The gaming holiday cards of 2012
Every year developers and publishers from around the world send off an eclectic mix of holiday cards featuring their studios, their developers, their creations. The cards aren't meant to announce a new game, they're just bits of gaming culture designed to brighten your holiday and we thought you might want to check them out too. We'll be updating this stream throughout the rest of the year as the greeting cards continue to roll in. Enjoy the cards and make sure to have a happy holiday!
When Vikings Attack developer Clever Beans offers holiday wishes, hints at new game in 2013
UK-based developer Clever Beans, which released its first game When Vikings Attack for cross-play with PlayStation 3 and Vita, wished players happy holidays on the PlayStation Blog today along with posting the above card.
When Vikings Attack, a fighting adventure game in which players gather modern citizens against waves of ancient viking attackers, was released in North America and Europe in November, with a Japanese version in the works. According to associate producer Neil McPhillips, completing and localizing the game and readying it for cross-play compatibility sometimes felt like "a...
Naughty Dog's holiday card brings everyone together
Naughty Dog, the Sony-owned studio behind Uncharted and The Last of Us, posted a holiday card earlier this week that makes room for everyone, both friend and foe.
The company's previous franchises, Jak & Daxter and Crash Bandicoot, appear only in stockings above the fireplace and ornaments on the Christmas tree. The card focuses on Uncharted and The Last of Us characters — note that the latter group includes a fungus-infected creature, and that Joel allows it to pour him a cup of hot chocolate. Apparently, the holidays are about peace on Earth and good will toward men as well as infected...
Happy Holidays from SuperBot Entertainment
SuperBot Entertainment, developer of PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, has gone vertical with its animated holiday greeting.
Check out the video above to see SuperBot's titular robot closing the loop to ensure the soft glow of electric cheer.
God rest ye merry, Rise of the Triad trailer
One part video greeting card and, I don't know, fifty parts Rise of the Triad gameplay montage, this Deadly Gentleman trailer gives us a glimpse at the remake of the classic shooter set to some merry, holiday music.
Happy holidays from snowman Master Chief
The developers behind Halo 4, 343 Industries, are wishing everyone a happy holiday with an adorable card showing Master Chief as a snowman and Cortana as a cherubic girl with pink mittens. Elite inter-galactic soldiers never looked so cute.
Merry Christmas from Octodad
The developers at Young Horse wished everyone a Merry Christmas with a gift from Octodad.
Accompanying the card designed by Octodad's art direct Chris Stallman was a message from the team:
I'm sure at this point you are all bracing your inboxes and social feeds for Holiday ImpactTM from the swarm of good tidings and cheer. While some of this can seem far from genuine and a clear adherence to form; we at Young Horses want to wish you all the best. No matter what you celebrate or if you celebrate nothing at all we thank you for all your support in the last year. (Heck, in the last...
Have a happy role-playing Christmas from CD Projekt Red
CD Projekt Red, the makers of The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, wish you and yours a "lot of quests for you in 2013."
"Before you embargo on your adventures, though, we would like to give you our best wishes and let you know we hope you will have:"
- a great party of friends who will accompany you wherever you go
- unforgettable memories to fill your journal with
- a chance to unlock all of your achievements that you're working on
- the might to vanquish all of the nasty critters in your life
Two weapon-festooned ornaments from Treyarch
Treyarch Studios, makers of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, tweeted out their holiday well wishes this week along with a picture of two themed ornaments.
"Happy holidays from the entire team at Treyarch! Stay safe and stay frosty," they wrote.
Guerrilla Games says 2013 could be its biggest year since original Killzone's release
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas today, Guerrilla Games community editor said that 2013 could be the biggest year for the game developer since they released the original Killzone.
"2013 is gearing up to be another big year for Guerrilla — quite possibly the biggest since we released the original Killzone way back in 2004," Victor Zuylen, editor for the Killzone Community, wrote on the official Playstation blog today. "We'll have more details for you at a future date, but until then we hope you share a wonderful holiday with your loved ones, and we'll see you in 2013."
That means a...
A poetic holiday greeting from Harmonix
Harmonix' holiday greeting was delivered in rhyming verse this year.
Slayer bells ring, are you listening?
Out champagne, High Life, is glistening.
A brutal pit fight at O'Brien's last night,
Rocking in a winter wonderland.
Best wishes and happy holidays from UDON Entertainment
UDON Entertainment sends their best wishes for a warm and happy holiday with the card below.
A very merry holiday from Bungie
Bungie would like to wish you and yours a very happy holiday this season. Check out their card below.
Our holiday wish is for a real Nintendo snow globe
Nintendo's holiday card brings season's greetings from some fan-favorite characters in a winter wonderland.
The stars of New Super Mario Bros. 2 wish you a happy holiday season. That's Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad and Bowser — and, of course, gold coins. You can click on the snow globe they're stuck in to shake it, which will unleash a torrent of coins that might slow down your computer.
But nowhere on the site is there an option to buy the snow globe in question, which makes us sad.
Deadpool takes over High Moon Studios, wishes you happy holidays
Deadpool, star of Deadpool, is happy to announce in the holiday message above that he's taken over as president of developer High Moon Studios to bring the company's upcoming action game featuring him to fruition.
He sends holiday greetings to fans of him and High Moon, and suggests they pre-order the game — whether they have thumbs or not. Activision's High Moon Studios is known for its well-regarded Transformers games, 2010's War for Cybertron and 2012's Fall of Cybertron.
Deadpool, published by Activision, is set for release in 2013 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Nolan North,...
Happy holidays, Bodhi day, Hanukkah and more from Drinkbox Studios
The team at Drinkbox Studios sends their happiest fill-in-the-blank wishes for the holidays. Check out the card below, and pass the eggnog, please.
Atlus wishes you and all your Personas a golden new year
Persona developer Atlus sends wishes for happy holidays and a golden new year — get it? — to you (and all your Personas, of course). Click on the snowglobe in their web-based card to give Persona 4's Teddie a little shake and stir up a little snow.
Capcom sends season's greetings from DmC: Devil May Cry's Dante
Capcom's public relations team sent us a holiday card from none other than Dante himself, the brash protagonist of Ninja Theory's upcoming Devil May Cry reboot, DmC: Devil May Cry.
It's ... not the kind of card you'd send around to family members.
The card makes no mention of any of Capcom's other brands, which is a bit surprising, since the Japanese company is launching a few games in the first half of 2013. But DmC comes out first — it's set for release on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Jan. 15, with a Windows PC version coming Jan. 25. Check out the full card below.
XCOM Council wishes us happy holidays and asks for GOTY consideration
We received a coded message this morning from the XCOM Council, via 2K Games.
The card, when opened, plays a short audio message wishing us happy holidays and encouraging us to consider XCOM: Enemy Unknown for Game of the Year.
"Future funding of the XCOM Project may depend on it," says the card.
The full audio message is embedded below:
Level-5 wishes us holiday cheer and a happy new year
Level-5, developers of the Professor Layton puzzlers, the upcoming PlayStation 3 role-playing game Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch and a cornucopia of other games, sent us a card today wishing us a happy holiday season.
Check out the card below, and let us know in the comments what you see in Level-5's Christmas-themed still life.
Here's a Puppeteer holiday card you can send to friends and family
Puppeteer is shaping up nicely, according to SCE Worldwide Studios art director Gavin Moore.
The studio will be polishing, refining and adding little details to the Playstation 3 game starting in January. For now, though, you'll have to make do with this colorful holiday card, created to be emailed out to friends and family from their website.
Season's Greetings from the tiniest paper samurai
Season's Greetings from the paper pop-up world of Tengami.
A merry mech Christmas from Meteor Entertainment and Adhesive Games
Meteor Entertainment and Adhesive Games, the publisher and developer team behind Hawken, have gussied up a mech to wish everyone a happy holiday season.
You can see the festive mech in full holiday attire below.
Happy Holidays from ... Just Cause 3?
Avalanche Studios' holiday card seems to feature a couple of references to Just Cause. Could it be a hint that the long-rumored Just Cause 3 is indeed in the works and that the development is "nearly there"?
Of course it could also just be a holiday card featuring their most popular series.
We see the hard, sunglass wearing eyes of one Rico Rodriguez and an air freshener decorated with weapons. Are we missing anything?
Happy Holidays, young Jedi, from Lucasfilm
Yoda made his list, checked it twice, and deemed us here at Polygon not naughty, but nice with a card from the Lucasfilm family.
Happy Holidays from Deep Silver
Deep Silver wished us happy holidays and a zombie-infested, err, free New Years.
Twisted Pixel wishes us Feliz Navidad
The team at Twisted Pixel, developers of 'Splosion Man and the upcoming LocoCycle, sent us a card wishing us Feliz Navidad.
You can check out the Christmas card below to see LocoCycle's sentient motorcycle protagonist, I.R.I.S., pulling Santa's sleigh. In the greeting below that, you can see how much of your high school Spanish you've retained.
Happy Holidays from Mad Catz and its mice
Mad Catz wished us happy holidays recently using a few of the peripheral manufacturer's gaming mice arranged to form pretty little snowflakes.
Happy Holidays from PopCap
All our favourite characters from PopCap's best-known games came together to wish us a happy holiday.
Season's Greetings from PlayStation's cutest and grumpiest all-stars
As the year comes to a close, video game publishers and developers often wish us a happy holiday in the form of custom greeting cards featuring their most beloved characters.
In the case of Sony Computer Entertainment America, God of War's Kratos, Uncharted's Nathan Drake and Jak and Daxter begrudgingly wish us a well-armed "Season's Greetings." At least Sackgirl, Ratchet and Sly Cooper seem genuinely enthused about the holiday season.
SCEA follows Bethesda Softworks and Dishonored's Corvo in spreading the holiday cheer through greeting cards.
Happy holidays from Bethesda and Santa Corvo
The holiday season is here and publishers and developers have started sending out Christmas cards. The above image is a card sent to Polygon from Bethesda featuring Corvo Attano dressed as a conspicuous burglar Santa.
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