Developer Direct: how will Nintendo and, above all, PlayStation respond?

Xbox exudes confidence as it proceeds briskly in its transformation into a pure multiplatform publisher with surrounding hardware. Once again he will open the year with a Developer Direct, in which he will bring well-known and lesser-known games. For example, we will see Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 and Avowed, which are titles already presented, but also Indiana Jones, which entered the list of eligible releases for 2024 somewhat surprisingly, considering that nothing has been seen yet. Maybe it will launch a game at the time of the announcement, like it did last year with Hi-Fi Rush (rumoured something from Double Fine).

The Spencer cure is starting to bear fruit in quantitative terms, so much so that another year full of first party releases for the green ecosystem is expected, also considering that it has yet to unleash the firepower given to it by the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King . Faced with this display of power, How will Nintendo and PlayStation respond?

What do Nintendo and PlayStation do?

Nintendo doesn't have much to prove, really, coming off some truly glorious years for Nintendo Switch, including 2023, in terms of releases and exclusives. I really struggle to think how he could have done better, considering that he has fleshed out all his most famous intellectual properties, has churned out several masterpieces and already has some releases planned for 2024, waiting for the presentation of Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it will be called ), which is expected at an unspecified date in the current year. It also managed to secure an agreement with Microsoft to have Activision Blizzard games on its consoles… A Direct with some new features would be welcome, in addition to the titles already announced such as Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Princess Peach: Showtime, Another Code: Recollection and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, but in his case the attention is really all focused on the new console and I don't think fans of the Mario house have much to fear. 2024 will be a year of transition for Nintendo, but with excellent prospects for the future.

For PlayStation the situation is different. The first of the class survived a 2023 by saving itself in a corner thanks to Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and the God of War Ragnarok DLC, but currently we don't know anything about what it will publish in 2024, apart from the remastered edition of The Last of Us 2 and the live service Helldivers 2. We are halfway through the generation and a more dynamic picture was expected. PS5 will have some third-party exclusives, but PlayStation Studios games are almost completely absent from the scene right now, considering the recent cancellation of The Last of Us Online. The hope is that there is some project in an advanced state of development that can be featured in one State of Play. On the other hand, an event wouldn't make much sense if there were no games to show, because it would have the exact opposite effect to the desired one. Maybe something dedicated to the aforementioned third parties, which are nevertheless prestigious. I'm thinking in particular of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Team Ninja's Rise of the Ronin, really attractive titles. The feeling is that PlayStation 2024 will be based above all on third-party exclusives. Let's hope this isn't the case, because after a subdued 2023, between PS VR2 disappearing from the radar immediately after launch, canceled projects, lost presidents and bare-bones launches, a similar 2024 could represent a bad blow.