2012 in video games

Numerous video games were released in 2012. Many awards went to games such as Madden NFL 13, NBA 2K13, WWE '13, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, Journey, Mass Effect 3, Dishonored, The Walking Dead, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The year began with the worldwide release of Sony's handheld game console, the PlayStation Vita, originally launched in Japan in December 2011. The end of the year marked the worldwide release of Nintendo's home game console, the Wii U.

Series with new installments in 2012 include Alan Wake, Assassin's Creed, Borderlands, Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, Darksiders, Dead or Alive, Diablo, Fable, Far Cry, Forza Motorsport, Guild Wars, Halo, Hitman, Mario Party, Marvel vs. Capcom, Mass Effect, Max Payne, Medal of Honor, Modern Combat, Need for Speed, Ninja Gaiden, PlanetSide, Pokémon, Prototype, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Sniper Elite, Spec Ops, Super Mario, Tekken, The Darkness, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Transformers, Trials, X-COM and Yakuza.

In addition, 2012 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Asura's Wrath, Dishonored, Gravity Rush, Journey, Lollipop Chainsaw, Sleeping Dogs and Forza Horizon.

Highest-grossing games

The following were 2012's top ten highest-grossing video games in terms of worldwide revenue (including physical sales, digital purchases, subscriptions, microtransactions, free-to-play and pay-to-play) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and console platforms).

No. Game Revenue Publisher(s) Genre Platform(s) Business model Ref.
1 Call of Duty: Black Ops II $1,000,000,000 Activision (Activision Blizzard) FPS Console Buy-to-play [1]
Crossfire $1,000,000,000 Smilegate / Tencent FPS PC Free-to-play [2]
3 World of Warcraft $986,000,000 Blizzard Entertainment (Activision Blizzard) MMORPG PC Subscription [3]
4 FIFA 13 $444,000,000 EA Sports (Electronic Arts) Sports Console, Mobile Buy-to-play [4][5]
5 Borderlands 2 $300,000,000 2K Games (Take-Two Interactive) Action RPG Console, PC Buy-to-play [6][7]
6 World of Tanks $280,000,000 Wargaming.net Vehicular combat PC Free-to-play [8]
7 Pokémon Black 2 / White 2 $267,000,000 Nintendo / The Pokémon Company RPG Console Buy-to-play [9][10]
8 New Super Mario Bros. 2 $238,000,000 Nintendo Platformer Console Buy-to-play [9][11]
9 Minecraft $237,000,000 Mojang Sandbox PC, Console Buy-to-play [12]
10 League of Legends $200,000,000 Riot Games / Tencent MOBA PC Free-to-play [13]

Critically acclaimed titles

Review Scores of 90+

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

2012 games and expansions scoring at least 90/100 (MC) or 90% (GR)[14][15]
Game Publisher Release Date Platform MC score GR score
The Walking Dead: Episode 5 – No Time Left Telltale Games November 21, 2012 WIN 89/100 94.75%
Persona 4 Golden Atlus June 14, 2012 PSV 93/100 94.16%
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series Telltale Games November 21, 2012 PS3 94/100 92.5%
Mark of the Ninja Microsoft Studios October 16, 2012 WIN 91/100 93.33%
Super Hexagon Terry Cavanagh November 27, 2012 WIN 88/100 93.33%[16]
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series Telltale Games November 21, 2012 WIN 89/100 93.2%
Mass Effect 3 Electronic Arts March 6, 2012 X360 93/100 92.17%
Cave Story Nicalis October 4, 2012 3DS 93/100 92%
Mass Effect 3 Electronic Arts March 6, 2012 PS3 93/100 91.65%
Journey Sony Computer Entertainment March 13, 2012 PS3 92/100 92.56%
Fire Emblem Awakening Nintendo April 19, 2012 3DS 92/100[17] 92.52%[18]
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Games Series Telltale Games November 21, 2012 X360 92/100 91.8%
Trials Evolution Microsoft Studios April 18, 2012 X360 90/100 91.52%
Dishonored Bethesda Softworks October 9, 2012 WIN 91/100 90.57%
Borderlands 2 2K September 18, 2012 PS3 91/100 90.48%
NBA 2K13 2K October 2, 2012 WIN 90/100 91%[19]
Far Cry 3 Ubisoft December 4, 2012 X360 91/100 89.14%
Mark of the Ninja Microsoft Studios October 16, 2012 WIN 90/100 90.43%
Ōkami HD Capcom October 30, 2012 PS3 90/100 90.29%
Borderlands 2 2K September 18, 2012 WIN 89/100 90.1%
Guild Wars 2 NCsoft August 28, 2012 WIN 90/100 90.02%
NBA 2K13 2K October 2, 2012 PS3 90/100 89.68%
FIFA 13 EA Sports September 25, 2012 X360 90/100 89.47%
Far Cry 3 Ubisoft December 4, 2012 PS3 90/100 89.18%
Dark Souls: Artorias of the Abyss Namco Bandai Games October 23, 2012 X360 89/100 90%[20]
XCOM: Enemy Unknown 2K October 8, 2012 X360 90/100 88.96%
The Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan Turbine, Inc. October 15, 2012 WIN 88/100 90%[21]

Major awards

Category/Organization 30th Golden Joystick Awards
October 26, 2012		 VGA
December 7, 2012		 16th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards
February 7, 2013		 9th British Academy Games Awards
March 5, 2013		 13th Game Developers Choice Awards
March 27, 2014
Game of the Year The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim The Walking Dead Journey Dishonored Journey
Independent / Debut[i] N/a Journey N/a The Unfinished Swan FTL: Faster Than Light
Downloadable Minecraft The Walking Dead N/a Journey
Mobile/Handheld[i] Mobile Angry Birds Space Sound Shapes Hero Academy The Walking Dead The Room
Handheld Uncharted: Golden Abyss Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Innovation N/a Journey The Unfinished Swan Journey
Artistic Achievement
or Graphics[i]		 Animation N/a Halo 4 Assassin's Creed III Journey
Art Direction Journey
Audio[i] Music N/a Journey Journey
Sound Design N/a Journey
Character or Performance[i] Actor N/a Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack
Borderlands 2		 Claptrap
Borderlands 2		 Lee Everett
The Walking Dead		 Danny Wallace as the Narrator
Thomas Was Alone		 N/a
Actress Melissa Hutchison as Clementine
The Walking Dead
Game Direction or Design N/a Journey
Narrative N/a The Walking Dead
Technical Achievement[i] Gameplay Engineering N/a XCOM: Enemy Unknown N/a Far Cry 3
Visual Engineering Halo 4
Multiplayer/Online[i] Online Gameplay N/a Borderlands 2 Journey Journey N/a
Connectivity Halo 4
Action/Adventure Action/Shooter Battlefield 3 Borderlands 2 Far Cry 3
Adventure Batman: Arkham City Dishonored The Walking Dead
Casual or Family Casual N/a Journey Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
Family Skylanders: Giants
Fighting Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition Persona 4 Arena PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale N/a
Role-Playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Mass Effect 3
Social or Web-Based N/a You Don't Know Jack SimCity Social SongPop
Sports Individual FIFA 12 SSX FIFA 13 New Star Soccer
Team NBA 2K13
Racing Forza Motorsport 4 Need for Speed: Most Wanted N/a
Strategy/Simulation Civilization V: Gods & Kings N/a XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Special Award Outstanding Contribution Best Game of the Decade Hall of Fame Pioneer Awards BAFTA Fellowship Lifetime Achievement Award
FIFA
(Electronic Arts)		 Half-Life 2 Gabe Newell Marc Blank,
Dave Lebling		 Gabe Newell Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
  1. ^ a b c d e f g Certain award presentations combine these categories.

Events

Date Event Ref.
February 3–29 Sega reduces western business after the release of Binary Domain, and focuses on digital on PC and Mobile
March 5–9 Game Developers Conference 2012 held in San Francisco, California.
April 6–8 PAX East 2012 held in Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
April 27 The Kirby franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary in Japan.
May 2–5 Korean e-Sports Association, Ongamenet, Blizzard Entertainment and GOM TV announced the introduction of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty to professional competitions in South Korea with StarCraft: Brood War being completely phased out in October. [22]
June 5–7 E3 2012 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. [23]
July 13 The Metal Gear franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary in Japan.
August 2–5 QuakeCon 2012: The massive annual LAN party held in Dallas, Texas.
August 15–19 Gamescom 2012 held in Cologne, Germany.
August 30 The Street Fighter franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary in Japan.
September 20–23 Tokyo Game Show 2012 held in Chiba, Japan.
September 26–29 Eurogamer Expo 2012 held in Earls Court, London.
October 24 Polygon is launched.
November 6 The Ratchet & Clank franchise celebrated its 10th anniversary in North America.
December 7–9 Spike Video Game Awards
December 17 The Mega Man franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary in Japan.

Notable deaths

Hardware releases

The list of game consoles released in 2012. This year saw the launch of the first home console in the 8th generation of gaming, the Wii U.

The PlayStation Vita made its launch in North America & Europe after initially releasing in Japan the previous year. Nintendo also released the first model revision to the Nintendo 3DS this year, the Nintendo 3DS XL.

Two home console revisions also came out this year, the PlayStation 3 Super Slim and the Wii Mini (released only in Canada).

Nintendo 3DS XL
Wii U
Date Console Ref.
February 15 PlayStation VitaNA
February 22 PlayStation VitaEU
July 28 Nintendo 3DS XLJP/EU [34]
August 19 Nintendo 3DS XLNA [35]
August 23 Nintendo 3DS XLAU [36]
September 25 PlayStation 3 Super Slim
November 18 Wii UNA [37]
November 30 Wii UPAL
December 7 Wii MiniCAN [38]
December 8 Wii UJP [39]
December 18 Neo Geo X

Games released in 2012

Video game-based film and television releases

Title Date Director Distributor(s) Franchise Original game publisher Ref.
Ace Attorney February 11, 2012 Takashi Miike Toho Ace Attorney Capcom [40]
Video Game High School May 11, 2012 Matthew Arnold RocketJump Studios N/a N/a [41]
Tron: Uprising May 18, 2012 Charlie Bean Disney XD Tron N/a [42]
Talking Friends June 8, 2012 Dylan Coburn Disney.com Talking Tom & Friends Outfit7 [43]
Indie Game: The Movie June 12, 2012 James Swirsky BlinkWorks Media N/a N/a [44]
Sword Art Online July 8, 2012 (2012-07-08) Tomohiko Itō Tokyo MX (Japan) N/a N/a [45]
Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice July 14, 2012 Kunihiko Yuyama Toho Pokémon Game Freak [46]
Resident Evil: Retribution September 3, 2012 Paul W. S. Anderson Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group Resident Evil Capcom [47]
Halo: Forward Unto Dawn October 5, 2012 (2012-10-05) Stewart Hendler Machinima Prime
YouTube 		Halo Microsoft Game Studios [48]
Silent Hill: Revelation October 26, 2012 M. J. Bassett Alliance Films (Canada)

Metropolitan Filmexport (France)

Silent Hill Konami [49]
Resident Evil: Damnation October 27, 2012 Makoto Kamiya Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan Resident Evil Capcom [50]
Wreck-It Ralph November 2, 2012 Rich Moore Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Wreck-It Ralph N/a [51]
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost November 29, 2012 Atsushi Takeuchi Funimation Mass Effect BioWare [52]
Minecraft: The Story of Mojang December 22, 2012 Paul Owens 2 Player Productions Minecraft Mojang [53]

See also

  • 2012 in esports
  • 2012 in games

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