2020 in gaming has been a hell of a year, COVID or no COVID. As you're surely aware, the pandemic is going strong still, even a full year after its apparent inception, and that's put a bit of a dampener on most social events and interesting happenings. Since many of us are simply stuck at home, that means we turned to PCs and gaming at large to keep us engaged. The gaming industry proved itself more than up for this task, thankfully, and so we can safely say that 2020 in gaming has been pretty darn awesome.

Over the past twelve months, we've seen exciting new tech developments, the release of a new generation of consoles, and so many new games released it got really hard to keep track of it all. Today, we're here to offer you a window into that madness. Handy if you've been avoiding gaming for some reason. Also handy if you just want to sit down and, well, remember. It's been a long decade since 2020 started, after all.

Now, the way we'll go about this thing is simple: monthly increments! Starting from January and winding down with (the currently ongoing) December, we'll go over all the major gaming events of 2020. Strap right in, and let's get started.

2020 in Gaming: A Full Overview

Let's get the non-fun stuff out of the way first. In most general terms, there have been three major happenings that have echoed through the gaming industry and, indeed, the world at large as well. The first we've already mentioned: the COVID-19 pandemic. Second were the George Floyd protests, which spurred a series of social and political movements across the globe. Finally, there was also a series of sexual misconduct accusations made in the gaming industry itself. This led to a number of firings and reorganizations during 2020, though it remains to be seen whether companies adhere to a healthier set of social norms moving forward. The (gaming) world has been and, indeed, still is reeling from these events, and there's simply no avoiding the effect they've had on just about everything surrounding them.

January 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

January was, for most intents and purposes, a relatively calm month. Tencent announced that their admittedly massive acquisition of Funcom, the people behind Metal Hellsinger, Conan Exiles, Secret World, and the upcoming DUNE game. At that point, we were mostly still reeling back from the December 2019 festivities, as well as coming to terms with a potential upcoming pandemic. Here at 2Game, we wrote about Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, National LEGO Day, and Journey to the Savage Planet. All in all, a moderately chill month with not much going on.

Notable PC Game Releases

February 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

February saw Rod Fergusson of Gears of War fame leaving The Coalition for Blizzard, opting to work on their upcoming Diablo IV project. We were smack-dab in the middle of Mount & Blade: Bannerlord hype as well as dealing with the combined forces of Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It was an awesomely fun month, for the most part, not least due to there being a new Darksiders game for us to play. Towards the end of February, we got treated to PAX East. That was also the first suggestion of the effects that COVID-19 will have on the industry. Many companies skipped their PAX presentations, opting instead for a long string of self-hosted streams and demos. For better or worse, just about all the other major gaming events took the same route in 2020.

Notable PC Game Releases

March 2020: Gaming Overview

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Notable Gaming-related Events

March is always an exciting month in gaming, and in 2020, it was a right hoot from the start 'till the end. Not only did we get Doom Eternal at long last - which proved to be one of the best games of the year - but we also got a genuine new Half-Life game. How about that! Alyx ended up coming on top of many a best-of-2020 game lists, and for good reason, too. In other news, GDC 2020 was revamped as a virtual conference: a logical development following the mess that was PAX 2020, just a few weeks earlier. On our end, we worked hard to present our readers with as many deals, discounts, and game recommendations as possible. After all, the very first batch of lockdowns came into effect by March, and we needed to adapt.

Notable PC Game Releases

April 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

While not much in the way of gaming-adjacent events took place during April, the fourth month of 2020 was positively jam-packed with incredible games. Strategy fans, in particular, will agree that having both Gears Tactics and an XCOM off-shoot in a single month was a real hoot. On top of these, we got an awesome new Resident Evil game, too, and Streets of Rage 4 which couldn't have come out sooner. All in all, a really fun month, at least if you're a gamer! Oh, lest we forget, Borderlands 3 did have its surprisingly comprehensive Revenge of the Cartels event towards the end of April, too.

Notable PC Game Releases

May 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

While Bandai Namco celebrated the 40th (!) anniversary of Pac-Man, we ourselves here at 2Game had heaps of fun with Maneater and its ridiculous selection of challenges and unlockables. It's worth pointing out that, back in May, we did get our hype on for the upcoming release of Crusader Kings III. Of course, it ended up being a top-notch game in the end, but we had no way of knowing that back then.

Notable PC Game Releases

June 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

If the two months preceding it were relatively uneventful, June 2020 more than made up for that. For starters, we finally got a good look at Sony's PlayStation 5 console, as well as a vague idea of what next-gen gaming might be like. In less joyful news, Microsoft also announced its closure of Mixer come July 22, partnering instead with Facebook's official Gaming division. A big surprise to many of us, but it was what it was. Riot Games' Valorant also first came out in June, though to only middling success at first. Since then, the game's been ramping up rather significantly, so there's that, at least.

Notable PC Game Releases

July 2020: Gaming Overview

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Notable Gaming-related Events

As July went on, we got a surprising batch of concrete information about the hypothetical Anthem: NEXT update. It hasn't yet come out, of course, but it was good to know that Bioware folks were still working on that. At 2Game, we decided to figure out what our favorite Assassin's Creed game while we waited for Death Stranding to come out. The wait paid off because Kojima's new game ended up being one of the finest PC ports we've yet seen. In fact, it's downright phenomenal! We also did get a neat look at various upcoming games - both indie and AA - via the Summer Game Fest, so that was neat.

Notable PC Game Releases

August 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

Come August, our main concern was, for the most part, Gamescom 2020. In fact, we provided extensive coverage for each of the convention's online shows.

In the meantime, the rest of the industry was hardly asleep. Embracer Group - THQ Nordic's parent company - went and acquired a heap of developers for their future investment. Not strictly PC-related, but there was also the whole Epic Games vs Apple shindig which is yet to wrap up properly. All in all, an interesting month, to be sure. The fact that we got so many great games in the span of a single month was pretty dang rad, too.

Notable PC Game Releases

September 2020: Gaming Overview

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Notable Gaming-related Events

September ended up being a very football-heavy month on our end. We did, however, get not one but two significant online gaming conventions before September was up. First off, there was the Ubisoft Forward, which gave us a pretty solid idea of what the rest of the year would look like for the French publisher. Next up was PAX Online Experience - a revised version of PAX tailored specifically for the ongoing COVID pandemic. Embracer Group also continued its acquisitions: this time grabbing Vertigo Games, the talent behind Arizona Sunshine, and After the Fall. Way more importantly, though, Xbox Game Studios announced its massive acquisition of ZeniMax Media. Meaning, Bethesda and the entirety of their massive IP library. Talk about throwing a curve, eh? The deal was worth a whopping $7.5bn, and will undoubtedly be making ripples in the coming years.

Notable PC Game Releases

October 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

Compared to September, October was a total lightweight. Then again, could anything top the Zenimax acquisition? Interestingly, further acquisitions did take place in October. Namely, Devolver Digital snagged Croteam, the talent behind Serious Sam and The Talos Principle. Rockstar Games, to0, expanded its dev portfolio with Ruffian Games' studios. These are the people who worked on the Master Chief Collection, mind, so who knows what sort of secret project might be going on in the background. On our end, we got caught up in Halloween celebrations - loads of fun.

Notable PC Game Releases

November 2020: Gaming Overview

Notable Gaming-related Events

Come November, we got plenty more of exciting game releases, whether all-new or DLC. Perhaps more curiously, the Roblox Corporation also filed for its first public offering, which estimated its net worth to be sitting at a hefty $37 billion US. Casual gaming is a different sort of beast, we can tell you that. In the meantime, Black Friday treated us well across the board, and we started looking forward to December celebrations and - yes - the end of 2020.

Notable PC Game Releases

December 2020: Gaming Overview

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Notable Gaming-related Events

At long last - December 2020. It's been a hell of a ride so far and with nary a week left in this dreadful year, it's time to say our thanks. Far as gaming goes, at least, things are going well. Cyberpunk 2077 finally came out, for one, though its appeal has been a tad bit brought into question. It's a good game, to be sure, it's just that it probably wasn't ready to come out yet. In completely unrelated news, two major-league veteran game developers have left Bioware, Tencent essentially acquired Warframe, and EA snagged Codemasters in front of Take-Two's face. Does that all sound very eventful? Yes - it's been a hell of a month, and we've still got about a week to go...

Notable PC Game Releases

2020 in Gaming: As Dynamic as Dynamic gets

Sure enough, it's been a heck of a year for gamers. If you'd like to make the most of it, though, perhaps it might be a good idea to check out our humongous Winter Sale while you're here? If you're more into retro gaming, we've recently featured the awesome Antstream Arcade, so give that a whirl, too. Otherwise, stay tuned for more greatness: right here at 2Game.

2020 in gaming has been a hell of a year, COVID or no COVID. As you’re surely aware, the pandemic is going strong still, even a full year after its apparent inception, and that’s put a bit of a dampener on most social events and interesting happenings. Since many of us are simply stuck at home, that means we […]