Game news Switch 2, GTA VI, FF XVI: what gamers should expect in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series
Before we end this year 2022, which was both rich in quality releases and postponements, we wanted to celebrate the New Year’s Eve by looking at the good news to come, likely or announced. Like every year, we looked at the few persistent rumors online and raised our wet finger to guess where the wind in 2023 might take us.
Summary
- Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft: the announcement of new consoles
- Big games in our machines
- Takeovers of studies
- Game Pass and PlayStation Plus will continue to evolve
- News about long-awaited titles
Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft: the announcement of new consoles
If you follow us regularly, you know that rumors of new hardware – or revisions of consoles we already have – punctuate the news on the site. For a long time, we believed that a Switch Pro was under investigation, relying on the articles of the very serious site Bloomberg. According to John Linneman of Digital Foundry, a revision of the Switch was indeed planned, but the project would have fallen through to make way for the development of a truly new Nintendo console. If the Switch’s success is unabashed, it would be surprising to see the Japanese giant drastically change its formula, which is why the name Switch 2 is already circulating online. Insider Tom Henderson, the source of many leaks, is in any case convinced: in 2023, the Switch will be six years old, and the success of the Steam Deck could convince Nintendo to introduce a new console in the coming months.
At Sony, it has been rumored for a whilea review of the PlayStation 5 circulates. This new machine would be equipped with a removable disk drive and would allow the manufacturer to reduce the shipping and production costs of its current hardware. On the Microsoft side, the famous Keystone project is on everyone’s lips. This tiny console designed to connect to displays to deliver Cloud gaming has been officially cited by Phil Spencer, the head of gaming at Microsoft. If the white box hasn’t been marketed at the moment due to a history of over-pricing, it would be surprising to see the idea buried for good. After all, the Redmond company has repeated it many times: its goal is to multiply the entry points to its ecosystem.
Big games in our machines
Unless new untimely postponements hit 2023, the new year promises to be rich with big releases. Whether you’re having fun on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S or PC, it’s going to be heavy. Judge for yourself: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy: Hogwarts Legacy, Diablo IV, Final Fantasy XVI, Street Fighter 6, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Baldur’s Gate III, Redfall, Starfield, Alan Wake II, Pikmin 4 , Forza Motorsport, STALKER 2: The Heart of Chornobyl, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, not to mention the remakes of Dead Space (2023), Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Silent Hill 2 (2023). On the side of smaller games, we can’t wait to discover REPLACED, The Last Case of Benedict Fox or Hollow Knight: Silksong. On paper, 2023 promises hours of fun across genres. Impatience is already plaguing us.
Takeovers of studies
By buying Bethesda and planning to acquire Activision Blizzard King, Microsoft has suddenly shown its desire to build a video game empire. Compared to other GAFAs that also operate in gaming, such as Google and Amazon, the group appears to be in a better position. By being so aggressive in its takeover strategy, the Satya Nadella-led company is certainly accelerating market consolidation and accelerating the creation of competing blocs.. While NetEase and Tencent continue to buy studios and increase their stake in others, Sony has also used 2022 to go shopping with the acquisitions of Bungie, Savage Game Studios and Haven.
Big publishers and producers will not stop there and will continue to lay hands on talented teams, as did Embracer, who secured the services of Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal. Several publishers and independent studios are still available, and the Microsoft/Activision affair has proven that big deals, however incredible, can strike at any time. Could Sony and Square-Enix officially unite by multiplying successful partnerships? Likewise, all eyes are necessarily on Asobo on Microsoft’s side. The people of Bordeaux have had good relations with the American giant for many years. They helped develop first-party games, participated in the Hololens project when everything was top secret, developed the very impressive Flight Simulator, and released A Plague Tale Requiem as day one in Game Pass. We will inevitably be surprised by new mergers in 2023.
As for the Microsoft / Activision Blizzard King case, it could see a resolution this year, although it is possible that disagreements with the main regulators will delay the expected date of completion (originally set for June 2023).
Game Pass and PlayStation Plus will continue to evolve
During almost the entire PlayStation 3 and Xbox One generation, the two giants rarely clashed, at least in public. The fact that Sony spends money in the narrative AAA to highlight its console, where Microsoft takes the service path to multiply access points, has even suggested that the two competitors were no longer aiming at the same goal. Nevertheless, the desire to buy influential publishers (Bethesda, Activision) to better feed their Game Pass strained the relationship. We have already returned to the murderous declarations of both sides several times in recent months.
What is certain is that by merging PS Now and PlayStation Plus, Sony no longer wants to let Microsoft do what they want in subscriptions that provide access to a catalog of games. Both Game Pass and PlayStation Plus are poised to evolve. The first should soon offer a family offering, while the second could see some of its features being refined, such as the one that lets you play demos of the latest AAAs. It is still unknown whether the prices will remain fixed or whether they will also experience an increase in 2023. Everything indicates that the two giants will (also) go to war against services.
News about long-awaited titles
2023 could be the year to finally learn a little more about projects we haven’t heard from in a long time. We are naturally thinking of Metroid Prime 4 from Nintendo, but also Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, Fable, Perfect Dark and Everwild from Microsoft. Kojima fans should learn more about Death Stranding 2, but also about the secret project developed with the Xbox team. After the huge leak revealed a lot of information about Grand Theft Auto VI, Rockstar could consider officially showing its production in 2023. Why 2023? Simply because a document from Microsoft indicates that the long-awaited new edition of Grand Theft Auto will be released in 2024. So it could indicate a reveal a year earlier. On Konami’s side, we are entitled to expect news on certain flagship licenses, as Noriaki Okamura, producer at Konami, promised the reveal “more new games for 2023“, including a”long-awaitedFinally, Fumito Ueda (ICO, The Last Guardian) could also announce his new project in the coming months.
Now that we’ve looked to the horizon and remembered the 2023 rumors/predictions that get us excited, it’s time to end 2022 for good. But also to wish you a Happy New Year in advance, full of good times and of course good games.