What to Expect from Xbox in 2024

ign.com:

The Xbox Series X and S are no longer new. Year 4 has begun, and thus we are officially into the middle portion of what we expect (courtesy of Microsoft’s lawyers accidentally leaking the company’s own product roadmap) to be an eight-year console generation. So where do we stand? In last year’s version of this piece, I wrote, “2023 is a year of serious promise for Xbox, but it comes with an understandable sense of urgency from Xbox owners.” That urgency remains for 2024, following the mixed reception for Starfield, the most important launch for Xbox since, arguably, Halo 3 in 2007. But there’s even more reason to be optimistic coming out of 2023, as Hi-Fi Rush kicked the year off with a unique and award-nominated rhythm-action game that nobody saw coming; Microsoft survived legal challenges from multiple regulatory agencies and closed its Activision-Blizzard-King acquisition; and Xbox Game Pass continued to win and win. And looking ahead to 2024, that positive momentum looks set to continue and, with any luck, snowball.

Let’s start with what we know for sure, and that begins with a Q1 release window for STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the Xbox-exclusive AAA FPS sequel whose Ukrainian developers have had to heroically contend with Russia’s invasion into their country. It’s the closest thing to a locked-in release date that Xbox has for 2024 as of now, though perhaps that will change soon if Microsoft holds another Xbox Developer Direct in January.

Replaced is another extremely promising third-party Xbox exclusive that’s had development understandably affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as high expectations generated by its impressive showings thus far. The 2.5D cyberpunk-style, pixel-art action-adventure has