The Gamer’s Bill of Rights
August 28
As it Happened
Not only did PC games inherit a new united front in 2008, Stardock and Gas Powered Games went one step further by giving the format its own Bill of Rights. And though the Bill hasn’t developed into an enforced industry standard, many still argue that it should be. And with good reason too; topping the Bill’s list of demands is that “gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund”, a request so reasonable that it’s mildly depressing that there’s even a need to mention it.

Stardock’s Brad Wardell put forward the Gamer’s Bill of Rights as part of his written keynote for Edge, which can be found here.





Spore Finally Launches, Hits Platinum Sales Mark
from September 23
As it happened (2, Edge Review)
It didn’t come as much of a surprise. EA was getting a clear impression of the sales potential of Spore back in June – some two months before the game’s full release – as the teaser/demo version of the game, Spore Creature Creator, had already seen over a million unique creatures created and uploaded to EA’s online portal Sporepedia.

A comprehensive ad campaign upon release helped the game hit sales of one million in just two weeks. Later in September, EA reported in its otherwise-gloomy Q2 fiscal results that the game had reached two million sales. Over 60 million unique creations have now been added to Sporepedia.




DRM Fights Continue Apace
from September 24
As it happened (2, 3, 4, 5, Ten Most Annoying DRM Methods)
"I find it somewhat ironic that game companies or any company would seek to protect its own intellectual property rights by infringing on the intellectual property rights of the computer owner," said a stirred Scott Kamber in December, representing a group of people seeking to take EA to court for its use of DRM technology in Spore.

Kamber’s assessment sharply encapsulated the angst many have with the piracy-protection system SecuROM, an issue that remained prevalent throughout 2008. Upon discovering that Spore had implemented the technology, many gamers voiced their discomfort through Amazon’s user-rating system, giving the game its lowest possible score and leaving heated remarks in their user-reviews.

EA chief John Riccitiello played down the furore, claiming the grief comes from a “0.2%” minority of vocal activists. That minority were perhaps at their most cutting in December, when news blog TorrentFreak suggested that the estimated 1,700,000 illegal downloads of Spore were “inflated due to the DRM that was put into the game.”

Another huge PC game of 2008, GTA IV, was also put into the DRM debate, as Rockstar announced the game would be using SecuROM technology. Rockstar emphasised, however, that the game wouldn’t limit the number of times a user could install it.




Launch Mania with Wrath of the Lich King
November 13
As it happened
This generation has enjoyed gaming’s biggest cultural impact yet on the wider-world. After Halo 3’s global launch event became prime coverage for the world’s non-specialist press, GTA IV went one precedent further and became the first game believed to make a negative impact on Box Office sales during its launch week. In the same year that UK PM Gordon Brown put the words “important” next to “videogame industry”, the Wii and DS continued to push into the expanded audience.

Yet, as strange as it still sounds, one of the biggest launch events of the year belonged to a boxed PC game. The international launch of Blizzard’s Wrath of the Lich King made waves across the globe. London’s HMV Oxford Street store witnessed its biggest midnight launch ever, with some 2,000 cosplay-friendly buyers lining up to make a purchase. Hours later, the same game was responsible for Gamestop card-reader meltdowns across America, along with a launch party in San Francisco loud enough to prompt a noise complaint from a disgruntled resident.




World of Warcraft Flaunts PC Market Dominance
December 23
As it happened
While Blizzard’s next StarCraft and Diablo games continued to stir (and even unsettle) its legions of fans, nothing could make a more fitting end to the year for Blizzard than a story about World Of Warcraft. After all, Blizzard’s flagship series has essentially been the centrepiece of the PC market since 2004. Following the successful launch of Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, Blizzard announced at the end of December that the WOW series has now amassed over 11.5 million unique subscribers.

At the time of the announcement, GameStop’s Senior Vice President of merchandising Bob McKenzie gave a rather haunting analysis of the growth of the franchise: "Not only is Wrath of the Lich King still doing well, the base World of Warcraft game and the World of Warcraft Battle Chest are performing better than last year.” With the PC market cracked, will 2009 see Blizzard attempt to replicate its PC triumphs to the consoles?