2024 was admittedly a relatively slower year for gaming compared to the insanity of 2023, but looking back at the last 12 months, you’d have to be very, very jaded to not agree that there was a long and varied list of incredible new releases to check out, from the first month of the year to its very last. From multiplayer bangers to single-player odysseys, from new and experimental ideas to stellar adaptations of established IP, from AAA megatons to new indies that took our collective breath away, this year delivered an impressive collection of games- and as ever, with a new year on our doorstep, right now, we’re pausing and looking back.
Specifically, we’re looking at the two competing consoles on the market and diving into their respective years. 2024 has been an eventful and interesting year for both PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and both have certainly seen their fair share of ups and downs over the course of the last few months, but ultimately, both have treated their player base to a healthy and unbroken supply of great games through the course of the year.
From a first-party perspective, 2024 has been a bit of a weird year on all fronts. Nintendo is deliberately holding itself back as the Nintendo Switch fizzles out in its final stretch after a historically incredible run, but for Sony and Microsoft both, this year was the halfway mark of the generation, which is usually the time we see consoles beginning to hit their stride with their first-party output. For both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, however, 2024 felt more of a waystation before bigger and better things- but with plenty of its own highlights to keep players occupied.
For Sony, first-party support of the PS5 in 2024 was- well, it was different. We certainly didn’t get any of those big, premium, flagship narrative-driven games that we get from PlayStation pretty much every year. There were no God of War, no Horizon, no Spider-Man, no Last of Us for PlayStation to pin its year on- but to say that the PS5 got no first party support would highly inaccurate. Smaller releases peppered throughout the year was the name of the game for Sony this year, and the results were… well, let’s call them mixed.
On the one hand, you we got stuff like Astro Bot. The spectacular 3D platformer might be flat out one of the best first party PlayStation titles of all time. It’s so good, in fact, that it’s being legitimately compared to and spoken of in the same breath as mainline 3D Mario titles- it’s that good. A delightful and concentrated burst of creativity, childlike wonder, and pure, unadulterated fun- that’s what Astro Bot is. Without exaggeration, it’s easily one of the best PS5 games available out there.
Another major win in 2024 for PlayStation was Helldivers 2– in fact, you could argue that it was a far bigger one. Maybe Arrowhead Game Studios’ multiplayer shooter won’t be showered with year-end awards and plaudits to the extent that Astro Bot will be, but make no mistake- Helldivers 2 is an excellent game, and an unequivocal win for PlayStation. A widespread critical darling, PlayStation’s biggest game on PC to date by far, Sony’s fastest-selling first party game of all time- Helldivers 2’s success far exceeds what anyone would have predicted, and that includes Sony and Arrowhead themselves.
But even with those two huge wins, Sony’s first party output in 2024 is going to be remembered as spotty at best- which, looking at the year’s lows, isn’t entirely unfair. One name and one name alone is, in fact, enough to drag the entire year down for PlayStation significantly. We’re talking, of course, about Concord, a game that, viewed in isolation, is probably a fun but forgettable hero shooter at best (or worst), and yet, owing to a perfect storm of the work possible circumstances all colliding together, ended up as probably the biggest ever first party failure in PlayStation history. Launching after a prolonged and expensive development cycle, Concord remained live for all of two weeks, and after lukewarm responses and terrible sales, not only was it taken offline, not only was everyone who purchased the game given a full refund, Sony ended up shuttering the studio entirely, just a little over a year after it had been acquired and brought into the PlayStation Studios fold.
The highs of Astro Bot and Helldivers 2 and the lows of Concord together perfectly illustrate what sort of a year 2024 has been for PlayStation- a weird one, to say the very least. We also got Stellar Blade much earlier in the year, which ended up being a great debut console title for developer Shift Up and ranks as one of the year’s best action games. Around that same time, however, there was Rise of the Ronin, a rough game at best, while later on, we got an Until Dawn remake, which had its fair share of critics, and apparently didn’t attract a great deal of players anyway. Also filling out the release schedule for the year were Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and LEGO Horizon Adventures, though all evidence seems to suggest that both those games have also flopped.
So yeah, “patchy” is the best way to describe PlayStation Studios’ form in 2024. Incredibly high highs, but astoundingly low lows. That said, though things were not quite up to scratch on the first party front, this year, Sony once again ended up reaping the benefits of some excellent third party exclusives (or console exclusive). Starting the year was Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which is easily one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made, while later on in the year, we also got the likes of the surprisingly spectacular Silent Hill 2 remake, and the breathtaking Black Myth: Wukong, both of which rank as some of the year’s best games. Though the PlayStation Studios banner itself stumbled often over the course of the year, third parties did at least pick up the slack, because those three aforementioned games are three of the best games of the year- and available on no other console for now.
For Xbox Series X/S, 2024 was decidedly lighter than 2023 in terms of exclusives. Earlier on in the year, Microsoft and Ninja Theory finally released Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 after hyping the game up for what felt like forever, and though the sequel had its fans (our own review here at GamingBolt was a positive one), there’s also no question that it did not get nearly the sort of praise that the original Hellblade did. And shockingly enough, the months that followed saw little to no exclusive content from Microsoft.
That’s not to say Microsoft released nothing. On the contrary, the company released several expansions and multiplatform titles, while it also released several of its previously exclusive games for PlayStation and Switch in a move that proved highly controversial (but also clearly successful, given the fact that the company intends to keep doing multiplatform releases going forward). As far as exclusive Xbox Series X/S games are concerned, however, it wasn’t until Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in November that Microsoft delivered something noteworthy- though it’s fair to say that that game did not have the best launch. That might be an understatement, in fact.
That said, Xbox Series X/S did end the year strong, because in December, we got Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. MachineGames is obviously a highly talented studio, and with The Great Circle, may very well have released its best game to date. Obviously, it’s coming to PS5 soon enough, but it is obviously also a big win for Xbox, and ranks as one of the year’s best games (which may very well end up missing out on year-end awards because of its December launch, which is a bit of a shame). Not long before Indiana Jones, meanwhile, Xbox also saw the launch of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, a third party exclusive that has clearly proven divisive and attracted its fair share of criticism (especially thanks to the rough technical state it has launched in), but also has got off to a great start with its sales and player engagement. Even with its issues, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a unique, singular, unforgettable experience, and with time, it can turn into a landmark open world experience.
Outside of their respective exclusive lineups, PlayStation and Xbox also saw a cavalcade of multiplatform greats this year. We had AAA megatons like Dragon’s Dogma 2, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Marvel Rivals, Persona 3 Reload, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, EA Sports College Football, and Tekken 8, we had indie gems like Animal Well, Balatro, Neva, Palworld, and Nine Sols, we had underrated gems like Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and even large-scale expansions like Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, and, of course, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.
It obviously wasn’t all sunshine and roses, because 2024 did see a number of duds and high profile flops- Skull and Bones, XDefiant, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Alone in the Dark, and the aforementioned Concord. Ultimately, however, both console ecosystems had a healthy amount of solid new games to deliver. And if you were to compare the two and try and pick a winner, though subjectivity will likely come into play (as it usually does), you’d also have to say that PlayStation not only had more highs than Xbox, it also had higher ones.
Some of the year’s best games are only available on PS5 in the console arena- Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers 2, and Astro Bot are all going to be remembered as the year’s brightest highlights, and as things stand, not one of them is playable on Xbox Series X/S. Thanks primarily to third party support, not to mention a strong finish from Xbox’s first party portfolio itself, though 2024 has been a decent enough year for Microsoft’s console ecosystem as far as game releases are concerned, the PS5 player base has been treated to far better (and more) games throughout the year.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
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