A Look Back At The Gaming Highs And Lows Of 2024

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We’re in the final days of 2024, a chance to look back and assess the year that was. What were the highs and lows, the disappointments that left us bereft and the surprises that reignited our love for games? And, importantly, how did Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo navigate this awkward period in which all of their consoles are several years old but not quite ready to be replaced just yet? (Nintendo’s Switch successor is coming soon, the company has confirmed, but has yet to officially announce or show off the device.) Well, we’ve spent much of this past week considering these very questions. Now, for your reading pleasure, please enjoy our answers, as we all take a moment to catch our breath before we find out just what 2025 has in store. And if you’re looking for more end-of-year coverage, don’t miss our picks for the best games of 2024.

In a lot of ways, 2024 was a worse year for the video game industry than 2023. And that’s really depressing to think about considering how bad 2023 was for game developers and the media covering the industry. Still, even a shitty year can have nice moments and wonderful surprises. - Zack Zwiezen Read More

A screenshot of Homer holding his face in shame.

Wow! Another year down. It feels like 2024 went by in a flash, and also feels like I spent half my life slowly trudging through this mostly awful year filled with a lot of bad news. - Zack Zwiezen Read More

The PlayStation 5 has entered the latter stage of its lifecycle, Sony announced back in February. The fourth anniversary of the console has been marked by impressive victories and surprising setbacks. 2024 felt like an inflection point for the PS5, with Sony unofficially turning the page on the PS4 and paving the way for the next era of its first-party blockbuster exclusives. It was another lowkey great year for what is increasingly becoming the default high-end gaming console. - Ethan Gach Read More

This was a really weird year for Xbox. You could argue that Microsoft’s gaming brand had an amazing year or that it had one of its worst, and either way I’d likely find myself nodding in agreement to most of your points. - Zack Zwiezen Read More

A Switch Joy-Con controller is outlined in white.

The Switch is running on fumes. It might not be gong out with a whimper, but the needle is past empty. The 2024 release calendar was spotty at best, and even some of the more notable games that did come to the handheld hybrid, of which there were strikingly few, struggled to run on the nearly eight-year-old tech. Eight years, incidentally, is almost the stretch of time between the launch of the SNES and the PlayStation 2. - Ethan Gach Read More