Depending on who you ask, 2022 was either a fantastic year for video games, or the industry is dying. Based on available statistics from Statista and the host of announcements at this year’s Game Awards show, we reckon the industry is very much alive and kicking.
So much so that we’ve gone through every single announcement and trailer from the last ten years to compile a list of all the games (supposedly) coming out in 2023. Okay, not really. That would take forever. But here’s a list of some of the games we’re most excited to see in the first bit of 2023 – if they stick to their current release schedule and we see no more delays between now and then.
January
Forspoken – 24th March
Forspoken is an open-world RPG with magic and parkour. The player takes control of Frey, a modern-day New York teen that somehow finds herself in the magical world of Athia with a magical bracelet companion and a lot of questions. Hopefully, those questions will be answered through your journey to find out what happened, probably fix a few things, and then head home. Developed by Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix, pre-orders for Forspoken are live for PlayStation and PC gamers. It should be available to everyone not wanting to pre-order on 24 January 2023. Xbox-only players will have to wait longer as this is a timed PlayStation exclusive and won’t be on Microsoft’s consoles until 2025 at the earliest.
Dead Space Remake – 27th
The remake of Motive’s 2008 space-horror shooter of the same name can’t come soon enough. This time around, Dead Space looks to be a faithful remaster of the original game with improved graphics (expect some form of ray tracing), fewer bugs (hopefully), and as much or even more plasma cutter dismemberment as the first. We can’t wait to get our hands on this one come 27 January. It’ll be available to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC gamers.
February
Hogwarts Legacy – 10th
Hogwarts Legacy will be the first officially licensed game set in the wizarding world since Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 came out in 2011. Set in 1890, players re-enter the wizarding world through this single-player open-world action RPG developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment under its Portkey Games label. Hopefully, the two delays it already faced were the last and it makes it to shelves and digital platforms by its currently scheduled release of 10 February for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo consoles.
Company Of Heroes 3 – 23rd
The third entry in the popular real time strategy (RTS) game series Company of Heroes is set to launch on 23 February, roughly ten years after the sequel, Company of Heroes 2, launched in 2013. The game will feature new mechanics and settings this time taking the fight to the axis in Italy and North Africa. With one delay under its belt already, we hope that was the last. At the Game Awards 2022, we found out that for this next title, console gamers can join in on the fun next year as well. They didn’t say when exactly, just that it’s happening.
March
The Day Before – 1st
This upcoming open-world MMO survival game seems to be something between The Division and The Last of Us from what we can tell. It is set in a deadly, post-pandemic America overrun by flesh-hungry infected and survivors killing each other for food, weapons, ammo, and cars. It also adds to the list of games meant to come out in 2022 but pushed back to 2023. Developed by Fntastic and published by Mytona, it will run on the new Unreal Engine 5 and will (hopefully) be available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on 1 March 2023.
The Last of Us Part 1 – 3rd
The Last of Us Part 1, the remake of the critically acclaimed title from Naughty Dog and not to be confused with The Last of Us Remasted (also a remake of the critically acclaimed title from Naughty Dog), is launching on PC on 3 March next year. You can expect the same engrossing story from the original game with the added benefits of ray tracing and advanced graphics and textures from the recent PlayStation remake. We hope our systems will run it.
Skull and Bones – 9th
At this point, we wouldn’t blame you if you took every bit of news you hear about Skull & Bones with a spoonful of salt. First revealed at E3 2017, Skull & Bones, Ubisoft’s gritty, realistic answer to Sea of Thieves, went very quiet for a long time. It only recently resurfaced with a host of announcements and a new release date – the 9th of March. Your guess is as good as ours if this one will hold. We sure hope it does.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – 17th
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the next title from Respawn and EA. Picking up five years after the events of the previous game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, this third-person, narrative-driven action-adventure game continues Cal’s journey against the Empire. Gamers on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation hopefully won’t need to wait too much longer as the release date’s been set for 17 March.
Crime Boss: Rockay City – 28th
One of the treats out of this year’s Game Awards show was an entirely new title from the teams at InGame Studios and 505 Games — Crime Boss: Rockay City. This one wins points for one of the most stacked video game casts of the year. Not only will you have Michael Rooker, Danny Glover, Michael Madsen, Kim Basinger, Danny Trejo, and Vanilla Ice grace your screens but they’ll be joined by Chuck Norris as well. Can you tell we’re excited? As for gameplay, well, from the early gameplay trailer it seems it will borrow more than a few pages from Payday 2’s playbook of first person shooter vault and bank-robbing missions. With Payday 3 also in development and a supposed 2023 release date, it’ll be interesting to see how the two titles separate themselves. Or if they’ll need to at all.
