London 2012 (video game)

London 2012
UK cover (top) North America cover (bottom)
Developer(s)	Sega Studios Australia
Publisher(s)	Sega
Platform(s)	Cloud (OnLive) Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360
Release date(s)	^NA 26 June 2012 ^AUS 28 June 2012 ^EU 29 June 2012
Genre(s)	Sports (Olympic)
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

London 2012: The Official Video Game is the official Olympic video game of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. It was published by Sega and developed by Sega Studios Australia, making this the first Olympics title to be developed in-house by Sega.

It is also the second official video game based on the 2012 Olympics, the other being Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The game features an online mode for players wishing to compete with other challengers worldwide. The "national pride" is a ranking system in the online mode, where the players have the possibility to collect medals for their favorite country.^[1]

It is compatible with PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect for certain events in the party mode.^[2]

London 2012 is the first olympic video game that includes cooperative events in the local multiplayer mode.

Disciplines

These events are in the game:

Archery Individual Team[N 1] Aquatics 3m springboard diving 3m synchronised springboard diving[N 2][N 1] 10m platform diving 10m synchronised platform diving[N 2][N 1] Swimming – 50m freestyle Swimming – 100m backstroke Swimming – 100m breaststroke Swimming – 100m butterfly Swimming – 100m freestyle Gymnastics Trampoline (men only)[N 2] Vault Shooting 25 metre rapid fire pistol (men only) Skeet shooting

Track and field 100m (men only) 110m hurdles (men only) 200m (men only) 400m Discus throw (men only) High jump Javelin throw (men only) Long jump (men only) Shot put (men only) Triple jump (men only) Other sports Beach volleyball (women only)[N 2] Canoe slalom – K1 Kayak (men only) Cycling – Keirin (men only)[N 2] Rowing – Single sculls (men only)[N 2] Table tennis (men only) Weightlifting over 105 kilograms (231 lb) (men only)

1. Only playable in local multiplayer mode
2. Included in an Olympic video game for the first time

Nations represented

Playable countries

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Great Britain
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Kenya
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Russia
• Slovakia
• South Africa
• South Korea
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Ukraine
• Turkey
• United States

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (PS3) 66.77%[3] (X360) 65.26%[4] Metacritic (PS3) 66/100[5] (X360) 64/100[6] Review scores Publication Score IGN 7/10[7] GameStar 64/100[8]

London 2012 has received average reviews from critics. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the PlayStation 3 version a 66.77% and 66/100^[3][5] and the Xbox 360 version a 65.26% and 64/100.^[4][6]

Chris Schilling from IGN gave the game a 7/10 rating, mentioning in the review that "Sega's celebration of the year's biggest sporting event is better than you might expect." In his opinion, the events of the game would not hold up too well in the long term, but that is not really what an Olympics game is about. He praised the online and offline multiplayer mode.^[7]

The German PC game magazine GameStar scored the game with 64/100. They criticized the gameplay, because it is almost impossible to play it with the mouse and the keyboard, so the player is forced to get a gamepad to play London 2012. They also mentioned that the gameplay of the events would not be different from each other and that the AI of the computer opponents is not balanced.^[8]

The game held the top spot of the UK All Format chart for three weeks following its release.^[9]

As of May 2013, the game has sold 680,000 copies in the US and Europe.^[10]

Soundtrack

• Flipsyde – "Someday (Olympic version)" (played during the closing credits after completing Olympic Games mode on the hardest setting)
• Skrillex – "Ruffneck (Full Flex)" (PS3/XB360 version only)

References

1. "Sega announces London 2012 Olympics game" Digital Spy, 31 May 2011.. Retrieved 23 June 2011
2. "Great Britain, your time is now...London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games" SEGA UK 17 January 2012. Retrieved 20 January 2012
3. "London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
4. "London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for Xbox 360". GameRankings. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
5. "London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
6. "London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. 2012-06-26. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
7. "London 2012 – The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games PS3 Review". IGN. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
8. "Olympische Spiele: London 2012 im Test" GameStar, 2 July 2012. (German)
9. "UK Chart: Three Weeks At The Top For London 2012". Gamebrit. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2012.
10. Purchese, Robert (10 May 2013). "Aliens: Colonial Marines managed 1.31 million sales". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Retrieved 10 May 2013.