With the end of the year 2023, we begin to look forward to the new year and what awaits us in the gaming industry with this new year, but the picture around the year 2024 does not have clear features as usual, and we can say that this year appears more ambiguous than the first years of the Corona pandemic, due to which many huge titles were postponed. But in the end, we knew what games were waiting for us despite the postponements, while the year 2024 does not have much to talk about in terms of releases, but at the same time it may be full of interesting events, and we will talk in this article about the possible nature of it.
Huge variety of titles
The year 2023 was truly wonderful. This year provided fans of games of various categories with wonderful experiences that satisfied their desires. Fans of horror games got the remake of Dead Space and Resident Evil 4, in addition to the long-awaited sequel in Alan Wake 2, which exceeded all expectations, while fans of RPG games of all categories. The different sub-branches got games like Lies of P, Diablo IV, and of course one of the biggest surprises of the year, Baldur’s Gate 3, which was an unusual success for classic Western RPGs, and of course The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom lived up to the aspirations of Breath of the Wild fans. The return of the Super Mario Bros series in the Wonder Edition was a wonderful experience full of unique innovative ideas, and fans of puzzle games enjoyed a share of light entertaining experiences and some more complex experiences such as The Talos Principle 2. Quite simply, the year 2023 provided players with everything they wanted in terms of diversity. In premium versions.
When looking at the year 2024, the picture is clear about the releases that await us at the beginning of the year. The Tekken series will receive its eighth part in January, 9 years after the release of the seventh part, and the Final Fantasy VII remake will receive its second part in February, which will also witness the release of the action game Suicide Squard: Kill the Justice League, which was subjected to a long delay after its gameplay review was met with bad impressions from players, and the month of March will witness the release of the interesting game Rise of the Ronin and the release of the second part of Dragon’s Dogma, which fans of the original version have eagerly awaited.
When looking at the games we mentioned, we are talking about an exciting experience that awaits fans of Japanese RPG games with the second episode of the Final Fantasy VII remake. There is no doubt that fans of fighting games are excited about the game Tekken 8, but the level of the rest of the experiences is not guaranteed, as there are few versions that will not satisfy all tastes. Also, the huge releases that have a specific release date for the rest of the year can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand!
There are undoubtedly many games planned for release during the year 2024, but when trying to think carefully about a number of these games, it will be difficult for the player to remember 5 of them. The reason is that many of these games appeared with short teasers or cinematic reveal shows and then disappeared without any significant updates. Which makes it difficult to look forward to the release of these games during the next year. It is also difficult to look forward to a game from which we have only seen a short teaser, unless we are talking about a new version of an ancient series, and most of the games announced for next year are not like that.
There is no doubt that many games will be revealed and released during the coming year, and there is no doubt that many games previously announced for the year 2024 will be released during that year, but the information we have now makes it difficult to anticipate anything or imagine the general level of what awaits us.
Xbox and PlayStation exclusives
The current year was not the busiest for fans of the blue and green brands in terms of exclusives. We obtained high-quality exclusives such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Forza Motorsport, but the number was very limited and the variety as well. We are still waiting for Microsoft to present a year in which we will see the fruit of the many acquisitions it has made. Since the middle of the last generation and the amount of diversity in exclusives resulting from these acquisitions, will 2024 be the promised year? The company reviewed many new exclusives this year in a short form or with teasers that do not tell us much. There are exclusives that we have not seen yet, such as the Indiana Jones game, but the release of half or even a third of those exclusives during the new year and with the required quality will be more than enough to provide an exceptional year for Xbox players. .
When looking at the PlayStation brand, the picture is blurry, and we do not know whether the company’s rearrangement of some cards and its desire to expand into the service games side has a role in this. We have heard many rumors about new projects from teams like Bluepoint, but the picture is not clear about the rest of the teams. It was presented to us Guerrilla Games played Horizon: Forbidden West last year, and we will most likely not hear about his new project in 2024, while Naughty Dog is still keeping a secret about the new project or projects he is working on due to his desire not to reveal his games too early, as happened with his last two projects, and we still do not know where they are. The development team will head to Bend after Days Gone, and perhaps we will finally hear about what the Sucker Punch development team has been working on silently in recent years. Perhaps Sony will change this blurry picture about its exclusive releases through a new State of Play episode, and perhaps we will wait until the middle of the year to learn about its plans.
Khalifa Switch
Most players are aware that Nintendo has been out of the loop over the past years. After the early death of the Wii U and its inability to keep up with competitors, the company launched its hybrid home device, the Switch, in 2016, achieving a strong launch and breaking many records in terms of device sales and game sales as well. If we look at the years Finally, on the list of the best-selling game series in history, we will find that the list has changed significantly, with many Nintendo series rising in it thanks to the sales of their versions on the Switch!
In recent years, Nintendo has achieved a golden balance between innovative releases that changed their titles for the better and between releases that are faithful to those titles and built on their strengths to provide us with many wonderful exclusives that were incredibly successful on both the commercial and critical levels, and when looking at the unclear picture around the year. What’s next, whether in terms of releases from third-party companies or exclusives that competitors will offer, is that the year 2024 may be the year in which Nintendo sweeps competitors in the sales lists with a strong list of new projects that maintain the same level of quality that it presented with the Switch, and as we know, the Switch still has good commercial performance. Excellent and outperforming competitors on some lists in its seventh year.
The pivotal point in the success of the successor to the Switch is the company’s ability to live up to expectations and provide a device that maintains the momentum gained by the Switch, something that the company has historically failed to do with the devices that succeeded its most successful devices. The 3DS was not a failed device on the commercial level, but its performance cannot be compared to the 2DS, which sold… More than 150 million units. As we know, the Wii U has failed miserably after the unique success of the Wii. Looking at the current situation, Nintendo has all the ingredients for success to have an exceptional year. We have heard many rumors in recent years about the company working on an advanced version of the Switch and then working on it. On the successor instead, given that the device will be unveiled early in the year 2024, and most of the rumors were talking about the technical improvements for this new device, which seems to preserve the basic idea of the Switch, and we do not really know whether Nintendo will be able to maintain this momentum simply by providing technical improvements. Or should it return to innovation and present another unique idea that makes the experiences on its devices not possible on competitors’ devices?
Here we reach the end of our article and we are waiting for you to share with us your expectations for the coming year and what are the plans of the first party companies. Will we see a completely different direction from the PlayStation or will we see a strong list of releases for the Xbox? Do you think that the successor to the Switch is able to achieve success by providing improvements? Technology only? Share the discussion with us in the comments below.
