2023 in Review
One of the Biggest Years in Gaming History
2022 was a consequential year in the world of video games. There were big-time acquisitions that will change the bedrock of the industry. Going into 2023, we knew we had a potential massive year for the games, as many major titles from 2022 were delayed. We didn’t realize it then, but 2023 was becoming a monster. 2023 would go on to be so stacked that numerous titles could easily be game of the year. Even with a new Zelda title that took over the gaming world, it wasn’t a lock as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 gave it stiff competition. In the end, 2023 is a year I would call the greatest year in gaming when it comes to just the games.
Lost in all the excitement of the year, delivering banger after banger after banger, was the mass of layoffs inside the industry. As gaming was having its biggest year yet, many of the same creators who helped make those games were losing their jobs. We also had Microsoft close its purchase of Activision-Blizzard, in which we now have conversations on the potential consolidation of the industry. The movement for unions, and how developers navigate the wild west of AI's emergence is another new issue that popped up in the year. Yes, 2023 was a great year for the gamer, but one can argue it wasn’t a great year for the creators.
Nintendo
Nintendo’s 2023 started with a bang, a mushroom power-up, a super jump from Mario, or - well… you get it. The Super Mario Bros. Movie came out and took over the box office. I knew this movie could be big, but I didn’t expect it to be over a billion dollars big. The only film that surpassed it was Barbie. Despite the critics not being crazy about it, audiences ate it up - me included. Nintendo didn’t end with their expansion plans from there; they showed off the new Donkey Kong expansion for Universal Studios Japan and announced a Legend of Zelda live-action film was in pre-production.
Nintendo had a good year in the video games department despite it being obvious we are in the Switch’s final days. They came out swinging from the gate when they shadow dropped Metroid Prime Remastered at the first Direct. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom happened, and even though many of us were questioning how they could pull off a direct sequel to the consequential Breath of the Wild, Nintendo delivered a sequel so good that it reminded me of the masterpiece releases of the two Godfather films. Tears took over the gaming world in interactions on social media and reviews. It became apparent it was the early favorite to the Game of the Year. But Zelda wasn’t the only major release from the big N.
Pikmin 4 launched and got great reviews, becoming the best-selling game in the franchise. Super Mario Bros. Wonder emerged in the fall and quickly became another banger. The 2D Mario genre was becoming stale, but Wonder changed things up to give us what, in my opinion, is the best 2D Mario since Super Mario World! That wasn’t all for Mario fans either, as November gave us the surprise release of Super Mario RPG, the remake of the SNES classic.
So, all in all, Nintendo had a solid 2023. Considering that many believe this was the last full year of the Nintendo Switch, this was a good way to end things. 2024 is looking interesting for the company as well. We have titles like Super Princess Peach and the Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD remaster. Add to that the very real possible launch of the Switch’s successor, and there’s a lot to look forward to in 2024 if you’re a Nintendo fan.
Sony / PlayStation
Out of all of the “big 3”, Sony had what I felt was the weakest year. Yet, that doesn’t mean Sony didn’t have anything to give us. Sony stumbled out of the gate with Forspoken getting mixed to disappointing reviews. Luckily, they had Horizon 2’s Forbidden Shores expansion to make up for it. Sony also got lucky in that Larian Studios couldn’t get Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Xbox right away, so PS5 was the console home of the only game to give Tears of the Kingdom its greatest competition and the eventual Game Awards’ Game of the Year winner.
In the summer, we got Final Fantasy XVI, which, despite some mixed feelings from hardcore fans, would go on to be a success and become my favorite game of the system for the year. PlayStation 5 was able to end with a bang as it was the home to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, which gave us another solid PS-style AAA experience with the world of Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Add in the third-party hits like Resident Evil 4 Remake, Alan Wake 2, and Sea of Stars - and it was a good year to be a PlayStation 5 owner.
So overall, PlayStation may not have had the year Nintendo had, but they had a good solid year that gave PlayStation 5 owners some great titles. And if you were buying a PS5 for the first time, they launched revised slimmer systems (though not slimmer in the price department). Behind the scenes, things are a little shaky. Sony was looking to go all in on games as services games, but they are now toning that down as the genre has been doing badly. There’s a lot of mystery around 2024 and PS5, so hopefully, Sony will make much of that clear soon.
Microsoft / Xbox
2023’s most consequential story to the industry will be Microsoft closing the Activision-Blizzard deal after kissing, making up with the CMA, and fighting off the United State’s FTC. This, of course, brings up questions about industry consolidation and its potential effects on the industry. Microsoft needed this win as 2022 was not a good year for them, and questions around its strategy were being put to the test. Fortunately for them, 2023 was a good year for the Xbox brand, even if they had to deal with a roller coaster start.
At first, Xbox seemed like it was going to start off the year in a good way. They had a well-received Xbox Developer Direct that gave us a shadow drop release of Hi-Fi Rush, the first critically acclaimed release of the year. The reception from gamers with this game was exactly what Microsoft had been missing for a while. But it didn’t last long as Redfall was released with bad reviews, and people began to question Phil Spencer’s vision for the Xbox brand. Spencer didn’t back down and had a candid and frank interview with Kinda Funny Games’ Xcast podcast. Spencer defended Microsoft’s acquisition strategy and apologized for how Redfall was released.
In the summer of 2024, things changed for the better. Microsoft had won the Activision-Blizzard fight against the FTC and began negotiations with the CMA. They also delivered a solid summer showcase that finally gave us numerous new titles, showing the acquired studios’ many upcoming titles. But the big test was still to come, the September release of the highly anticipated Starfield.
The hype around Starfield was massive. I myself declared the game my most anticipated title of 2023. When the game came out, it got mixed with good reviews, but many did acknowledge it was a good Bethesda RPG. I myself was a little disappointed with it, and I don’t think it lived up to the hype, but it is a solid, good Western RPG, and I think it was a small but good shot in the arm to the Xbox lineup. Add in the official close of the nearly $70 billion Activision-Blizzard deal, the launch of Baldur’s Gate 3 at the end of The Game Awards, and the release of a really good Forza Motorsport - and you can see Xbox ended 2023 firing on all cylinders and prepped for a solid 2024.
Other Companies
If you’re going to have a year like 2023, you need all the companies to bring out the big guns, and that’s exactly what happened. Capcom’s biggest was Resident Evil 4, a remake of the already great 2005 original that reminded everyone why that game was always in people’s top 10-20 greatest games. EA had Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which gave us what some would argue is the best Star Wars video game experience. Games across the industry like Doom 4, Lies of P, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Hogwarts Legacy, and so much more, and you can see why it was just a year of nothing but quality game releases.
Small and indie games didn’t disappoint either. Dave the Diver seemed to come out of nowhere to take up many gamers’ nights. Sea of Stars became a loved phenomenon as it reminded us of old-school SNES 16-bit JRPGs. Cocoon was another one that came in late and shook people’s lists. Even the expansions and DLC were incredible, such as Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion. 2023 was a wild year filled with literally nothing but great game after great game.
The biggest release came in Larian Studio’s full release of Baldur’s Gate 3. The game quickly became a juggernaut, and the gaming media fell in love with it. In many ways, the game came out at a perfect time. I think the media wanted to give the Game of the Year to something less predictable than Tears of the Kingdom, and Baldur’s Gate 3 gave them every reason to be that pick. At the time it was released, there were disgusting actions across the country, specifically in my home state of Florida, going after children for being different, specifically the LGBTQ+ community. Baldur’s Gate 3 resonated in embracing people to be who they are and them some. Combine that with a solid story, great graphics, and a release on PS5, and you have the recipe for what The Game Awards would crown as the 2023 Game of the Year. I myself have yet to play it, but I hope to remedy that in 2024.
The Bad
If you don’t include industry impact and hardware releases, I would argue 2023 was the greatest year in video games, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. One of the weirdest images of the year was this incredible slate of video games and its creators being laid off in what would become a tech industry recession.
2023 was a weird economic year. On the one hand, it was statistically one of the best years in the United States since the 60s! On the other…, inflation and food prices were high and came down rather slowly. While we did, in the end, achieve a miracle soft landing, getting there had headaches like higher than normal interest rates, and the tech space, including video games, experienced its own industry recession in a way. Mass layoffs of developers and even in the gaming media hit the year from the get-go. Questions around unionization in the industry only grew, especially after Hollywood and the auto industry had its labor disputes. While Geoff was having his big party at The Game Awards, there were protesters outside calling for better pay and working conditions. It was a year that was great for the gamer but not for the people making their games.
A controversy also hit when Hogwarts Legacy arrived. The game was a dream come true for anyone, like me, who grew up with the Harry Potter books and films. The reviews came in showing a great AAA quality title, with the sales going through the roof. However, many gamers in the trans and nonbinary community called for a boycott of the game due to series creator J.K. Rowling being very openly hostile to that community. This opens up the debate around the artist vs. the art, in which I feel its up to you on how you feel about it. While things would eventually settle down, the game proved successful, and I hope that even if you disagreed with boycotting it, gamers at least listened to and heard the concerns of those communities in how they felt.
The Game Awards didn’t have some weirdo jumping onto the stage, but it did limit how long the speeches for the winners could go on. It’s unfortunate that in a year as awesome as this one, the most famous awards show for the industry seemed to value the developers much less than ads and celebrities. In some ways, The Game Awards was a good show of the year for video games. Like I said before, it's great for gamers but not so much for the creators of the games.
On to 2024
2023 will go down as one of the greatest years in the history of video games, at least when it comes to the games side of things. I think this will be up there with 1985, 1991, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2017 as years that we will be talking about for a long time to come. I wish the developers could enjoy it instead of fearing being laid off or being let go.
2024 will be interesting, despite what should be a comedown from the high releases of quality titles compared to 2023. There should be new hardware from all of the big three if rumors are proven correct. Nintendo’s next console is expected to be released, and with it, potentially another major year. Let’s enjoy what 2023 was because those types of years don’t always come around.