game of the year 2023

It’s been a long year filled with massive games, but we’ve finally reached the end of 2023. There’s no question that this year will be remembered as one of the all-time best for new releases — and one of the worst for game creators — but it’s been a whirlwind 12 months for the “big three” console makers. PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo all had pivotal years, though in entirely different ways. While the Nintendo Switch took a victory lap, the PS5 entered an experimental era. The Xbox Series X, on the other hand,…

At the end of every year, there’s one article I always look forward to writing. I try to put the “Trends” in Digital Trends” by predicting where gaming is headed in the coming year. It’s a fun thought experiment that puts my expertise to the test as I try to pull together narratives and pin down what the industry is building to. Sometimes I’m spot-on. Other times, I’m hilariously off. As I began to think about this year’s edition, I decided to look back to what I’d written almost exactly one year ago on New Year’s…

Most years, I struggle to put together a list of my top 10 favorite games. This year, I could write a top 20 without trying and I’d still have to leave things out. 2023 might’ve had the single most stacked release schedule in the history of this medium. Every month was a carnival of mainstream hits, sleeper indies, genre revivals, and old favorites releasing new content packs. No one’s had time to breathe since January unless they were caught up in one of this year’s waves of industry layoffs. (For as much fun as…

I play lots of games across every platform for work, but my most-played game in 2023 was one I primarily engaged with for personal enjoyment. While I sunk dozens and dozens of hours into games like Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fire Emblem Engage, Fortnite, Starfield, and more, my most played game was something that didn’t even come out in 2023. That honor goes to Marvel Snap, a collectible card game from Second Dinner for PC and mobile Playing it for extended periods daily, I racked…

For years now, studios have been chasing the impossible dream. Rather than giving games one or two great expansions, we’ve seen a rise in live-service games looking to replicate the titanic success of games like Fortnite. Though that continued in 2023 (especially in Fortnite itself), this year has seen a return to a more traditional approach to DLC and expansions — and that’s led to some unforgettable results that prove the power of a focused update. The year started strong with Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania…

The strategy game genre found itself in a renaissance this year — and you might not have noticed. Coming off the excellent Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Marvel’s Midnight Suns last fall, strategy games started and ended 2023 off strong from the AAA to the indie space. Unfortunately, in such a crowded year, many of the excellent games in this niche genre flew more under the radar. If you missed out on games like Fire Emblem Engage, Pikmin 4, Wargroove 2, and Last Train Home, you’re missing out on a golden age…

If you’d asked me where I stood on VR gaming back in early May of this year, it would have been a dire conversation. A little over a month into the PlayStation VR2’s life span, I was feeling entirely disillusioned with the tech. Headsets liked the Meta Quest 2 had stopped delivering fresh experiences that felt like they could transcend the technical gimmick and PSVR2 felt dead in the water on day one. Despite being a firm supporter of VR for a decade, I felt like the train was about to leave the station for me.…

Kinmoku Growing up, I routinely did the very thing adults begged me not to do: I talked to a lot of strangers. That was thanks to the World Wide Web, which was a digital wild west during my formative years in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. As a small-town nerd who couldn’t always find friends with the same passions as me, I spent many days in online communities. Long before writing professionally, I’d cut my teeth in criticism on IGN’s forums, crafting weekly reviews of Super Smash Bros. Brawl reveals. I’d…

I play just about every genre of video game, but I especially love a great puzzle game. While I enjoy high-skill experiences that require fast reflexes, I appreciate any cleverly designed game that can test my brain just as much. Titles like The Witness and Portal 2 rank high on my list of all-time favorites, sitting comfortably next to canonical action classics like Mass Effect 2 and The Last of Us. As someone who follows the genre closely, let me tell you: 2023 was one hell of a year for puzzlers. That’s thanks…

Digital Trends This was a year of low lows and high highs for Xbox. On one hand, Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition faced a whole lot of scrutiny and Bethesda’s Redfall was a bust. On the other, Xbox Game Studios finally started to release first-party games more consistently in 2023, some long-awaited games finally released, and the Activision Blizzard deal eventually went through. Microsoft now looks to keep that momentum going into 2024 as it integrates the Call of Duty publisher into its organization…