Next year will be the last of this generation of consoles and the first of the next, which means that there are many games that are going to join in the calendar to form a magnificent moment for the video game. Could 2021 then become the best year in video game history?
At the end of the console cycle that comes with the launch of the new models, there is a unique moment in the video game. The latest news has arrived that, in addition, cannot delay its launch date much longer, while the new batch of the next generation is preparing at the end of the year to surprise players with other types of experiences.
It already happened in 2013, where games of the stature of The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto V, Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Super Mario 3D World, Splinter Cell: Blacklist among many others joined to end the Xbox 360 period. and PlayStation 3, while Wii U went ahead with its launch the previous year.
All of these video games were joined by newcomers from PS4 and XOne, with games like Killzone: Shadowfall, Forza Motorsport 5, Dead Rising 3 or Ryse: Son of Rome. Now, in the middle of 2020, we will also see a good number of great works that hope to close the generation in style, while, for the moment, the mysticism of which will be the video games that will inaugurate the next-gen catalog, with a year left to frame. We are going to review the keys by which 2021 can become a crucial year for the video game.
The last games of the generation
Usually occurs. The latest developments of the generation are accumulated by the need to adjust their release dates and not get in the way of the new generation. Between the delays and the scheduled developments, 2020 is set as an unforgettable year to say goodbye to the present generation of consoles.
Games like Final Fantasy VII Remake , Cyberpunk 2077 , The Last of Us Part II , Doom Eternal , Resident Evil 3 , Ori and the Will of the Wisps , Ghost of Tsushima , Dying Light 2 , NiOh 2 … and many more, will arrive in 2020 Almost all of them scheduled for the first half of the year, since at Christmas the prominence will be taken by the new generation consoles.
And Nintendo? The Japanese have all their artillery ready with games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 , Animal Crossing: New Horizons or Bravely Default II , in addition to many others to be announced and that will surely arrive in 2020 on a Nintendo Switch with an increasingly powerful, varied and full of exclusives catalog.
The new consoles
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are already a reality and their arrival date on the market is set for Christmas 2020. But even if they reach the end of the year, their prominence will accompany us during the 12 months, since a strong presence is expected by part of Sony and Microsoft in their own conferences during the first quarter, which goes into details about their catalog, specifications and other services.
At E3, in addition, it is usually the time to know the price of the machines as well as try the first batch video games, those that will accompany the launch of the consoles. Microsoft has already gone ahead with the announcement of its official name, Xbox Series X, and the design of the console at The Game Awards gala, but there is still a lot to know about both machines. During Christmas, when they arrive at the homes of the first buyers, they will catch the news and we will discover what they are capable of achieving.
New generation games
The new consoles are nothing without a good catalog of video games to accompany them, and we are sure that this generation has been taken into account, it is necessary to seduce the player from the first moment. We still do not have information about the launch games of each of the machines, but it is more than likely that, in the case of Microsoft, its Xbox Series X will debut with a Forza Motorsport 8 under its arm, as is tradition, and also that Halo Infinite to show the technical capabilities of his machine.
In the case of Sony, the secrecy is maximum in terms of the launch catalog. It is known that the development of a sequel to Spider-Man may come sooner than we think, but it is speculated for 2021, while it is very possible that Guerrilla is working on a sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn .
The third parties will also have some prominence at this time of year, as they will accompany the new consoles with some new games, as usual. We know that Godfall will come to PlayStation 5 from Gearbox, but there are many other companies to reveal their cards. Will the next Assassin’s Creed, which is rumored to take us to Viking lands, one of them?
Services
The generational change is joined by a new factor that increasingly attracts the attention of the player and that has to do with the business model to acquire games: subscription services. Xbox Game Pass has attracted a lot of interest in the last year thanks to a series of attractive offers and an eye-catching catalog that, as a distinction, includes Microsoft’s own titles from the moment of its launch.
PlayStation Now , for its part, also offers an abundant offer and accompanies the service since its launch with games that can be played in streaming, although it does not include exclusives since its launch, as is the case with Xbox. We have no doubt that during the next generation these services will be a crucial part of the strategy of both companies and the player will benefit from their competition.
Backward compatibility
One of the great attractions of these new consoles is that their backward compatibility is assured. Its creators do not want to leave behind such an attractive catalog if they can include it in their new platform, and this helps the first buyers to make the transition to the next generation more comfortable, since they have full access to all their games.
In addition, subscription services such as PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass play a vital role here, since these catalogs of hundreds of titles would not be as many at the beginning of the generation if they did not include those of the previous console cycle, until in the coming years enough games come out to fatten these virtual bookshelves. We also do not forget about the possibility of improving technical performance through patches for a superior experience when playing on PlayStation 5 or Xbox One X.
