Review of major news of electronic games in 2022

(playful video game chime resounds)

– Hello, folks, today is Friday,

and instead of talking
about video game news,

it’s pretty quiet right now.

So it’s the end of the
year. 2023 is upon us.

We’re gonna take a look back

at some of the biggest gaming
news stories of the year.

As usual, of course,
it’s me, Jake Baldino.

We got a lot of stuff to talk about.

We essentially went back and looked

at some of the most popular
video game news stories

from the “Friday Show”

and just general comment
sentiments and stuff,

just some of the biggest,

most exciting stories from the year.

And it’s fun to look back
’cause there’s a lot shit

we don’t even remember happened (chuckles)

because time flies.

We got 10 or so stories to dive into.

We couldn’t cover everything though.

So if you think there
was something missing,

we’d definitely love to
hear one of your favorite

or one of your stories that you think

is the most significant
down in the comments.

We put this list together a
bit with analytics and stuff,

but it’s good to know what you
guys are interested in too.

So starting off with the first big story,

it is, of course, Stadia
officially closing its doors.

Yes, surprising.

Absolutely nobody who has ever followed

any Google products whatsoever,

Stadia is no more.

At the time of making this video,

it has really wrapped up.

Just a few months ago, we got word of it.

Came as a complete surprise

to many people who worked at Google

but also to many game developers

who were working on games exclusively

or otherwise just going on the platform.

And along with that,

they also announced that
they would be initiating

full refunds for purchases
of the Stadia hardware

but also games on the platform.

And now, fast-forward
at the end of the year,

those refunds are starting to roll out.

Many of you guys who, if you
were dumb enough like me,

to buy into it…

(Jake chuckles)
– Damn, son.

– I mean, that’s a little mean.

I mean, hey, we tried it.
The tech was cool, right?

I don’t, okay, I’m sorry.

You’ve been getting those
emails that it is rolling out.

Your boy personally
also just got the email

even though it was going to a credit card

that I had that is now expired.

So I had to redo that,
and now it’s a mess.

But besides the point,

it’s pretty cool that they are doing that.

It seems to me like it’s Google

trying to keep the goodwill of gamers

for maybe something else they’re gonna try

down the line, who knows?

That’s just total armchair
speculation on my part.

But it’s a shame because at the end,

it did leave behind a small people,

a small community that really liked Stadia

and used it for very specific scenarios.

I put out like a review/”Before
You Buy” video for Stadia,

and then we put out
another one a year later,

and the service improved.

And it seems like things
were getting better,

but unfortunately, it just didn’t take.

Where does that leave the
future of streaming though?

I don’t know for sure.

Other companies are still trying stuff.

You have Samsung and Xbox
getting a little bit creative

by using TVs specifically.

There’s still a lot to figure out

with the future of streaming games,

but that’s where that’s
at right now with Google,

one of the biggest companies

with the most money to throw at it.

Yeah.

Next up, a really big story,

honestly, a piece of hardware

that people can’t get enough news about –

It’s the Steam Deck.

Now, of course, full disclosure,

I’m super biased here because
I like the Steam Deck a lot.

I’ve talked about it in
videos here on Gameranx

with the “Before You Buy”.

I’ve talked about it on my channel.

I freaking love this device.

As a PC gamer,

it’s really fun to have my
library on the go in a good way.

I’ve tested other devices
by other companies.

Nothing really quite makes
sense as much as the Steam Deck,

and it’s been quite a long road.

The Steam Deck released
in February of 2022.

Of course, there was a huge
hubbub about pre-orders

and that whole thing.

And ultimately, that ended
up like the PlayStation 5

and the Xbox Series X,

where they’re hard to come by
and people were scalping ’em

and basically doing whatever
we could to get ’em.

And it’s been pretty slim,

but now, as of the time
of making this video,

Steam Decks are much
more readily available.

It seems like Valve has
been pretty public about it

in terms of them getting in
front of hardware production

and stuff like that.

So now you can actually just
go on Steam and order one.

For the most point,

you’re gonna actually get one

sometime this century, which is nice.

I mean, they’ve had enough

where they were giving one away
for free at The Game Awards

like every minute or something.

So Steam Deck is in full swing
if you want to check it out.

Along with that, it’s worth pointing out

that over the course of
the year, from February,

Valve has been doing a
great job updating the thing

with really useful software features,

listening to feedback, tweaking things,

and just adding a lot
more value to the device,

from like customization
options, different abilities,

and more ways to harness the
CPU, manage battery life,

the screen, stuff like that,

organizational stuff.

It’s been really nice to
see it really flourish.

And as an update, too,

Valve and some people from Valve

have actually been talking candidly

about updating the device,

really just little
incremental updates over time,

but eventually, because they said

it’s not going to be a
device like an iPhone

where there’s a new one every
year or anything like that.

But they did say that, eventually,

they are first and foremost

going to focus on the
battery life and the screen.

Because a lot of people have taken issue

with those two things,

so it makes sense that
those are the next things

they’re gonna update.

Still, either way, like, hey, man,

the Steam Deck has been a nice device

to play with this year.

So we thank Valve for that at least.

Next up is the news reports that NFTs,

at least in the video game world,

have kind of lost the battle for now.

Bloomberg and many sites

have kind of cobbled
together evidence and stuff

speaking to endeavors to get NFTs

into modern,
traditional-style video games.

Not really working out.

We’ve talked about Ubisoft
Quartz in the past,

and basically, any
announcement around NFTs,

from the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. developers

kind of talking about a thing

to other higher-end projects,

all kind of were met with
universal “no thanks”.

And it does seem like, at this point,

like a lot of developers in this sector,

or at least in our bubble
of the gaming world,

are listening.

Now, it’s still worth pointing out

that video games are being
developed from the ground up

to harness crypto and NFT-style stuff,

but for the time being,

for that stuff getting shoved

into our regular, good
old-fashioned video games

that we come here to talk about,

seems like it’s not gonna be a thing.

Everybody has spicy
opinions about that stuff,

but that’s where it’s at for now,

so let’s move on.

The next story involves
Microsoft announcing

that they’re intended to
acquire Activision Blizzard.

Of course, this was a
absolute smash of a story

that’s still ongoing.

I’m exhausted talking about this one

’cause every week, it’s
something about like,

“What are they gonna
do with ‘Call of Duty’?

“What are they gonna do with this?

“Blah blah blah blah blah.”

But it’s fun to take a look back

and really boil it down to
that initial announcement.

That announcement was,

believe it or not, it feels
like a million years ago,

it was January 18th, 2022.

I remember looking at my
phone and falling out of bed

and running to make a video

because it is essentially
the biggest acquisition deal,

or pending acquisition
deal in video game history,

and pretty freaking up there

in terms of all-time acquisitions.

Microsoft is spending mad
money, reportedly $68 billion,

on Activision Blizzard.

They’re buying Activision Blizzard

and of course getting
access to so many things,

like “Call of Duty”, everything
that entails with that,

but then Activision Blizzard stuff,

like “Overwatch”, “World of Warcraft”,

and then, of course, King,

the makers of like the
mobile powerhouse giant games

that generate tons and tons of money.

There’s a lot here.

And as of right now, that
deal is still not finalized.

It is going through all the rounds of,

you know, antitrust regulator-type things,

not only in the United
States but across the world.

So we’ve gotten lots of
juicy news stories from that.

But ultimately, when you boil it down,

this is just like a
massive, massive corporation

gobbling something up to
the tune of $70 billion.

We’ve never really seen
anything like that in gaming.

And that comes with Activision
Blizzard, of course,

having lots of its own problems

that we’ve talked about in the past,

from workplace rights issues of employees

to problems with leadership.

So as of right now,

it’s still very much a
thing in progress, a TBD.

A lot of analysts and speculators

still expect the deal to go through,

even despite the pushback or
investigations from regulators,

but we don’t know for sure.

So we’re just gonna have to wait and see,

which is like another
one of my catchphrases

in these videos.

“We’re just gonna have to wait and see.”

We’ve gotta come up with
something better than saying that.

– Probably.
– Like,

“Hold your damn horses.”

– [Friend] “Hold your damn horses.”

– “Keep your salt to yourself.”

“Keep your”, I don’t know.

We’ll work on that.
– Yeah, we’ll work on it.

– 2023, new catchphrase year.

Now, in other news, Sony is
buying stuff up themselves.

The most interesting
thing this year is Bungie,

of course, the creators
of stuff like “Halo”,

but the people very much behind “Destiny”.

Now, Bungie has been through the wringer.

It’s been in a lot of places,

I mean, just with “Destiny” itself.

They’ve been functioning
much more independent,

of course, with investments and stuff,

but they were doing their own thing,

and then Sony has now
officially acquired them.

The ink is actually dry on this deal.

It is now official.

It seems like it was not as drawn out

as something as massive as the
$70 billion Microsoft deal,

because it’s essentially
one company, one studio,

but this was a $3.6 billion deal.

And as of right now,

from what we’ve known

from what both Bungie and Sony has said,

is that they’re owning them,

but they are letting Bungie
still do their own thing

and be creative.

This is another thing where we’re just

gonna have to wait and see
how this is really gonna slot

into Sony and PlayStation’s
plans in the future.

We have talked about the news story

that Sony does plan to kind of double down

on their live service-style games

in their portfolio in
the next coming years.

So is Bungie really going to
be a big cornerstone of that?

They’ve had projects in the
works before this Sony deal,

and they said that they
are still working on those.

So I don’t know, man. But yeah, still big.

Next up, sticking with a story that…

We got a lot of views on these videos.

It’s PlayStation reworking
the whole PlayStation Plus,

PlayStation now thing,

with PlayStation Plus tiers

just bringing a whole bunch of new value

and kind of being reworked
somewhat as a competitor

to Game Pass, some people would say,

but it’s a little bit different.

As you know, within the last six months,

PlayStation has rolled out
new tiers of PlayStation Plus

with different subscription levels,

where there’s like the basic
one that gets you the access

to one that gives you a sort
of library of digital games,

like a Game Pass or a,
quote-unquote, “Netflix of games”,

and then a higher-tiered option

that would give you access
to a lot of old games.

You’d have to stream PlayStation 3 games,

but there was a lot of PlayStation
2 and PlayStation 1 games

that you could download and play.

Now, personally, I want that roster

to be updated a little bit more frequently

’cause there’s a lot of good stuff

that they don’t have on there,

but for PlayStation fans specifically,

it seems like a lot of this
was met with a decent response.

I think some fans just wanted

to have something to subscribe to.

Seems like it’s going well for them,

but Sony hasn’t said too much publicly.

So we’re just gonna have to wait and see

if they, like, tweak it more.

But as of right now,

that was a pretty big
change-up for this year

in terms of game services,

if you’re on the PlayStation platform.

Next up, the big news that CD Projekt RED

announced a bunch of stuff.

They’re working on a new game,

a new “Cyberpunk”-style
game and “Witcher” games,

but most notably, “The Witcher
4” officially being a thing.

Now, “The Witcher 4”
isn’t the official title,

but this year was when we got
the full official announcement

that it is in the works

and a teaser image to go along with it.

There’s been lots of
speculation behind this –

Who are we playing as? What
Witcher school is this?

What’s going on?

But ultimately, it seems
like it’s something

that we’re gonna have to
wait quite a while on.

CD Projekt RED, as you probably know,

has been much busier
working on other things,

like first of all, fixing “Cyberpunk”

to then the “Cyberpunk” DLC,

which is announced to becoming early 2023.

But the next “Witcher” game
and the “Witcher” franchise

seems to be where
they’re moving elsewhere.

They are, of course, talking
about the pre-production,

very early phases of the next “Cyberpunk”,

but I expect to hear some more

about “The Witcher” future sooner.

And I’m excited, especially
after replaying “The Witcher”

with that new next-gen
update they put out.

Just more “Witcher”,
please. It’s pretty easy.

I know people have their reservations

about CD Projekt RED now.

Valid, but Geralt is cool,

(Jake chuckles)

even if he might not be in the game.

He might not be in “The Witcher 4”. So…

Next up, an absolutely huge smash story.

I can’t believe I’m even
saying this out loud.

“Dead Island 2” is finally
officially releasing.

Yes, the game got a big trailer,

a resurgence that it still
exists, it’s still alive,

and it’s releasing,

as of right now, unless it gets delayed,

April 28th, 2023.

Now, you might say, “Jake,
that’s not that significant.

“Who gives a shit?

“‘Dead Island’? Cool.”

Well, “Dead Island 2” is specific

because it was announced

back when “Dead Island”
was popular (chuckles).

(Jake laughs)
(friend laughs)

(Jake coughs)

It was announced in 2014.

That was before I…

I think I was kind of doing
this here at Gameranx,

and like, I had went to
my first E3 and everything

and I had seen prototype
footage of the game

back when the developers
from the first game

were kind of working on it.

And then multiple developers

have gone in and out
the door over the years,

and we’ve barely heard anything,

and now it’s here.

And it seems like a game
where you kill zombies

in a tropical setting,

just what

the “Dead-
– Doctor ordered.

– Guess what the dead doctor,

the doctor, the “Dying
Light” doctor order, whoa.

(Jake blabbers and chuckles)
– You okay?

– Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.

(Jake laughs)
(friend laughs)

We’ll have to see how this shakes up.

This takes place in like
an open-world California,

and it’s being developed now,
finally, by Dambuster Studios.

And in terms of gaming
news stories, of course,

we can’t talk about a year without delays.

And there’s a lot of video
games delayed this year,

kind of still carrying off
the tail of the last two years

with the pandemic and just everything.

Delays are always a thing,

but they’ve been more commonplace.

So hopefully, they’re quieting down.

But 2022, we definitely saw a lot.

Of course, as you remember,
“Starfield” was delayed.

We’ll see that in 2023.

“Skull and Bones” was just
delayed again and again

at this point.

“Hogwarts Legacy” was pushed to 2023.

“The Lord of the Rings: Gollum”,

we were supposed to see that by now,

as well as “Sons of the Forest”.

“The Day Before” was something

that was supposed to release this year,

but we still haven’t really
seen much of that at all,

leading a lot of people to be skeptical.

“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice
League” has been delayed.

“S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2” saw a significant delay

because of the conflict in Ukraine.

“Atomic Heart” has also been
delayed and “Forspoken”.

“Forspoken” seemed like
it was gonna be crammed in

right amid all the holiday releases

that we’ve been talking about recently,

but thank God, that was pushed

to have its own time later next year.

Also, there’s a demo
out now on PlayStation.

I haven’t played it yet.

Have you played it? Did you download that?

– Yeah.
– How is it?

– [Friend] It’s a lot.

– (chuckles) Okay. That’s good.

So where we are right now,

I’m recording this at the end of December,

and nothing else can get delayed now.

That’s the law. That’s not gonna happen.

There will be no more delays until 2023.

Fingers crossed.

Now, the biggest news story,

the most watched, the
most clicked of this year,

the most talked about
with engagement and stuff

was, of course, the “Grand
Theft Auto VI” leak,

which seems absolutely immense,

a huge thing that seemingly
kind of came and went.

Rockstar and Take-Two
either did a good job

brushing this under the rug

or the leak, just to
the mainstream public,

wasn’t as big of a deal
as we seemingly thought.

For me, I thought it was wild.

It was over an hour of footage,

various videos detailing
early versions of the game,

seeing characters, seeing locations,

seeing gameplay mechanics
was pretty intense.

I think maybe because
it was a content dump

and not really put together
in a small, digestible video

means it didn’t take off as
much as some people thought.

But like, holy shit, it’s a
big leak from the biggest…

“Grand Theft Auto” is the
biggest media property

in the world.

It generates the most money.

So obviously, the sequel to
“Grand Theft Auto V” is huge.

And for a lot of that to
just leak out there is crazy.

Rockstar and their parent
company did come out

and say that this leak
did not affect anything

internally, security-wise,

but also that it’s not
affecting development,

most significantly.

There was news stories
about apparently the leaker

being a kid, a young teenager
from London who did it,

and he was arrested,

but none of that was ever, I
think, officially verified,

or it’s still ongoing.

I couldn’t find too much about it,

but that doesn’t really matter.

The fact is, the game has leaked.

We’ve seen bits and pieces of it.

As we know right now, you probably saw it.

Again, legally, like, I don’t
want this video taken down,

so I can’t take too much
other than that, like…

I can’t say too much

other than that the leaks

that we’ve heard about in the past,

the rumors and stuff,

a lot of them are confirmed true,

and one of the main characters you play at

is actually pretty hot.

Am I allowed to say that?

There’s a whole subreddit dedicated to it.

(friend chuckles)

– I forgot about that.
– (chuckles) Yeah.

Anyway, that is the gaming news of 2022,

or at least the stuff you
guys responded to the most.

Of course, there’s so many

other gaming news stories out there,

important stuff worth chatting about.

So we’d love to hear from
you guys in the comments

what you’re thinking.

But I think it goes without
saying at this point,

thank you guys for watching.

I’ve said this in a couple of
end-of-the-year videos so far,

so I hope I don’t sound
like a broken record,

but we genuinely mean it.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for watching throughout 2022.

Whether you’re new this year

or you’ve been around
since like the beginning,

thank you.

And thank you for yelling
at me on social media,

on my other YouTube channel,

on my podcast, “Friends Per Second”.

I appreciate you.

Everyone here at Gameranx
appreciates you guys for watching.

It literally puts food on our table.

So, cheers for that.

Thank you. Happy New Year.

Have a great 2023, hopefully. Be safe.

I’m Jake Baldino. See you guys next time.

Pizza’s on me.