HHW Gaming Presents The 2024 Video Game Wrap-Up, Plus Our Pick For Game of The Year

12/27/2024 12:49 PM

2024 has come to a quick end. It has been a rollercoaster of year in video games; we break down the good, bad, and ugly in our wrap-up.

2023 was a year to remember, thanks to releases like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, El Paso, Elsewhere, and more, but don’t get it twisted. 2024 was no pushover due to so many solid releases.

There was also some shaky news in the gaming industry, and we will discuss all that and hand out our award for Game of the Year.

So let’s wrap up 2024.

The PlayStation 5 Finally Goes Pro

Sony’s worst-kept secret, the PS5 Pro, finally arrived after a year and some change of speculation and information leaks. The reveal of Sony’s powerful console refresh landed with a thud with news of the console’s $700 price tag, and that’s without a stand and disc drive because both accessories are optional, leaving many asking, did play have limits?

Many then asked if this console was even necessary, despite the company knowingly marketing it to a more niche gamer who prioritizes graphics and frame rates.

The consensus on the console at the end of the day was that it provides players with a significant boost in performance and fidelity, but it’s not something you need to rush out and buy.

We shall see how the PS5 Pro fares in 2025 and if it was genuinely worth Sony even making it. Our prediction: we expect it to fare well in the new year as developers focus more on the PS5 and Pro models and no longer have to wor optimizing games for the PS4.

The PS Portal Was A Win For Sony

The PS Portal was a big surprise win for Sony. When it was first revealed, the immediate question was, why? It didn’t run natively, had no Bluetooth capability, and was essentially just a companion accessory for the PS5 console, only working off the console’s Remote Play feature.

When news of the device started circulating back in 2023, and photos began hitting the web, we immediately felt that Project Q, as it was called at the time, was Sony’s way of testing if they should get back in the still hot handheld market, Nintendo very much dominates that.

That turned out to be the case, with PlayStation boss Hideaki Nishino saying that the PS Portal sales were a “huge success” story for the company and adding that the device would continue to “evolve.”

With the addition of Cloud Streaming (Beta), we have seen signs of Sony actively developing a native handheld device that will not require you to be tethered to your PS5 console.

Sony isn’t alone; Xbox is also working on a handheld device but has yet to pull the lid off what has come up with.

Keeping it a buck, if you have been on the fence about the PS Portal, now is a better time than any to consider getting yourself one; this gamer truly appreciates how clutch it is when being in front of the television and console is not an option.

Just make sure that the internet and Wi-Fi are up to snuff.

Almost Everything Is Now An Xbox

As we approached the end of the year, Microsoft made its plans for the future abundantly clear: almost all of your devices, not just the black box, are Xboxes.

Since Xbox’s mission was clear after its shaky start following the Activision /Blizzard/King acquisition, it was able to regroup after its epic failures.

Desperate for wins, Xbox finally got some, but not the conventional way. Instead, they released console exclusives like Hi-Fi Rush and Pentiment, followed by Sea of Thieves and Grounded on the PS5 and Nintendo Switch. These titles became best sellers in the PlayStation Store despite lackluster console sales. 

The highly anticipated Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade II, another technical masterpiece from Xbox studio Ninja Theory, was also released in 2024. However, it was also a polarizing game, with critics divided on whether it was worth the wait and whether it should have been considered a big exclusive for the Xbox Series X. 

Two massive wins for Team Green had to be Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle coming to Xbox Game Pass to high praise.

2025 can be an interesting year for Xbox. Yes, many people are still skeptical about the company’s plans moving forward, mainly because they feel their loyalty has been taken for granted. Still, Xbox was losing, and they realized they needed to pivot.

They still have their mid-level refresh console, codenamed Brooklin, the aforementioned native handheld in the works, and plenty of games in the pipeline, so we are still very intrigued.

Layoffs & Studio Closures

Yes, it was cool to discuss all of the good things that happened in 2024, but we would not be honest if we didn’t mention the layoffs and the shuttering of numerous video game studios.

At the beginning of the year, Microsoft announced it was laying off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees. This was not a good look for a company that had just spent $69 billion to acquire the Call of Duty developer. It continued the trend from 2023 when an estimated 10,500 game industry workers lost their jobs. 

Xbox also shuttered four of its studios: Tango Gameworks, which delivered the surprise hit Hi-Fi Rush; Redfall developer Arkane Austin; Alpha Dog; and Roundhouse.

PlayStation also got in on the act as well, laying off 900 employees in February 2024 and suffering what the biggest miss of the year with its hero shooter, Concord, which never really got to see the light of day following a very poor reception and eventually shuttering the studio behind it, Firewalk was was.

Gaming journalism also suffered after Gamestop shut down Game Informer magazine after 33 glorious years and many fire cover stories and exclusives. 

Gamestop didn’t even give the magazine the proper sendoff it deserved, opting for a lame landing page when you visit the now-defunct publications landing page.

What a sad way for the iconic magazine to end. Former Game Informer employees discuss the unceremonious end on the FPS Podcast below.

HHW Gaming’s Game of The Year

In a year that saw plenty of bangers like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Astro Bot, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Helldivers II, Tekken 8, and more, there can only be one HHW Gaming Game of The Year.

But determining which game would win our prestigious Game of the Year award wasn’t hard. The winner is Ubisoft Montpellier’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. 

There was no doubt that The Lost Crown was a special title from the first time we booted it up in January. In our review of the game, our resident gamer, Beanz, wrote:

The Last Crown is a masterpiece; I was hard-pressed to find anything wrong with this game. The combat is snappy and fun to use thanks to the combo system and Sargon’s acquired abilities, allowing for stylish, fast gameplay.

While Ubisoft Montreal is hard at work on the Sands of Time remake, Montpellier’s The Lost Crown is not just a placeholder; it’s the perfect pivot for the franchise, putting it on a refreshing path to newfound greatness.

Sadly, Sargon’s journey will likely not continue because Ubisoft disbanded the Montpellier team, leaving the game in limbo. This development is disheartening because Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was a unique game with the potential to become a new hit chapter in the iconic video game franchise.

We will keep our fingers crossed that Ubisoft will recognize the error of its ways with The Lost Crown, but we’re not holding our breath.

Well, that’s it for 2024, onward to 2025. Keep it locked on HHW Gaming for the games we are looking forward to in 2025, and hit the gallery below for other games we thought were bangers in 2024.