Numerous video games were released in 2016. New hardware came out as well, albeit largely refreshed and updated versions of consoles in the PlayStation 4 Pro, PlayStation 4 Slim, and Xbox One S. Commercially available

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

headsets were released in much greater numbers and at much lower price points than the enthusiast-only virtual reality headsets of earlier generations.

Augmented reality Augmented reality (AR), also known as mixed reality (MR), is a technology that overlays real-time 3D computer graphics, 3D-rendered computer graphics onto a portion of the real world through a display, such as a handheld device or head-mounted ...

also became mainstream with ''

Pokémon Go ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...

''. Top-rated games originally released in 2016 included '' Uncharted 4: A Thief's End'', ''

Inside Inside may refer to: Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 film), a Canadian prison drama film * ''Inside'' (2006 film), an American thriller film starri ...

'', ''

Overwatch ''Overwatch'' (abbreviated as OW) is a multimedia franchise centered on a series of multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) video games developed by Blizzard Entertainment. ''Overwatch (video game), Overwatch'' was released in 2016 with a success ...

'', ''

Forza Horizon 3 ''Forza Horizon 3'' is a 2016 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox One and Windows. It is the ninth instalment in the ''Forza'' series and the third instalment in the ''Forza Horizon'' ...

'', ''

Madden NFL 17 ''Madden NFL 17'' is an American football sports video game based on the National Football League and published by EA Sports for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. As the 28th installment of the '' Madden NFL series'', the g ...

'', ''

WWE 2K17 ''WWE 2K17'' is a professional wrestling video game developed by Yuke's and published by 2K for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. It is the eighteenth game in the ''WWE'' game series (fourth under the '' ...

'', ''

NBA 2K17 ''NBA 2K17'' is a 2016 basketball video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K (company), 2K. It is the 18th installment in the ''NBA 2K'' franchise and the successor to ''NBA 2K16''. It was released worldwide on September 20, 20 ...

'', ''

Dark Souls III is a 2016 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Released for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, the game is the third and final entry in the ''Dark Souls'' series and f ...

'', and ''

Battlefield 1 ''Battlefield 1'' is a 2016 first-person shooter game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth installment in the ''Battlefield'' series and the first main entry in the series since ''Battlefield 4'' in 2013. It was ...

'' and ''

Doom 2016 ''Doom'' is a 2016 first-person shooter game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is the first major installment in the ''Doom'' series since 2004's ''Doom 3'' and is a reboot of the franchise. It was relea ...

''. The top five highest-grossing video games of 2016 were ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL'', commonly referred to as ''League'', is a multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for ''Warcraf ...

'', ''

Honor of Kings ''Honor of Kings'' (, unofficially translated as "King's Glory", or alternatively transliterated as Wangzhe Rongyao) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for iOS, ...

Arena of Valor ''Arena of Valor'' (), formerly ''Strike of Kings'', is an international adaptation of '' Honor of Kings'' (), a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Level Infinite for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switc ...

'', ''

Monster Strike is a Mobile game, mobile Japanese role-playing game, Japanese role-playing physics game with elements of Puzzle video game, puzzle, strategy game, strategy and Cooperative video game, cooperative multiplayer. It is developed by Mixi for iOS and ...

'', ''

Clash of Clans ''Clash of Clans'' is a 2012 free-to-play mobile strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. The game was released for iOS platforms on 2 August 2012, and on Google Play for Android on 7 October 2013. Since 2016, an animated ...

'', and ''

Dungeon Fighter Online ''Dungeon Fighter Online'', known in South Korea as ''Dungeon & Fighter'', is a multiplayer beat 'em up action role-playing game, developed and published for personal computers by Neople, a South Korean subsidiary of Nexon, and originally publi ...

''.

Top-rated games

Major awards

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

(MC) and

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

(GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Financial performance

Analysis firm SuperData estimated that the global video game software market brought in $91 billion in revenues in 2016; this was an increase over the $74 billion estimated for 2015, but SuperData noted that their 2016 estimates included a larger data set. Of the $91 billion, $41 billion was attributed to

mobile gaming A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to handheld game conso ...

, particularly the titles ''

Clash Royale ''Clash Royale'' is a real-time strategy video game developed and published by Supercell. The game combines elements from collectible card games, tower defense, and multiplayer online battle arena. The game was released globally on March 2, ...

'' and ''

'', with the largest mobile gaming section in Asia with total revenues near $25 billion. Personal computer video games made up $34 billion, with $19 billion contributed from

free-to-play "Free-to-play" ("F2P" or "FtP") video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content for free. The term "free-to-play business model" or simply, "free-to-play model", refers collectively to business models tha ...

games, and console games, retail and downloadable, were $26 and $6.6 billion, respectively. The firm also identified that

(VR), professional video game sports, and

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

were still growing markets in the year. DFC Intelligence reported similar numbers for revenues in the various sectors, and noted that mobile gaming revenues overtook both console and personal computer revenues in 2016. Newzoo estimated that $70.4 billion of video game revenues were made by the top 25 publicly-trading companies, led by

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...

($10.2B),

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

($7.9B),

Activision Blizzard Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes three operating units: Activision, Blizzard Entertainment and King (company), King. Founded in July 2 ...

($6.6B),

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

($6.5B) and

Apple, Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Computer Com ...

($5.9B). The top ten companies brought in more than 54% of total revenues during 2016, up from 43% in 2015.

IHS Markit Accuris is an information services provider. History IHS Information Handling Services (IHS) "was founded in 1959 as Information Handling Services to provide information for aerospace engineers through microfilm databases". It subsequently gre ...

estimated that worldwide revenue related to console hardware, software, and services was $34.7 billion, down about 2.5% from 2015; hardware sales were down from $12.8 billion to $10.5 billion, while software and service revenues were up. Sony held about 57% of the market share during 2016, followed by Microsoft and Nintendo. Within the United States, revenues from the video game industry in 2016 was estimated at $30.4 billion by the

Entertainment Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...

and

NPD Group Circana, Inc., formerly known as Information Resources, Inc. and the NPD Group (previously National Purchase Diary Panel Inc. and NPD Research Inc.), is an American market research and technology company headquartered in Chicago. In 2017, NPD ra ...

, slightly up from 2015's $30.2 billion. Of that, $24.5 billion was spent on video game software, an increase of 6% from 2015. Digital purchases, which included full game purchases, downloadable content, game subscriptions, and mobile game microtransactions, made up 74% of this number, continuing a steady increase of digital sales over retail since 2010. Sales were driven by the introduction of VR, ''Pokémon Go'' and ''Pokémon Sun'' and ''Moon'', and the games ''

'', '' Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare'', ''

'', ''

'' and ''

Tom Clancy's The Division ''Tom Clancy's The Division'' is a 2016 online-only action role-playing video game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. It was released on 8 March for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It is set in a near ...

''.

Highest-grossing games

The following were 2016's top ten highest-grossing video games worldwide in terms of digital revenue (including digital purchases,

microtransaction Microtransaction (mtx) refers to a business model where users can purchase in-game virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransactions ...

and

pay-to-play Pay-to-play, sometimes pay-for-play or P2P, is a phrase used for a variety of situations in which money is exchanged for services or the privilege to engage in certain activities. The common denominator of all forms of pay-to-play is that one mu ...

) across all platforms (including mobile, PC and

console Console may refer to: Computing and video games * System console, a physical device to operate a computer ** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device ** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...

platforms). Six of the top ten highest-grossing games are published or owned by

Events

Notable deaths

* February 3 –

Joe Alaskey Joseph Francis Alaskey III (April 17, 1952 – February 3, 2016) was an American actor and comedian. He was one of Mel Blanc's successors at the Warner Bros. Animation studio until his death. He alternated with Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Ji ...

, 63, voice actor known for the voice of

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is a cartoon character created in the late 1930s at Warner Bros. Cartoons (originally Leon Schlesinger, Leon Schlesinger Productions) and Voice acting, voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his featured roles in the ' ...

and others in the ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' franchise. * March 17 –

Larry Drake Larry Richard Drake (February 21, 1949 – March 17, 2016) was an American actor. He was best known as Benny Stulwicz in ''L.A. Law'', for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards. He also appeared as Robert G. Durant in both '' Darkman'' and '' ...

, 67, voice actor known for the voice of Kazdan Paratus in '' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed''. * June 3 –

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...

, 74, boxer who appeared in '' Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing'', '' Foes of Ali'', '' Knockout Kings'', ''

UFC 5 ''UFC 5: The Return of the Beast'' was a mixed martial arts event held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on April 7, 1995, at the Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. The event was seen live on pay per view in the ...

'', and ''

WWE 2K24 ''WWE 2K24'' is a professional wrestling sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K. It is the twenty-fourth overall installment of the video game series based on WWE, the tenth game under the ''WWE 2K'' banner, and the ...

''. * June 10 –

Christina Grimmie Christina Victoria Grimmie (March 12, 1994 – June 10, 2016) was an American singer and internet personality. In 2009, she began posting covers of popular songs onto YouTube. After releasing her debut EP, '' Find Me'' (2011), her YouTube c ...

, 22, music YouTuber known as zeldaxlove64 and host of Disney.com's gaming show ''Power Up''. Grimmie also appeared in a commercial for the

Kinect Kinect is a discontinued line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB color model, RGB cameras, and Thermographic camera, infrared projectors and detectors that map dep ...

Hardware releases

The list of game-related hardware released in 2016 in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

Series with new entries

Series with new installments in 2016 include ''

Ace Attorney ''Ace Attorney'' is a visual novel franchise developed by Capcom. With storytelling fashioned after legal dramas, the first entry in the series, '' Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney'', was released in 2001; since then five further main series game ...

'', ''

Battlefield A battlefield, battleground, or field of battle is the location of a present or historic battle involving ground warfare. It is commonly understood to be limited to the point of contact between opposing forces, though battles may involve troop ...

'', ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-of ...

'', ''

Civilization A civilization (also spelled civilisation in British English) is any complex society characterized by the development of state (polity), the state, social stratification, urban area, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyon ...

'', ''

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

'', ''

Dark Souls is a dark fantasy action role-playing game series developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Created by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the series began with the release of ''Dark Souls (video game), Dark Souls'' (2011) and has ...

'', ''

Dead Rising is a series of action-adventure games created by Keiji Inafune. It was originally developed by Capcom in 2006 until Capcom Vancouver took over developing the franchise and Microsoft Studios took over the publishing rights. As of December 31, 2 ...

'', ''

Deus Ex ''Deus Ex'' is a series of cyberpunk role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technol ...

'', ''

Dishonored ''Dishonored'' is a 2012 action-adventure game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Set in the fictional, plague-ridden industrial city of Dunwall, ''Dishonored'' follows the story of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to th ...

'', ''

Digimon , short for "Digital Monsters" ( ''Dejitaru Monsutā''), is a Japanese media franchise, which encompasses virtual pet toys, anime, manga, video games, films, and a trading card game. The franchise focuses on the eponymous creatures who inhabit a ...

'', ''

Doom Doom is another name for damnation. Doom may also refer to: People * Doom (professional wrestling), the tag team of Ron Simmons and Butch Reed * Daniel Doom (1934–2020), Belgian cyclist * Debbie Doom (born 1963), American softball pitche ...

'', ''

Driveclub ''Driveclub'' is a 2014 racing video game developed by Evolution Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It was announced during the PlayStation 4 press conference on 20 February 2013, and, after several dela ...

'', ''

Far Cry ''Far Cry'' is an anthology franchise of first-person shooter games published by Ubisoft. The first game, '' Far Cry'', was developed by Crytek to premiere their CryEngine software, and released in March 2004. Subsequently, Ubisoft obtained ...

'', ''

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

'', ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

'', ''

Fire Emblem is a Video games in Japan, Japanese fantasy tactical role-playing game franchise developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. First produced and published for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, the series currently con ...

'', ''

Forza Horizon ''Forza Horizon'' is a 2012 racing video game developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios for the Xbox 360 on 23 October 2012. The game is the first installment of the ''Forza'' series, having originally spin-off from Turn ...

'', ''

Gears of War ''Gears of War'' (also referred to as ''Gears'') is a media franchise centered on a series of video games created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition (company), The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The ...

'', ''

Hearts of Iron ''Hearts of Iron'' is a 2002 grand strategy video game developed by Paradox Development Studio and originally published by Strategy First for Microsoft Windows. A Mac OS X version was released by Virtual Programming the following year. In 2004, ...

'', ''

Hitman Contract killing (also known as murder-for-hire) is a form of murder or assassination in which one party hires another party to kill a targeted person or people. It involves an illegal agreement which includes some form of compensation, moneta ...

'', '' Homefront'', ''

Homeworld ''Homeworld'' is a real-time strategy video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Studios on September 28, 1999, for Windows. Set in space, the science fiction game follows the Kushan exiles of the planet Kharak after t ...

'', ''

Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Lofts, a building in Houston, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby Ho ...

'', ''

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

'', ''

Mario Party is a series of party video games created by Hudson Soft and owned by Nintendo. It features List of Mario franchise characters, characters from the Mario (franchise), ''Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or Artificial inte ...

'', ''

Master of Orion ''Master of Orion'' (abbreviated as MoO) is a turn-based, 4X science fiction strategy game in which the Player character, player leads one of ten races to dominate the galaxy through a combination of diplomacy and conquest while developing techn ...

'', ''

Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the power of the parasitic M ...

'', ''

Mirror's Edge ''Mirror's Edge'' is a 2008 action-adventure platform game developed by DICE and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2008, and for Windows in January 2009. Set in a near-future city, i ...

'', ''

Paper Mario ''Paper Mario'' is a video game series and part of the ''Mario'' franchise, developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. It combines elements from the role-playing, action-adventure, and puzzle genres. Players control a ...

'', ''

Persona A persona (plural personae or personas) is a strategic mask of identity in public, the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. It is also considered "an intermediary ...

'', '' Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare'', '' The Playroom'', ''

Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...

'', ''

Ratchet & Clank ''Ratchet & Clank'' is a series of Action-adventure game, action-adventure Platform game, platform and third-person shooter video games created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. High Impact Games ...

'', '' Shadow of the Beast'', ''

Shadow Warrior ''Shadow Warrior'' is a series of first-person shooter video games that focuses on the exploits of Lo Wang, a modern ninja warrior who fights through hordes of demons. The original series is made up of one game, '' Shadow Warrior'' (1997), and t ...

'', ''

Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game series and media franchise created by the Japanese developers Yuji Naka, Naoto Ohshima, and Hirokazu Yasuhara for Sega. The franchise follows Sonic the Hedgehog (character), Sonic, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who battle ...

'', ''

Star Fox ''Star Fox'' is a rail shooter, space flight simulator, and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto and developed and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic a ...

'', ''

Star Ocean is a franchise of science fantasy Action role-playing video game, Action role-playing video games developed by the Japanese company tri-Ace and published by Square Enix (formerly Enix). Development History ''Star Ocean'' is known as one of the ...

'', ''

Street Fighter is a Media mix, Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. Street Fighter 1, The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by List of Street Fighter video games, six other ma ...

'', ''

Titanfall ''Titanfall'' is a media franchise that mainly features first-person shooter games. The series was created by Respawn Entertainment and debuted on Xbox and Microsoft Windows; it has expanded to other consoles and platforms. Gameplay In ''Titan ...

'', ''

Total War Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all (including civilian-associated) resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilises all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare ov ...

'', ''

Uncharted ''Uncharted'' is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Sony Interactive Entertainment and developed by Naughty Dog. Created by Amy Hennig, the ''Uncharted'' franchise follows a group of treasure hunters who trav ...

'', ''

Watch Dogs ''Watch Dogs'' (stylized as ''WATCH_DOGS'') is an action-adventure video game franchise published by Ubisoft, and developed primarily by its Montreal and Toronto studios using the Disrupt game engine. The series' eponymous first title was rele ...

'', ''

XCOM ''XCOM'' (originally called ''X-COM'') is a science fiction video game franchise featuring an elite international organization tasked with countering alien invasions of Earth. The series began with the strategy video game '' UFO: Enemy Unknown' ...

'', and ''

Zero Escape ''Zero Escape'', formerly released in Japan as , is a series of adventure games directed and written by Kotaro Uchikoshi. The first two entries in the series, '' Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors'' (2009) and '' Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Re ...

''. In addition, 2016 saw the introduction of several new properties, including ''

Abzû ''Abzû'' is an adventure video game developed by Giant Squid and published by 505 Games for PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna. Initially released as a digital title in August 2016, a retail version for consoles ...

'', ''

Hyper Light Drifter ''Hyper Light Drifter'' is an action role-playing game developed and published by Heart Machine. The Microsoft Windows, Linux and OS X versions were released in March 2016, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions in July 2016. A ''Special E ...

'', ''

The Last Guardian ''The Last Guardian'' is a 2016 action-adventure game developed by Japan Studio and GenDesign and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Players control a boy who befriends a giant legendary creature named Trico. ...

'', ''

No Man's Sky ''No Man's Sky'' is an Action-adventure game, action-adventure survival game developed and published by Hello Games. It was released worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Windows in August 2016, for Xbox One in July 2018, for the PlayStation 5 an ...

'', '' Owlboy'', ''

Obduction Obduction is a geological process whereby denser oceanic crust (and even upper mantle) is scraped off a descending ocean plate at a convergent plate boundary and thrust on top of an adjacent plate. When oceanic and continental plates converge, ...

'', ''

Quantum Break ''Quantum Break'' is a 2016 action-adventure third-person shooter video game developed by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft Studios for Windows and Xbox One. The game centers on Jack Joyce ( Shawn Ashmore), granted time manipulat ...

'', ''

Stardew Valley ''Stardew Valley'' is a 2016 farm life simulation game developed by Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. Players take the role of a character who inherits their deceased grandfather's dilapidated farm in a place known as "Stardew Valley". ''Stardew Valle ...

'', ''

'', and '' The Witness''.

Game releases

The list of games released in 2016 in

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Video game-based film and television releases

Cancelled games

Cancelled

* '' Batman: Arkham Knight'' (

Mac Mac or MAC may refer to: Common meanings * Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc. * Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth * Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages * McIntosh (apple), a Canadi ...

, Lin) * ''

EverQuest Next ''EverQuest Next'' was a planned massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), meant to be the successor to ''EverQuest'', ''EverQuest Online Adventures'' and ''EverQuest II''. The game was in development by the Daybreak Game Company, b ...

'' (

Win Win or WIN most likely refers to: * A victory Win, Winning, WIN or Winner may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * '' Win!'', a 2016 American film Literature * ''Win'' (Coben novel), 2021 * WIN (pacifist magazine) * WIN (wrestling ma ...

PS4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

) * ''

Fable Legends ''Fable Legends'' is a cancelled Cooperative video game, cooperative Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game developed by Lionhead Studios and projected to be published by Microsoft Studios for Windows and Xbox One. Microsoft ca ...

'' (

XBO The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

) * '' Halo Online'' (

) * ''

'' ( PSVita,

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

) * ''

Nosgoth ''Nosgoth'' was a free-to-play multiplayer action game, developed by Psyonix and published by Square Enix for Microsoft Windows through digital distribution. It was a spin-off from the ''Legacy of Kain'' series of action-adventure games, and too ...

'' (

) * '' Not a Hero'' ( PSVita) * '' Project: Knoxville'' (

) * '' Rising Thunder'' (

) * '' Scribblenauts: Fighting Words'' (

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

) * '' Shantae: Half-Genie Hero'' (

PS3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

, X360) * '' Triad Wars'' (

) * '' The Walking Dead: Season Three'' (

, X360) * Unnamed extreme sports game by

Criterion Games Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a Division (business), division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2 ...

* '' Whore of the Orient'' (

) * ''

Yooka-Laylee ''Yooka-Laylee'' is a platform game developed by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. It was released for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One in April 2017, Nintendo Switch in December 2017 and Amazon Luna in October 2020. D ...

'' (

)

Discontinued

* ''

Darkspore ''Darkspore'' is a video game that borrowed creature editing technology from ''Spore''. It was described as "a fast-paced, science fiction action role-playing game in which the player battled across alien worlds to save the galaxy from the muta ...

'' (

) * ''

Dust 514 ''Dust 514'' () is a discontinued free-to-play first-person shooter video game, developed by CCP Shanghai and published by CCP Games and Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. ''Dust 514'' took place in New Eden and was directly co ...

'' (

) * '' Might & Magic: Duel of Champions'' (

) * ''

PlanetSide ''PlanetSide'' is a series of massively multiplayer online first-person shooter video games published by Daybreak Game Company. The first game in the series was published by Sony Online Entertainment in 2003 for Microsoft Windows and featured th ...

'' (

) * ''

Project Spark ''Project Spark'' is a game creation system developed by SkyBox Labs and Team Dakota and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. The game was announced during Microsoft's E3 2013 press event, and was launched as a Wind ...

'' (

, X360,

) * ''

The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot ''The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot'' was a free-to-play action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The game combined castle building and dungeon crawling mechanics: each player built a castle filled with traps and monsters and th ...

'' (

) * '' Tom Clancy's EndWar Online'' (

) * ''

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms'' was a multiplayer third-person tactical shooter video game, released in 2014 as a free-to-play game for Microsoft Windows. The game is part of ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon'' series. On August 25, 2016, Ubiso ...

'' (

)

References

Notes

* The release date is slated for Japan only. * A western or worldwide release of previously regional exclusive games. * These games were targeted to be released in

fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...

2017, which begins on April 1, 2016, to March 31, 2017.

Footnotes

{{History of video games Video games by year

Top-rated games

Major awards

Critically acclaimed titles

Financial performance

Highest-grossing games

Events

Notable deaths

Hardware releases

Series with new entries

Game releases

January–March

April–June

July–September

October–December

Video game-based film and television releases

Cancelled games

Cancelled

Discontinued

See also

References

Notes

Footnotes