2023 in video games
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In the video game industry, 2023 saw significant changes within larger publishers and developers. Microsoft, after having satisfied worldwide regulatory bodies, completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making them the third largest game publisher in the world. Embracer Group, which had been in an acquisition spree over the previous few years, had an estimated $2 billion deal fall through, causing many of the studios under Embracer to either lay off staff or close entirely. Similar layoffs were seen at Unity, Amazon, ByteDance, Epic Games, Bungie, and Ubisoft, leading to over 9,000 jobs lost in the industry in 2023 and part of a larger trend of layoffs at technology companies in 2023.[1][2][3]
Financial performance
Best-selling premium games by region
The following titles were 2023's top ten best-selling premium games by region (excluding microtransactions and free-to-play titles) on PC and console platforms, for Japan, the United States, and Europe.
Top-rated games
Critically acclaimed titles
The number of highly praised video games released in 2023 was considered unusually high compared to most years, with 25 games having a 90 out of 100 or better aggregate score on Metacritic by October 2023; this made it the best year by number of acclaimed games, the largest since 2004.[8] This year was comparable to the slate of highly praised releases in 1992, 1997 and 2008.[9] The reasons for this include the fact that most of the top games were delayed or not even developed until after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, leading to greater quality in gaming overall, and that the ninth generation of consoles had become entrenched for developers.[8][10]
The following table lists the top-rated games released in 2023 based on Metacritic, which generally considers expansions as separate entities.
Major awards
Baldur's Gate 3 was the first game to sweep the Game of the Year categories at the five major awards ceremonies: the Golden Joystick Awards, the Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards.[12]
- Some award presentations combine these categories.
Major events
| Date | Event | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| January 6 | NetEase Games acquired SkyBox Labs. | [16] |
| January 17 | Unity Technologies laid off 284 employees. | [17] |
| January 18 | Google's cloud streaming service Stadia closed, with all hardware and software purchases being refunded. | [18] |
| February 8 | Nintendo Switch Online adds Game Boy & Game Boy Color titles to its library of emulated games. Game Boy Advance titles were also added to the service (exclusive to the Expansion Pack subscription). | [19] |
| February 17 | Super Nintendo World opened to the public in Universal Studios Hollywood in California. | [20] |
| February 21–23 | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosted the 2023 D.I.C.E. Summit and the 26th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards at the Resorts World Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. Tim Schafer inducted into the AIAS Hall of Fame. | [21][22] |
| March 20–24 | The Game Developers Conference returned to an all-physical format at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. | [23] |
| March 22 | Atari announced its intent to acquire Nightdive Studios for $10 million. | [24] |
| March 27 | Nintendo closed the Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. | [25] |
| March 29 | Electronic Arts laid off about 800 staff. | [26] |
| March 30 | The Entertainment Software Association announced that E3 2023 was cancelled due to lack of major publisher attendance. | [27] |
| April 3 | Legendary Entertainment secured TV and film rights of Capcom's Street Fighter franchise. | [28] |
| April 5 | Savvy Games Group announced its intent to acquire Scopely for $4.9 billion. | [29] |
| April 19 | Epic Games acquired Brazil-based studio Aquiris. | [30] |
| April 20 | Focus Entertainment acquired publisher studio Dovetail Games. | [31] |
| April 20 | Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired Firewalk Studios under its PlayStation Studios label. | [32] |
| May 3 | Unity Technologies announced plans to cut 600 jobs. | [33] |
| June 5 | Apple announced the Apple Vision Pro, a mixed reality headset, set to release in early 2024. | [34][35] |
| June 8–11 | Summer Game Fest 2023 was held through a combination of various in-person and streamed video events from over forty publishing partners at the YouTube Theater in Inglewood, California. | [36] |
| June 14 | Embracer Group began undergoing a large-scale restructuring program due to the failure of a planned US$2 billion deal, which would affect some of its studios and ongoing projects. | [37] |
| June 25 | The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra performed a 10-year anniversary concert for The Game Awards, an end-of-the-year awards ceremony that has been running since 2014, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. | [38] |
| July 24 | Tencent announced its intent to acquire majority shares of Techland. | [39] |
| August 10–12 | Quakecon returned as a live in-person event in Grapevine, Texas, following three years of digital formats due to the COVID-19 pandemic. | [40] |
| August 11–13 | The 2023 Pokémon World Championships took place at the Pacifico Yokohama convention center in Yokohama, Japan. | [41][42] |
| August 18 | Sega Sammy Group completed the acquisition of Rovio Entertainment for US$775M. | [43][44] |
| August 21 | Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet would be stepping back from recording voices for Mario, Luigi, and other characters. | [45] |
| August 23–27 | The Gamescom convention took place at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany. | [46] |
| August 31 | As part of its restructuring, Embracer Group shuttered Volition. | [47] |
| September 1–4 | Nintendo of America hosted Nintendo Live, an in-person event that was introduced in Japan back in 2017, in Seattle. | [48] |
| September 7 | The ESA announced that there would be no E3 in 2024. | [49][50] |
| September 13 | Unity Technologies announced a new retroactive licensing fee for the Unity game engine to start in 2024, generating backlash within the indie game community. The criticism led Unity to rework the fee structure to less-aggressive terms one week later. | [51] |
| September 21–24 | The Tokyo Game Show convention took place at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, Japan. | [52] |
| September 27 | Jim Ryan, CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, announced his intent to leave Sony by April 2024. | [53] |
| September 28 | Epic Games laid off about 16% of its workforce, approximately 850 employees, including divestment of Bandcamp and SuperAwesome. | [54] |
| October 4 | Nintendo announced that the online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software will discontinue in early April 2024. | [55] |
| October 13 | The acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft was completed following approval from the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority. | [56] |
| October 13 | Kevin Afghani was announced to be replacing Charles Martinet as the voice of Mario and Luigi. | [57] |
| October 30 | Bungie laid off about 100 employees as part of cost-cutting measures due to lower player counts of Destiny 2. | [58] |
| October 31 | Atari announced its intent to acquire Digital Eclipse for $20 million. | [59] |
| November 3–4 | Blizzard Entertainment hosted BlizzCon, an in-person event, at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. | [60] |
| November 7 | Ubisoft laid off 124 employees worldwide, most from its Canadian studios. | [61] |
| November 8 | Blizzard Entertainment announced its intent to transition the Overwatch League into a more traditional esports structure. | [62] |
| November 15 | Series of layoffs were announced at Amazon Games, Digital Bros, Humble Games, and Kongregate. | [63] |
| November 28 | Unity Technologies announced another set of layoffs consisting of 3.8% or 265 employees as part of a company "reset" following its licensing changes in September 2023. | [64] |
| December 7 | The Game Awards 2023 was held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. | [65] |
| December 11 | Free Radical Design was shut down as part of the fallout from Embracer Group's failed $2 billion deal. | [66] |
| December 11 | Google was found to have maintained an illegal monopoly in the Android market by a jury trial in Epic Games v. Google. | [67] |
| December 12 | The ESA confirmed that they would no longer hold E3 trade shows for the foreseeable future. | [68] |
| December 15 | Activision Blizzard and the California Civil Rights Department agreed to a $54 million settlement in the lawsuit into sexual harassment at the company. | [69] |
| December 19 | Insomniac Games suffered a data breach and had its ten-year plans released, as well as personnel information and several historical details around the company and Sony Interactive Entertainment, after failing to pay the hacking group to prevent its release. | [70][71] |
| December 29 | As part of Microsoft's acquisition, Bobby Kotick retired from Activision Blizzard after being its CEO for 32 years. | [72] |
Notable deaths
- January 5
- Sim Wong Hoo, 67, founder and CEO of Creative Labs.[73]
- Earl Boen, 81, voice actor across multiple media titles, including for World of Warcraft and Monkey Island.[74]
- January 29 – Annie Wersching, 45, actress known for portraying Tess in The Last of Us and Tassyn in Anthem.[75]
- February 14 – Tohru Okada, 73, musician and creator of the PlayStation logo sound effect.[76]
- February 15 – Shōzō Iizuka, 89, voice actor across multiple media franchises, most notably as the Japanese dub of Doctor Neo Cortex in the Crash Bandicoot series.[77]
- March 3 – Tom Sizemore, 61, actor known for voicing Sonny Forelli in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.[78][79]
- March 17 – Lance Reddick, 60, actor known in video games for the voice of Commander Zavala in the Destiny franchise and the voice and performance of Sylens in the Horizon series.[80][81]
- March 23 – Brendan O'Brien, 60, voice actor for Crash Bandicoot.[82]
- March 30 – Mike Berlyn, 73, game designer and creator of Bubsy, and co-founder of Bend Studio.[83]
- April 1 – Klaus Teuber, 70, creator of Catan.[84]
- July 5 – Emile Morel, 40, game developer for Ubisoft, including lead designer on Rayman Legends and creative lead on Beyond Good and Evil 2.[85]
- July 30 – Paul Reubens, 70, actor known for voicing Lock in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge.
- August 23 – Arleen Sorkin, 67, actress known for voicing Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series and its various video game adaptations, as well as in Batman: Arkham Asylum.[86]
- August 24 – Bray Wyatt, 36, pro wrestler who appeared in the WWE 2K titles (WWE '12, WWE 2K15-2K20, 2K23-2K24).[87]
- October 26 – Richard Moll, 80, actor known for voicing Devil Hulk in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and Death in Dante's Inferno.[88]
- October 28 – Matthew Perry, 54, actor known for voicing Benny in Fallout: New Vegas.[89]
- November 19 – Peter Spellos, 69, actor known for voicing Rojie in Seven Samurai 20XX and Michael in Star Ocean: Second Evolution.[90]
- December 17 – James McCaffrey, 65, actor with several voice roles, including Max Payne.[91]
- December 24 – Kamar de los Reyes, 56, actor known for portraying Raul Menendez in Call of Duty: Black Ops II.[92]
- December 30
- Bryan Ansell, 68, game designer and manager of Games Workshop, and co-developer of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.[93]
- Tom Wilkinson, 75, actor known for portraying Carmine Falcone in Batman Begins and its video game adaptation, and secondary antagonist Thomas Pendrew in Sleeping Dogs.
Hardware releases
| Date | Console | Manufacturer | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 26 | Razer Edge | Razer Inc. | [94] |
| February | HTC Vive XR Elite | HTC | [95] |
| February 22 | PlayStation VR2 | Sony | [96][97] |
| June 13 | Asus ROG Ally | Asus | [98] |
| October 10 | Meta Quest 3 | Reality Labs | [99][100] |
| October 31 | Lenovo Legion Go | Lenovo | [101] |
| November 10 | PlayStation 5 Slim | Sony | [102] |
| November 15 | PlayStation Portal | Sony | [103] |
| November 16 | Steam Deck OLED | Valve Corporation | [104] |
| November 17 | Atari 2600+ | Atari, Plaion | [105] |
Games released in 2023
Cancelled games
- Battlefield Mobile, Electronic Arts (iOS, DROID)[106]
- Evil Dead: The Game, Saber Interactive (NS)[107]
- Hyenas, Sega (WIN, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX/S)[108]
- Just Cause Mobile, Square Enix (iOS, DROID)[109]
- The Last of Us Online, Naughty Dog (PS5)[110]
- Marvel's Midnight Suns, 2K (NS)[111]
- Metal Black S-Tribute, City Connection (NS, PS4)[112]
- Quantamancy: The Purgatory, Corecell Technology (WIN, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX/S)[113]
- Revenant Hill, Finji (WIN, PS4, PS5)[114]
Discontinued games
Video game-based film and television releases
| Title | Release / premiere date | Type | Distributor(s) | Franchise(s) | Original game publisher(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War | January 6, 2023 | Anime television series | Tokyo MX (Japan) | Trails | Nihon Falcom (Japan) Xseed Games (worldwide) |
[121] |
| Nier: Automata Ver1.1a | January 8, 2023 | Drakengard | Square Enix | [122] | ||
| The Last of Us | January 15, 2023 | Television series | HBO (United States) | The Last of Us | Sony Interactive Entertainment | [123] |
| Tetris | March 31, 2023 | Biopic film | Apple TV+ | Tetris | Atari Games | [124] |
| Alice Gear Aegis Expansion | April 3, 2023 | Anime television series | Tokyo MX (Japan) Hidive (worldwide except Asia) |
Alice Gear Aegis | Colopl | [125] |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie | April 5, 2023 | CGI animated film | Universal Pictures | Mario | Nintendo | [126] |
| Pokémon Horizons: The Series | April 14, 2023[b] | Anime television series | TV Tokyo (Japan) Netflix (United States) |
Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company |
[128] |
| Raid: Call of the Arbiter | May 18, 2023 | Limited animated webseries | YouTube | Raid: Shadow Legends | Plarium Games | [129] |
| Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout | July 1, 2023 | Anime television series | Tokyo MX (Japan) | Atelier | Gust Co. Ltd. (Japan) Koei Tecmo (worldwide) |
[130] |
| Resident Evil: Death Island | July 7, 2023 | CGI animated film | Sony Pictures Home Entertainment | Resident Evil | Capcom | [131] |
| Twisted Metal | July 27, 2023 | Television series | Peacock | Twisted Metal | Sony Interactive Entertainment | [132] |
| The Sounds of Nightmares | August 22, 2023 | Podcast series | YouTube | Little Nightmares | Bandai Namco Entertainment | [133] |
| Gran Turismo | August 25, 2023 | Feature film | Sony Pictures | Gran Turismo | Sony Interactive Entertainment | [134] |
| Pokémon: Paldean Winds | September 6, 2023 | Limited animated webseries | YouTube | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company |
[135] |
| Castlevania: Nocturne | September 28, 2023 | Animated television series | Netflix | Castlevania | Konami | [136] |
| Shangri-La Frontier | October 1, 2023 | Anime television series | TBS (Japan) Crunchyroll (worldwide) |
N/a | N/a | [137] |
| Arknights: Perish in Frost | October 6, 2023 | TV Tokyo (Japan) Crunchyroll (worldwide) |
Arknights | Hypergryph (China) Yostar (worldwide) |
[138] | |
| Good Night World | October 12, 2023 | Anime series | Netflix | N/a | N/a | [139] |
| Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match | October 17, 2023 | Animated film | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment | Mortal Kombat | Midway Games | [140] |
| Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix | October 19, 2023 | Anime series | Netflix | Far Cry | Ubisoft | [141] |
| Fill Your Pocket with Adventure | Television series | TV Tokyo (Japan) | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company |
[142] | |
| Detective Pikachu & the Mystery of the Missing Flan | October 25, 2023 | Animated short film | YouTube | Detective Pikachu Pokémon |
[143] | |
| Five Nights at Freddy's | October 27, 2023 | Feature film | Universal Pictures | Five Nights at Freddy's | Scott Cawthon | [144] |
| Onimusha | November 2, 2023 | Anime series | Netflix | Onimusha | Capcom | [145] |
| Pokémon Concierge | December 28, 2023 | Stop-motion animated series | Pokémon | Nintendo The Pokémon Company |
[146] |