It’s been busy, but with 2023 almost over, we’re turning our sights to 2024. Here are some of our top predictions for what could happen next year… I hope you’re ready for more server closures.
New Xbox Series X|S consoles
As part of the fallout from its legal battle with the US Federal Trade Commission (remember that? Wasn’t that fun?), Microsoft’s plans for two new Xbox Series consoles were laid bare thanks to some improperly redacted court documents.
According to those documents, a cylindrical, all-digital Xbox Series X that features 2TB of storage, better Wi-Fi connectivity, and an “all-new immersive controller” will launch in November next year. Before that, though, the document says we’ll see a refresh of the Xbox Series S in September. Xbox chief Phil Spencer did address the leak not long after it had spread across the internet like wildfire, and he did describe the documents as “old,” so it’s possible (and probably likely) that Microsoft’s plans have changed. However, Microsoft has been heavily discounting both the Xbox Series X and S recently, and we’ve already seen Sony launch new PlayStation consoles, so it isn’t too farfetched to think an Xbox console refresh could be on the cards in 2024.
More server closures
It’s been a bad year for live-service games, discontinued achievements, and server closures, and it’s likely we’ll see even more shutdowns in 2024. A rough count reveals that nearly 50 games (according to our coverage and not including stacks) have lost online functionality in some way in 2023, which is a shame. As for next year, 14 server closures have already been announced, and with the death of the Xbox 360 store scheduled for July, we expect even more are on the way.
Huge Activision Xbox Game Pass drop
A big Activision Blizzard Game Pass drop is pretty much a given, considering not a single game from the publisher has joined the service since Microsoft raided the piggy bank to purchase the gaming giant. Back in October, Activision said that we could expect its games to hit Game Pass sometime in 2024, which was also later confirmed by Phil Spencer. The Xbox chief explained that we didn’t see a glut of Activision Blizzard games immediately drop into Game Pass the moment the takeover closed (like we did with Bethesda), was because the regulatory process caused a lot of uncertainty, which left Microsoft unable to work with the publisher on that front.
When the Bethesda deal was finalized, 12 games from the publisher joined Game Pass in what was one of the biggest Game Pass announcements of 2021. Hopefully, we’ll see something just as exciting with Activision Blizzard’s back catalog (so much Call of Duty) early next year.
Gears 6? Marcus Fenix Collection? Gears Tactics 2?
It’s been just over four years now since the release of Gears 5, so surely Xbox and The Coalition will have something to share in 2024 about Gears 6 or whatever the next mainline entry into the franchise will be called. A report from earlier in the year suggested The Coalition is now focused on Gears 6 after canceling two unannounced projects, and we’ve seen a job listing looking for a senior gameplay designer to work on Gears of War, so it sounds like something is in the works.
Hopefully, we’ll see an announcement from The Coalition this year about Gears 6, but if not, some news on that rumored Marcus Fenix Collection wouldn’t go amiss, and neither would an announcement for Gears Tactics 2, the excellent spin-off tactics game from Splash Damage. I mean, I’d even take another Gears POP! at this point.
Microsoft makes changes to Xbox achievements, but not in the way you think
Earlier in December, Xbox boss Phil Spencer teased that there might be a roadmap for improvements coming to the Xbox achievements system we all know and love. Call me a pessimist, but I don’t think any improvements (at least in the way of meaningful changes such as platinum-equivalent achievements) will come next year or for a long time yet. We’ve seen Xbox top brass say things like this before: VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystem Jason Ronald said Xbox achievements were “top of mind” for Team Green back in 2021, and absolutely nothing has changed, at least directly for users.
What I think will happen is that we’ll see a further tightening of Xbox achievement rules to stamp out the 1,000G title updates coming to games from certain developers and publishers. Back in May, Xbox introduced changes to the rules that govern achievements to try and stop some of the more egregious easy Gamerscore games from hitting the Microsoft Store, but nothing was said about title updates. I believe it’s only a matter of time before 1,000G title updates are curtailed by Microsoft.
What do you think 2024 will bring for Xbox? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.
