What year would you consider as the worst in video game's history?

[Dannyjax]

I'm sure that each of our answers to this would be subjective because we all might have different reasons for considering a particular year to be the worst in video game's history. It's why I'm not going to limit the reach it's going to stretch to.

If I'm going to choose, it would in 1983 which the famous video game's crash year which lasted for 2 years. The video industry would have gone into extinction if not for the Japanese gaming industry that sustained the industry. 

[Heatman]

Since you have already mentioned the year of game's crash in 1983, it tops the chart. 

But if I'm to choose, it's going to be 2014 that's the worst for me in the gaming industry. 

The reason why I'm choosing 2014 was because there wasn't much games to put on the list of games that was released that year. It was just mostly the remasters of games from 2013 that we saw that year and the rest was shifted to 2015. 

Only Smash 4, Alpha Sapphire and Pokemon Omega Rugby that were great titles that came out that year. Maybe Dark Souls 2 and Wolfenestein are to be seen as good titles too. 

[Kane99]

Yeah the games crash in 83 was a big one. As for any other years, that's a tough one. Honestly, maybe currently with how tough it can be to get one of the new gen consoles. But it's not the worst by any means. 

83 seems like the most logical one to mention. I can't think of any years where gaming was stagnant or had trouble. Maybe around the time the 360 RRoD occured maybe, that was pretty rough time for gamers. 

[Clasher]

I started playing videogames in the early twenties so I didn't experience the 1983 game crash , and for most part of my gaming there hasn't been any year I could classify as the worst. 

[Withywarlock]

Not to shut this down, but I struggle to see see where this discussion can go (please do explain if I'm missing something here.) How does one go about measuring how worse a year can be than 1983, the collapse of an entire budding industry? 2014 would be my pick but it'd be a laughable choice because only liking one game out of over 20 that I bought on release day for review (half of which weren't worth it) is nowhere near comparable.

While I'm sure people will have years with reasons deeply personal to them, I'd hardly say those moments qualify to be considered the worst in video games' history. There's discussion to be had about that, and indeed 1983 for those who want to have it, but I think you know the answer already.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Withywarlock
Added request for further explanation.

[Justin11]

I never really existed when the worst came around video game industry. The only season I witnessed is the ongoing covid 19 era, that has caused hardware scarcity especially with PS5. 

[Withywarlock]

1 hour ago, Justin11 said:

The only season I witnessed is the ongoing covid 19 era, that has caused hardware scarcity especially with PS5. 

Hardware scarcity is certainly a big deal but not specific to a single year and it didn't originate with Covid-19 (for PC users I'd daresay it was cryptocurrency mining that caused shortages.) Gaming in the UK boomed as a direct result of Covid, or more specifically, lockdown efforts. I imagine this was the same in a lot of other countries in the world. Lots of studios and their developers faced difficulties, absolutely, but I still don't think that qualifies as a worse year than the industry dying.

There is certainly discussion to be had about Covid-19's impact on gaming, and I'm sure there's many interesting comparisons between the struggles now versus ~40 years ago.

Edited July 8, 2022 by Withywarlock

[Empire]

Every year sounds bad, but 1984. The entire industry nearly collapsed under the weight of absolute shovelware. Activision had formed the year before and invented third-party development and sparked off a nearly two year slump in quality. The third party devs had no quality control. Corporate espionage led to companies not just making cloned garbage, but straight up copy paste stolen code. So few games were worth buying that there are actual landfills full of unsold cartridges.

[Justin11]

With the things going around video games, I think worst is about to happen, unless something dramatic occurs in the future with the kind of games we are enjoying now.  Potential micro-transaction like NFTs are circulating around video games. So, who knows next bizarre feature that will come in? That's why I wouldn't pick out any year as worst for now, because worst is yet to hit us xD. 

[Scorpion]

Many point to 1983 as the worst year in video game history due to the industry crash and numerous poor-quality games. 

[killamch89]

5 hours ago, Scorpion said:

Many point to 1983 as the worst year in video game history due to the industry crash and numerous poor-quality games. 

I wonder what you'd say about 2023? Honestly, the past few years have been horrid outside of a couple of games. Only a couple of highly anticipated games actually lived up to their hype.