The 10 Biggest Gaming Stories Of 2023

gameinformer.com:

With the year almost behind us, it's hard not to look back at 2023 with conflicted feelings. It was a fantastic year for gamers at home with great tentpole releases from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, and some excellent indies, too. For years to come, we will all likely argue that 2023 was one of the best – if not the best – year for games. But it was also a terrible year for the people who make games, with more than 10,000 developers laid off, studios closed, and more. 

Between big video game releases, a heartbreaking amount of layoffs, record-breaking acquisitions and box office reports, and more, 2023 contained plenty of news stories that had us talking for weeks, speculating on the future of the industry, and reshaping how we view game development. Here are the 10 biggest gaming news stories of 2023.

In June 2022, Naughty Dog revealed that its new Last of Us multiplayer project would be a standalone title. In May of this year, the studio announced it needed more time for the game while also teasing its work on a new single-player experience. But then, a few months later, Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 developers, with reports stating the Last of Us multiplayer project was «on ice.» Between the layoffs and reports about the game's developments, players realized this game might be further out than expected. 

Naughty Dog surprised many earlier this month, though, when it announced it was ceasing development on its online multiplayer Last of Us game. In hindsight, this isn't the most shocking development, but to see an announced PlayStation first-party game go through a public cancelation like this is extremely rare – first-party games get canceled, but usually, before the game reaches the point of being a publicly