You can throw out some names, but not enough to plug the gaps. We have Hellblade 2 next month, and then Indiana Jones and Avowed at some point in 2024 (though I suspect one gets delayed). Star Wars Outlaws will hit in summer, and there are rumours Dragon Age Dreadwolfcould arrive by winter. After that, not a lot of major hits. The inside talk suggests the Switch 2 (and therefore its launch catalogue) was internally delayed into 2025, while PlayStation has said it will not have any major franchise titles until at least this time next year.
Those two sitting it out means if Xbox can hold its release dates, and possibly launch the likes of Microsoft Flight Sim, 2024 could be one of its biggest victories.
Indies Could Benefit From 2024's Schedule Gaps
Of course, there will be a chance for indies to cash in on this as much as Xbox. In Balatro, there has already been one indie game I know will place highly on my own GOTY list. There are dozens more that I have my eye on that are due out later in the year, and I expect others will surprise me by the time they release - I hadn't heard of A Space for the Unbound or Slay the Princess until I played them last year, and both landed in my top ten.
Indies have long been the lifeblood of the industry's creativity, and it's why I am disappointed that Indie World continues to embrace cutesy wholesomeness as the definitive aesthetic of what makes an indie game. It's wrong to dismiss indie games out of hand as part and parcel of any given year's legacy, but at the same time, if triple-A games leave a massive gap in the calendar, that's a notable talking point no matter how cool the small games we play in their place are.
But there's also such a thing as looking too far forward. We've seen some great indie games skirt by this year with little fanfare, crushed between the waves of the massive RPGs and floundering with minimal promotion. We don't just need to look at games yet to come for those empty months - they could be the second chance these games that passed us by need. When revealed in an Indie World at the back end of 2023, I was looking forward to Death Trick: Double Blind. I found out last week it came out, was sent to no reviewers, and thus doesn't even have an official OpenCritic score.
Don't Backtrack Too Far For Your Backlog
In 2023, there was always a great game to be played. It seemed that simply by virtue of releasing in 2023, it got an extra slice of promotion. From the summer onwards, it was in the air that 2023 was an all-time great year. By the time it drew to a close, it was mathematically the best in two decades. Each new game that scored highly became part of this mythos.
High-scoring reviews of all games great and small were shared around social media with faux exhaustion. There was yet another game to cram in, more hours to be spent, more fun to be had. These games were fantastic in their own right, but many fantastic games don't get this level of exposure. 2023 made people more willing to try new things, but it also gave us precious little time to play them.
2024 is the opposite - there's going to be lots of time to play, but 2024 is already being labelled as a hollow year and that means there's less chance of this surge of positivity pushing lesser known games onto our shores. Hopefully once the gap on the horizon changes from something looming in the distance to our day to day reality, people will go to bat a little harder for some of 2024's most hidden of gems.
When that gap arrives, it's worth keeping in mind that you don't need to only play games that came out last week. And look, I know you know that. But most people will jump to games that are years deep in their backlog. Nothing wrong with that - hey, I'm not a cop, do what you like - but sometimes we're a little quick to throw out games once they've passed the window of conversation or hype that comes with launch. Many of 2024's early games have missed that window, but that doesn't mean we should slam the door in their face.
