2022 in Games Industry - Our Predictions

• 2022 in Games Industry - Our Predictions
• A year without major releases from Electronic Arts, Avatar being the dark horse of Ubisoft?
• RED Cyberpunk (not dead) Redemption
• PC hardware – once it was cheap
• Changing conditions in gavedev?

At the beginning of each year, we look at the list of announced releases, trying to spot potential hits, both the obvious and the obscure. Today, however, the industry is much more than just games. There's all the pop-culture stuff, the hardware, the platforms we use, the attitudes in gamedev studios big and small, the disgraceful trends in terms of release-day game condition, there's crunching developers, politics, and monetization.

Of course, none of these things is really new, but nowadays, we seem to be more aware of them, and all the negative stuff seems to be affecting us more than in the past. This common knowledge or disclosure of various facts usually also gives rise to collective opinions, which sometimes influence the decision-makers. We've seen many difficult things for the gaming industry in the past months. So what does 2022 look like? Better, worse? What can we expect?

Anticipated sequels and late hits

Let's start, however, from the obvious point of such considerations, i.e. new releases, because the announcements for the next twelve months seem more interesting than last year. First of all, we can expect the appearance of the postponed games – those that were to be released in 2021, but their premieres were shifted due to the pandemic and other complications.

There's Dying Light 2 for example, and another soulslike game called Elden Ring. Lucky PlayStation 5 owners should finally get a few titles that will allow them to dust off the DualSense pads, as Horizon: Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7 and God of War: Ragnarok will join the fray. The long-awaited sequels of great hits, such as STALKER 2, Final Fantasy XVI, Bayonetta 3 and some completely new, promising brands, are also on the cards. It is worth mentioning, for example, Starfield from Bethesda and the fascinating Atomic Heart. Which of them will actually turn out to be timeless hits, and which will be a greater or lesser disappointment? We'll find out soon.

The new God of War will be a good reason to dust off PlayStation 5 at last.

Another year, another cross-gen

As concerns things we will *not* find out this year – one of them is the real capability of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Many of the games announced for this year are still cross-gens that can also run on PS4 and Xbox One. Considering the constant difficulties with the supply of new consoles, transistor shortages, and the sad situation on the market of GPUs, it should not be surprising that publishers still address their games to the platforms that still provide the biggest audiences. The graphics will of course get better, more and more games will be created for new equipment, but seeing the full potential of next gen being unleashed will require more patience.

COVID-19 still lingers

The pandemic has had a particular impact on the computer games' industry. As people found themselves confined at home during lockdowns, sales of video games soared. On the other hand, it significantly slowed down the production of new games, especially the high-budget ones – due to the transition to remote work, difficulties in realizing motion capture sessions, and other stages of game development.

Equally significant is the cancellation of most industry events – from the flagship E3 fair to all kinds of reveal events. Everything has moved into the virtual world of streaming and remote presentations. Similar decisions can be expected in case of the rest of important events, such as gamescom.

Although the video games industry has shifted to remote work quite efficiently, the uncertain pandemic situation still affects the process of creating most of the games, delaying their release dates and even announcements. The lengthy process of creating games is becoming even longer, and remote work is slowly becoming the norm, rather than a temporary solution.

Although gamedev has shifted to remote work quite efficiently, the still uncertain pandemic situation will also affect the process of creating many titles, delaying their releases and even announcements. The lengthy process of creating games is becoming even longer, and remote work is slowly becoming the norm, rather than a temporary solution.