2017 due to home consoles in Japan. GAF's provincialism is showing really hard in this thread.
 
The year 2016 for Wii U, and that E3 was potencially worse then the wii music E3(didnt golden sun 3 get announced that year?)!
3DS atleast got Fates, Robobot and sun/moon!
 
Also in 2012: Halo 4. The worst game in the series and the first entry by 343. The series lost a lot of long time fans, it was sad.
 
Riposte said:
I found plenty of games to like in 2012, but the fact Journey and The Walking Dead led it does say something really bad about it. I think right behind it was stuff like Fez and Dear Esther. Simply on that fact, I wouldn't argue against it being a "weak year" in general reception. In it's defense though, I can list a lot of interesting games, stuff I would put above the GOTY favs. Here what were my ten favorite games of that year:

Chivalry
Super Mario Bros. U
Ys Origin
Ys The Oath in Felghana
Akai Katana Shin
Binary Domain
Kid Icarus: Uprising
Crusader Kings II
Skullgirls
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown
Resident Evil 6

And some more games which I also thought were decent to good or at least got a lot of buzz:
Armored Core V
Elemental: Fallen Enchantress
Far Cry 3
Persona 4 Arena
Dragon's Dogma
Xenoblade Chronicles
Hero Academy
Sleeping Dogs
XCOM
Tales of Graces F
Dishonored
Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Soul Calibur V
Monster World IV
Gungnir
Legend of Grimrock
Max Payne 3

It was quite a banner year for fighting games.

And a lot of these games still get talked about to this day. Kid Icarus, Dragon's Dogma, Max Payne 3, Sleeping Dogs, Xenoblade Chronicles, Binary Domain, Crusader Kings II, Ys series, etc. have passionate fans who will talk about these games for years, something I think is more valuable than being the "GOTY".

EDIT: A way of looking at it is that even the worse years have a lot of good games to play.
Click to expand...

2012 was the year that "AAA == Winner" up and died, and it's while a year's best offerings not necessarily being AAA is something that is known about subsequent years, the connotation still holds for that year it happened.
 
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