It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Today, we’re looking back at the games that receved the best ongoing support in 2019. Voted on by our editors, these games provided a great stream of content, updates, and fun for their players this year, despite not having necessarily released this year.
Let’s start with some honorable mentions, followed by our two runners-up, and of course, our overall winner for 2019.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
Honorable Mention: Monster Hunter: World
Features Editor Greysun Morales: Ever since its release back in early 2018, Capcom has been nothing but supportive of the company’s massive action-RPG series, Monster Hunter, specifically Monster Hunter: World.
Not only has Capcom teamed up with other developers/publishers to put out fantastic collaboration content such as a Witcher and Final Fantasy-themed quest, but the team has also put out a massive expansion for the game, Iceborne, which almost doubles the length of the main game and adds several quality-of-life changes that have made the base game even better than it was before.
Still, even after almost two years of being out, you’ll find Capcom supporting Monster Hunter: World with content drop after content drop and it seems like the train won’t be stopping anytime soon.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
Honorable Mention: Sea of Thieves
News Editor Giuseppe Nelva: When Sea of Thieves launched at the beginning of last year, it seemed not to have much wind in its sails.
Yet, it was only a superficial impression. While the gameplay loop at release was admittedly a little basic, Rare immediately went to work to improve and enrich it, building upon foundations that were already solid.
Almost two years in, the stream of new content and new features continue beiong very strong, and the playerbase is active and solid.
Sea of Thieves may not be the classic-style Rare game that some wanted, but continues to be one of the best pirate games on the market, if not the best.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
Honorable Mention: Destiny 2
Editor-in-Chief Ed McGlone: Destiny, in spite of itself sometimes, has remained relevant and popular over the years. What it has struggled with the most since forever though, has arguably been what to do with itself in between major releases.
2019 was the year Bungie started to figure it out. At the very least Destiny 2’s content drip is heading in a more consistent direction that not only is better for players, but Bungie appears happy with it too.
The Annual Pass, despite it not being perfect, was certainly the best idea that Bungie has come up with so far. Year 2 of Destiny 2 was miles better than what players experienced in Year 2 of Destiny 1 and The Taken King.
The new raids added throughout the year, Scourge of the Past and Crown of Sorrows, were excellent and there was plenty of midcore content as well including the fantastic Menagerie event.
The momentum has continued into Year 3 with the launch of Shadowkeep this past September, which while flawed, is still a solid expansion with a great raid.
While Year 3 isn’t designed to be as loaded as Year 2, Bungie has a plan that seems reasonable from a fan perspective, and will allow Bungie work on Destiny 2 at a more comfortable pace while also working on whatever is next for the popular franchise.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
Second Runner-Up: Fortnite
Guides Editor Chris Jecks: The Battle Royale genre’s surge in popularity may have faded over the past 12 months, but there’s still one game that dominates it. Fortnite has continued to be a massive hit both in terms of its compelling gameplay, but mainly due to the incredible, ongoing support that Epic Games has provided.
Without doubt, each week Epic Games drops a new content update or patch for both its Battle Royale and Save the World modes, with the former adding new and exciting content into the mix, and the latter ironing out any issues or rebalancing weapons. What you end up with is a Battle Royale game that’s constantly improving and updating its offering.
It’s not just frequent patches that made Fortnite’s ongoing support so special, but the events the team has managed to pull off this year, too.
We’ve watched a giant mech take on a monster, destroying massive parts of the map, and throughout Season X the map changed every week with a new named location getting its own gameplay gimmick. It was like one major celebration of 10 seasons to send off the iconic map.
Rounding things out, Epic Games introduced Fortnite Chapter 2, a massive change for the Battle Royale title offering new challenge formats, an entirely new map, new gameplay options like fishing, upgrading weapons, and swimming, and much, much more.
Fortnite is clearly a special title for Epic Games, and for the past 12 months, they’ve continued to show this… even if the patch notes aren’t all that forthcoming nowadays.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
First Runner-Up: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Senior Editor Hayes Madsen: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was an absurdly large game when it was released, packed with more content than any fighting game should have, by any right.
Even with that, Nintendo has continued to cram even more incredible content into the package with utterly fantastic DLC characters, a host of patches and changes, and continuous spirit board events.
Of course, the real meat of Ultimate’s support comes with the DLC characters. Each and every one brings something entirely unique to the game; like Joker’s Persona ability, or the MP system of Hero, or the combo-focused moves of Terry.
The characters alone would be a good incentive to pick up the Challenger Packs, but each one comes with a brand new unique stage and a selection of music from their respective series, Terry even comes with a whopping 50 tracks.
Smash Ultimate has clearly been a big focus for Nintendo in 2019, and it has quickly become one of the best online games on Switch due to the diligent way Sakurai and his team have addressed balancing issues and more.
What’s even more amazing, however, is that it looks like this level of support is going to carry on into all of 2020, if not longer.
Best Ongoing Support & Development 2019
Winner: Final Fantasy XIV
News Editor Giuseppe Nelva: Final Fantasy XIV is undisputably one the most epic and uplifting stories of redemption in the whole history of the gaming industry.
The MMORPG genre is notoriously unforgiving, and most firmly believe that games within this category that fail at launch have no hope of recovering. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this is indeed true.
Yet, the team at Square Enix did not give up: After the disastrous release in 2010, they rolled up their sleeves and rebuilt the game basically from scratch while also running its live services, which is a deed that most considered impossible.
On top of that, they involved the players in an in-game story of death and rebirth, creating one of the most immersive and moving storylines to ever grace the genre. They managed to make a disgruntled playerbase feel invested with the game, which is no small success.
The rest is history: three expansions in, Final Fantasy XIV is one of the most successful MMOPRPGs in the market. It still delivers by far the best stories of the genre, and arguably the best in the overall Final Fantasy franchise.
Shadowbringers is an absolute gem of an expansion, and the playerbase has never been stronger.
I would not be surprised if this isn’t the last time that Final Fantasy XIV wins this award.
Published: Dec 9, 2019 01:27 pm