http://www.gamespot.com/best-of/ 2009 was a remarkable year for the game industry that saw numerous game studios shut down while smaller independent studios made a name for themselves with exciting debut games. It was also the year that E3 returned to fill up the massive Los Angeles Convention Center like in previous years...and the year that E3 was taken by storm by motion-sensing controls and by a couple of guys who used to be in some British rock band called "The Beatles," or something like that. Follow the biggest news developments of the year with GameSpot's Year In Review, complete with links to major news stories and a timeline of major events. Thanks to 8th grade English teachers' proclivity for Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" has become a groan-inducing cliche. However, the phrase perfectly sums up the state of the game industry at the start of 2009. Microsoft's announcement of 5,000 layoffs was one of the first of many grim 2009 headlines. Microsoft's announcement of 5,000 layoffs was one of the first of many grim 2009 headlines. At virtually the same time NPD was reporting 2008's record game sales of $21 billion, Sega made what would become the first of a steady drumbeat of layoff announcements. Then Microsoft revealed it was eliminating 5,000 positions. Then Electronic Arts increased its previously announced layoffs to 11 percent of its entire staff. Then THQ announced that its payroll would be reduced by 24 percent. Then long-suffering Midway finally declared bankruptcy, setting the stage for its eventual liquidation. Not all publishers were faring poorly, with Konami posting a profit and Activision reporting record revenues--albeit with a small loss overall. The latter numbers were thanks in no small part to brisk sales of Guitar Hero World Tour, which, unfortunately, would be the last installment (to date) in the series to see runaway success. As the year progressed, the rhythm genre began to wilt, with Guitar Hero: Metallica selling fewer than 900,000 units in the US--compared to World Tour's nearly 5-million-unit domestic haul. Wii Fit stayed in NPD's top 10…until the month before Wii Fit Plus launched. Wii Fit stayed in NPD's top 10…until the month before Wii Fit Plus launched. One company that also saw its sales decline in 2009 was Nintendo, which had started the year with a bang, thanks to Wii Fit. The Balance Board/minigame pack-in was a fixture on NPD's top 10 list throughout most of the year and was the top game in January and February, when US game sales increased. March saw the first of six straight months of double-digit declines at US retailers, but Nintendo continued to populate game charts with enduring best-sellers like Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart DS, and New Super Mario Bros. Its Wii console and DS handheld were the top hardware platforms all year, the latter helped by the introduction of the camera-equipped DSi. As of mid-March, the little dual-screen portable had sold more than 100 million units worldwide since its fall 2004 launch. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was one of the keynote speakers at March's 2009 Game Developers Conference. There, he announced that the Wii had sold 50 million units and he unveiled the second Zelda game for the DS, Spirit Tracks. Attendees of the San Francisco event were also treated to a presentation by Konami's Hideo Kojima, who chronicled 20 years of Metal Gear games and teased the next installment in the series, Metal Gear Solid Rising. (The game would be revealed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in June.) Hideo Kojima teased the Raiden-centered Metal Gear Solid Rising with this GDC 2009 slide. Hideo Kojima teased the Raiden-centered Metal Gear Solid Rising with this GDC 2009 slide. However, the biggest news at GDC 2009 wasn't made at the event itself. On the Monday preceding the conference, WebTV founder Steve Perlman and former Eidos CEO Mike McGarvey announced OnLive, a new system that aims to combine cloud computing and high-definition gaming. Instead of buying an expensive graphics card, gamers can install a small application on virtually any PC, with all the processing and graphics being done on the company's server farms. The service, which will charge a monthly subscription and have players buy games at a "competitive" price point, will also be available via a Roku-like box that can be hooked up to any HDTV. (And will, presumably, cost less than a console.) Though such high-profile publishers as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft are backing OnLive, many skeptics wonder how the service will compensate for lag--and whether consumers will purchase games that could disappear if the startup's funding runs out. Fallout 3 blew the lid off of the Little Big Planet-dominated GDC Awards at the last minute. Fallout 3 blew the lid off of the Little Big Planet-dominated GDC Awards at the last minute. The first quarter also saw the year's most prestigious US game award ceremonies, with Little Big Planet winning top honors at the Annual Interactive Achievement Awards during February's DICE Summit. The game also scored many statuettes at GDC's Game Developers Choice Awards, but Fallout 3 snuck in and stole Game of the Year in a surprise upset. The coveted GDCA Pioneer Award was handed out to Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, the founders of Harmonix, the studio behind the original Guitar Hero games and Rock Band. The three-month period also saw unwelcome headlines on the development front, with Microsoft closing the studio behind the long-running Flight Simulator series. Mythic, the EA-owned studio behind Warhammer Online, saw its staff reduced, as did Volition, the THQ-owned shop behind Saints Row and Red Faction: Guerrilla. Finally, the quarter saw the first reports that Sega had pulled the plug on Obsidian Entertainment's role-playing take on the Aliens films. The cancellation was officially confirmed later in the year, dashing the dreams of sci-fi fans and RPG junkies everywhere. The quarter started with two new major hardware announcements: The PlayStation 2's new $100 price point and the Western launch of the DSi. However, the biggest news came in June at the reinvigorated Electronic Entertainment Expo. After two years of a scaled-down, insider-only format, the event returned to the large-scale spectacle that had attracted the world's attention from 2006 and before. Natal brought Microsoft more than one kind of Kudo. Natal brought Microsoft more than one kind of Kudo. As was the case even during the "Min-E3" years, the big three console makers held press events to show off their latest wares. Microsoft was first out of the gate, with an event that trotted out the two surviving members of the Fab Four to promote The Beatles: Rock Band on the Xbox 360. That was followed by the rapid-fire unveiling of Crackdown 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Halo: Reach, the overhauled Splinter Cell: Conviction, and Metal Gear Solid Rising--the first game from the franchise for the 360. While each of those announcements would normally be top-story material, all were overshadowed when Microsoft unveiled its motion-sensing technology, Project Natal. As had been rumored, the camera-based system could sense movement in three directions to such a degree that it required no controller. Former Fight Night developer Kudo Tsunoda was brought out to show off the new tech with a dodgeball-like demo and a version of Burnout that could sense players' hands and feet as though they were driving an actual car. Microsoft also claimed that the device could recognize players' voices and faces--and even their emotions. As proof, the company played a pretaped demo from Fable creator Peter Molyneux in which an artificial boy, Milo, engaged in an entire conversation with a developer. Nintendo was next up, giving what was considered the weakest presentation of the big three. It almost immediately announced New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a four-person, 3D sequel to the NES's seminal side-scroller. Next up was Wii Fit Plus, a customizable rerelease of the then-15-million-unit-selling fitness game with six new activities and 15 new minigames. (Including one based on…math?) Also unveiled were Golden Sun DS, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, and--in a smaller Q&A session with Shigeru Miyamoto--a new Wii Zelda game, due in 2010. The Wii Vitality Sensor puts a Wii polygraph into the realm of possibility. The Wii Vitality Sensor puts a Wii polygraph into the realm of possibility. In terms of hardware, Nintendo brought out the Wii MotionPlus and its pack-in game, Wii Sports Resort, to show off how the add-on soups up the Wii Remote. Then it was on to the most bizarre item of the Kentia Hall-less E3 2009, the Wii Vitality Sensor. Worn on your finger, the add-on, which is still in the prototype phase, is designed to "visualize the invisible," according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. The executive said the product would help people relax by having them play games with their metabolism, but he offered no examples. Last but definitely not least was Sony Computer Entertainment, which used its press briefing to "announce" the $250 PSP Go--three days after it was exposed by leaked video footage. As had been rumored, the handheld would forgo the UMD format Sony created exclusively for the PSP and become the first digital download-only dedicated gaming device. Sony also used the event to unveil its own, unnamed motion-sensing system. Unlike Natal, Sony's tech uses light-emitting diodes mounted on special controllers in conjunction with the PS3's existing camera, the PlayStation Eye. A brief demo by Sony research guru Richard Marks showed how players could use real-world motion to swordfight, shoot arrows, paint, and crack a whip in-game. Games that use the system are already in development, and the add-on is expected to launch in spring 2010. No, that's not a flyer from a 1990s rave. No, that's not a flyer from a 1990s rave. With its hardware ducks in a row, Sony then touted an ambitious slate of PlayStation 3 exclusives, including MAG, Heavy Rain, God of War III, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, and Uncharted 2--which would sell more than 1 million units by year's end. The PSP was not forgotten, with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and Resident Evil: Portable. Sony was also packing a double shot of software surprises in the form of two previously unknown PS3 console exclusives: Rockstar Games' espionage action game Agent and Square Enix's new massively multiplayer role-playing game Final Fantasy XIV. (The latter title will also be out on the PC.) It even got old-school by rereleasing the original PlayStation classic Final Fantasy VII on the PlayStation Network in the middle of the expo. E3 also saw Electronic Arts announce that it would be publishing APB, the new massively multiplayer online game from GTA creator David Jones. And Konami revealed that Hideo Kojima would oversee development of an all-new Castlevania game, Lords of Shadow, at Spanish studio Mercury Steam. The convention ended on a high note, with its organizers announcing that the 41,000 people in attendance and the rapt media attention had ensured there would be an E3 2010. Sims creator Will Wright quit EA to form a think tank called Stupid Fun Club. Seriously, he did. Sims creator Will Wright quit EA to form a think tank called Stupid Fun Club. Seriously, he did. Unfortunately, not all news in the second quarter was good. Sims creator Will Wright left his longtime home at EA's Maxis studio, and the newly installed Atari president stepped down after his company reported a $319 million loss. In the US, the game market shrank all three months, with the NPD Group also reporting that presumed hit Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars had sold under 90,000 units--a major disappointment. Interplay revealed that its long-planned Fallout MMORPG deal with Bethesda was being terminated, and Konami abruptly dumped the provocative Iraq war shooter Six Days in Fallujah. Finally, Activision waited until the last day of E3 to file suit to block the release of former Vivendi Games title Brutal Legend. In the previous two years, July was a hotbed of activity for the gaming industry, thanks to an influx of news stemming from the Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, because North America's preeminent gaming convention flaunted its glitz during June in 2009, July proceeded at a plodding pace. And considering the often dreary nature of many of the bigger stories that did emerge during the month--not to mention the summer as a whole--the adage "no news is good news" seemed to apply. The first full month of the summer began with two former industry titans bowing to their new corporate overlords. With Midway Games facing an insurmountable debt load, Warner Bros. received court approval to purchase the publisher and the bulk of its remaining assets--including the Mortal Kombat IP and the studio that develops it--for $49 million. Midway's Chicago headquarters were promptly shuttered, along with its Newcastle outfit, as THQ swooped in to pick up TNA Impact developer Midway San Diego for a mere $200,000. By summer's end, the company was in the final stages of liquidation, existing in name only. Square Enix also performed a bit of housekeeping related to its recent purchase of UK publishing giant Eidos Interactive, retiring the label in July. Though the Eidos name would live on through the company's development houses, the move resulted in an unspecified number of "redundancies" as Square Enix consolidated the publisher's operations in North America and Europe. Nobody was smiling at Bionic Commando developer GRIN, which closed its doors in August. Nobody was smiling at Bionic Commando developer GRIN, which closed its doors in August. Midway and Eidos weren't the only gaming companies to be hit with layoffs during the summer months. On the same day that Activision said it would be trimming Wolfenstein developer Raven Software after that game saw disappointing sales, EA announced staff cuts at its Maxis studio. Other studios to be hit with layoffs or shut down included Sony Online Entertainment, Damnation creator Blue Omega, Six Days in Fallujah developer Atomic Games, and Bionic Commando house GRIN. The industry's belt-tightening could be seen as indicative of an overall slump in sales. Any delusion that the game industry was somehow recession-proof evaporated over the summer, as the NPD Group's June, July, and August US retail sales reports reflected respective 31 percent, 29 percent, and 16 percent drops. Those developments were echoed in Japan, where reports indicated that the market fell off by 24 percent during the first half of 2009. Perhaps unsteadied by the weakness in the market, a whole host of publishers opted to hold off on releasing their wares until 2010, in the hope that the retail environment would be less hostile. Big-name games that dropped out of the relatively vacant 2009 holiday window included Ubisoft's Splinter Cell: Conviction and Red Steel 2; Activision's Singularity and Blur; Blizzard's Starcraft II; Capcom's Bayonetta and Dark Void; Sega's Alpha Protocol; Take-Two's BioShock 2; and Sony's MAG. With Activision chief Bobby Kotick advocating a mentality of "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" within his studios over the global economic downturn, many within the industry were taking steps toward righting the ship. Namely, August was rife with rumors concerning hardware price cuts from all three console manufacturers, and none disappointed. Sony games chief Kaz Hirai unveiled the PS3 Slim at GamesCom, surprising absolutely nobody. Sony games chief Kaz Hirai unveiled the PS3 Slim at GamesCom, surprising absolutely nobody. Sony led things off in August at the Games Convention in Cologne, Germany, introducing the sleeker PlayStation 3 Slim at the $299 price point. The $100 trim was made possible thanks to a 70 percent reduction in the system's production costs. The move quickly proved to be a boon for the struggling electronics company, with Sony saying that console sales spiked some 300 percent at "top retailers" following the price cut. Microsoft responded to Sony's move two weeks later, phasing out its mid-line Pro unit and dropping the MSRP on its 120GB Elite model to $299. The price cut came as Microsoft rolled out its fall Xbox Live update, which introduced a new set of features for the Xbox 360's online platform, including game-download service Games on Demand and the Avatar Marketplace. In early August, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata appeared adamant in keeping the Wii's $250 launch price in place, even after seeing its April-June quarter revenues dip 40 percent as profits slipped 60 percent. With analysts clamoring for an imminent price cut and third-party executives predicting a new console by 2011, Nintendo changed its tune by September, trimming $50 off the Wii's price tag. Blizzard took the wraps off the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, at BlizzCon 2009. Blizzard took the wraps off the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, at BlizzCon 2009. A number of behind-the-scenes developments also occurred during the summer months. Namely, Disney went shopping, dropping $4 billion on comic book house Marvel and an undisclosed amount on Halo cocreator Alex Seropian's Wideload Games. Also, Ubisoft established a massive new studio in Toronto, which is set to hire up to 800 developers over the next 10 years, and Activision poached EA's Dead Space team at Visceral Games to form a new Bay Area studio, later dubbed Sledgehammer Games. On the games front, Microsoft began ramping up internal hiring to work on Project Natal titles, while also announcing a whole host of third-party support for its camera-based motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox 360--and perhaps the PC. Sony's own EyeToy-compatible motion-sensing controller for the PlayStation 3 picked up a spring 2010 release window. Blizzard revealed the name of World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Cataclysm, and also dropped more hints about its future massively multiplayer online role-playing game, saying the all-new IP would have a broader appeal. Speaking of new IP, Halo house Bungie revealed that it was close to signing a publisher for its all-new effort. However, beyond a highly publicized meeting with Capcom, no additional information on that front has surfaced. The last quarter of 2009 began with one of the industry's first steps toward a new business model. Sony launched its PSP Go on October 1, the first major console or handheld released with a strict focus on digital distribution. A download-only system is no good without games to download for it, so Sony marked the system's launch by adding more than 100 titles to the PlayStation Store. That massive launch lineup included the first PSP Minis (Tetris, Sudoku), previously released retail games (God of War: Chains of Olympus, Daxter), exclusive downloadable titles (PixelJunk Monsters Deluxe, Thexder Neo), and original PlayStation efforts (Jumping Flash! 2, Nuclear Strike). While the PSP Go technically launched just inside the industry tracking NPD Group's September sales window, it didn't register much on the monthly charts. The PSP was largely overlooked, coming in a distant fifth behind the three major consoles and Nintendo's DS. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 terrorized sales charts in November, minting $550 million in five days. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 terrorized sales charts in November, minting $550 million in five days. Far overshadowing that news was the fact that the US game industry broke its six-month-long sales slump, posting software sales gains of 5 percent and overall revenue growth of 1 percent. That slim gain could be attributed primarily to Microsoft's launch of Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox 360, and the 1.52 million copies it sold during the month. The launch of The Beatles: Rock Band also helped out, as the Fab Four-dedicated edition of Harmonix's rhythm game sold 595,000 copies across platforms for the month, beating out Activision's Guitar Hero 5, which debuted with 499,000 copies sold. Notably, there was little of note regarding Nintendo's systems. While "evergreen" titles like Wii Sports Resort took up long-term residence in the NPD charts and the Wii and DS floated near the top of the hardware side of things, Nintendo acknowledged that the bloom was off the rose. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors in Japan that the Wii "has stalled," with a weak software lineup sapping the system of the momentum it had held since launching in late 2006. "The mood of the market got colder than expected, and there was a difference in expectations," Iwata said. "Now, we are preparing for next year and thinking about what to do the year after next." The day before Iwata's remarks, Nintendo announced one of its initiatives for next year: the international launch of the DSi XL. Released in Japan November 21 as the DSi LL, the XL is a larger version of the standard DSi with a bigger screen and a pen-size stylus. The DSi XL will offer much bigger screens and a larger stylus for the nearsighted and arthritic. The DSi XL will offer much bigger screens and a larger stylus for the nearsighted and arthritic. One of the biggest stories of the quarter was the launch of Infinity Ward's much-anticipated shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Before the game launched and racked up an eyebrow-raising $550 million in sales over five days, it garnered interest for an entirely different reason. A video of the game's single-player campaign leaked online, showing a controversial airport level where players went undercover in a terrorist group and gunned down civilians. While Modern Warfare 2 was tearing up the charts, not all the news about game sales was good. Though the industry had eked out a slump-busting September, the relief was short-lived. October's US game sales were down 19 percent overall from October 2008, with hardware plummeting 23 percent and software slipping 18 percent. Despite a 6-million-unit launch by Modern Warfare 2, November sales sank as well, falling 7.6 percent. Monthly figures like that have been taking their toll on the industry for most of 2009, and one of the clearest examples of that arrived in November, when Electronic Arts announced that it was laying off 1,500 employees. Among the casualties was most of Pandemic Studios, creator of Mercenaries 2 and The Saboteur. Despite that, the Pandemic name will live on. A "core team" of Pandemic developers moved over to EA's Los Angeles studio and is at work on a new game in the Mercenaries series called Mercs Inc. EA ended 2009 on a dark note, announcing that 17 percent of its staff would be pink-slipped. EA ended 2009 on a dark note, announcing that 17 percent of its staff would be pink-slipped. EA wasn't the only publisher ending the year on hard times. After Take-Two Interactive gave investors a grim outlook on the next year and announced delays for Max Payne 3 and one unrevealed AAA title, the company's stock shed nearly one-third of its value overnight. While 2009 was a difficult year for the industry, there are reasons to be hopeful for 2010. For instance, one of 2009's biggest banes, the steady parade of delays on anticipated blockbusters, has left gamers with a completely stacked calendar of top-tier releases to look forward to. January alone has Darksiders, Bayonetta, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Dark Void, MAG, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Capcom vs. Tatsunoko, and Mass Effect 2. And that lineup should be followed in February and March by God of War III, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Final Fantasy XIII, Dante's Inferno, BioShock 2, White Knight Chronicles, Lost Planet 2, Supreme Commander 2, Sin and Punishment 2, Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, Aliens vs. Predator, Blur, Red Steel 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and more. GameSpot's special achievements awards cover a swath of categories meant to acknowledge those games that deserve recognition for excelling in specific areas that may otherwise go unnoticed with the incredible number of great games released in 2009. There's plenty of competition across all categories, ranging from those that honor technical and artistic excellence in graphics to those that recognize the best stories and the best downloadable content. As someone famous once said, "There can be only one," but to even be nominated in these competitive categories is itself an award. --

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