Microsoft’s fourth-generation Xbox consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S, are now entering Year 3. And although Year 1 started off with a light debut in the exclusive games division, half the time. The latter part of the first year of this generation brought a flood that left the Xbox dry. fans have been waiting years for. From Forza Horizon 5 to Halo Infinite to Astronaut 2 to Microsoft Flight Simulator, it looks like Xbox The exclusive game drought is finally over [Editor’s note: Whoops!]. Of course, now you know the story because you lived through it. The whole of 2022 is like a mirage in the desert: you think you can see the water ahead, but is it really there? Therefore, 2023 simply has to deliver to Xbox gamers who have invested heavily in the platform. Microsoft is a trillion dollar company that seems to have exhausted the patience of its player base. Fortunately, however, there is reason to be optimistic.
Will X finally give it to Ya?
The conversation surrounding Xbox-exclusive blockbusters in 2023 began and ended with Starfield, the first brand-new IP from acclaimed game designer Todd Howard in decades and the first game in the series. the first he’s directed since Fallout 4 back in 2015. Howard tried to call him back in 2020, promising a 11/11/22 release 18 months earlier. That didn’t work out, but now Starfield is finally near, and with apologies to Arkane’s Redfall (which we’ll cover shortly), Starfield isn’t just Bethesda’s biggest game since. Microsoft bought publisher for $7.5 billion two years ago, this was, in theory, the kind of exclusivity that made people want to buy into the Xbox ecosystem. And for the millions of players still enjoying Team Starfield’s Skyrim, there’s good news: Starfield could be Skyrim in spacethis will be good news for the millions of Elder Scrolls fans who have been waiting over a decade for the sixth installment of that venerable series.
But Starfield will at least have to wait until near the middle of this year. All indications are that the aforementioned Redfall will be released first. The four-player vampire co-op first-person shooter looked downright fun the last time we saw it and got it. a huge dump of information from co-creative director Harvey Smith, and it should help ease the discomfort of watching Bethesda’s last two major releases — by Arkane delicious Game Deathloop and Tango strangely strong Ghostwire: Tokyo – released as a PlayStation 5 exclusive as part of the deal Bethesda signed with Sony prior to its acquisition of Microsoft. Luckily, Deathloop is available now on Xbox Game Pass, and Ghostwire will launch when its one-year PlayStation exclusivity window expires in March. Arkane has always made incredibly smart games – game designer Hall of Fame Warren Spector Call them roleplaying sims – tends to receive more critical acclaim than commercial success. Given the enduring success of vampires in popular culture, perhaps Redfall will ultimately be the game that checks both boxes for the studio.
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Also expected in the first half of 2023 is Forza Motorsport, the only next-gen reboot of Xbox’s long-running simulation racing game series. As great as the first seven Motorsport entries, Horizon is said to have become the better Forza over five iterations. It also has broader appeal. As a result, Motorsport will need to dig into its simulation-based history to once again raise the bar above its noisy brother. What’s shown so far has been fantastic – not to mention the developer Turn10 Studios has spent a lot of time rebuilding the game from the ground up, as Forza Motorsport 7 released throughout 2017 on Xbox One. The developers of Forza Motorsport have never failed to deliver, so racing game fans have good reason to be excited when this reboot drops.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had a huge impact on the video game industry, and two major Xbox exclusives slated for release last year have been pushed back due to the war of encroachment right away. threshold of developers. Triple-A STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl first-person shooter, from Ukraine-based studio GSC Game World, is the most popular of the games whose development schedule has been affected. The survival horror shooter is hoping to land on Xbox Game Pass in 2023, and whenever it does, it will have the entire gaming community cheering for its success.
The same goes for the newly established studio Sad Cat Studios, who had to relocate for the safety of the group themselves due to the invasion. Work on Replaced has continued and it is expected to ship in 2023 as an Xbox exclusive as well. It’s a sci-fi thriller with beautiful 2.5D pixel art set in 1980s alternate reality, and it was a standout title when it debuted at Xbox’s 2021 showcase event. . Look no further than this!
More recently, Xbox’s 2022 Rollout promises more exclusives in 2023. Minecraft Legends is an action-strategy game that’s suitable for the casual crowd but is unlikely to be transformative for core players. Instead, the biggest move Xbox is making in all of 2023 onward – and currently the hottest soap opera of recent times – is Microsoft’s attempt to acquire Activision-Blizzard. As Sony and Microsoft take turns hilariously trying to appear more meek and feeble than the other before the board in order to push the deal to continue or end it altogether, the current reality for Microsoft is, if If the deal doesn’t work out, the company will suddenly bring the sequel to the 2023 Blizzard powerhouse, Diablo 4, to Xbox Game Pass. The Call of Duty exclusivity situation is another matter entirely, but bringing the new Diablo to the Game Pass would be a huge win for Xbox.
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Even if you put the Activision-Blizzard movie aside, Microsoft still has a number of previously announced exclusives that could launch in the second half of 2023. Unreal Engine 5-powered psychological thriller. Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 from renowned developer Ninja Theory seems like the most likely candidate of the lot. Avowed is harder to rate, as we haven’t even seen the gameplay trailer from it, but Obsidian delivered a game 10/10 as an Xbox and Avowed exclusive could be the perfect way to satisfy Skyrim fans while waiting for The Elder Scrolls 6 to continue. Can it sneak in late 2023? Possibly, though it could depend on where in the calendar Starfield ends up landing.
Perfect Dark, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2, Contraband, and Gears 6 don’t seem to be able to sneak in before the third year of Xbox Series X is over, but hopefully we’ll at least see something tangible from each of them. surname number. More specifically, it’s not out of the question that one or more State of Decay 3, Indiana Jones, and Everwild land on your console earlier than expected. The bottom line, however, is that it’s time for Microsoft to offer blockbuster exclusivity to its fans.
All of those games will come with a $70 price tag, as Microsoft eventually joins most of the rest of the major publishers in the industry at increase its game price from $60. Luckily, many Xbox gamers won’t really feel any effects of that, as all of those first-party games launch directly on Xbox Game Pass, for a (currently) monthly price. at) remains unchanged.
Hardware and Services
On that note, Xbox Game Pass has become so successful that it has now become a meme, which is probably the best-case scenario Microsoft could hope for when they roll out the service in 2017. The point, though, is that the meme doesn’t ‘don’t lie: Xbox Game Pass is truly the best deal when it comes to gaming, and 2023 will not only bring the first wave of overdue first-party exclusivity, but it will continue to bring return value to third parties. While no official announcement has been made yet, it’s reasonable to expect MLB The Show 23 to return to the service on launch day. Likewise, Hollow Knight: Silksong, the Vin Diesel vehicle, promises souls like Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn, gripping agricultural simulation Lightyear Frontier, moody platformer The Last Case of Benedict Fox, and life So will the quirky action adventure Ravenlok. And that’s just what to expect in the first half of the new year. More will surely come.
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Meanwhile, Xbox Cloud Gaming continues to quietly grow and integrate into the Xbox ecosystem through Game Pass, there are Xbox Series S deals and oh yes, now you can actually find and buy Xbox Series X in multiple stores without too much hassle. And once you’ve got your console in hand, you can now order a custom Xbox Elite controller in the Xbox Design Lab, further personalizing your Xbox experience.
Ultimately, 2023 is a year of serious promise for Xbox, but it comes with a sense of understandable urgency from Xbox owners. Microsoft has seen the stability of first-party studios grow by leaps and bounds over the past few years, correcting a series of mistakes made in the Xbox One generation. Players were patient, but at this point, Microsoft had exhausted any remaining goodwill. In short, it’s time to shut up or shut up. Luckily, all indications are that, like the 2016 Chicago Cubs, this will eventually be the year.
Ryan McCaffrey is the executive editor of IGN previews and the weekly Xbox host of both IGN, Podcasts are unlockedas well as our monthly (-ish) interview program, Unfiltered IGN. He’s North Jersey, so it’s “Taylor ham”, not “spring rolls”. Debate him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
