2007: A Look Back at a Huge Year

by: Steven Hopper

A look at some of the bigger events in the gaming industry for 2007

As anyone will tell you, 2007 was a huge year for the gaming industry. Not only did it host one of the biggest holiday release schedules ever in video games, but it also had some very newsworthy happenings. Many things happened this year that would affect the course of the industry and its direction in the coming years, from record breaking releases to mergers between companies that will surely have a long-term impact on the games we play.

Peter Moore's exit as the figurehead for Microsoft's Xbox 360 division for a move as the head of EA Sports was a big ticket item. Happening shortly after E3, Moore's departure raised a few questions for the state of the company, especially in the light of a massive warranty change and the acknowledgement of faulty Xbox 360 consoles, which has become pandemic despite Microsoft's initial denials. Even though the Xbox 360 may be reaping the benefits of their year head start on the PS3, these events raised some sufficient questions as to their future state in the console market.

However, Microsoft managed to garner a fair amount of positive mainstream attention with the hotly-anticipated launch of Halo 3. Many realized that Halo 3 would be a runaway success for the Xbox 360, but few knew just how much of an impact the game would have not only on the game industry, but the entertainment industry as a whole. The game was announced as having the most successful first 24-hours in entertainment history, outselling the film industry and the music industry by a comfortable margin. In fact, the game was even blamed for the steep drop off in movie ticket sales for the month of October, cementing gaming's position as a force to be reckoned with in entertainment.

One huge news event that holds a lot of influence for the future is the recent announcement of the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games, resulting in the foundation of a new mega-publisher called Activision Blizzard. The merger has created a company with more assets than EA, previously the largest third-party publisher in the world, and would put big franchises like Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Warcraft under the same publishing moniker.

While some detractors state that the merger would create another publishing giant that could degrade the quality of games and cite EA's rampant developer acquisition (they also bought fan-favorite RPG developer, BioWare and Mercenaries developer Pandemic just this fall) as an example of big pubs gone bad, the move could mean some great things for each company's franchises. Guitar Hero, for example, will no doubt benefit from their newfound access to the Universal Music Group's huge catalog of music, be it more downloadable content in the near future or upcoming installments of the popular franchise.

2007 also marked the first year of a restructured E3. E3 2007 took the huge trade show out of its home in the LA Convention Center and laid it out across a series of hotels throughout Santa Monica. This wasn't viewed as wholly successful to many, even those who were the most critical of the previous LACC E3 events. Those who didn't like the new form spoke out against an overall lack of structure and organization, as well as the walking distance between hotels and the Barker Hangar, where several publishers were located. Next year will mark another change for E3, returning it to the LACC, though perhaps in a more scaled down form from previous years, so the future will see what is in store for the embattled trade show as it goes through yet another restructuring.

With E3 becoming more and more of an industry event, a few trade shows have stepped up to the plate to deliver events geared towards the fans. PAX had yet another strong year in Seattle and the E for All Expo debuted at the LA Convention Center, each showcasing a variety of games from several different publishers. These events gave fans a chance to check out upcoming games often for the first time, and were pretty fun to check out.

This year held some huge news items for the gaming industry, further cementing its place in the entertainment industry and proving itself a force to be reckoned with. Hopefully 2008 will be as strong of a year, if not a stronger one.