Another year, another indicator that the games industry is absolutely booming, albeit fuelled primarily by familiar franchises raking in millions upon millions of sales, leaving intrepid new IPs struggling to find a foothold. While the annual sales figures for the video games industry don't entirely reflect which games were truly the best of the year, it's satisfying to see that there are certain rinse-and-repeat releases that gamers aren't buying into as adamantly anymore (looking at you, Assassin's Creed). So, let's take a look at the big-money movers and shakers of the video games industry from 2015, shake our heads in disbelief that people are still as fanatical about certain unchanging series' as they've ever been, and emit smiley gasps of joy that some truly great games got the financial success they deserved. Do the highest-selling games of the year reflect the quality within? Well...
10. Star Wars Battlefront (12.4 million)
Star Wars Battlefront had 'movie cash-in' written all over it from the start, but with developer DICE at the helm, there was at least some hope that it could turn out well. On a mechanical level, it's all very 'fine', if not exactly sensational - a kind of watered-down version of the Battlefield games, but with a super-glossy Star Wars makeover that's understandably seduced millions into buying it. Oh, and you can run around the battlefield as Emperor Palpatine, which is utterly stupid... But look beneath the gloss, and you see the grime of EA's avaricious fingerprints all over. There are 12 maps set across four worlds in the base $40 game, though they mostly feel like sectioned-off parts of a single, larger map. The season pass is another $40 on top of that, and you can bet that you'll be essentially forced to buy it at some point, just to feel like you've got a full game. In the end, Battlefront feels very much a game made to satiate the need for a Star Wars game right around the time The Force Awakens was releasing in cinemas, nothing more. It's just a shame that the most lucrative license in the world wasn't used more gracefully.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
