Gamasutra have made a list of games that have defined 2012 in their opinion. In this first part 10 games are listed, so this could be a 5 part article.

In this part we see Borderlands 2, which is the only game of the 10 we have followed, but also high lights such as CoD: Black Ops II and Boyfriend Maker (not often do you see those mentioned in the same sentence) and this on Copernicus:

"Copernicus"

38 Studios

The state of Rhode Island probably never expected to own the rights to an ambitious fantasy-themed MMORPG but, hey, here we are. Copernicus was the codename for the game that 38 Studios -- the developer founded by retired all-star baseball pitcher Curt Schilling and partially funded by the state -- was pouring money into before its money dried up and it was forced into bankruptcy, its assets (including whatever work was done on the game) defaulting to Rhode Island. The specifics of what happened are beyond the scope of this article, but in 2012 Copernicus was a reminder of just how expensive and risky a triple-A MMO is in our rapidly evolving climate.