Plague Inc.20123 factsGame page →In March 2013 the US CDC invited creator James Vaughan to speak about how Plague Inc. models disease spread and could help educate the public — a first for a mobile game.en.wikipedia.orgDuring the COVID-19 outbreak it surged past Minecraft to become the top-paid iOS app — then on 27 February 2020 China forced its removal from the App Store for 'illegal content'.en.wikipedia.orgJames Vaughan built the game essentially alone, in afternoons and evenings, before founding Ndemic Creations — it went on to 160M+ downloads and spawned Rebel Inc.ndemiccreations.comRead 1 more fact
Sky Force Reloaded20163 factsGame page →The Sky Force series is mobile-gaming royalty: Polish studio Infinite Dreams launched the original back in 2004 on Pocket PC and Symbian, years before smartphones — Reloaded is the follow-up to the acclaimed Sky Force 2014.idreams.plThe 2016 release date marks the mobile launch; the enhanced PC and console versions followed in late 2017, adding the game to Xbox Game Pass for a stretch.store.steampowered.comBeyond shooting, runs are scored on saving people: rescuing stranded civilians mid-battle and collecting hidden buff cards are as central to mastery as dodging bullets.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Bravely Default20134 factsGame page →The subtitle 'Flying Fairy' exists so the title abbreviates to 'FF' — a deliberate wink at the Final Fantasy lineage it quietly spun off from.en.wikipedia.orgComposer Revo's identity was kept secret from the 2011 TGS reveal until 2012 — and the Sound Horizon frontman launched his entire Linked Horizon project (later famous for the Attack on Titan openings) with this score.siliconera.comProducer Tomoya Asano explained the odd title as a thesis: 'Bravely Default' means having the courage to renounce what's expected of you and act on your own will.en.wikipedia.orgThe standalone demo fed the full game: demo progress transferred up to ~20 villagers into Norende, the town-rebuilding minigame.bravelydefault.fandom.comRead 2 more facts
Ace of Spades20123 factsGame page →Ben Aksoy's free 2011 prototype — 'Minecraft with rifles' — was acquired by Jagex, who had Blitz Games rewrite the entire codebase in about eight weeks to hit Christmas 2012.en.wikipedia.orgCommunity backlash led Jagex to add 'Classic Mode' in January 2013, recreating Aksoy's original freeware experience inside the commercial game.en.wikipedia.orgJagex considered open-sourcing the game after discontinuation but rejected it in 2019 over licensing issues — the servers died on 6 March 2019, and Jagex's own CCO admitted it 'was not launched well'.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Trip to Vinelands20163 factsGame page →Trip to Vinelands is one of the 25+ micro-games by prolific Brazilian solo developer Walter Machado, best known for the UBERMOSH series — all sold in a single "ALL WALTER'S STUFF ON STEAM" bundle.store.steampowered.comThe game spawned three sequels that dropped the full name entirely, shipping as just TTV2, TTV3 and TTV4.store.steampowered.comMachado handles everything himself — the store page credits the game's "original audio and art" to the developer, pitched as a deliberately underground arcade experience at a sub-$1 price.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Retro City Rampage20124 factsGame page →The game started as 'Grand Theftendo', a demake of GTA III that Brian Provinciano was building to run on an actual NES — he even built his own NES dev kit hardware to do it.en.wikipedia.orgProvinciano shipped the game essentially solo across 17 SKUs — the subject of his GDC talk 'One Man, 17 SKUs: Shipping on Every Platform at Once'.gamezebo.comPlayStation Plus dwarfed its paid sales: 170,000 copies were bought, but 270,000 more were downloaded free via PS Plus — and PSN still out-earned Steam and XBLA combined for the game.playstationlifestyle.netThe DX re-release even got an official MS-DOS version — the Steam build ships a bonus copy that runs on a 486 under MS-DOS 3.3 or FreeDOS.store.steampowered.comRead 2 more facts
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 120103 factsGame page →A radical departure for the series, the game recast Harry as a third-person cover-shooter — his wand functioning like a gun, with an over-the-shoulder camera and cover system likened to Gears of War — abandoning the free-roam Hogwarts exploration of earlier titles.en.wikipedia.orgDeveloped by EA Bright Light as a tie-in to the 2010 David Yates film, it was one of the worst-received Harry Potter games, with Metacritic scores ranging roughly 37-56/100 across platforms.metacritic.comThe Xbox 360 version added Kinect support via on-rails shooter side missions.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Age of Empires: Online20113 factsGame page →Development began at Robot Entertainment under the codename 'Project S' — and was even referred to as an early 'Age of Empires IV' — before Gas Powered Games took over in February 2011.en.wikipedia.orgThe game ran on a heavily modified BANG! engine carrying over 1.2 million lines of code from the classic Age of Empires III lineage.en.wikipedia.orgPlayers completed more than 500 million single-player quests before Microsoft closed the servers on 1 July 2014 — the stated reason being that new content cost more than the player base could sustain.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Sonic Colors20106 factsGame page →It introduced the Wisps — colored alien power-ups that grant Sonic special abilities — a mechanic that became a series staple, returning in Generations, Lost World and Forces.en.wikipedia.orgIt is set in Dr. Eggman's interstellar amusement park, built above a chain of captured planets he claims to have made for peaceful ends.en.wikipedia.orgIt marked Roger Craig Smith's debut as the voice of Sonic, replacing the prior Sonic X-era cast.en.wikipedia.orgIt is widely regarded as a 'return to form' for the franchise after the divisive 2006-2009 era.en.wikipedia.orgThe opening theme 'Reach for the Stars' was written by sound director Tomoya Ohtani and performed by the band Cash Cash.sonic.fandom.comIt was remastered as Sonic Colors: Ultimate, released 7 September 2021 on Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization20164 factsGame page →Original light-novel author Reki Kawahara supervised and wrote the game's scenario — the story of the mysterious NPC girl Premiere is canon-adjacent material penned by the franchise's creator himself.en.wikipedia.orgBandai Namco stated before launch that the main story alone runs 30–40 hours, with 70–100 hours for players who dive into everything — GameFAQs users report an average of ~79 hours to beat it.pushsquare.comThe game is set in "Sword Art: Origin" — a deliberate re-creation of the floating castle Aincrad's death game, but this time nobody dies for real, letting the story interrogate what made the original SAO world meaningful.bandainamcoent.comA Deluxe Edition later carried the PS4/Vita original to PC (2017) and Nintendo Switch (2019) with all DLC included, including the "Abyss of the Shrine Maiden" four-chapter expansion.en.wikipedia.orgRead 2 more facts
Total War Battles: Shogun20122 factsGame page →Units have no visible stat or health bars — you read a samurai's condition visually — and troops can never retreat, a rule Creative Assembly tied to the Bushido code.en.wikipedia.orgEdge praised its 'uncommon level of polish for an iOS title' — the iOS version hit 83 on Metacritic while the PC port drew mixed reviews.en.wikipedia.org
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 220113 factsGame page →It was the final game developed by EA Bright Light — EA closed the studio shortly after release, ending EA's decade-long run of Harry Potter games.en.wikipedia.orgJames Hannigan, one of the most prolific Harry Potter game composers, scored the console versions while Allister Brimble handled the DS release.harrypotter.fandom.comWith Metacritic scores of 43-55 it is widely ranked the low point of the series — GamesRadar called it 'the absolute nadir' of Harry Potter games.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Dragon's Dogma20123 factsGame page →Director Hideaki Itsuno conceived Dragon's Dogma in 2000 but couldn't pitch it until 2008 — an eight-year wait for his dream open-world fantasy.en.wikipedia.orgThe online Pawn sharing system was inspired by old bulletin-board systems, and 82 actors recorded roughly 42,000 lines — with 12 of them re-recording Pawn lines at different pitches to fake a bigger cast.en.wikipedia.orgJapanese rock legends B'z performed the original theme song 'Into Free -Dangan-' — an unusually mainstream musical tie-in for a new Capcom IP.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Until I Have You20166 factsGame page →Until I Have You is an action-platformer built in Adventure Game Studio (AGS), an engine best known for point-and-click adventures; it won the AGS Award for 'Best Non-Adventure Game Created with AGS'.en.wikipedia.orgIt is essentially a two-person project by James Spanos (design, programming and the full 34-track score) and Andrea Ferrara (pixel art); Spanos had previously programmed Wormwood Studios' acclaimed adventure Primordia.cshpicone.comA central 'Hysteria' sanity mechanic: the protagonist's experimental suit grants power at the cost of sanity, and depleting it makes him hallucinate, with the game altering level design and mechanics.en.wikipedia.orgThe story follows an assassin, 'the Artist', who tries to retire; when former clients kidnap his wife he dons a powered exoskeleton to rescue her, under the tagline 'how much of yourself would you be willing to sacrifice?'.rawg.ioAfter missions, in-world TV news segments recast the player's victims to reflect the setting's corruption, reinforcing the dystopian tone.saveorquit.comReception was split: reviewers praised the story, soundtrack and voice acting but repeatedly criticised the steep, uneven difficulty (Metacritic 69).en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Need for Speed: No Limits20156 factsGame page →It was the first original Need for Speed title built specifically for mobile devices, and the 21st installment in the franchise.en.wikipedia.orgIt was developed by Melbourne-based Firemonkeys Studios, the studio behind Real Racing 3.en.wikipedia.orgAfter an iOS soft launch in Taiwan and the Netherlands (Jan 2015) and an Android beta, it released worldwide on 30 September 2015.en.wikipedia.orgDespite praise for its visuals and controls, it holds a 67/100 on Metacritic, with reviewers criticizing its aggressive free-to-play monetization and short races.en.wikipedia.orgAn 'Interceptor' mode added in January 2023 lets players join the police to bust other street racers.en.wikipedia.orgThe teaser trailer's music, 'Castellated Nut' by Junkie XL, was reused from Need for Speed: ProStreet.nfs.fandom.comRead 4 more facts
Remnants of a Beautiful Day20163 factsGame page →Remnants of a Beautiful Day began life as a freeware game released on October 25, 2012; the enhanced edition arrived on Steam in May 2016, and the original 2012 build was later republished on Steam as its own separate free app.pcgamingwiki.comThe game deliberately has no traditional "Game Over" state — the developer designed it as an artistic narrative meant to evoke surreal, psychological unease rather than challenge, with a handful of different endings.store.steampowered.comThe 2016 Steam edition has since been delisted and can no longer be purchased from the Steam store, making it one of the harder-to-obtain indie horror curios of its era.gg.dealsRead 1 more fact
Nier Replicant20107 factsGame page →NieR shipped in two versions: NieR Replicant (PS3, Japan-only) stars a teenage boy protecting his sister Yonah, while NieR Gestalt (Xbox 360; released worldwide as just 'NieR') stars a middle-aged man protecting his daughter Yonah — same world, different protagonist.en.wikipedia.orgIt was directed by Yoko Taro, later famous for NieR:Automata.en.wikipedia.orgNieR is a spin-off of the Drakengard series, set over a thousand years after the fifth ('joke') ending of the first Drakengard (2003).en.wikipedia.orgThe acclaimed score was composed by Keiichi Okabe and studio MONACA, with vocals by Emi Evans sung in an invented language blending English, French, Gaelic and Japanese.nier.fandom.comThe original has multiple endings (A–D); reaching Ending D permanently deletes the player's entire save file. (Ending E, which restores the save, was added only in the 2021 ver.1.22 remaster.)en.wikipedia.orgThe protagonist's companion is Grimoire Weiss, a floating, talking magical book.en.wikipedia.orgThe original NieR (Gestalt and Replicant combined) sold roughly 500,000 copies worldwide, per a 2019 estimate by Yoko Taro.en.wikipedia.orgRead 5 more facts
The Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest20106 factsGame page →The game is framed as a bedtime tale: fifteen years after the War of the Ring, Samwise Gamgee recounts Aragorn's heroic deeds to his children in the Shire, giving it a deliberately family-friendly tone.en.wikipedia.orgRather than adapting Tolkien's novels directly, the game retells events from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy.en.wikipedia.orgTwo studios built the game: Headstrong Games developed the Wii version, while TT Fusion produced the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PSP and Nintendo DS versions.en.wikipedia.orgAragorn's dialogue was assembled from sound samples of Viggo Mortensen's film performance rather than newly recorded lines, while Sean Astin (Samwise) and John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) reprised their film roles.en.wikipedia.orgCombat uses motion controls — the Wii Remote and Nunchuk for sword swings on Wii, with PlayStation Move support on PS3.en.wikipedia.orgIt features local co-op in which a second player controls Gandalf alongside Aragorn.nintendolife.comRead 4 more facts
Chef Solitaire: USA20163 factsGame page →The premise fuses two casual genres: every solitaire round you clear powers your climb from one roadside diner to a coast-to-coast restaurant empire, unlocking new venues across the USA with earned stars.store.steampowered.comDeveloper The Revills Games is a micro-studio that has specialized almost exclusively in solitaire games, with a whole catalog of TriPeaks-style titles on Steam and casual portals.therevillsgames.comThe entire game weighs in at just 55 MB and runs on DirectX 7-era hardware — system requirements straight out of the Windows XP age, even in 2016.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Rune Factory 420123 factsGame page →Developer Neverland went bankrupt in November 2013, just months after the game's Western release — Rune Factory 4 was the studio's final entry, and the series lay dormant until Marvelous revived it with RF4 Special in 2019.en.wikipedia.orgIt was the first Rune Factory to let you choose your hero's gender at the start — Lest or Frey — both fully voiced and both canonically falling from an airship onto a dragon's castle.en.wikipedia.orgCo-director Shinichi Manabe — previously Rune Factory 3's main programmer — reunited former Neverland staff in 2026 to crowdfund Farnia Village, a spiritual successor whose Kickstarter was massively successful.automaton-media.comRead 1 more fact
1917: The Alien Invasion DX20163 factsGame page →DX is the enhanced edition of Andrade Games' original 1917 - The Alien Invasion, and the series was later remastered yet again as 1917: The Alien Invasion DX Remastered.andrade-games.itch.ioThe heroine is Dr. Brunhild Stahlmüller, a WW1 scientist who retrofits a triplane with captured alien technology and takes the fight from Earth's skies all the way to an ancient alien homeworld.store.steampowered.comThe developer explicitly bills it as a "memorization" bullet-hell — the old-school school of shmup design where learning enemy patterns by heart, not reflexes alone, is the key to survival.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Epic Mickey20106 factsGame page →It was directed by Warren Spector, best known for immersive-sim classics Deus Ex and System Shock, who applied his player-choice philosophy to a Disney platformer.en.wikipedia.orgMickey wields a magic paintbrush to lay down paint (build/befriend) or thinner (erase/destroy), dynamically reshaping the world and branching alliances and quests based on player choices.en.wikipedia.orgIt is set in Wasteland, an alternate world of Disney's forgotten and retired creations ruled by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit — Walt Disney's pre-Mickey star whom Disney reacquired from Universal in 2006.en.wikipedia.orgIt marked the first video-game appearance of Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit together.en.wikipedia.orgReviews praised its art style and meta-narrative but widely criticized the camera; it holds a 73/100 on Metacritic.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold about 1.3 million copies in its first month and roughly 2 million in NA and Europe by June 2011, spawning the 2012 sequel Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded20113 factsGame page →Bond film composer David Arnold scored the game with Kevin Kiner — the first time Arnold wrote for a Bond video game — and Nicole Scherzinger recorded a new cover of the GoldenEye theme.en.wikipedia.orgIt was pulled from digital storefronts in early January 2013 with no notice, when Activision's James Bond license ended early and all its Bond titles were delisted.en.wikipedia.orgReloaded runs the Wii remake in a new HD engine at 60fps and adds the Mi6 Ops mission mode — Eurocom's last Bond project before the studio closed in 2012.en.wikipedia.orgRead 1 more fact
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars20112 factsGame page →Shadow Wars was led by Julian Gollop — the creator of the original X-COM — who brought his signature turn-based tactics to the Ghost Recon license as a Nintendo 3DS launch title.en.wikipedia.orgIts 37-mission campaign runs roughly 35-45 hours — unusually long for a handheld launch title — and earned one of the strongest review scores of the 3DS launch lineup (Metacritic 77).gamefaqs.gamespot.com
Station Manager20163 factsGame page →Station Manager launched on mobile in June 2016 but only reached Steam on March 27, 2022 — part of Kairosoft's long-running campaign of porting its back catalog to PC and consoles.store.steampowered.comKairosoft is the Japanese studio behind Game Dev Story, and Station Manager follows the same compact tycoon template — down to amenities like arcades, VIP lounges and taco stands on your platforms.store.steampowered.comThe game's internal name is "densha" (Japanese for train), visible in both its Google Play package id and Kairosoft's official site URL.kairosoft.netRead 1 more fact
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 120164 factsGame page →Volume 1 contains the complete Swordquest trilogy (Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld) — the games behind Atari's legendary early-80s contest whose jewel-encrusted prizes were never fully awarded after the video game crash cut the competition short.atari.comThe collection gave "Save Mary" — an Atari 2600 game finished around 1989 but shelved when the console was discontinued — one of its first official releases, nearly three decades after it was completed.atari.comAll 50 games run on FOCAL, the in-house emulation technology of developer Code Mystics — the studio founded in 2009 by Jeff Vavasour, one of the industry's best-known retro-emulation engineers.codemystics.comThe collection added online multiplayer, achievements and global leaderboards to games originally released in the 1970s and 1980s — letting Atari 2600 classics like Combat and Warlords be played online for the first time officially.xbox.comRead 2 more facts
Pixel Gun 3D20133 factsGame page →For years the game was officially credited to 'Alex Krasnov' — essentially a publishing-account name; behind it was a small Moscow team that grew into Cubic Games (earlier known as RiliSoft).en.wikipedia.orgBy October 2023 Cubic Games reported 185 million downloads and $200 million in profit — from a blocky mobile shooter that launched in May 2013.en.wikipedia.orgA separate 'Pixel Gun 3D: PC Edition' finally arrived on Steam in April 2024 — eleven years after the mobile original.store.steampowered.comRead 1 more fact
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator20106 factsGame page →It is the only Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon game released exclusively for the PlayStation Portable, and the only main-series entry developed by Virtuos rather than Ubisoft's Red Storm/Paris studios.en.wikipedia.orgSet in the jungles of Sri Lanka, its narrative draws on the real-world 1987-1989 JVP insurrection.en.wikipedia.orgPlayers command a three-soldier Ghost squad chosen from eight characters across five classes (scout, support gunner, marksman, shotgunner, medic) and can switch between squadmates on the fly.en.wikipedia.orgIts campaign frames a 72-hour mission preparing for a U.S. invasion, during which the Ghosts uncover falsified intelligence about their target.metacritic.comIt was critically panned, holding a Metacritic score of 54/100; reviewers cited weak AI, awkward controls and a brief campaign.metacritic.comIt includes online and ad-hoc co-op multiplayer for up to three players.co-optimus.comRead 4 more facts
Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 220164 factsGame page →Volume 2 includes Adventure (1980), the Atari 2600 classic containing gaming's most famous early Easter egg — programmer Warren Robinett's hidden name room, the discovery that popularized the very term "Easter egg" in games.en.wikipedia.orgThe lineup mixes household names (Asteroids, Missile Command, Breakout) with arcade vector-graphics rarities like Major Havoc, Gravitar and Red Baron, all emulated from the original arcade versions.atari.comIncluded title Secret Quest (1989) was one of the very last official Atari 2600 games and was marketed with Nolan Bushnell's name on the box, though it was actually programmed by Steve DeFrisco at Axlon.en.wikipedia.orgLike Volume 1, all 50 games run on developer Code Mystics' in-house FOCAL emulation technology, with online multiplayer and global leaderboards added to games first released in the 1970s and 80s.codemystics.comRead 2 more facts
Horizon Chase20155 factsGame page →A nostalgic tribute to 1980s-90s arcade racers, its 3D low-poly, brightly-colored aesthetic is directly inspired by 16-bit classics like Top Gear (SNES) and Out Run.en.wikipedia.orgThe soundtrack was written by Barry Leitch, composer of the SNES Top Gear (1992) — a game whose music was hugely popular with Brazilian fans, which is why Aquiris sought him out.pixelatedaudio.comA cover of Top Gear's beloved 'Las Vegas' track is hidden in the game as an Easter egg, and fan remixes from a community contest were folded into the official soundtrack.en.wikipedia.orgMade by Brazilian studio Aquiris Game Studio, the mobile game was later remade and expanded for PC/console as Horizon Chase Turbo (2018).en.wikipedia.orgThe Horizon Chase series surpassed 50 million downloads by its 5th anniversary in 2020.pocketgamer.comRead 3 more facts
Company of Heroes Online20104 factsGame page →Company of Heroes Online was a free-to-play, microtransaction-funded MMO reworking of Relic Entertainment's 2006 RTS Company of Heroes, published by THQ.gamedeveloper.comIt first launched as free-to-play in South Korea in April 2010 (with publisher WindySoft) and had a separate Chinese version via Shanda; a global/NA open beta began on 2 September 2010.companyofheroes.fandom.comTHQ cancelled the game and shut its servers on 31 March 2011, citing a reevaluation of adapting Western content into free-to-play online games for Asian markets; Relic's effort shifted toward what became Company of Heroes 2.bit-tech.netPlayers managed up to four persistent commanders per account that gained levels and abilities — for example a Blitzkrieg commander could call in extra tank support — layered onto the original game's maps.companyofheroes.fandom.comRead 2 more facts
Harry Potter for Kinect20123 factsGame page →You could literally put yourself in Hogwarts — the game used the Kinect camera to scan your face onto your own student avatar.en.wikipedia.orgIt was one of veteran UK studio Eurocom's final games: weeks after release, the studio laid off ~75% of its ~200 staff (23 November 2012) and shut down completely on 6 December 2012.gamespot.comNone of the film cast returned — Harry is voiced by Adam Sopp, with soundalikes for Ron, Dumbledore and the rest of Hogwarts.behindthevoiceactors.comRead 1 more fact
Ark: Survival Evolved201716 factsGame page →ARK: Survival Evolved spent roughly two years and three months in paid Steam Early Access — it launched on June 2, 2015 and reached its full 1.0 release on August 29, 2017.en.wikipedia.orgThe score was composed by Gareth Coker — best known for Ori and the Blind Forest — with much of the soundtrack performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and recorded at Abbey Road Studios.en.wikipedia.orgThe game was nearly derailed by litigation: in 2015-2016 Trendy Entertainment and investor Insight Venture Partners sued co-founder Jeremy Stieglitz, alleging he developed ARK in breach of a non-compete; the case was settled in April 2016.en.wikipedia.orgActor Vin Diesel, a longtime ARK fan, joined Studio Wildcard as 'President of Creative Convergence' and stars as the protagonist Santiago in the sequel, ARK 2.studiowildcard.comARK 2 was announced at The Game Awards in December 2020, built on Unreal Engine 5 and starring Vin Diesel.en.wikipedia.orgARK: The Animated Series carries an unusually star-studded voice cast - including Vin Diesel, Russell Crowe, Gerard Butler, Michelle Yeoh, David Tennant, Jeffrey Wright, Elliot Page and Karl Urban - and premiered on Paramount+ in March 2024.deadline.comSeveral of ARK's official maps began as community mods under Studio Wildcard's 'Sponsored Mods' program, including The Center, Ragnarok and Valguero.ark.wiki.ggIn December 2017 ARK added Xbox Play Anywhere cross-buy and cross-play between the Xbox One and Windows 10 Store versions, letting those players share progress and play together.news.xbox.comARK was given away free on the Epic Games Store from June 11-18, 2020, coinciding with its fifth anniversary and the release of the free Crystal Isles map.pcgamer.comStudio Wildcard drew criticism for selling paid expansions such as the Genesis Season Pass while the base game was still officially in Early Access.digitaltrends.comARK is notorious for its enormous install size - well over 100GB for the base game and around 275GB with all DLC - despite Steam's long-outdated 60GB listing.dexerto.comThe game sold more than one million copies within roughly a month of its June 2015 Early Access debut.gamerant.comBy February 2017 ARK had sold about seven million copies across all platforms, including over one million on PlayStation 4.gamesbeat.comBy June 2022 ARK reported around 76.5 million total installs across PC and consoles, though roughly 38.4 million came from free promotions.en.wikipedia.orgDeveloper Studio Wildcard, founded in 2014, is tied to Snail Games USA - the American branch of China's Snail Games.en.wikipedia.orgARK's world contains well over 100 tameable creatures (roughly 194 in total), ranging from dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals to mythical beasts.en.wikipedia.orgRead 14 more facts
Among Us201811 factsGame page →Among Us launched quietly on iOS and Android on 15 June 2018 to little attention, often with only 30-50 concurrent players in its early days.en.wikipedia.orgIt exploded in popularity in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic via Twitch and YouTube; streamer Sodapoppin is credited with first popularizing it on Twitch in July 2020.en.wikipedia.orgIt peaked at around 3.8 million concurrent players in late September 2020 and surpassed 100 million downloads that month.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built by a tiny three-person InnerSloth team: Marcus Bromander, Forest Willard and Amy Liu.en.wikipedia.orgIts maps include The Skeld (a spaceship), MIRA HQ, Polus, The Airship (drawn from InnerSloth's Henry Stickmin series) and The Fungle.en.wikipedia.orgA planned sequel, 'Among Us 2', was announced in August 2020 but cancelled that September so the team could rework the wildly popular original instead.en.wikipedia.orgU.S. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar streamed it in October 2020, drawing nearly 700,000 concurrent Twitch viewers.en.wikipedia.orgThe slang 'sus', popularized by the game, was added to Merriam-Webster in September 2022.en.wikipedia.orgIt runs on the Unity engine; the Nintendo Switch version was the highest-earning version in December 2020 with 3.2 million digital units.en.wikipedia.orgIt spawned Among Us VR (10 November 2022) and a Paramount+ animated series.en.wikipedia.orgInnerSloth used Among Us profits to launch the indie-publishing label 'Outersloth' in 2024.en.wikipedia.orgRead 9 more facts
Alien Swarm20107 factsGame page →Alien Swarm began as a free multiplayer mod for Unreal Tournament 2004, released in 2004 by the team Black Cat Games, which won GameSpy's Mod of the Year 2004.en.wikipedia.orgValve hired the original mod team, who finished Alien Swarm between work on other Valve titles such as Left 4 Dead and Portal 2.en.wikipedia.orgIt was released completely free on Steam on July 19, 2010, alongside its full Source-engine codebase and SDK — letting anyone build free total-conversion mods without owning another Valve game.gamedeveloper.comIt is a four-player top-down co-op shooter whose setting and bug-hunt gameplay are heavily reminiscent of the 1986 film Aliens.en.wikipedia.orgA Source-engine version was first announced in 2005 as 'Alien Swarm: Infested' but stalled around 2007 before Valve revived and released it in 2010.en.wikipedia.orgAn expanded standalone successor, Alien Swarm: Reactive Drop, launched on April 20, 2017, adding single-player bots and up to eight-player support.en.wikipedia.orgThe original score was written by Valve composer Mike Morasky and consists of only five tracks.maybemattis.deRead 5 more facts
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty20107 factsGame page →It was released July 27, 2010 — 12 years after the original StarCraft (1998), the longest gap Blizzard had ever left between a game and its sequel.en.wikipedia.orgIt sold over 1 million copies on its first day and about 1.5 million within 48 hours, reaching 3 million worldwide in its first month — the fastest-selling strategy game of all time at launch.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the first chapter of a planned trilogy, each focused on one race: Wings of Liberty (Terran), Heart of the Swarm (Zerg, 2013) and Legacy of the Void (Protoss, 2015).en.wikipedia.orgThe single-player campaign follows Jim Raynor and is non-linear: players earn credits from missions to buy units and upgrades aboard the battlecruiser Hyperion.en.wikipedia.orgIt became free-to-play in November 2017 (announced at BlizzCon 2017), unlocking the full Wings of Liberty campaign and multiplayer.en.wikipedia.orgIt powered one of the largest esports scenes of its era, especially in South Korea; Blizzard launched the World Championship Series (WCS) in 2012.en.wikipedia.orgIt launched fully localized in 11 languages, including lip-synced voiceover for its cinematics and a localized Map Editor.gamedeveloper.comRead 5 more facts
APB: All Points Bulletin20106 factsGame page →APB was conceived and led by David Jones, creator of the original Grand Theft Auto and Crackdown; it was described as the game he'd 'always wanted to make'.en.wikipedia.orgDevelopment reportedly cost over $100 million (Realtime Worlds raised ~$101M total), making APB one of the most expensive video games ever produced.en.wikipedia.orgIt was a commercial disaster: Realtime Worlds entered administration in August 2010, about six weeks after launch, and the servers were shut down that September — under three months on the market.venturebeat.comAPB let players import their own music: matching songs played on in-game car radios, and Last.fm integration substituted similar tracks; players could even set a short custom music sting to play when they killed an opponent.en.wikipedia.orgRealtime Worlds' technology enabled unusually deep character and vehicle customization — paint, decals and attachments — a signature selling point.mobygames.comAfter the shutdown, online-gaming company K2 Network bought APB for £1.5 million and its subsidiary Reloaded Productions relaunched it as free-to-play 'APB: Reloaded' in 2011.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Hatred20156 factsGame page →Hatred is the debut title of Destructive Creations, a Polish studio based in Gliwice, built on Unreal Engine 4 with Nvidia PhysX.en.wikipedia.orgIt is one of only a few games given an ESRB 'Adults Only' (AO) rating for extreme violence rather than sexual content, alongside the cancelled Thrill Kill and the original cut of Manhunt 2.esrb.orgThe game was pulled from Steam Greenlight in December 2014, then reinstated days later after Valve co-founder Gabe Newell personally apologised to the developers.en.wikipedia.orgIts art direction is almost entirely monochromatic, reserving colour mainly for fire and blood.en.wikipedia.orgThe antagonist's dialogue was written by 'Herr Warcrimer', vocalist of the Polish black-metal band Infernal War.en.wikipedia.orgShortly before release, Twitch announced a ban on streaming ESRB 'Adults Only' games, which applied to Hatred.en.wikipedia.orgRead 4 more facts
Super Mario and the Sacred Bells20106 factsGame page →The kindly Toadsworth who sends Mario on his quest is a disguise — the true villain is Dimentio, the jester antagonist of Super Paper Mario (2007), tying the fan game's story directly to that Nintendo game.wiki.mfgg.netThe game lets players switch between three playable heroes — Mario, Luigi and Peach — which reviewers singled out as a rarity for a Mario platformer.wiki.mfgg.netSeven of the game's nine bosses are the Koopalings, and each is fought with its own unique mechanic instead of a shared pattern.wiki.mfgg.netIt was downloaded more than 28,500 times on Mario Fan Games Galaxy and holds an average community rating of about 8/10.mfgg.netThe whole game — 8 worlds and 27 levels — was built by a single creator, Firestyle, in GameMaker and distributed free as a 7.84 MB download.mfgg.netIt is included on MFGG's curated '30 Games on MFGG Worth Playing' list highlighting standout community fan games.wiki.mfgg.netRead 4 more facts
Tekken 720156 factsGame page →Tekken 7 is the first entry in the series built on Unreal Engine 4.en.wikipedia.orgIts story mode concludes the decades-long Mishima family blood feud between Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima.en.wikipedia.orgIt debuted in Japanese arcades on 18 March 2015, more than two years before its PS4, Xbox One and PC console release on 2 June 2017 — the first Tekken on PC.en.wikipedia.orgThe roster features guest fighters from other franchises: Akuma (Street Fighter), Geese Howard (Fatal Fury), Noctis Lucis Caelum (Final Fantasy XV) and Negan (The Walking Dead).en.wikipedia.orgIt introduced the comeback 'Rage Art' super-move mechanic to the series.en.wikipedia.orgTekken 7 passed 10 million copies sold by December 2022, becoming the best-selling game in the franchise.gameworldobserver.comRead 4 more facts
Yet Another Zombie Defense20106 factsGame page →Built with Microsoft's XNA framework; after Microsoft abandoned XNA, the studio later rebuilt the game from scratch in Unity for its HD remaster.pcgamingwiki.comIt was the breakout hit for Poland's Awesome Games Studio (founded 2009 by Marcin Draszczuk) and its success helped fund the studio for years.awesomegamesstudio.comIt debuted on Xbox Live Indie Games in 2010, was later ported to iOS and the Kongregate browser platform in 2013, then arrived on Steam in 2014 as a free-to-play title.store.steampowered.comThe game blends two genres at once — a twin-stick zombie shooter with tower-defense base-building, where players fortify by day and survive undead waves by night, with up to 4-player co-op.store.steampowered.comThe soundtrack is by Kevin MacLeod, the royalty-free composer whose music appears in thousands of games and videos — the menu uses his 'Darkness Is Coming' and the wave theme is 'What You Want'.mobygames.comOn Xbox Live Indie Games the title was also known as 'Amazing Zombie Defense'; the original Steam version became permanently free around the 2017 launch of the paid HD remaster.mobygames.comRead 4 more facts
ABZU20165 factsGame page →ABZÛ was created by Matt Nava, the art director of Journey and Flower, who began pitching it before leaving thatgamecompany to found developer Giant Squid; development took three years with a team of thirteen.en.wikipedia.orgThe wordless underwater score was composed by Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated composer of Journey, and won the 2017 G.A.N.G. Best Original Soundtrack Album.en.wikipedia.orgTo render huge schools of fish, the team invented a procedural animation technique driven from the tail — far cheaper than skeletal rigs — letting thousands of fish swim on screen where earlier games managed only about a hundred.en.wikipedia.orgThe title comes from Sumerian myth — 'ab' (water) + 'zu' (to know) — meaning the primordial ocean of wisdom.en.wikipedia.orgBuilt in Unreal Engine 4, ABZÛ is a serene, dialogue-free diving experience widely seen as a spiritual kin to thatgamecompany's work.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
H1Z120155 factsGame page →H1Z1 launched into Steam Early Access on 15 January 2015 and sold over a million copies within two months.pcgamer.comAn early proto-battle-royale, H1Z1 helped popularize the genre; Brendan 'PlayerUnknown' Greene — later the creator of PUBG — was recruited to help build its battle-royale mode, and developers said 'there wouldn't be PUBG without H1Z1.'en.wikipedia.orgIn February 2016 Daybreak split H1Z1 into two standalone games: H1Z1: Just Survive (co-op survival) and H1Z1: King of the Kill (battle royale).en.wikipedia.orgThe battle-royale line went free-to-play in 2018 and was renamed Z1 Battle Royale in March 2019; Just Survive was shut down on 24 October 2018.en.wikipedia.orgIt was built on Daybreak's proprietary ForgeLight engine, also used in PlanetSide 2.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Heroes of the Storm20155 factsGame page →A Blizzard crossover MOBA: heroes are drawn from Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch and even The Lost Vikings, battling across a shared universe called the Nexus.en.wikipedia.orgIt evolved from a StarCraft II custom map called 'Blizzard DOTA' shown at BlizzCon 2010, was rebooted as 'Blizzard All-Stars', then renamed Heroes of the Storm in 2013 and launched standalone on 2 June 2015.en.wikipedia.orgIts design breaks from genre norms: shared team experience (no individual last-hitting), no item shop, and a rotating roster of themed 'battleground' maps with map-specific objectives.en.wikipedia.orgIn December 2018 Blizzard moved developers off the game and cancelled its esports leagues (the Heroes Global Championship), shifting it to long-term support.en.wikipedia.orgA 2012 trademark agreement with Valve over the 'DotA' name pushed Blizzard to drop the 'Blizzard DOTA' title.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Minecraft: Java Edition20115 factsGame page →Minecraft was created by Swedish programmer Markus 'Notch' Persson, who first released a public version in May 2009; Jens 'Jeb' Bergensten took over as lead designer around the 1.0 release.en.wikipedia.orgThe full 1.0 version launched on 18 November 2011 at MineCon, for Windows, macOS and Linux.en.wikipedia.orgIt is the best-selling video game of all time, having sold over 300 million copies across all editions.en.wikipedia.orgMicrosoft acquired Mojang for US$2.5 billion in a deal completed in November 2014.en.wikipedia.orgThe original soundtrack was composed by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, known as C418.en.wikipedia.orgRead 3 more facts
Pavlov VR20175 factsGame page →Pavlov is universally known as 'Counter-Strike in VR' — its flagship Search & Destroy mode directly mirrors CS bomb-defusal, and it's frequently described as the most popular multiplayer PC VR shooter.tvtropes.orgIt was a PlayStation VR2 launch title (February 2023) and topped Sony's official PSVR2 download charts for all of 2023 in both Europe and North America.uploadvr.comThe free Quest version 'Pavlov Shack' lived on App Lab from March 2021 — hitting ~3,000 concurrent players at launch — before becoming a paid Meta Quest Store release in November 2023.uploadvr.comIts deep modding scene runs on Steam Workshop and mod.io, with community maps adding whole modes — the fan-favourite TTT map 'Village' is modeled on Kakariko Village from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.uploadvr.comAfter nearly eight years in Early Access (from February 2017), it quietly hit 1.0 on 4 December 2024 with no official announcement post.vrnewstoday.comRead 3 more facts
Arma 320134 factsGame page →Two Bohemia developers, Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, were ARRESTED in Greece in 2012 on espionage charges while gathering reference material on Lemnos — they spent ~128 days in prison facing potential 20-year sentences before release on bail in January 2013.forbes.comThe fallout renamed the game world: the island originally called Lemnos became the fictional 'Altis' after the arrests — though it's still modeled on the real Lemnos, with Stratis based on Agios Efstratios.engadget.comReal Virtuality 4 made it the first Arma with DirectX 11 and PhysX — and the mod ecosystem it hosts spawned entire genres (DayZ battle royale lineage included).arma3.comProject lead Joris-Jan van 't Land steered the game from 2012 through 2015 — an era in which Bohemia turned a rocky launch into a decade-long platform.arma3.comRead 2 more facts
Bank Roll 200020164 factsGame page →Bank Roll 2000 is a fan-made remake of E3L2 "Bank Roll" from Duke Nukem 3D's Shrapnel City episode, created by Finnish mapper Aaro "Arzca" Ruohonen and released on July 31, 2016.msdn.duke4.netWhile staying loyal to the original layout, the remake adds several brand-new areas that weren't in the 1996 level, including a grocery store and a nudie bar, alongside modernized, more ambitious architecture.msdn.duke4.netMSDN (Mikko Sandt's Duke Nukem map review site) rated the map 92/100, calling it "a well-made, worthy remake" of the classic bank heist level.msdn.duke4.netThe map hides a chaingun so well that MSDN's reviewer admitted they couldn't locate it even after two full playthroughs.msdn.duke4.netRead 2 more facts
