Five Big Wishes For 2015

As the year draws to a close, it's time to shift our focus to 2015. Here's my list of five big things I hope we see in it.

Shape Up Or Don't Ship Out
In 2014, broken games reached a...well, breaking point. More titles than ever launched with major bugs, broken servers, and incomplete feature sets. We have grown (perhaps too) accustomed to overlooking these problems because they eventually get fixed, but there's a lot to be said about a game getting it right the first time. A game-breaking bug can completely ruin your opinion of a game, but smaller issues like glitchy NPCs and unreliable servers also have a negative – and oftentimes cumulative – effect on the experience. Next year, I hope developers stop treating release day like a soft launch, and stop treating their customers like QA testers. Go back to the basics: Hone and balance the gameplay, fix the bugs, and get a solid infrastructure in place before launch so I that spend less time downloading patches and getting frustrated and more time enjoying your game. Which brings us to my next wish...

Worth The Wait
Not all developers chose to release unfinished games this year. Big-name titles like Evolve, The Witcher 3, The Order, and Battlefield: Hardline were all delayed into 2015 in order to make those experiences better. I hope those and other delayed games like Battleborne end up being worth the added wait. Not just because I want to play great games, but to prove to the rest of the industry that delaying a game to fix its problems is the better business practice. Finding out that you have to wait even longer for a game that you already can't wait to play is never going to be easy, but I think most gamers understand that it's worth it; if this crop of latecomers does well, maybe the industry's executives and investors will come to realize that as well.

Something Old, Something New
I love playing through novel experiences and stories, and hope that our new-gen systems usher in lots of exciting new IP announcements next year. However, I'd also love to see the return of some old favorites as well. Everyone is waiting for a Half-Life 3 reveal, but since this is my list, I wish that the New Year Gods (that's a thing, right?) will bring us word of a new Fallout, a follow-up to Red Dead Redemption, a new take on Left 4 Dead (how about you give an open-world design another shot, Valve?), and a new destruction-centric installment of Red Faction. I also wouldn't mind seeing a kickass, old-school Bomberman game (with online support, naturally), and the new 2D Metroid game that everyone has been dreaming about since forever (though Axiom Verge could very well suffice). Finally, I hope No Man's Sky makes it out in 2015, because I really want to play that game. Which leads us to...

Smarter, Not Prettier
We get it: The new-gen systems are capable of pumping out pretty graphics. 1080p resolutions and 60 frames per second are great, but next year I hope we see more examples of developers using the extra hardware power for interesting new gameplay mechanics and systems instead of just souped-up visuals. Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system is the most exciting thing I saw this year, and it didn't even really need the beefier systems to pull it off. It took Minecraft – which was developed by one guy – to sell the industry on the power of procedurally generated worlds, and the series in turn sold to Microsoft for $2.5 billion – clearly, gamers are interested in new ideas and experiences. The industry is already trending towards bigger, sandbox-y worlds and giving players more freedom, but I hope developers also wow us in 2015 by showing off some smart new game systems as well.

An Industry-Wide Chill Pill
Arguing on the Internet is nothing new, but the tone the gaming industry struck in 2014 was beyond the pale and attracted nationwide media coverage for how ugly things got. Time and time again, polarized and vitriolic rhetoric won out over meaningful conversation. Somehow, we all forgot that games are meant to be fun – our shared interest and enjoyment of games is stronger than any of the petty arguments that we let divide us. Gaming is more popular than ever before. There are players of all types and tastes, and an equally diverse array of games to choose from and enjoy. My biggest hope is that the gaming industry can leave the ugliness in 2014; that we can respect those we disagree with, play the games we enjoy, and trade in the unmitigated cynicism in favor of having fun in the year to come.

What's your biggest wish for the gaming industry in 2015? Share it in the comments below (and no, you can't wish for infinite wishes; that's cheating)...