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The biggest gaming trends of 2012

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 7 min

Angry Birds Star WarsIt’s time to look back on the biggest trends for gaming in 2012. These are the macro oceans where the micro companies swam. If you’re guiding a game company, it’s always good to know whether you’re moving with the tide or against it.

In contrast to our article on the biggest game stories of the year, these aren’t individual events affecting a single company. These trends surfaced multiple times during the year with different companies. But the patterns were similar and, when viewed as a group of related events, they signaled something larger happening. We’ll try to explain why these trends mattered.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.