Numerous video games were released in 2011. Many awards went to games such as Batman: Arkham City, Portal 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Madden NFL 12, NBA 2K12, WWE '12, WWE All-Stars and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. 2011 also marked the worldwide release of the Nintendo 3DS.
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Critically acclaimed titles
Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.
Events
| Month | Day(s) | Event |
|---|---|---|
| January | 6 - 9 | International Consumer Electronics Show 2011 held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA[4] |
| February | 26 | The Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo's newest handheld console, releases in Japan.[5] |
| February 28 – March 4 | Game Developers Conference 2011 held in San Francisco, California.[6] | |
| March | 11 | As a result of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, certain video game releases were cancelled or postponed. Additionally, several servers used for Internet gaming were shut down temporarily. |
| 11 - 13 | PAX East 2011 held in Boston, Massachusetts.[7] | |
| 25 - 31 | The Nintendo 3DS released in America, Europe and Australia. | |
| April | 20 | PlayStation Network services were suspended by Sony. The suspension lasted for 23 days. |
| May | 19 | South Korea passes a law known as the "Youth Protection Revision Act", which regulates children under the age of sixteen playing online video games. |
| June | 6 | Twitch.tv, a video game livestreaming service and website that focuses on video game content and esports is launched. |
| 7 - 9 | E3 2011 was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.[8] | |
| 23 | The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all-time, celebrated its 20th anniversary. | |
| 27 | The Supreme Court of the United States issues their ruling on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, declaring video games as protected free speech. | |
| August | 4 - 7 | QuakeCon 2011: The massive annual LAN party held in Dallas, Texas. |
| 15 - 17 | Game Developers Conference 2011 Europe held in Cologne, Germany. | |
| 18 - 22 | Gamescom 2011 held at Cologne, Germany | |
| 26 - 28 | PAX Prime 2011 held in Seattle, Washington.[9] | |
| September | 15–18 | Tokyo Game Show 2011 |
| 22–25 | Eurogamer Expo 2011 held in Earls Court in London, England. | |
| October | 15–16 | EB Games Expo 2011 held in Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia. |
| 21–22 | BlizzCon 2011 held in Anaheim Convention Center in California. | |
| November | 18–19 | Minecon held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Minecraft gets its full release on the 18th. |
| December | 3 | 10th anniversary of the Jak and Daxter series.[10] |
| 10 | Spike Video Game Awards. | |
| 17 | PlayStation Vita was released in Japan. | |
| 31 | Artech Studios disbanded. |
Notable deaths
- May 20 – Randy Savage, 58, pro wrestler and actor (cover star of WWF WrestleMania Challenge, WWF Super WrestleMania, WWE All Stars).[11]
- October 5 – Steve Jobs, 56, businessman and creator of Apple and iOS.[12]
Hardware releases
| Month | Day | Console |
|---|---|---|
| February | 26 | Nintendo 3DSJP |
| April | 1 | Xperia Play[13] |
Series with new entries
Series with new installments in 2011 include Ace Combat, Alice: Madness Returns, Assassin's Creed, Batman: Arkham, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Call of Juarez, Cities XL, Crysis, Dead Space, Deus Ex, Dragon Age, Driver, Duke Nukem, Dynasty Warriors, The Elder Scrolls, F.E.A.R, Forza Motorsport, Gears of War, Infamous, Killzone, The Legend of Zelda, LittleBigPlanet, Mario Kart, Modern Combat, Mortal Kombat, MX vs. ATV, Need for Speed, Operation Flashpoint, Pokémon, Portal, Rayman, Red Faction, Red Orchestra, Resistance, Saints Row, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Super Mario, Total War, Tropico, Uncharted, Sonic the Hedgehog, and The Witcher.
2011 saw the introduction of several new properties, including Bastion, Dark Souls, Dead Island, Homefront, L.A. Noire, Minecraft, Rage, and Skylanders.
Game releases
The list of games released in 2011 in North America.
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January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Video game-based film and television releases
| Title | Date | Director | Distributor(s) | Franchise | Original game publisher | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Player | March 13, 2011 | Damon Santostefano | Nickelodeon | — | — | [18] |
| Mortal Kombat: Legacy | April 11, 2011 | Kevin Tancharoen | Machinima, Inc. | Mortal Kombat | Midway Games | [19] |
| Victini and Reshiram/Victini and Zekrom | July 16, 2011 | Kunihiko Yuyama | Toho | Pokémon | Game Freak | [20] |
| Tekken: Blood Vengeance | July 26, 2011 | Yōichi Mōri | Asmik Ace | Tekken | Bandai Namco | [21] |
| Dragon Age: Redemption | October 10, 2011 | Peter Winther | — | Dragon Age | BioWare | [22] |
| Assassin's Creed: Embers | November 15, 2011 | Laurent Bernier | Ubisoft | Assassin's Creed | Ubisoft | [23] |