Tbh that’s a low bar to pass. The newest CoD flopped pretty bad and Rockstar has been too busy with GTA6. Almost every other notable release was either a flop or a smaller studio or indie title.
While that might be true, 2023 was an year filled with great games and yet Hogwarts Legacy is first, and Call of Duty is 2nd.
As for notable games of the year that weren’t flop (in no particular order):
- Spider-Man 2
- Baldur’s Gate 3
- Diablo IV
- FF 16
- Armored Core 6
- Street Fighter 6
- Alan Wake 2
Not to mention:
- Resident Evil 4 Remake
- Dead Space Remake
They may not be to your taste, but they all rated very highly. I haven’t included any Nintendo games, cause they don’t share digital data. Their numbers are based only on physical sales.
That’s actually fair. I barely pay attention to AAA gaming to begin with, so most of these games just weren’t on my radar. I just thought “oh, Starfield was the big hyped flop of the year, of course there wasn’t much AAA competition”
Those Nintendo releases this year we’re bangers:
- Tears of the Kingdom
- Super Mario Wonder
- Pikmin 4
- Super Mario RPG Remake
- Metroid Prime Remastered
Plus the DLCs for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out this year.
Great year for gaming IMO. But yeah, all of these are niche enough that I wouldn’t expect any of them to be top sellers.
On the other hand, I know at least one non-gamer that got a Switch just to play Hogwarts Legacy.
Well, Mario has kind of a general appeal, so I won’t call it a niche (and it was in 12th with just physical sale). And Pikmin 4 also sold over 2 Million in just first month or so, IIRC, though not sure if that’s enough for being a top seller in a year like the one we just had.
Also, Tears of the Kingdom was on 5th overall sales, and that’s only with the physical sales. Don’t know the actual number difference between 1st and 5th, but with digital added, it could’ve at least entered top 3, if not gone for 1st.
Would have tried it out if the author wasn’t a transphobic piece of shit. Might pirate it.
Not even close tbh. There are middle eastern states that kill Trans people.
Been waiting to pick it up cheap second hand. Not interested in financially supporting it.
Culture warriors would rather play a mid rpg at $80 than admit that JK Rowling is a bigot who is bad at world building.
She is a terrible bigot, and a loud one, and that sucks because she also produced a cultural phenomenon of my childhood, and while the canon of HP is only just barely pretty okay sometimes, it spiralled out from there and SO MUCH of the media and culture I’ve consumed and existed within since then has been informed by it.
So yeah. If there’s any comfort, let it be that any money she gets from this comes from explicitly affirming a trans woman through the work, as well as implicitly affirming any trans players through the character creation options. Small comfort maybe, but she is far away.
A racist a transphobe and an antisemite walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says “aren’t you that girl who wrote HP?”
JQ Lolling stares unflinchingly ahead and states “Your teacher, Professor Eleazar Fig, dies at the end of Hogwarts Legacy. This happens in all possible endings and can’t be changed. Oh and Rookwood is the one who cursed Anne while the goblins were framed. Also, you’re also required to quell a slave uprising and you have no choice in the matter.”
