2024 will not be as big as 2023. How could it be? 2023 boasted at least two generation defining games and was mathematically the strongest year critically in two decades. I feel like I’vewritten those words an awful lot recently, but I just can’t help it. Late December and early January is a time for looking forward to what the next 12 months hold, and this year (or more accurately, following last year) it has a very different tone.
I find myselftempering expectations, not just of readers, but of my own. Covering games has been a rollercoaster recently,between the layoffs and the critical darlings, and sooner or later it will surely settle into routine. But looking closer, it doesn’t seem as though the ride is letting up just yet. I hope we’re through the worst of the layoff storm obviously, but on the upward tracks of the rollercoaster, 2024 is starting with a bang.
We havePrince of Persia: The Lost Crown,The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered,Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth,Tekken 8,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,Nightingale,Persona 3 Reload,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth,Dragon’s Dogma 2, andRise of the Roninall out before the end of March. Suicide Squad is coming in hot, and Rise of the Ronin poses a little bit of an unknown entity, but many of those games seem like locks. By the time the first four in that list arrive this year, all 2023 would have had to show for itself wasForspoken. 2024 is making a fast start.
There are obvious caveats - 2024 has an emptier slate;Hi-Fi Rush,Horizon: Call of the Mountain, andResident Evil 4all arrived in the first three months of 2023; many of those 2024 games could be disappointments; and most crucially, time is made up. 2023 was a good year for video games simply because a lot of good video games released together, mostly due to a pandemic-induced bottleneck. There was nothing magical in the air that dissipated the second we rang in 2024 with Auld Lang Syne.
But it’s most interesting because many people, probably myself included, have written 2024 off a little.Just an empty cavern of timewith noZeldagame, therefore giving us more time to replay Zelda. There are a few 2023 games I didn’t get around to, even as I tried as best I could to take in as much of the year as possible. And during the various gaps across this year, I might get around to givingStarfielda real college try. But 2024 is making sure I taste what it has to offer before going back to reheated leftovers.
Another similarity between the early 2024 games is just how long they are. While Tekken is a game you can dip in and out of, The Last of Us is an add-on mode, and Prince of Persia is a linear Metroidvania, the trio of Like a Dragon, Final Fantasy, and Dragon’s Dogma all include major time investments. Going off the last games in their series, that’s 70 hours plus 40 hours plus 55 hours to explore those three in any real depth - far more than the 25 plus 15 plus 20 of Forspoken, Hi-Fi, and Resi, and that’s assuming you skip Suicide Squad, Persona, Nightingale, and Rise of the Ronin completely, not to mentionPrincess Peach: Showtime.
It remains to be seen if 2024 is starting off strong, but it’s certainly starting off busy, and that might be just what we need to get 2024 rolling. January is typically a month for the 2023 hangover, so it makes sense that it keeps the energy of 2023 going. Beyond March, 2024 still looks like a ghost town, but withan Xbox showcaseand rumours ofPlayStationandNintendofollowing hot on its heels, that could all change soon. Either way, 2024 is keen to show us that it shouldn’t be written off just yet.
