2010 in video games
| List of years in video games |
|---|
Numerous video games were released in 2010. Many awards went to games such as Red Dead Redemption, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Mass Effect 2, God of War III and Super Mario Galaxy 2. Kinect from Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 was also released this year.
Series with new installments in 2010 include Ace Attorney, Alien vs. Predator, Army of Two, Assassin's Creed, Battlefield, BioShock, Call of Duty, Castlevania, Civilization, Crackdown, Donkey Kong, Darksiders, Dead Rising, Fable, Fallout, God of War, Gran Turismo, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Just Cause, Kane and Lynch, Lost Planet, Mafia, Mass Effect, Medal of Honor, Mega Man, Metroid, Need for Speed, Pokémon, Prince of Persia, Red Dead, Red Steel, Resident Evil, Skate, StarCraft, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario, Super Monkey Ball, Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Total War.
In addition, 2010 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Alan Wake, Darksiders, Deadly Premonition, Heavy Rain, and Metro.
Legend
| DS | Nintendo DS, DSiWare, iQue DS | iOS | iOS, iPhone, iPod, iPadOS, iPad, visionOS, Apple Vision Pro | LIN | Linux |
| OSX | macOS | PS2 | PlayStation 2 | PS3 | PlayStation 3 |
| PSN | PlayStation Network | PSP | PlayStation Portable | Wii | Wii, WiiWare, Wii Virtual Console |
| WIN | Microsoft Windows, all versions Windows 95 and up | XB360 | Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Live Arcade |
Hardware releases
This is a list of all the game hardware released in 2010.
This year saw the release of Sony's PlayStation Move and Microsoft's Kinect, which are Motion controller peripherals made to compete with Nintendo's Wii. In addition, Nintendo also released the Wii Remote Plus, which was a Wii Remote with a built-in MotionPlus.
Two consoles revisions were also released this year, the Nintendo DSi XL (which initially launched in Japan last year) and the Xbox 360 S.
| Datey | Console | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| March 5 | Nintendo DSi XLEU | |
| March 28 | Nintendo DSi XLNA | |
| April 15 | Nintendo DSi XLAU | |
| June 18 | Xbox 360 SNA | |
| July 1 | Xbox 360 SAU | |
| July 8 | Xbox 360 SNZ | |
| July 16 | Xbox 360 SEU | |
| September 15 | PlayStation MoveEU | [1] |
| September 16 | PlayStation MoveAU/NZ | [2] |
| September 17 | PlayStation MoveUK | [2] |
| September 19 | PlayStation MoveNA | [1] |
| October 21 | PlayStation MoveJP | [1] |
| October 28 | Wii Remote PlusAU | |
| November 4 | KinectNA | [3] |
| November 5 | Wii Remote PlusEU | |
| November 7 | Wii Remote PlusNA | |
| November 10 | KinectEU | [4] |
| November 11 | Wii Remote PlusJP | [5] |
| November 14 | KinectCOL | [6] |
| November 18 | KinectAU | [7] |
| November 20 | KinectJP | [8] |
Best-selling family video games
The following titles were the top five best-selling family video games worldwide in 2010.[9]
| Rank | Title | Platform(s) | Publisher | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wii Sports | Wii | Nintendo | 16,600,000 |
| 2 | New Super Mario Bros. Wii | Wii | Nintendo | 11,300,000 |
| Wii Sports Resort | Wii | Nintendo | 11,300,000 | |
| 4 | Wii Fit Plus | Wii | Nintendo | 8,900,000 |
| 5 | FIFA 11 | EA Sports | 8,400,000 |
Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
| Game | Publisher | Release Date | Platform | MC score | GR score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Super Mario Galaxy 2 | Nintendo | May 23, 2010 | Wii | 97/100 | 97.35% |
| Mass Effect 2 | Electronic Arts | January 26, 2010 | X360 | 96/100 | 95.77% |
| Red Dead Redemption | Rockstar Games | May 18, 2010 | PS3 | 95/100 | 94.66% |
| Red Dead Redemption | Rockstar Games | May 18, 2010 | X360 | 95/100 | 94.12% |
| Mass Effect 2 | Electronic Arts | January 26, 2010 | WIN | 94/100 | 94.52% |
| StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty | Blizzard Entertainment | July 27, 2010 | WIN | 93/100 | 92.44% |
| Rock Band 3 | MTV Games | October 26, 2010 | X360 | 93/100 | 92.44% |
| Pac-Man Championship Edition DX | Namco Bandai Games | November 17, 2010 | X360 | 93/100 | 90.88% |
| God of War III | Sony Computer Entertainment | March 16, 2010 | PS3 | 92/100 | 92.07% |
| Xenoblade Chronicles | Nintendo | June 10, 2010 | Wii | 92/100[12] | 91.74%[13] |
| Super Street Fighter IV | Capcom | April 27, 2010 | PS3 | 92/100 | 91.23% |
| Halo: Reach | Microsoft Game Studios | September 14, 2010 | X360 | 91/100 | 91.79% |
| World of Warcraft: Cataclysm | Blizzard Entertainment | December 7, 2010 | WIN | 90/100 | 91.45% |
| Super Street Fighter IV | Capcom | April 27, 2010 | X360 | 91/100 | 91.39% |
| Pac-Man Championship Edition DX | Namco Bandai Games | November 17, 2010 | PS3 | 91/100 | 91.06% |
| Rock Band 3 | MTV Games | October 26, 2010 | PS3 | 91/100 | 90.94% |
| Rock Band 3 | MTV Games | October 26, 2010 | Wii | 91/100 | 90.67% |
| MLB 10: The Show | Sony Computer Entertainment | March 2, 2010 | PS3 | 91/100 | 90.53% |
| Limbo | Microsoft Game Studios | July 21, 2010 | X360 | 90/100 | 90.68% |
| Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | Ubisoft | November 16, 2010 | X360 | 89/100 | 90.62% |
| Super Meat Boy | Team Meat | October 20, 2010 | X360 | 90/100 | 90.51% |
| Cave Story | Nicalis | March 22, 2010 | Wii | 89/100 | 90.31% |
| Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood | Ubisoft | November 16, 2010 | PS3 | 90/100 | 89.92% |
| Civilization V | 2K | September 21, 2010 | WIN | 90/100 | 89.17% |
Major awards
Video game-based film and television releases
| Title | Date | Director | Distributor(s) | Franchise | Original game publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic | February 9, 2010 | Mike Disa | Anchor Bay Entertainment | Dante's Inferno | Electronic Arts | [14] |
| Halo Legends | February 16, 2010 | Frank O'Connor | Warner Home Video | Halo | Bungie | [15] |
| Pixels | April 8, 2010 | Patrick Jean | One More Production | N/a | N/a | [16] |
| Street Fighter: Legacy | May 6, 2010 | Joey Ansah | Streetlight Films Inc. | Street Fighter | Capcom | [17] |
| Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | May 9, 2010 | Mike Newell | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Prince of Persia | Ubisoft | [18] |
| Mortal Kombat: Rebirth | June 8, 2010 | Kevin Tancharoen | N/a | Mortal Kombat | Midway Games | [19] |
| Zoroark: Master of Illusions | July 10, 2010 | Kunihiko Yuyama | Toho | Pokémon | Game Freak | [20] |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife | September 2, 2010 | Paul W. S. Anderson | Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group | Resident Evil | Capcom | [21] |
| Tron: Legacy | November 30, 2010 | Joseph Kosinski | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Tron | N/a | [22] |
Events
| Date | Event | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| January 7–10 | International Consumer Electronics Show 2010 was held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. | [23] |
| February 11–14 | Microsoft X10 held in San Francisco. | [24] |
| February 24–27 | Nintendo World Summit held in San Francisco. | [25] |
| March 9–13 | Game Developers Conference 2010 held in San Francisco, CA. | [26] |
| March 26–28 | First PAX East Coast at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston, MA. | |
| April 15 | Xbox Live for original Xbox console and games discontinued. | [27] |
| April 20–23 | Captivate, Capcom's annual tradeshow was held in Honolulu, Hawaii. | [28] |
| May 4–7 | The Humble Indie Bundle, an experiment into indie, charitable, cross-platform, DRM-free digital game distribution, is first released to great success. | |
| May 30 | Esports organization FaZe Clan is founded. | |
| June 15–17 | E3 2010 is held at the Los Angeles Convention Center. | [29] |
| June 17–19 | OnLive released. | |
| August 12–15 | QuakeCon was held in the Hotel Hilton Anatole, in Dallas, Texas, USA. | |
| August 16–18 | Game Developers Conference was held in Europe in Cologne. | |
| August 18–22 | Gamescom 2010 was held at Cologne, Germany. | |
| September 3–5 | Penny Arcade Expo 2010 was held at Washington State Convention Center in Seattle. | |
| September 15–21 | PlayStation Move was launched in North America, Europe and various Asian countries. | |
| September 16–19 | Tokyo Game Show 2010 was held at Makuhari Messe in Japan. | |
| September 30–October 3 | The 2010 World Cyber Games take place. | |
| October 22–23 | BlizzCon 2010 was held at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. | |
| November 4–7 | Microsoft's Kinect launched worldwide, starting in North America. | |
| December 11 | The 2010 Spike Video Game Awards were held. | [30] |
Notable deaths
- February 24 - Mark Beaumont, 54, COO of Capcom[31]
- February 1 - Tomi Pierce, 56, Writer of The Last Express[32]
- April 29 - Alexander Shafto "Sandy" Douglas, 88, Computer Scientist and creator of the first graphical computer game OXO[33]
- May 29 – Dennis Hopper, 74, actor (King Koopa in Super Mario Bros., Mr. Beautiful in Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller, Walter Pensky in Black Dahlia, Steve Scott in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and George Struggs in Deadly Creatures)[34]
- June 26 - Jonathan Smith, 57, British game developer, notable for developing many titles for the ZX Spectrum including Cobra[35]
- September 7 – Glenn Shadix, 58, actor (Demolition Man, The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge, Kingdom Hearts)[36]
- October 29 – Takeshi Shudo, 61, scriptwriter and creator of Lugia for Pokémon[37]
- December 9 - John Makepeace Bennett, 89, Computer Scientist who worked on Nimrod, one of the first computers capable of playing games[38]
- December 29 - Brigitte Burdine, 48, Casting Director who worked on God of War II[39]
Games released in 2010
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Sony PlayStation Move launch details get official: $99 for the bundle, hits North America September 17th". 15 June 2010. Archived from the original on 2020-06-26. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
- ^ a b Gallagher, James (7 September 2010). "Everything You Need To Know About PlayStation Move". Sony Computer Entertainment; PlayStation Blog. Archived from the original on 19 September 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
- ^ "Microsoft Xbox 360 Kinect Launches November 4". Gizmodo. June 14, 2010. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved September 9, 2017.
- ^ "Kinect gets UK release date". BBC. August 17, 2010. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved August 17, 2010.
It will hit the shelves on 10 November, five days after the US.
- ^ Thomas East. "Wii Remote Plus coming to Japan next month". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on October 13, 2010. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
- ^ "Ya llegaron a Colombia los videojuegos que no necesitan controles" [They've arrived in Colombia: controller-free video games] (in Spanish). Caracol TV. November 14, 2010. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2010.
- ^ "Xbox 360′s Kinect given release date for Australia". September 1, 2010. Archived from the original on September 3, 2010. Retrieved September 3, 2010.
- ^ "Microsoft to launch Kinect in Japan in November". The Economic Times. September 8, 2010. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
- ^ Morse, Jenifer Corr (November 2011). "Bestselling family video games". Scholastic Book of World Records 2012. Scholastic Inc. p. 118. ISBN 978-0-545-33149-4.
- ^ "Best Video Games for 2010". Metacritic. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ "Highest-Ranking Games of 2010 (with at least 5 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
- ^ "Best Video Games for 2012". Metacritic. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ^ "Highest-Ranking Games of 2012 (with at least 5 reviews)". GameRankings. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ^ McCutcheon, David (January 11, 2010). "Dante's Inferno's Six Layers". IGN. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ Monfette, Christopher (February 17, 2010). "Halo Legends Blu-ray Review". IGN. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ Jean, Patrick (April 8, 2010), Pixels (Animation, Short, Action), One More Production, retrieved April 4, 2024
- ^ Street Fighter: Legacy (Video 2010) - IMDb. Retrieved April 3, 2024 – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ Pulver, Andrew (May 20, 2010). "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ Tancharoen, Kevin (June 8, 2010), Mortal Kombat: Rebirth (Short, Action, Crime), Jeri Ryan, Michael Jai White, Ian Anthony Dale, retrieved April 3, 2024
- ^ "Pokémon: Zoroark: Master of Illusions". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 12, 2024.
- ^ "Resident Evil: Afterlife". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ "Tron: Legacy". IGN. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ "CES Held in Las Vegas". GameSpot. January 8, 2010. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ Williams, Bryn (January 26, 2010). "Microsoft's X10 Expo to be Held in San Francisco". GameSpy. Archived from the original on January 29, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
- ^ Brendan, Sinclair (February 24, 2010). "Nintendo's World Summit Held in San Francisco". GameSpot. Archived from the original on March 1, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2010.
- ^ "GDC Held in San Francisco". GameSpot. March 10, 2010. Archived from the original on December 29, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
- ^ "Xbox Live being discontinued for Original Xbox consoles and games". Microsoft. February 5, 2010. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
- ^ "Captivate held in Honolulu". GameSpot. April 20, 2010. Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
- ^ "Attendance and Stats". IGN. Archived from the original on May 13, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
- ^ Keyes, Rob (December 12, 2010). "2010 Spike Video Game Awards Winners List". Game Rant. Retrieved January 25, 2025.
- ^ MacKenzie, Austin (February 24, 2010). "Capcom COO Mark Beaumont Dies of a Heart Attack". The Escapist. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
- ^ "Tomi Pierce | Producer, Writer". IMDb. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
- ^ "Alexander (Sandy) Shafto Douglas 1921-2010". The Computer Journal. 54 (2): 187–188. February 1, 2011. doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxq054. ISSN 0010-4620.
- ^ Baker, Jesse (May 29, 2010). "Dennis Hopper, Hollywood Rebel, Dies At 74". NPR. Retrieved April 23, 2025.
- ^ "World of Spectrum - Speccy Heroes: In Memoriam - Jonathan M. Smith". www.worldofspectrum.org. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
- ^ "Actor Glenn Shadix Dead At 58, We Blame The MTV Video Games". Kotaku. September 8, 2010. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
- ^ Stalberg, Allison (November 11, 2021). "Pokemon: The Remarkable History Behind Lugia's Creation". Game Rant. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
- ^ Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology. "Bennett, John Makepeace - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". www.eoas.info. Retrieved January 18, 2026.
- ^ "Woman killed by car in Playa del Rey was video game casting director". Daily Bulletin. December 30, 2010. Retrieved January 18, 2026.