Yeah I'm not sure what people mean by "it will be a tough" year lol

So far, we already have a lot of stuff coming up this year. I just got the Mario vs. Donkey Kong, then the end-of-month Final Fantasy 7.

Then Microsoft has at least 5 big titles (FS, Hellblade 2, Avowed, Indiana Jones, and ARA) that we know of (not counting the COD, Diablo expansion, etc.), and Nintendo has at least 3 that I know of.

I'm not sure about the Play Station (probably not that much on the first party, but a bunch of third parties for sure).

They do but it's not going to be enough to hold up the entire industry. 2023 was amazing and yet...

Xbox hardware is projected to decline in 2024, PlayStation hardware is projected to decline, Sony has no major sequels in 2024, the 3rd parties don't appear to have anything ground-breaking aside from the usual (CoD, Fifa), no Switch 2 hardware, etc. PS5 Pro is nice but it won't do anything for the overall market, Pro consoles never do, they're targeted at a hardcore smaller audience.

I dont think it will be that bad if we are talking about the industry as a whole. PS5 sells no matter if it gets games or not for some reason. The annual big games will still come. COD, Fifa, Madden, Assassins Creed etc... and the big GaaS games are still going strong. We are also only in the second month of the year, so news of games will start picking up over the coming months.

We're talking about the overall market, everything has a knock on effect on everything else, the market is basically hoping GTA 6 saves it but Switch 2 will also breath some life into it, otherwise it's going to be either flat, small growth or maybe even declines and that will lead to more panic, more layoffs, more cuts, etc. Xbox having a great Holiday is all well and good for us but won't really do much for the overall market which is much bigger than a few titles, nor will those Nintendo titles singled out.

2023 had those things, COD, Fifa, Madden, etc. (Not an AC, they did have an amazing selling Harry Potter though), Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Mario, etc. Despite all those things, 2023 was overall poor according to Mat (NPD) and we can see from the thousands of layoffs, the fear from developers (common theme at DICE is developers terrified). Things are already bad and 2024 is apparently going to be worse according to developers, publishers, those in the industry. Just doing "good enough" isn't acceptable to capitalist either, they want constant growth, being "flat" isn't acceptable, a flat overall market causes contraction in funding, spending, and results in layoffs.

Yeah, thats a big problem in pretty much any industry. Its never enough.

Nintendo gotta be tired having to save the industry again.

100% IW and now I don't know what I want to do next.

Play Judgment

Baldur’s Gate 3 🙂