The Biggest Video Game News Stories of 2013 (So Far)

The first half of 2013 built up a lot of promise.

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 continue to play PR chess until they drop later this year, Nintendo is still exploring how best to capitalize on its Wii U, we still seethe with jealousy over everyone who has an Oculus Rift, and we still have to figure out what the hell we are going to do with all these new Android consoles flooding the market.

In the post E3 daze and next-gen excitement, we should take note of some of the other big news stories from 2013. The unity of gamers showing strength in the face of prospective regulation that proved to Senator Leland Yee that gamers aren’t just a blood-thirsty mob is one news story we aren't soon to forget.

The last half of 2013 is going to get next-gen crazy so before that happens, let's take a look back at the earlier events that had us talking, laughing and in awe.. Here are the Biggest Video Game News Stories of 2013 (So Far).

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Initially, Microsoft took a brutal beating over the Xbox One and its planned privacy and DRM policies.

Players wouldn't be able share video games they paid for as the hardware would be electronically tied to the game was one of the most divisive features of the new console. After Sony announced that the PlayStation 4 would support game sharing, Microsoft was under the gun to save their spot in the pre-order race. After a few weeks, Microsoft reversed their stance on game sharing and will now allow gamers to play shared and used video games without issue.

The move proved to be a smart one as those on the fence about pre-ordering the system felt more comfort in picking up the $500 video game system when it arrives this November. Aside from price, the playing field has leveled, keeping the Xbox One in the console war.

Love or or hater her, Anita Sarkeesian created the biggest dent in the armor of sexism in video games.

Anita's online Tropes vs. Women video series caused waves of controversy but not because of what she said. It was the trolling of her Kickstarter campaign and the legion of despicable comments that drew the attention from the gaming media and supporters of her cause. There were hacking attempts on her website, Twitter and Facebook accounts, hateful memes created and even a browser based game where the player would beat her up until the screen turned blood red.

It was the supporters who ultimately won as Sarkeesian was able to raise over $150,000 and go on to produce part two of Tropes vs. Women. Although the stream of hatred continues with every new video Anita puts out, her cause remains un-shaken as the discussion of reshaping the images of women takes a more prominent position.

In March Adam ‘Always On’ Orth (AKA Adam ‘deal with it’ Orth) became the first sign of the fragility of Microsoft’s new Digital Rights Management (DRM) policies regarding the Xbox One when he went and got himself Internet famous.

Orth emptied his brain on Twitter in response to concerned gamers about the announced always-on Xbox One. This was directly in the wake of the recent crap-storm that was the launch of the SimCity reboot. He said he just didn't get the drama around have an always-on console

“Every device now is ‘always on’. That’s the world we live in #dealwithit”

Orth perfectly showed the dichotomy of Microsoft’s directors and most customers Internet realities, which is taxed and spotty at best.

Microsoft quickly distanced itself from Orth and he was cast off like last weeks cache dump. In June, following E3, Microsoft buckled and reversed its DRM policies completely, no longer requiring the constant connection or constant check-ins among other annoying things. But don’t worry kids Adam Orth has a new career, Orth will be giving speeches on “Toxic Online Behavior” at this year’s GDC and how it gets you fired from the greatest job in the world #dealwithit.

The launch of the latest SimCity last March brought a host of problems and left excited players gnashing their teeth and pounding their limp wrists against the cold dying earth. The problem was so widespread and persistent that even Amazon resorted to adding a warning to customers that the game might not be playable at the time of sale.

Playing the new SimCity reboot required users to remain connected to the web, and one of EA’s servers, at all times. While this does serve a game function, it populates nearby landscapes with other player’s cities, it’s primarily a Digital Rights Management (DRM) measure. Which can be annoying since you need a constant connection to prove you bought the game you’re playing but worse when EA’s servers totally crapped out and left many players locked out of the game and fantasizing about old, simple mechanics of SimCity games.

EA’s response was not to update its DRM with a patch to solve the problem or stagger servers, but to strip the game of its features, cutting the multiplayer aspect totally. So you’re playing an always-on, online game, by yourself. Saddest SimDay ever.

As Zynga began its dying star implosion last year, we never would have thought they would shutter their original money-farm, OMGPOP. Zynga, the rapidly expanding social platform developer, know for inundating you with notifications about farming, or cow prices in FarmVille began circling the drain in 2011 as it’s stock plunged 80 percent.

OMGPOP’s New York gaming studio was responsible for Draw Something, which went from being a so-so diversion to worth more than $80 Million, it’s unfortunately a classic tale of an acquired start-up being suffocated under Zynga’s corporate thumb. The clever little OMGPOP was acquired for way too much money and the Zynga overlords got to making sequels to the cloned games it already produced. Exactly what Draw Something 2 was suppose to achieve we’ll never know.

OMGPOP will go down as a bloated acquisition by Zynga and as a little hardy start-up that could have done a lot better for itself by staying away from the Facebook game beast.

In January, Sony patent application number 3013007892 for “electronic content Processing System” and “Use Apparatus” would associate individual game discs with matched user accounts. The system works by attaching a contact-less radio frequency (RF) tag to each game that can be read without a network connection.

In Sony’s patent it explains the purpose is to ensure the redistribution of a portion of the proceeds from sales to developers, who do not see a dime from secondhand sales. Sony said that though the secondhand market, used games, may expose new gamers to a particular title, in the long run, this does not benefit developers.

As, so called, triple A title budgets get larger and larger and gamers expect more graphical and storyline interaction with games used games for $4 make less sense to developers. So Sony and others have been quietly developing ways to suppress the resale market. With the launch of the PS4 later this year Sony announced that you will be able to share games and resell them at will but since technologies like this already exist it seems only a matter of time before the hammer falls on cheap used games.

A short two years after the United States Supreme Court made law that video games are a form of art, and as such, are protected under law by the First Amendment, MoMa opened its Applied Designs exhibit featuring fourteen classic and contemporary games.

"Interaction design is a very important part of our lives, and it's a form of design," says Paola Antonelli of the Museum of Modern Art. "When we go to the bank and take out money from the ATM machine, that's a form of interaction design. Some of it is good. Some of it is bad. It's the design of the behavior or the relationship between people and machines, and video games are a great way to really understand that rapport."

Games include classics like Pac-Man, Tetris and Myst and some outside fare like flOw and Dwarf Fortress. In all MoMa plans to have 40 games in it’s Applied Design exhibit with some games being switched out over time. More than just playing games the exhibit is about how designers how found clever and amazing ways for regular users into interact with lines of code and how these games can have an emotional impact.

PETA, the well-meaning animal rights group that educates people on animal cruelty, sometimes undermines their own movement and looks pretty silly.

Case in point: Assassin’ Creed 4: Black Flag features a storyline where the lead character will go whaling at some point. Even though no one has played the game yet PETA insists the whaling scenes be taken out.

PETA has a history of not only taking game-violence against animals very seriously but also making games about game violence such as the deeply disturbing Pokemon: Black & Blue. Players venture through a land of skinned Pokemons that are being horribly tested and your reward? Videos about animal cruelty.

Unfortunately PETA keeps missing the point of these video game moments, it’s about causing a reaction in the players, like in Call of Duty: World at War where killing a dog is necessary but distasteful. What is PETA’s favorite video game? Besides the games they create such as Mario Kills Tanooki and The Pirates of the Carob Bean they seem to love Nintendogs. Don’t we all.

The Shield, OUYA, M.O.J.O, are a few of the big name Android consoles out now or rolling out later this year.

They all feature Nvidia’s Tegra 3 or 4 processors to put a lot of gaming power for a little cash in your living room.

Companies that started out as KickStarter projects showed that consumers would back an economical alternative to bulky and expensive next gen consoles, bridging the gap between mobile games and triple-A titles developed for PlayStation and Xbox systems.

With prices ranging from $99-$299 these small and accessible systems could take a bite of the big competition, with direct downloads from the Amazon marketplace these systems have shown a lot of potential but not much more than filler as of yet. We’ll see how they fare up against the newest high-end systems dropping this holiday season.

After Disney acquired Lucasfilms and LucasArts last year they wasted little time in shuttering the legendary LucasArts Division.

"After evaluating our position in the games market, we've decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company's risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games," Disney released in a press statement. "As a result of this change, we've had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles."

LucasArts put out some great titles like The Secret of Monkey Island, Grim Fandango and more recently published the Battlefront series by licensing out rights to their library. While LucasArts is no more, it was announced at E3 that Dice, the much-loved Battlefield developer, will be making a Battlefront sequel.

Producer and director J.J. Abrams is near and dear to sci-fi fan’s hearts.

With the rebooted Star Trek series under his belt and the upcoming Star Wars: Episode 7 what could Abrams do to endear himself to gamers further?

An entertainment partnership between Bad Robot (Abrams’ production company) and Valve, the maker of all of your gaming dreams.

According to Wired, Abrams and Newell talked about several possible collaborations. For one, Abrams said that he has an idea for a game that he’d like Valve to work on. While Gabe Newell of Valve kicked things up a notch when he said that they’re “going to figure out if we can make a Portal movie or Half-Life movie together.”

Two of the nerdiest hardcore sci-fi game and film companies teaming up could be the answer to our Gordan Freeman gravity-gun daydreams. While no movies are in production, yet, you can be sure they’ll include lots of lens flares and establishing shots.

Crystal dynamics Studio Head Darrell Gallagher announced that the most recent Tomb Raider video game had the most successful first week launch this year. It also had the most successful launch in the history of the franchise.

Despite Gallagher’s announcement Tomb Raider’s publisher, Square Enix, dismissed the title as missing its targeted sales goals. Square Presidnet, Yoichi Wada, reported less than satisfying sales numbers from many of its top titles including Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman. We have to wonder what a president, or moreover, companies like Square Enix, must consider a success when games sell millions of copies in a matter of days and are still deemed failures.

Easily one of the most anticipated games in recent memory, the long-awaited and many-times delayed, Bioshock: Infinite finally reached the shelves in early 2013.

Amid the controversy surrounding the overt religious narrative, and complainants from some gamers that BioShock wasn't enough of a shooter or RPG for their liking, luckily the game still proved to be amazing.

Unlike its predecessors, which were very much based in shock and horror, Infinite played more like a traditional shooter, but the stunning environment pulled you in and never let up for a second. The complexity and beauty of the set-pieces lead players into a sense of awe and wonder.

Controversy may have lead to the games hype but in the end the racism, extreme religion, and bloody Ideological social commentary worked in tandem as a cautionary tale. Combine all of these elements with one of the impressive mind-fuck endings and you'v got another beautiful title from Ken Levine that was well worth the delay

Senator Leland Yee, who authored the failed 2005 California video game law that was struck down by the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. EMA (it was ruled a violation of free speech rights under the First Amendment of the Constitution), said that it is time for gamers to be quiet.

The Senator hope that the President's call for the CDC to study violent video games will lead to some changes that align to his somewhat skewed world-view.

Senator Yee had this to say about gamers: "Gamers have got to just quiet down," and that "Gamers have no credibility in this argument. This is all about their lust for violence and the industry's lust for money. This is a billion-dollar industry. This is about their self-interest."

Saying that gamers have no credibility or voice in violence in games is beyond ridiculous and borders on delusional naivete. We buy and support the games we like, producers and developers live and die by our purchases (we know we aren't the only ones that miss THQ) Mr. Yee would do well to enlist the votes and voices of gamers in moderating a civil discussion, that’s how change happens.

At E3 in June Sony and Microsoft squared off again in the continuation of the newly manufactured console wars.

The Xbox One received a good dose of Internet hate after announcing, and then very quickly redacting, policies that would not let users share or lend games. Sony had a PR buffet on Microsoft’s ill announcement and trolled the hell out of their sharing policy while it lasted. Sony’s own PlayStation 4 showed off some great titles and a long list of exclusives. It's still way too soon to see which console will end up 'winning' the holiday season.

And while not a console at all, the Oculus Rift has us all rubbing our hands and rocking back and forth in a fugue state at the prospect of playing all of our old favorites again in an enhanced virtual reality state. For those who haven’t watched hours of people cat-pawing at empty space, and navigating acid-trip inspired universes, the Oculus Rift is something that we would love to see supported by any of the major consoles.