The game has made over $30bn in its 20-year lifespan, and its publisher Activision was recently taken over by Microsoft for $69bn. So how has the game, and gaming itself changed over two decades?
The 2022 winners of the Lyttle Lytton Contest (to write the worst first sentence of the worst imaginary novel) has been announced. And they are splendid. https://t.co/WLAqes0aDN pic.twitter.com/fTLlAgYYGT Imre Jele (@imrejele) June 30, 2022 Every year, the Lyttle Llytton contest asks…
The works of George Orwell enter the public domain this month
Credit: Getty
George Orwell died from tuberculosis in January 1950, aged 46. Writers who can combine such originality of thought with such clarity of expression are rare enough that even now it’s difficult not to be grief-struck by his lamentably premature demise.
But taking consolation where we can, we can celebrate the fact that in the month of the anniversary of his death comes the expiry of the copyright on his books – something that won’t happen for decades with the work of such longer-lived contemporaries as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. It is to be hoped that interest in Orwell will receive a boost – and as we live in a world that sometimes seems to be heading increasingly close to the nightmarish vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it couldn’t be timelier.
It’s hard to believe, but 2020 is almost behind us. It’s certainly been a uniquely challenging year, one that has seen the MCV/DEVELOP team out of our lovely central London office since March now, and having to work without the big-ticket events that used to dominate our calendars.
However, while we may have lost the experience of physically attending E3, GDC and Gamescom this year, areas of our industry have still done very well indeed. It has become a tired talking point now to discuss how gaming has helped keep people entertained and in touch with one another during this difficult time, but it’s only tired because it’s true.