2023 Upcoming Games Look-Forward-to-All

2022 Thread
2021 Thread
2020 Thread

I think the consensus is that 2022 was a strong year, but 2023 is looking positively gluttonous.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - Yes, Nintendo has finally given it a name and a date. Breath of the Wild was a landmark and I'm excited to see what's next.

Starfield - This had a date, but did we really believe it? We did see a lot of trailers and teasers, at least. It's the ship customization that has me most intrigued.

Final Fantasy XVI - I'm mostly tuned out of Final Fantasy these days, but the trailers do look pretty epic.

Star Wars Jedi Survivor - I'm actually surprised it's so close (March!). I enjoyed the first one even with its little bit of jank, so I hope the team can polish it a little more now that they have the formula down.

Forspoken - I've been intrigued ever since the early trailers, but the demo may not have been enough to move it into the "must buy" pile.

Spider-Man 2 - Sony and Insomniac recently blogged that it's set for late 2023, although we have few details and I'm not even sure that's the final title.

The Plucky Squire - Included just because I think it has the best trailer of 2022.

And then there's early access, always muddying up threads like this: Everspace 2 sounds set for a 1.0 release in 2023. I'm also wondering when the right time will be to jump into Nebulous: Fleet Command and Terra Invicta. The early access launch of Kerbal Space Program 2, on the other hand, may have me actually playing on early access day one, which is something I never do. (All four of those are space games, hmmm... oh wait, Baldur's Gate 3 is supposed to be graduating too.)

Also worth watching is the PSVR2 hardware and its launch titles, especially Horizon Call of the Mountain. Personally I doubt even a Horizon fan such as myself can justify more VR hardware.

What did I miss? What has you excited?

Fire Emblem Engage, which comes out in late January! Jan. 2, 2023, I believe.

Wanted to highlight some of the indies on my wishlist... just cutting and pasting descriptions, with the occasional comment in bold. Click on the titles for links to Steam pages.

Selfloss
Selfloss is an adventure game set in a world of Slavic and Icelandic folklore. As the player, you take on the role of an old man with a magical staff who wanders seas and lakes, battling mythical creatures and helping those in need by healing their souls.

I Am Jesus Christ
Walk in the footsteps of Jesus in this incredible first-person retelling of the story of Christ from birth to resurrection. Perform amazing miracles, interact with a cast of biblical figures and travel around the Holy Land from Jerusalem to the Galilee. Become the Messiah in ‘I Am Jesus Christ. (I can't figure out if this is an elaborate joke or a genuine game created by a person of faith.)

Broken Roads
Broken Roads is a narrative-driven RPG that brings exploration, strategic turn-based combat and meaningful philosophical choices to an all-new Australian post-apocalyptic setting.

Thronefall
A minimalist game about building and defending a little kingdom. (By the same devs as Islanders and Superflight.)

Blanc
Blanc is an artistic cooperative adventure that follows the journey of a wolf cub and a fawn stranded in a vast, snowy wilderness. They must come together in an unlikely partnership to find their families. (Co-op game, looks adorable!)

The Book Walker
You’re a Bookwalker — a thief with an ability to dive into books. You are forced to use your powers to track and steal famous items like Thor’s Hammer and the Excalibur for clients, to regain your ability to write again.

Forest Grove
In Forest Grove, a teenage heiress has gone missing. Foul play is suspected. Uncover a cast of characters, collect evidence, and find the truth in this futuristic detective game!

Storyteller
With Storyteller you are the one writing the stories! Start with a title, characters and settings and create your own twist on stories familiar and new. (Description doesn't do it justice; really interesting mechanics here.)

Tin Hearts
Behind every brilliant invention, hides a magical story. Guide a troop of tin soldiers through a magical toy-filled world, in this immersive puzzle adventure game from members of the team that brought you Fable.

Inkulinati
Inkulinati is an ink-based strategy straight from medieval manuscripts, where a rabbit’s bum can be deadlier than a dog's sword. Become a master of the Living Ink, build your own bestiary, defeat medieval superstars and collect perks to unleash hidden powers.

Looking forward to Star Trek Resurgence (March I think?). A telltale-like game in the Star Trek universe?
Sign me up. Of course Starfield and maybe a little bit Hogwart's Legacy curious as well.

I also like me a pirate game so looking at Skull and Bones and Tortuga a Pirate's Tale. Will need some reviews before I buy in. I've been burned a few times before.

Company of Heroes 3 was so much fun at PAX and the new North Africa maps look great. I’m also looking forwards to Diablo 4 and Starfield.

Game I’m not planning to see in 2023 but hope to anyway: Dragon Age Dreadwolf.

Tasty Pudding wrote:

Wanted to highlight some of the indies on my wishlist... just cutting and pasting descriptions, with the occasional comment in bold. Click on the titles for links to Steam pages.

Storyteller
With Storyteller you are the one writing the stories! Start with a title, characters and settings and create your own twist on stories familiar and new. (Description doesn't do it justice; really interesting mechanics here.)

That was a great list. Mine definitely includes Storyteller, a project by a solo dev from Argentina backed by Annapurna.

Hard not to mention Hades II on this list, recently revealed at the Game Awards.

I also have Akurra, a block-pushing puzzle game with some cool tricks that I've backed on KS.

Old Skies is the next game developed by Wadjet Eye since Unavowed.

SCHiM looks like a stylish platformer using shadows.

The Plucky Squire was mentioned above by Agathos and it looks amazing.

Wastehaven looks like a cool road trip through the apocalypse.

Sokobond Express combines the mechanics of Sokobond and Cosmic Express.

Folks above have covered nearly everything on my list, except for Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon.

Anyone who has fallen victim to my gifting of Qvadriga knows my love for the chariot races of ancient Rome. Sometime soon, Slitherine's "Ancient Arenas: Chariots" will go into beta, with an expected release later this year. Same designer, but highly updated with a full 3D camera and more modes, commands, etc. to please a new generation of charioteers.

Baldur's Gate 3

Space Marine 2

End of list.

Spoiler:

Ok. FINE. Also:
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf
Company of Heroes 3
Hades 2
The Cyberpunk 2077 DLC
Whatever else they add to Total War: Warhammer 3
Homeworld 3
Frostpunk 2
Starfield
Assassin's Creed: Mirage
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor
Alliance of the Sacred Suns
Sengoku Dynasty
Great Houses of Calderia
Capes
...and of course XCOM 3. (Hey it could happen)

LOZ: Tears of the Kingdom and Starfield are the only two that I see as the games coming out this year I'm definitely going to play this year. Fire Emblem Engage is probably the next tier down. But I really want to try to catch up on the pile (always and forever). This is seriously looking to be an absurdly stacked year though, and a lot of stuff will probably be going on the wishlist once reviews are out.

Planned day 1 purchases: Zelda: TotK, Final Fantasy XVI, Armored Core VI, Hollow Knight Silksong, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Spider-Man 2, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

High priority, but possibly not day 1: Fire Emblem Engage, Dead Space Remake, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

That's a lot of day 1 purchases I have planned compared to normal. 2023 really is looking stacked as long as not everything gets delayed again.

1) Diablo 4
2) Path of Exile 2

That is all

Already mentioned but my most wanted are

Company of Heroes 3
Space Marine 2
Hogwarts legacy
Diablo IV

Arc Raiders is a free-to-play, reimagined, cooperative action shooter that offers an intense struggle in every session: together with your squad, defend our home and resist the onslaught of ARC – a ruthless mechanized threat descending from space. Has ex Battlefield devs involved so this alone gets me hyped.

Remnant of the Ashes 2 Loved the first one so this one is hopefully as good, if not better.

In terms of Day 1 purchases for me, only Zelda:TOTK qualifies.

Trails into Reverie is another one I'm looking forward to, but I don't think I'll buy it on day 1 (I still have 2 Trails games I need to play before that).

There are so many:

Singleplayer:

Atomic Heart - looks frantic and gloriously chaotic.
Fort Solis - has two of my favourite voice actors in lead roles.
Routine - seems to have an unsettling and scary atmosphere.
The lies of P - a potentially great Bloodborne-like.

Multiplayer:

The new ‘The Last of Us: Factions’ game. I regularly look back on the fun times we had in Uncharted 4’s multiplayer and I can’t wait to see what Naughty Dog has come up with for this. I suspect it’s going to be something special.
Arc Raiders The former Battlefield devs doing a co-op game about invading robots from outer space? Sign me up.
Sons of the Forest The first game was brilliant and this looks like more of the same with vastly improved graphics.

I somehow missed that Jedi Survivor was March. That's fun - I'm looking forward to it. I enjoyed the first one a good bit, even if I wasn't entirely enamored with their interpretation of the Soulslike. Hopefully they fix some of the problems I had with the first one (please, please, please give me some kind of fast travel).

Also, oof, the Star Trek: Resurgence reveal video on their site originally estimated Spring 2022 for release, and Googling only gives an "April 2023" estimate. I hope it doesn't die on the vine.

Let's be honest at this point how many games have solid release dates?

Persona 3
Baldur's Gate 3
Space Marine 2?
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor?
Starfield?
Spider-Man 2?
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader?

jdzappa wrote:

Company of Heroes 3 was so much fun at PAX and the new North Africa maps look great. I’m also looking forwards to Diablo 4 and Starfield.

Game I’m not planning to see in 2023 but hope to anyway: Dragon Age Dreadwolf.

Good to hear about Company of Heroes 3. I love love the first one. Up there for me for favorite games of all time. Second one was a dud for me. Didn't even get far with the single player. Im not sure why.

Never thought I'd be saying this, but after Mechanicus, Chaos Gate:Daemonhunters, Battlesector and Darktide (not to mention Tacticus on mobile), Games Workshop finally seems to have figured out how to make games that aren't dumpster fires.

So I'm genuinely looking forward to more 40k games.

Very, very keen on:

Darkest Dungeon 2 (Q2) when it hits Steam. Baldur's Gate 3 (August).

Probably, depends a bit on reviews:

Kerbal 2 (February), Diablo IV (June), Company of Heroes 3 (February).

Might as well, it's on Game Pass:

Starfield (2023)

Jonman, don't forget WH 40K Inquisitor! Those two games round out the top 5 best ARPGs at the moment, by my count.

Games from 2022 or earlier that I want to play more of...

A Short Hike
Citizen Sleeper (waiting for the update)
God of War
Spiritfarer (after a performance patch for the Switch)
Tales of Arise

New Games I shouldn't buy until I clear out my backlog, but you know...

Baldur's Gate 3
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
The Expanse: A Telltale Series
Final Fantasy 16
Fire Emblem Engage
Gestalt: Steam & Cinder’
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Oxenfree 2
Season: A Letter to the Future
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake (ha)
Thirsty Suitors

Lots I'm interested in, but off the dome -

Redemption Reapers is a turn based tactics game from the makers of Ender Lillies.

Forspoken I have a ton of concerns about after the demo, but I'm hoping there's a good game underneath the bad banter and the outdated map-full-of-checkpoints.

Caves of Qud 1.0 release this year seems on point. I've entirely held off on playing it, so I can't wait to dig in when its done cooking.

Skald: Against the Black Priory is an Ultima-like with gorgeous graphics, compelling mechanics, and fantastic storytelling (at least in the demo.)

Alan Wake 2 I should probably play the Alan Wake remake huh?

Octopath Traveler 2 - The storytelling threw me off the first game, but there was a lot of potential there and I'm excited to see if they can knit the characters together in a more interesting fashion this time around while improving on the already great combat mechanics.

Remnant 2 is a sequel to a surprise hit, very interested to see how this one evolves the mechanics of the first one!

Armored Core VI Because I am me and I need this.

Baldur's Gate 3 has been untouched by me since its initial demo drop. Though I have my reservations about 5e as a system, BG is formative stuff for me. I'm really hoping that this gets a co-op mode and comes out on consoles.

Season: A Letter to the Future I was expecting to release in 2022, and is an indie I've been looking forward to quite a bit.

The Last Faith because Bloodborne 2 doesn't exist yet.

Lies of P for the same reason.

Colossal Cave is getting a remake? With graphics? By Ken and Roberta Williams? How could anyone not be at least a little curious?

Rogue Trader from Owlcat might be the thing that finally pulls me into WH40K.

A new challenger appears.

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew from the developers of Shadow Tactics and Desperados III. Sounds like more magic and more sandbox this time. I love those prior games so this is definitely on the list.

It looks like Death in the Water 2 is only appearing on Steam at the moment but, hopefully, it’s the kind of game that could get ported to consoles. It might be too scary but, if I can cope with it, it could be a wonderfully tense and stressful time.

While we’re at it I’d love Teardown to be ported to consoles (if it is I’ll snap it up) but I’m less sure about that one.

This has been a long time coming, but the trailer says 2023, and since games are never delayed...

Uh oh. Sounds like the Bluey game might be good.

My kids are currently obsessed with the show

My wife and I love the show and don’t have any kids.