Is 2014 the Most Disappointing Holiday Gaming Season Ever?

"2014 was shaping up to be easily the greatest holiday gaming season we had ever had. It was full of titles that had great promise, anticipation, replay value, and so much more. So, what happened? How did this holiday season turn into the biggest disappointment ever? It all started with big gaming media hyping up certain titles that would never reach the level of expectations we had set for them. That was followed up by developers that lied to all of us on what their games would deliver upon launch. Finally, the holiday season was hit by hackers, delays, and some of the most ridiculous development decisions we've seen." - David Wales, Stealthy Box

[Relientk77]

The holiday season with the most games delayed til next year?

Probably

[Cartmans]

This holiday looks decent if you ask me. I'll be picking up a few games.

[mikeslemonade]

There's a lot of games but there's not that one all-time great game coming out.

[DeadMansHand]

I agree. Far Cry 4, Unity, Captain Toad, Little Big Planet and I just dropped coin on Destiny (regret), Shadow of Mordor and Sherlock Holmes. No one in my family is getting presents this year.

@Mikeslemonade For me that one all-time great game will be Bloodborne. Feb is just really late holiday season.

[kickerz]

I have lots of games to look forward to this Christmas for my Xbox 1. I'm confused

[mixolydian_id]

Hell yeah, loads of good stuff to tie us over for the next 6 months..

I like games I can play to death... and destiny is one of those games.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

If you haven't seen this, watch it... so damn funny

[Mr Pumblechook]

"The truth is, Driveclub isn’t that great. The online connectivity doesn’t work because of Sony’s servers, and gamers that were promised a free PlayStation Plus edition were lied to"

Lied to! No, Evolution Studios is having problems with the network aspect which has caused the delay but PlayStation Plus members are still going to get their copy, and no reasonable person thinks that Sony have lied about this.

Whilst this Christmas hasn't got the big next-gen titles that are coming out next year there will be some good games.

[KnightRobby]

This holiday season looks insanely good. I am so excited. We've already got Forza Horizon, then AC Unity, Dragon Age Inqusition, Halo Master Chief Collection, Destiny (which I think is still a good game in some regards, though disappointing in some ways), Far Cry 4, GTA V new-gen, etc.

Then Bloodborne, Dying Light immediately in 2015. Looking pretty damn good to me! Then in Spring 2015 the Star Wars Battlefront announcement. Ermagward...it's endless.

We are so, so spoiled. lol

[3-4-5]

Still to buy in 2014:

* Fantasy Life - 3DS -
* Smash Brothers Wii U -
* Cod:AW - XBox One -
* Tales of Hearts R - Vita -
* PC STEAM SALE Games - Tons of PC games I want. Mostly Strategy.

There probably is a few I'm missing and a few I'll discover along the way, but 2014 doesn't look too bad. It's decent to good.

I'd give the 2014 Holiday Season a 8.2/10

....Is Halo:MCC still releasing in 2014? If so..add that to the list...

[Zodiac]

I have Smash Bros and Bayo 2 to look forward to. Disappointing was never even a thought.

[DryBoneKoopa85]

Have you tried the demo for Bayo 2 yet??? It's IN FING SANE!!! Can't wait to pick my copy up with the collectors guide!

[oODEADPOOLOo]

Still looking forward to FC4 and GTA 5 Re-do and planetside 2. PS2 alone will make the year for me plus Shadows of mordor fun as hell so far.

[rambi80]

FC 4 is the only thing that i am really hopeful about. I loved FC3 and its even more awesome blood dragon spin-off

[koston3647]

yes.

[lifeisgamesok]

Not for Xbox One owners IMO and many others

Forza Horizon 2, Sunset Overdrive, Halo MCC, Ori and the Blind Forest, D4, Project Spark

[DryBoneKoopa85]

I have Sunset Overdrive, Call Of Duty Advanced Warfighter and Halo MCC all paid in full. PvZ Garden Warfare has been holding me over on the Xbox One.

[Funantic1]

I preordered Sunset Overdrive, The Evil Within, and 3 copies of Of the upcoming COD (for family members) all on the X1. Plus I'll buy D4. That's all I'm buying this year.

[CaptainObvious878]

Good to see you anticipating some great looking indie games.

I hope that mindset doesn't keep flip flopping, depending on which platform your talking about.

I think we all have a great holiday season to look forward to.

[All_Consoles]

What indie games are you talking about

[koston3647]

someone make meme with Comicbook Guy from The Simpsons

[BitbyDeath]

It only looks bad because of the tons of amazing titles scheduled for next year.

[Metallox]

-Smash Bros. for Wii U
-Bayonetta 2
-Dragon Age Inquisition
-Assassin's Creed Unity
-Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
-Little Big Planet 3

-Maybe Watchi Doges for Wii U.

I feel covered. It's a very exciting season mainly because of the first two titles.

[rambi80]

i think captain toad got delayed to 2015, sorry to be the bearer of bad news

[Metallox]

Not in North America, launching in December 5 :)

[HeavenlySnipes]

Add Farcry 4 too that list

Author basing this whole fall season on the reception of Destiny

[DavePSU]

Hardly.

[Metallox]

I thought I put it after Bayonetta 2, but ok xD

Ironically enough I just have money for two games, and I think they will be the Nintendo games, since they don't drop their price.

[switchpoint]

This guy is on the ball.
Smash Brus for Wii U
Bayonetta 2
Dragon Age inquistion
Kingdom Hearts 2.5

Just to name a few

[ShaqSoda]

Imo yeah. A lot of new titles got delayed and now we're left with the same old games. (Cod, Assassins Creed, etc).

[nerdman67]

There are some solid games coming, so most certainly not. It is not the best, but it is pretty good

[uth11]

most disappointing? There was that year that Kid's found the E.T. cartridges in their stockings...

[i3eyond the Circle]

Sunset Overdrive, MCC, Forza Horizon 2 on the exclusive Xbox One front.

Assasins Creed Unity, CoD:AW,The Evil Within, Dragon Age Inquisition, Alien Isolation, Middle Earth Shadow of Mordor, and much much more.

I'm sorry...but that's a wide selection and holds a hell of a dollar amount if you plan on getting all of them.

So I think this Holiday will be awesome plenty of games to buy with much more to look forward to in 2015.

[bleedsoe9mm]

not if you own a WiiU or a xb1

[lemoncake]

Yeah, if you have an x1 and wii u its a very good console combination for this holiday, adding a decent PC on top of that is just the icing on the cake.

[KarmaV12]

Judging by the author and his image on the article, the holiday is disappointing because ACU isn't 1080

[danny818]

Halo MCC alone makes it the best yet ;)

[KiwiViper85]

Absolutely.

If you can get through halo 1-4 + multiplayer + halo 5 beta, in you Christmas break, then there's something wrong with you

[Antifan]

What's with the hype over decade old games like MCC? I've, and mostly everyone else has played those games over a million times 6-8 years ago. You're paying $60 for something with a few updated graphical effects. It's MS solution to their lack of exclusives this year.

[jetlian]

wow!!!! MS exclusives this year tops wiiu and ps4!

Wiiu got some good games and ps4 well...some ok games.

People want to play them because there fun and want to see the improvements. Halo at 60fps should be great.

Halo 1 never had online on consoles also getting a mini series and 3 weeks of halo 5 beta

To me 2014 is decent but 2015 could top 2007 as one of the best holiday/years in gaming history

maybe the story should be 2014 worst year for sony?

[danny818]

Bro this alone craps over every offering your beloved console has to offer

[trywizardo]

is this because of the AC unity 900p thing ??? stop it already , its becoming really annoying >.<

[Plagasx]

For the holidays the only game I care about and looking forward to is Far Cry 4 and AC Unity (a little bit..)

so yea..it's disappointing...at least for me.

I wanted GTA V for PC but they just had to delay it...

[urwifeminder]

FH2 ,Sunset and Halo will do me well into next year only game on my radar next year is Quantum break so far .

[NeoGamer232]

Its only disappointing if you are a PS only gamer. For Wii U and XB1 owners they have plenty to play...

[bleedsoe9mm]

to be fair if you are a ps4 only gamer there are plenty of multiplatform games to hold most people over until the big exclusives hit in february . if your not a ps4 only gamer microsoft and nintendo have given us a nice variety of christmas exclusives .

[Majin-vegeta]

Hmm let's see.

Samurai Warriors 4
LBP3
Hopefully PS2
Driveclub
GG Xrd
Fluster cluck
Lords Of the Fallen
and many more.

I know you tried trolling and failed but come one even my 6 year old nephew could do better than this.

[NeoGamer232]

Samurai Warriors will probably go multi-platform.

Lords of the Fallen is Multi-platform.

DriveClub is on the disappointing side (yes, I have played itfor about 3 hrs)...

PS2 not a chance...

Fluster Cluck... Yet another 4-8 hour including replayability indie game...

And many more indie games... lol...

Your list is totally pathetic and re-enforces the fact that on the retail side there is really not much to look forward to on the PS4 other than LBP3 and GG Xrd which are niche games.

[spacedelete]

how is it disappointing being a PS gamer when we have the better multiplats ? only thing Xbox One has going for it is Halo MCC everything else is meh on Xbox. Planetside 2 is confirmed for 2014 and its not only bigger in scale than Halo but its free to everyone on PS4.

[Master-H]

It only seems that way because the ps exclusives were spread out over the year, what were you playing when Infamous Second Son, MLB The Show, TLOU Remastered came out for ps4 ? Titanfall ?? that's not really an exclusive, and if you consider it one then we also got Fina Fantasy XIV. Kinect Sport Rivals ? that one is also on the disappointing side, PvZ? already went multiplat.

And lol @ Lil Big Planet being "niche", obvious troll indicator right there.

So at the end of year :
-Infamous, MLB The Show, TLOu R, Drive Club, LBP3, Guilty Gear Xrd, (Final Fantasy XIV).
-Kinect Sports Rivals, Forza Horizon 2, Halo Collection, Suset Overdrive, (Titanfall).

[Geekman]

You find out Assassins Creed Unity was 900p and suddenly the Holiday season is ruined.

God I hate this site. I'm sorry, I can't take this pos site anymore. I'm done.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

I think he's referring more to Batman, BF, The Order, and others being delayed.

[DavePSU]

Anyone who bothers to read the article is going to notice I talked about way more than just ACU. I got that out of the way immediately and then moved on to everything else.

[Scar-]

Its a decent hoilday season but there have been far better ones. Everyone doesn't love mutilplats people, hell I've only bought two AC titles ever and I don't plan on getting a third anytime soon same with cod.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

Same here but a man is still excited for FC4, LBP3, Smash Bros. WiiU, Shadows of Mordor, and the Super versions of Sleeping Dogs, GTA5, TWD season 1 and 2, and Wolf Among Us.

[Automatic79]

@scar

Give shadow of Mordor a chance its a great title. So far this holiday season feels solid enough. Just got to take your time and enjoy all games.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

Nah 2012 was pretty bad. This year is nice with Super version of GTA5, LBP3, FC4, Shadow of Mordor, Super Smash Bros. WiiU, Super Sleeping Dogs, and Super Wolf Among Us and Walking Dead Season 1 and 2! Now that's a busy gaming season!

[Jahbu]

I swear I see this same kind of article EVERY Fall.

[Spotie]

Seems like people especially want this year to suck, though. Complaining because a game didn't live up to the astronomical hype they themselves bought into. Bitching about a lack of first year games when it's the largest number of first year games ever. Whining about the holiday games before we get to see how good they are.

Gamers are getting more and more spoiled. There's a right to complain about some things, but most of this stuff is silly.

[Jahbu]

Well put! I agree 100%!

[maniacmayhem]

Excellent comment Spotie...

Complaining about a game not being in 1080p

Complaining about a company buying a timed exclusive IP.

Complaining about parity.

Complaining about buying a developer and making them 1st party.

I definitely agree that most of this stuff is very silly, good comment Spotie.

[Soc5]

Come on guys this is one of the worst I can remember, not one game that has come out this year that has been a must buy for me, and I play most everything. We have gotten a bunch of overhyped mediocre games that aren't showing any true innovation or advances in ai or gameplay.
This year has sucked! I mean people are arguing about the resolution of this game vs that game. Who cares. The reason there's so much nit picking and arguing is because no game is blowing our socks off to shut people up and put a smile on our face. Remember that feeling you got when you first played metal gear, or Mario kart, or the first castlevania, or Mario, or half life, where's that feeling? Gone this year. All we have is a bunch of companies sucking the goodness out of gaming and nickel and diming us to death!

[Automatic79]

@soc

Shadow of Mordow says hello.

[jcole97]

Well Xbox one still has halo: mcc, sunset overdrive, ori, and recently Forza horizon 2.. and it looks like the wii u still has games left for this year..

[TheJacksonRGN]

The Holiday season hasn't even started yet, it isn't November.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

Every platform have some great games to play. Stop complaining.

[deafdani]

The author of this article seems to be talking mostly about PS4 here.

I don't know about Microsoft, but as a Nintendo fan, I'm quite happy.

September - Hyrule Warriors. Loads of fun.

October - Bayonetta 2. I think it's safe to assume the game will deliver.

November - Smash for Wii U. It's freakin' Smash! Nuff said.

December - Captain Toad. I loved the Toad levels on Mario 3D World, so getting a full game based on that makes me happy. And it will be $40, to boot. Not bad at all!

I only wish Nintendo was more consistent with their game releases. Most of this year was incredibly dry for the Wii U, but then the last 4 months are awesome. Last year it was the same thing: serious drought for most of the year, then they went and released Pikmin 3, Wind Waker HD, Wonderful 101, Luigi U, and Mario 3D World all on the latter half of the year.

Please, Ninty... can you use the full spectrum of 2015 to release your upcoming games instead of the last few months? If you go and release Xenoblade Chronicles X and Zelda U within a month from eaxh other at the end of the year, I'll have a seizure. :(

[Automatic79]

As a happy Xbox One owner I played this year

Plants vs Zombies
Titanfall
Dead Rising los perdidos chapters DLC
Super time force
Castle Wolfenstein
Dead Rising Super Ex Plus Edition

All leading into what I call a solid holiday
Destiny
Shadow of Mordor
Forza Horizon
Aliens Isolation
Evil Within
Sunset Overdrive
Halo MCC Edition
Call of Duty
Assassins Creed Unity
Dragon Age

My holiday gaming is going to be great. This does not include Indies either

[AudioEppa]

As a happy PS4 owner,
Buying:
- LBP3
- GTA V
- COD AW
And Maybe Drive Club & NBA Live
Also my ps4 backlog is waiting (still on PS3 playing with friends who don't have a 4 yet)
- Infamous second son
- Knack
- Another world
- BF4
Other ones I can't remember right now lol

So yeah I'm good and this article can suck my ass.

[akurtz]

Use the word butt! BUTT!!
But I agree with you, waaay too many games, I seriously bought a calendar just to keep track on my pre-ordered games cuz I didn't know alien isolation came out Monday (T⌓T)

[AudioEppa]

Okay I will gladly use suck my butt from now on lol <3

[akurtz]

Ill gadly disagree. I'm stoked for this holiday season! My ps4 right now is kicking my butt with great games and there will be tons of mp games my friends and I are getting. Plus I'm getting an X1 this month so its only getting better.

[D-riders]

All I need is smash bros

[Mag007]

Yes it is but only because I can't afford a Ps4 this year!:(

[SliceOfTruth888]

1)Smash Brothers
2)Sunset Overdrive
3)COD
4)Halo MCC (seriously this alone is worth everything)
5)Forza Horizon
6)Killer Instinct 2
7)LBP 3
This is like 8 million times better than last year

[GamingSinceThe80s]

Not if you own a Wii U it's not!Or even an XBone.Ps4 is the one that's got nothing this holiday season except under delivered hype from E3 2013.Oh and before you call me a troll know that I own all 3 consoles.

[Trekster_Gamer]

For PS4 owners it will be.
XB1 is looking awesome!!!

[Mr Marvel]

I think it looks pretty impressive actually.

[daBUSHwhaka]

Certainly not a disappointing holiday season if you own a XBOX ONE..So much choice here,and loads still to come.This holiday season is looking very entertaining indeed.Only on Xbox.

[blady_man]

I disagree completely!! I plan to buy ac: unity, cod:aw, far cry 4, gtav, and maybe a couple more! Wheres the disapoimment?! Great games are coming out in this couple of months!!!