2024: A Gaming Year In Review

For the second year in a row, I’m writing a gaming round-up that will feel less about the games and more about the industry. Unfortunately there’s no escaping that in 2024.

After a packed 2023, this year felt like it had the potential to be a bit quieter. Not the case. Release after release came and went. Nearly 19,000 games released on Steam. A few of them were successful.

But most people weren’t playing new games. For all the releases in 2024, one of the most consistent points is that many undersold. Budgets are getting bigger, audiences are getting smaller. We all have gigantic backlogs and can hold out for sales.

Companies desperate to see their line go up for yet another year made redundancies. The Financial Times estimates that 15,000 people were made redundant in 2024, with a total of 33,000 since 2022. It’s been a brutal time for our industry. The quality of games is largely as high as ever. We’re just not really buying.

it’s hard to get too excited about Indiana Jones or Final Fantasy Rebirth in a yearly round-up when the backdrop to that is so much struggling. Something has got to give. Games must shrink. The $/hour attitude towards games that has been an unspoken standard since the Xbox 360 generation must be thoroughly banished. The constant demand for better graphics – even if you can’t really see what’s happening without Digital Foundry – must be reduced. If there’s one thing we can learn from 2024, it’s that it’s just not worth it anymore. Great games can be short, sweet and just pretty enough. Nobody can seriously argue with that.

Gaming in 2024

In terms of the games, 2024 has been a very good year. I say that as somebody who spent most of it playing Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. What an incredible journey that was. After years of building it up, it surpassed my ever expectation. It is easily my GOTY.

But really, this has been a year for adventurers of all descriptions. It has been a tremendous 12 months for those of us who love stories, characters and incredible worlds. Indiana Jones defied every expectation and The Great Circle thrilled critics and fans. It seems like it’s been a major success for MachineGames and that more will be made in the future.

Metaphor: Refantazio proved to be another Atlus classic. Astrobot and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom both offered cute mascot takes on other franchises and were fully rewarded for it, the former winning Game of the Year at the Game Awards.

From smaller publishers, 1000xResist reminded us of the power of interactivity, while Palworld gave guns to legally-distinct Pokemon and brought in about a billion players. 2024 – the year it finally happened. Balatro gets a special mention for doing something so incredible with something seemingly simple.

It hasn’t all been highs though. If there was an Oscars In Memoriam roll for this year, it would just be five minutes of Suicide Squad screenshots. Delayed a year and then released to practically no fanfare, there’s supposedly a decent title buried under the noise but who has given it the time to check? Concord – a hugely expensive game from PlayStation – existed for about a week and then was unceremoniously pulled, never to be seen again. The less said about Skull and Bones, the better.

A Few More Mentions

Sometimes games just don’t strike the public imagination. It’s always sad when something incredible comes out and nobody notices. Not one but two Prince of Persia games were released this year, and neither lit up the charts. They were both well worth checking out, and I’d recommend keeping an eye out for those in the deals. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden received positive reviews, but sold well below expectations.

Alone in the Dark had Hollywood faces and a good amount of exposure at gaming events. I haven’t seen it mentioned in months.

Rise of the Ronin was a seemingly decent title that just didn’t end up getting the attention expected. It may pick up again when it comes to PC.

This section could go on forever. Name a game that came out in 2024 and there’s a good chance we moved on quickly. World of Goo 2, Visions of Mana, Homeworld 3, a remake of Riven. It’s not that they’re bad, they just didn’t hit the zeitgeist. Welcome to the gaming industry in 2024.

Conclusion

The end of the year is always a time for contemplation. You get to look back at the last 12 months and think forward to the next. But gaming, for enthusiasts anyway, isn’t really a linear thing. If I want to play something that’s 30 years old, there’s nothing stopping me from doing it.

That’s the problem facing the industry right now. You can do everything right and not enough people will care. Unless it takes off on Tiktok, anyway.

On one rather unimportant hand, it explains why giants like Sony are suddenly very interested in clicking their fingers and having a Fortnite in their armoury. Those types of games are basically just free money, and show no signs of giving up. Of course, artificially trying to make one happen is a fool’s errand. Very few of the most successful games are coming from established publishers.

And on the more important hand, this means people’s jobs. Gamers aren’t interested in spending full price on today’s games, with very few exceptions.

2024 has been another year of huge games and even bigger difficulties. Hopefully 2025 begins to show a way to move forward.