Through marketing and release dates, the gaming industry can be fairly predictable. Sure, there are unforseen events like game delays that may pop up from time to time, but generally speaking, fans always have something to look forward to.
While there were no shortage of quality games that came and went in 2019, the year also featured a bunch of very surprising moments. It's always a wonderful surprise when a game launches out of no where, or perhaps wildly exceeds preconceived expectations. In addition, the games industry has always been fairly volatile whether that be from individuals leaving it, studios being purchased, or perhaps publishers breaking certain longstanding traditions.
Here are the 10 most surprising moments for video games in 2019.
Sony Executive Shuffle
This generation has been pretty good to Sony as the PlayStation brand has continued to soar. With this much consistent success, the company suffered an unprecedented number of key leadership departures in 2019. Many of these names are well known to the gaming community as well.
The first departure came in June following E3 as Kaz Hirai announced his retirement from Sony after 35 years. While he was most recently serving as CEO and Chairman, many fans may remember him from the famous Ridge Racer meme. At the end of September, the next departure was the CEO of SIE Worldwide Studios, Shawn Layden. While no reason was given, rumors immediately began circulating that there was a power struggle with SIE President Jim Ryan over restructuring and globalization of Sony Interactive Entertainment.
The exodus didn't stop there, however, as it was revealed in November that Shuhei Yoshida had also left his position as President of SIE Worldwide Studios. Unlike the previous two, Yoshida remains at Sony, though he is now leading a new department that is focused on nurturing external independent creators.
Control Becomes a Sleeper Hit
Remedy Entertainment is widely known for its work on major franchises like Alan Wake, Max Payne and its most recent work, Quantum Break, which combined a video game with live action segments. Following a lengthy partnership with Microsoft, Remedy returned to its independent roots to develop a brand new title for all current consoles. Its latest game, Control, flew under the radar, likely due to not having the marketing money that a partner like Microsoft could provide.
Without a ton of pre-launch hype surrounding it, Control launched in August and it quickly racked up very impressive review scores and buzz from players. Thanks in large part to who well the game has been received, it's been nominated on a ton of end of year awards including 8 nominations at The Game Awards like the coveted Game of the Year.
Reggie Fils-Aime Stepping Away
When Reggie Fils-Aime first came onto the scene in 2004 with Nintendo, he instantly shook up what an executive was supposed to act and behave like. For most fans, this was incredibly refreshing and proved to be the spark that Nintendo needed and showed fans that the company was taking a more aggressive approach to things. The move clearly worked as consoles like the Nintendo Wii and DS handheld became sales juggernauts.
Fils-Aime also provided fans with tons of memorable quotes and moments throughout his time at Nintendo from his "My body is ready" line when showing off the Wii Fit Balance Board, various skits like Regginator skit with Mega64 at E3 2014, and even the puppet version that took place at E3 2015.
For as popular as an executive as he was at Nintendo, it was fairly shocking to hear him announce that after 16 years, he would be retiring from Nintendo in April. Part of the surprise comes from the fact that Reggie is fairly young compared to some of his peers and the company as a whole has been put back on track thanks in large part to the Nintendo Switch. To ease the blow of his departure, Reggie was succeeded by Doug Bowser, previous head of sales at Nintendo of America.
Apex Legends Stealth Drops Out of the Blue
Respawn Entertainment, the studio best known for its Titanfall series of games, stealth dropped a new free to play FPS battle royale game back in February called Apex Legends. Featuring a roster of diverse and unique characters, each with their own abilities, players could drop into a map to battle it out all set within the Titanfall universe.
Not wanting to alienate fans who expected a new Titanfall game, Respawn instead showed the completed game in secret to a group of social media influencers. News started to leak out about a new Respawn title, which then released days later. Needless to say, fans flocked to the game which continues to be a popular title thanks in large part to not requiring players to pay for it like some other Battle Royale games on the market. To this day, the game continues to grow with new characters, limited time modes, and more.
Bungie and Activision Divorce
2019 began with a bang as Activision and Bungie, two companies heavily invested in the Destiny franchise, announced that the two were splitting up after eight years of working together. Both companies called the split amicable, and as of now, there hasn't been a real reason as to why the companies decided to part ways. Rumors hinted at a difference in direction for the future of the series, Activision becoming too much of a corporate overlord, while others have indicated that lagging sales may have helped the decision as well.
Bungie acquired the rights to self-publish the game which turned out to be a boon for the studio even though it lost all of the support studios like High Moon and Vicarious Visions. The PC version moved to Steam, the game received the ability to cross save, and released a free-to-play version called Destiny: New Light. The game continues to push forward, having just released a new expansion called Shadowkeep in October and a new season of content kicking off this week.
Sony Exits E3 2019
The Electronic Entertainment Expo has been a staple for the gaming industry, using it as a platform to make major announcements and generally hype up fanbases. Headlines are typically dominated by massive brands like Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation who hold big press conferences to make announcements, show off new games, and on occasion, reveal new hardware. That annual formula changed this year when Sony decided it had enough with the show and opted out.
While most people believed Sony to be insane for passing on the buzz that E3 can provide, the company revealed it was intending to experiment with new ways to engage and inform its fans. Executives like Shawn Layden believed that the 24/7 news cycle afforded Sony new ways to announce things, which has certainly proved true so far. Sony has periodically released State of Play updates, similar to Nintendo Direct announcements while also used Wired to reveal new details about its upcoming PlayStation 5 system.
Sony Scoops Insomniac Games
For as much as Insomniac and Sony have worked together in the past, it's easy to forget that the highly regarded developer isn't actually a first party Sony studio. Some of the most beloved PlayStation franchises have come from Insomniac games including Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, and Spyro though the company continued to be entirely independent. Insomniac Games also worked alongside EA to create Fuse and Microsoft to craft Sunset Overdrive. However, everything changed in 2019.
This past August, Sony announced that it had acquired Insomniac Games to join its impressive roster of first party studios like Naughty Dog and Sony Santa Monica. Despite now being officially owned by Sony, the company announced that it had no plans to change the way Insomniac worked as they see them as a style setting and impact maker studio. While Sony had been contemplating purchasing Insomniac for some time, the success of Marvel's Spider-Man ultimately sealed the deal.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Restores Balance to Single Player Games
The state of story driven single player Star Wars games has been a depressing one for fans. Many promising games like Star Wars 1313, as well as the unannounced title led by industry legend Amy Hennig at the now defunct EA studio Visceral, were ultimately shut down as EA began to move more towards the multiplayer and microtransaction focused Star Wars games instead.
Hope returned to fans when Respawn Entertainment, the popular studio behind Apex Legends and Titanfall, announced it was working on a single player driven Star Wars title. Helping the hype train was that Stig Asmussen, former game director on God of War 3, was leading the second development team on the game. After a lengthy development period, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order launched to positive critical and fan reception, leading many to hope that this was just the beginning of the story-drive Star Wars game experience.
Keanu Reeves Brings Down the E3 House
Without Sony at E3 this year, Microsoft intended to go bigger than usual in an effort to steal the headlines. Fans saw plenty of new game announcements and even a tease of Project Scarlett, but Microsoft's E3 2019 press conference is likely only going to be remembered for one thing: Keanu Reeves.
The popular actor took the stage during the Cyberpunk 2077 segment which prompted countless memes thanks to the now iconic "You're Breathtaking" dialogue between Reeves and a fan in the crowd. The clearly excited Keanu began to set up the footage, but what he left out is the fact that he's actually in the game, portraying the classic Cyberpunk character known as Johnny Silverhand. His reveal in the E3 2019 trailer sent the crowd into a frenzy and likely helped push even more pre-orders for the upcoming CD Project RED title.
Microsoft Continues Its Studio Shopping Spree
One of the biggest complaints about Microsoft this generation has been its lack of consistency with first party games. In an effort to fix that issue, especially prior to Project Scarlett's 2020 launch, Microsoft has gone out and purchased or created new first party studios. The list includes some major names like Obsidian Entertainment, Ninja Theory, Playground Games, and its newest studio called The Initiative, which is largely made up of industry veteran developers.
While 2019 didn't have as many acquisition announcements as the previous year, Microsoft did reveal it had acquired Double Fine Productions at E3 this year. While Double Fine features plenty of beloved franchises, it's also a studio that is more than willing to take chances on experimental games as well. Due to the inherit risk of niche or experimental style games not selling, utilizing a subscription service like Game Pass for exposure and having Microsoft backing would allow the studio to continue to create the unique games it wanted.