If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED
A Story-Rich Fantasy Sandbox
Avowed
A (Second) Hell-ish Roguelike
Hades II
A Charming Mario Throwback
Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door
A Surreal, Norse Quest
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
In 2023, it felt like the new hit games were just never going to stop coming. In a way, they didn’t. We’re firmly in 2024 and we’re still excited for new titles. From new games like Hades II, to actuallygood remakes like Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, here are the games we’re most excited about this year.
Since game release dates change so often, and there are so many new games announced regularly, we’ll be updating this piece throughout the year as new games come out and we get more solid info about release dates for others. Don’t see anything you like? Don’t forget to check out our guides to the Best Games on PlayStation Plus, The Best Switch Accessories, and Best Online Co-op Games.
Special offer for Gear readers: Get WIRED for just $5 ($25 off). This includes unlimited access to WIRED.com, full Gear coverage, and subscriber-only newsletters. Subscriptions help fund the work we do every day.
-
Courtesy of Obsidian
A Story-Rich Fantasy Sandbox
Avowed
It may seem like game developer Obsidian Entertainment only thrives in Bethesda’s shadow. The developer made one of the best Fallout games using Bethesda’s IP and publishing infrastructure, before branching out to make its own franchise with The Outer Worlds. In both cases, where Bethesda tends towards gargantuan open-world adventures, Obsidian uses a smaller sandbox to tell richer, more complex stories with nuance and depth.
Avowed, the latest new franchise from Obsidian, looks like it will continue that tradition, with a fantasy RPG that has a variety of combat options. The developers have talked up how much player choice will lead to consequences for the story. To be blunt, that’s a line we’ve heard from developers before, but Obsidian has earned some trust from us. Right now, Avowed is set for release sometime in fall of 2024.
-
Courtesy of Supergiant
A (Second) Hell-ish Roguelike
Hades II
The first Hades game, from developer Supergiant, was a smash hit that turned perpetual death into a delightful (if grueling) adventure. The indie darling has never made a sequel to any of its games, but this is the first exception. Hades II looks just as badass as the original, and it’s coming out in Q2 of this year.
Well, sort of. Like its predecessor, Hades II will launch in Early Access (that is to say, you pay for the game as-is, whether or not it’s feature-complete). The first Hades was in Early Access for two years and improved a lot over that time frame, but it wasn’t fully complete. The developers say they want Hades II’s Early Access period to launch with at least as much content as the original had when it began. It still won’t be a complete game this year, but we’re excited to get our hands on it nonetheless.
-
Courtesy of Nintendo
A Charming Mario Throwback
Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door is one of the pillars of Mario game history. Its distinct, paper-style design was integrated delightfully into its game mechanics in a way that made it an instant classic when it came out in 2004. This year, Nintendo is releasing a remake of the game that looks a lot more substantial than your average texture upgrade. It’s not quite as comprehensive an update as the Link’s Awakening remake from a few years back, but it’s certainly enough to give the game a new lease on life.
-
Courtesy of Ninja Theory
A Surreal, Norse Quest
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2
The first Hellblade game was a unique title that explored an evocative world based around Norse mythology. What truly made it stand out was how the gameplay mechanics were integrated into the protagonist’s psychosis. Senua, the title character, experiences both auditory and visual hallucinations that she believes to be part of a curse. The long-awaited follow-up to that title, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2, is scheduled to come out on May 21, 2024. The second game is expected to further explore Norse mythology and will debut a new fighting system.
-
Courtesy of Paradox Interactive
A (Deathly) Cult Classic Follow-Up
Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2
The original Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines achieved legendary status over the years for its complex, rich storytelling. Twenty years after the original’s release, the sequel Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 is finally arriving, though it too has spent some time in development hell. Lead writer Brian Mitsoda, who was also lead writer on the original game, was abruptly fired in 2020, and development was moved from Hardsuit Labs to The Chinese Room. It might not end up being the successor that die-hard fans were looking forward to, but we’re still interested to see how the new game holds up when it drops in late 2024.
-
Courtesy of Square Enix
A Final Fantasy, Reborn
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
When Square Enix announced Final Fantasy VII Remake, players naturally assumed it would be exactly what it says on the tin. It is, sort of. Rather than remaking the original game beat for beat, the studio expanded the beloved game into a trilogy that pays loving homage to the original while expanding the storyline and setting up its own original adventure. Love it or hate it, it’s a clever approach.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth blows up players’ expectations by picking up right where the story left off, introducing a few major plot deviations, and exploding into a much bigger mystery than players initially thought it would be. WIRED senior games writer Megan Farokhmanesh said the game set a new high for the series. It brings huge, open-world maps, slice-of-life side quests, and the most important feature for any Final Fantasy game: more Chocobos. Rebirth comes out on February 29.
-
Courtesy of BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment
An Expansion to Open-World Nightmares
Elden Ring
Elden Ring, the open-world game from developer FromSoftware, who is best known for torturing you personally with the unbearably hard Dark Souls games, is getting a major expansion called Shadow of the Erdtree. The expansion adds space that the game’s director described as comparable to the size of Limgrave, the first accessible area of the base game (which is huge). It brings new enemies, new weapons, and new ways to bang your head against a wall for hours, asking yourself why you’re even playing this game. The expansion will drop on June 21 and starts at $40 if you own the base game. There is also an $80 Deluxe Edition that comes with both Elden Ring and Shadows of the Erdtree at once.
-
Courtesy of Warner Bros.
A Fighting Game With Warner Brand Synergy
MultiVersus
If Space Jam 2—sorry, Space Jam: A New Legacy—taught us anything, it’s that Warner Bros. wants us to view its collection of unrelated intellectual property as a shared universe, at any cost. And if the game’s year-long “open beta” taught us anything, it’s that artists can make pretty cool things regardless of their corporate overlord’s intentions.
Multiversus is a platform fighter, similar to Smash Bros., featuring Warner-owned characters from Arya Stark to Bugs Bunny to that one giant iron robot that didn’t want to be a gun. The closing of the game’s open beta period last summer took a lot of people by surprise, but the developers say the game is finally coming out for real sometime in early 2024.
-
Courtesy of Capcom
A Fantasy Open World for Tricksters
Dragon’s Dogma 2
It’s been over a decade since Dragon’s Dogma, the hack-and-slash fantasy action game from Capcom, first dropped. The sequel, Dragon’s Dogma 2, will be set in an open world that the developers say is four times larger than the original game. There will also be a new vocation, the Trickster, which uses a range of deceptive, magical abilities not to attack enemies directly, but to lure them to their environmental deaths or indirectly kill them. It’s a creative, if challenging gameplay style we’re eager to try when the game drops on March 22, 2024.
-
Courtesy of Nintendo
Princess Peach’s Very Own Adventure
Princess Peach: Showtime
Despite being one of the main original characters in the Super Mario franchise, Princess Peach hasn’t led her own game since 2005. Appropriately, her return to the limelight comes in Princess Peach: Showtime. In this side-scrolling platformer, Peach gets a variety of outfits including Figure Skater Peach, Mermaid Peach, and Cowgirl Peach. Each outfit comes with its own unique set of powers and gameplay mechanics. Like Dragon’s Dogma 2, this game is also dropping on March 22, 2024. It’s no Barbenheimer, but it’ll likely be a great weekend anyway.
-
Courtesy of Team Cherry
An Indie Darling Years in the Waiting (Maybe)
Hollow Knight: Silksong
OK, this one might be more wishful thinking on our part, but we’ll hold out hope. The original Hollow Knight came out in 2017, and it set a new standard for Metroidvania games for the years to come. The game’s sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, was announced in 2019, and a trailer even dropped in 2022. The official Xbox account strongly implied that it would be available “within the next 12 months.” It’s been 20 months since then, and there’s still no official release date in sight.
At this point, it’s been over five years since Silksong was initially announced, and outside of developer Team Cherry, it’s anyone’s guess when this game could drop. But there are 10 more months left in 2024, so we’re gonna cross our fingers.
-
Courtesy of Bethesda
A Nazi-Punching Adventure That Belongs in a Museum
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
We first heard that Bethesda was developing an Indiana Jones game back in 2021, and now Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is finally happening. It’s the first time Lucasfilm Games has developed a non-Star Wars game in years, and as adventure games go, it looks pretty exciting. Much like movies featuring Indiana Jones, the game will follow another stand-alone adventure in Indiana’s life, this one set in 1937, as Indy tries to stop an evil group from unlocking the mystery of the Great Circle to gain unfathomable power. And since the Bethesda-owned studio MachineGames—the team behind the last decade of Wolfenstein games—you can bet there will plenty of Nazis for Indiana Jones to punch.
-
Courtesy of Ubisoft
Ubisoft’s First Star Wars Game
Star Wars Outlaws
EA has had the exclusive on making Star Wars games for years, but as we learned back in 2021, that era is coming to an end. And Star Wars Outlaws is the fruition of Lucasfilm’s newfound openness. Outlaws will be an open-world game that follows don’t-call-her-Han-Solo scoundrel Kay Vess on her adventures through the galaxy far, far away. We don’t have a firm release date yet, but Ubisoft has confirmed the game should come out sometime in 2024.
-
Courtesy of Sega
One of the Best Sonic Games, Now With Shadow
Sonic X Shadow Generations
The original Sonic Generations owns, and this year it’s getting both a remaster and a new campaign, starring everyone’s favorite hedgelord, Shadow the Hedgehog. Like its predecessor, Sonic X Shadow Generations remasters (or I guess in this case, re-remasters) several classic 2D and 3D Sonic stages, while the Shadow campaign will feature abilities and powers new to this game. Currently, the game is set to release some time in fall 2024.
