2022 in video games

In the video game industry, 2022 saw the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry, slowing hardware sales for most of the year as well as development delays for major titles. The industry continued its trend of acquisitions and mergers, highlighted by Microsoft announcing its plan to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $69 billion. The industry as a whole still dealt with issues such as workplace harassment and discrimination, as well as crunch periods, leading to at least the quality assurance staff at three separate studios to vote to unionize. Production of the ninth generation consoles, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, remained constrained for the first part of the year, but eased up later in the year. New hardware trends included the widespread availability of graphics cards with real-time ray tracing, increasing realism fidelity in some games, and the release of the Steam Deck by Valve, a handheld personal computing device capable of playing most games available on Steam. The gaming community remained cautious on the metaverse and blockchain games, though leading publishers expressed their desires to move more into that space. Notable releases from this year included Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Sifu, The King of Fighters XV, Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, Tunic, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Neon White, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, The Quarry, Stray, Live A Live, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Cult of the Lamb, The Last of Us Part I, Splatoon 3, Metal: Hellsinger, Return to Monkey Island, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Vampire Survivors, Bayonetta 3, God of War: Ragnarok, and Evil West. Metacritic is an aggregator of video game journalism reviews. It generally considers expansions and re-releases as separate entities. According to market research firm Newton, the global video game industry had total revenues of$184.4 billion, about a 4% decline year-to-year.