2023 gaming report card: final scores for PS5, Xbox, and Switch

After a long 12 months filled with games and industry shake-ups, we're handing Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo their final grades for 2023.

[Lightning77]

Nintendo gets an A for reselling old games and double dipping Mario games in a single year? So. Why is it bad when Sony drops Spider-Man 2 and GoW DLC? Hypocrisy. Much so they get an C+ for their efforts? It's only good When Nintendo milks Ip's yet nobody else can.

MS B- makes sense to me. Redfall brought that score down but it's really a momentum thing for MS. MS tends to crack under pressure despite when they set themselves up for success. So we'll see but it really is momentum game for MS.

[shinoff2183]

Agreed. Nintendo as usual gets a pass. Alot of games get sh on, for instance horizon forbidden west some complained about it being more of the same. My thoughts fking great that's exactly what I wanted. Nintendos games do that and they get applauded. I'm also not saying there's anything wrong with Nintendo doing that. It's just the standard that some in the media set Sony ms bad Nintendo fk yea

[Lightning77]

Well I'm just starting to believe Nintendo is noting more than a Nostalgia machine. Rehashing the same Ip's over and over. High quality of course but no new Ip's. Yeah Nintendo easily gets away with it, hell the media looks forward to it. Nope not Sony the media and everyone else wants to complain about it.

[-Foxtrot]

Spiderman 2 and Horizon Forbidden West both suffered with that "they are still great games but they are more or less the same" complaint, yet Nintendo never faces it.

If Horizon FW for example did what Zelda Tears of the Kingdom did for the sequel and used the EXACT same map with some slight differences thanks to some story element it would have been torn apart by fans and critics.

Even the Sky Islands and The Depths don't offer a whole lot as they are pretty straight forward and once you've visit them a few times it gets boring fast.

The argument here is not "Zelda BotW / TotK is bad" or "They are shit games", they are great games and the quality of them are not being argued over, it's just a shame it always spirals into that argument when that's not people are trying to say.

The argument is that Nintendo can get away with certain things that other developers can't and that's what people complain are over. I remember when Breath of the Wild came out the same year as Horizon Zero Dawn and you had some journalists call out Horizon for issues X, Y and Z but Zelda got a free pass over roughly the same complaints, either that or they were just glossed over.

I even remembered a review of Pokemon Sword and Shield on IGN where the reviewer said the review "was not the time or place to address criticisms of the game"

https://www.reddit.com/r/po...

Can you imagine if this was a Sony, Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft game?

[gold_drake]

people dont wanna hear it, but Nintendo banks heavily on Nostalgia.

not that they are bad games, but they take almost no risks or make new stuff.

[Lightning77]

Nintendo fanboys downvoting at full force here prove me wrong. What new innovative IP have they done that rivals there own IP of 40 years? Sony has 10+ years of new innovative ip's. Despite MS needing to buy up everything, even they're finally showing some new stuff this time around. Nintendo on the other hand, the same song and dance and nostalgia act over and over again. The standards are different for Nintendo people bank on Nintendo Nostalgia specifically.

The writer even gave them points for double dipping two Mario games. Imagine if Sony double dipped on two separate Spiderman games? Spoiler he would cry about it hard and give Sony a lower grade.

[MrDead]

Just look at MS, if they hadn't banned Bethesda from releasing games on their most profitable console platform they would of had nothing to talk about outside of Forza, which was the weakest in the games series.

[DarXyde]

To a point, I can agree. Where I disagree is Nintendo tends to use familiar IPs to test new ideas. You could really get away with creating a new IP with a new universe/characters for something like Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario RPG, Mario Kart, Mario Party, etc. Even Zelda games as direct sequels can be very different from their predecessors. Playstation and Xbox making games like Spiderman, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Spider-Man 2, as well as Gears 1-5, are best compared to something like Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, or Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. I think that's where the "more of the same" argument comes in.

I do believe Nintendo is insulated from a lot of critique. You'll get no disagreement from me there.

But that said, Super Mario Bros Wonder is my favorite game this year.

[Jin_Sakai]

“Nintendo fanboys downvoting at full force here prove me wrong. What new innovative IP have they done that rivals there own IP of 40 years?”

Who cares? If the games are fun and enjoyable that’s all that matters. They're still better than half the games released nowadays be it new IP or not.

[Profchaos]

But the way Nintendo makes sequels it's like saying GTA banks heavily on nostalgia I've been playing GTA since 1996 I've also been playing Mario since the early days to but the franchise evolves and changes sane as GTA does anyone say GTA vi is banking on nostalgia

[Kneetos]

You can't keep using nostalgia bait forever
God of war is 18 now, at what point can we say that playstation banks on nostalgia too?

Heck one of PlayStation's biggest Japanese games this year is a remake of a PS1 game

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Nintendo have really delivered a slew of games of the past few years though, I'm most interested in their output these days.

I feel like the most risky moves they have taken is with BoTW/ToTK (although ToTK is mostly, more of the same with some extra mechanics to play with) and Pokemon. Although you can see the changes they've made based on Arceus/Sword/Shield and BoTW for the sake of Scarlet/Violet.

I'm not saying they don't get a free pass or that the media/gamers doesn't go easy on them when it comes to Nintendo's flaws, they've just put out a compelling library of games on the Switch.

[Kneetos]

The "Nintendo gets a free pass" is just propaganda made up by Sony fans who can't handle the fact people like their games more then Sony games.

Realistically, it has seemed for years that when people say that they really mean "I don't like Nintendo's games so everyone else is REQUIRED to find them bad as well, or at least not as good as mmm, PlayStation's games~"

[gold_drake]

eh wut?

who said that? it wasnt even implied.
i even said "they are not bad games".

your narrative doesnt quite match whats being said. maybe ur the problem and not others lol

Propaganda haha. no one wasnt even talking about sony.

[Lightning77]

My argument is Nintendo gets away with the same stuff over and over. The moment the other two do it, everyone complains about it. Yet nobody complains when Nintendo does it, again the media wants those games. Since that's the the case Nintendo will always be highly regarded when it comes to these lists. They do old IP. Better than Sony and MS that's for sure.

Never talked to a Nintendo fan it's always a PS or Xbox guy so it's refreshing to finally see Nintendo guy. Btw where are you guys in the social space? I rarely see y'all.

[Profchaos]

I agree Nintendo recycles it's IP constantly sure but it's generally used in new ways the Zelda I play on switch isn't the one I played on the NES sure there's the occasional galaxy 2 or totk where it's heavily recycled however that's the exception not the rule look at 3d Mario games 64, sunshine, galaxy 1/2, 3d world and Odyssey only galaxy 2 plays like it's predecessor but they all recycle the IP and general story which is always paper thin because you're here for the gameplay not the backstory on why Bowser loves Peach.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Sony really should be rated higher than Xbox, considering they've had just as many fails, if not more, at least Sony had better software output, I actually feel like Sony did more than Xbox overall, so I can't rank them lower.

[TheColbertinator]

Microsoft deserves an A+++

[Flenter]

Why?

[Barlos]

Sarcasm

[EvertonFC]

I would give them a D, enjoyed SF this year and that's it.

[Lightning77]

What do you mean? HB2 is out this year? He has that to look forward to.

[Profchaos]

Microsoft earnt the wooden spoon yet again. They barely showed up with on good game and another average one. Hi fi rush and starfield no awards to which one over promised and under delivered.

It's pretty clear to me Microsoft knows computers and how to build that while ecosystem but they want to run gaming like a office 365 subscription people pay monthly for word a d excel why not for games

[repsahj]

Sony got C+ for having this many?

- Spider-Man 2
- Final Fantasy 16 and FF16 echoes of the fallen DLC
- Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
- Horizon Call of the mountain (and other PSVR2 releases)
- God of War Ragnarok Valhalla DLC
- GT7 spec II update
- Forspoken and "In Tanta we trust" DLC
- PSVR 2 release
- PS portal release
- PS5 slim release

Not including how well the system sells this year.

[Ironmike]

Apart from portal which is shite they released some bangers spiderman 2 and fbw were fantastic going buy the burning g shores dlc

[Nitode]

Cant see anything exciting there. Just some dlc that is should had been included from the beginning, VR thats overrated, ps portal that is a bad copy of nintendo, and some «games» (movies) that are generic.
C+ was a kind grade tbh.
Xbox and nintendo was far better this year, and nintendo was the best with what has already been said.

[P_Bomb]

Jesus, you just shat on everything lol. The games/movies comment is a weak/poor argument, really. VR at least tries something new.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

I don't understand how they got ranked that low, especially when compared to Xbox, they've had some stumbles, but it still doesn't make sense.

[Zeref]

-Spiderman 2 was good for what it was. A good albeit safe sequel. That's probably why it didn't win any Game Awards.

-People are getting tired of Final Fantasy and it's not even first party so that brings down their score a little.

-Horizon is being compared to Avatar. Beautiful game but painfully forgettable. Just like Killzone. Seems to be a pattern with Guerilla games.

- VR game that most people won't play

- DLC

- Live service

- Forespoken lol

- Nobody cares about PSVR and neither does Sony. Those that care about VR are buying a Meta Quest. It's cheaper and a much better investment. Given the games and the fact you don't even need a console to use it.

- a slim model is Nothing special.

[Zeref]

@ScotlandYard

Safe is not necessarily bad at all. It's what most people want from a sequel. It's just nothing special. And there's nothing wrong with that but it also won't get you any awards.

It's the same reason why Fifa and Call of Duty never win anything. They can tweak and improve gameplay as much as they want but they're still essentially the same game.

[Nintentional]

Spider-Man 2 - more of the same
- Final Fantasy 16 - Devil May Fantasy
- Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores- Alloy is a lame protagonist, the character design is painfully cheesy, and the game pushes LGBTQLMNOP propaganda
- Horizon Call of the mountain (and other PSVR2 releases)- no one cares about overpriced VR
- God of War Ragnarok Valhalla DLC- Sure, God of War is good.
- GT7 spec II update- Gran Turismo been dead
- Forspoken and "In Tanta we trust" DLC- gross, Forspoken is a god awful game
- PSVR 2 release- no one cares
- PS portal release- lmfao, no one cares
- PS5 slim release- okay?

[Nitode]

Hehe. Its so funny to see all the downvotes as soon as a message dosent support Sony. 😂 Sony is good at making «big» interactive movie games that exploit the popularity from the movie World. Most of what they do with «games» and hardware is not sticking in the memory bank. Even god of war is a long session of linear interactive movie. To all its taste, but i play games 😊

[Markdn]

I have read some. Drivel. No way Microsoft deserves anything. They have achieved nothing this year. Nothing has dropped worth talking about. I am an avid XBOX gamer, They have delivered nothing, Gamepass is the only way games like. Starfield and motorsport got any numbers cause very few people would ever pay for these two jokes at launch. As always with Microshaft it's wait till next year it will be awesome, well it's 2024, so let's hope so.

[The3faces]

"Very few people would ever pay for these two jokes at launch"

Over 2 million people paid for Starfield early access to play the game 5 days early so your comment makes absolutely no sense.

[Hofstaderman]

My condolences to those 2 million people.

[Lightning77]

It's the typical I'm an avid X, Y, Z console fan but trashed the said console they claim to "like" at every given point in time. Your comment is whatever but don't sit there and lie about what you like and don't like.

You definitely have a history that shows the universal opposite.

[Markdn]

I only have a series x console, no PC or Ps5 any more so I'm not sure what you been smoking but that is a true comment and any one that thinks starfield and forza launch in a great state are the delusional fan boys.

[monkey602]

I'm kinda disappointed in all 3 this year. There was plenty to play all the same but I was let down this year all in all

[JackBNimble]

Finally a reasonable comment not blinded by fanboyism.
Being a ps5 owner I'm still waiting for 1st party games that appeal to me. How come everything I'm interested in always seems to be 3rd party?

[Lightning77]

It's kinda like how Xbox 360 was and Xb1 line up where they banked on 3rd party timed or permanent exclusives. It worked for early 360 days not so much for early Xb1 days.

Stellar Blade and Rise Of The Ronin are my top games for PS5 as of right now.

[franwex]

I too think Nintendo also had a stellar year. My switch was a dust collector for some time before this year.

[Kyizen]

Nintendo had so many remasters and HD remakes but they never get called out for it, and 3rd party support for big releases is like non-existent but give them an A...okay.

[Miraak82]

I haven't bought a Nintendo console since SNES but I appreciate their dedication to keeping their older classics alive with remakes and remasters . The same people complaining about it are the same people who vouch for game preservation which makes them total hypocrites. At least they are not milking the same game 3 times in the span of 10 years like The last of Us or other franchises that are only 1 or 2 generations apart while leaving so many other great franchises to die and be forgotten about do to inaccessibility

[SonOfOsiris]

Nintendo killed this year

[SonOfOsiris]

Yep Switch had the best year ever, so cool

[gold_drake]

im sorry but what?

there is no way xbox got a better grade than playstation and is close to nintendo. no way.

fanboys aside, xbox tanked, hard. there is no way in hell that anyone can excuse anything they didnt do. and boy, they didnt do much.

cant even take this seriously. even from a neutral way of looking at this, its still ridiculous.

[P_Bomb]

Digital Trends seemingly gave multiplats (Cocoon, Lies of P etc) to Xbox because of Game Pass. Do they think everyone has GamePass? Mine just expired, along with any advantage there.

[Lightning77]

Can you explain what they didn't do? An explanation would be nice.

[P_Bomb]

I had a good year overall. Will sub again in the future.

[TreMillz]

I agree with what most are saying. I've always stated Nintendo only gets praised due to nostalgia. If memory serves right Nintendo last original IP was Splatoon, dropped back in 2015. Sony and Microsoft are asked to drop new IPs and not rehash or do to many sequels, but that's never the case for Nintendo. If Nintendo didn't pride itself as not being a casual only console I'd understand. So if they desire to compete I have to hold them to the same regard. Every gen it's basically the same agenda: New Mario adventure, new super Mario platformer, new smash bros, new Mario kart new Zelda, new metroid. And these games are actually great. But the high ratings are a bit much seeing as we do the same things we've been doing since the 90s only prettier.

[Profchaos]

The whole final score year report just causes infighting kind of over it were midgen and everyone's still at each other's throats.

Personally I'm loving pretty much every platform for one reason or another
Switch Mario and totk
Sony with psvr2 getting a tin of playtime from me this year actually loving pixel ripped 95 and re 4 right now with gt7 and re 8 being huge highlights for me.
Xbox even got some love with hi fi rush

But instead of rebooting games some people talk like it's a school yard fight between super Nintendo and genisis

[Babadook7]

I should have got pixel ripped 95 on that sale.

[Profchaos]

It's pretty amazing even if it's really short I imagine most players could knock it over in 3 hours

[Babadook7]

2023 was tied for my favourite year in all my gaming history. Thanks entirely to PSVR2 and about 25 games on that platform.

The other 2 consoles were not great. TotK on Switch is great, and Wonder is good but the system lacked 3rd party hits like Balders Gate 3. MS didn’t have compelling enough exclusives and was a distant third. So in terms of gaming releases Sony would have won even without VR.

[franwex]

Most people don’t buy Nintendo consoles for third party games. But rather to play Nintendo games. Which were pretty good this year.

[Babadook7]

It was a good year for Nintendo exclusives. But for any platform overall, 3rd party is part of the package.

People buy Nintendo platforms for the exclusives because…

A. The exclusives are great
B. There are few multiplats and the multiplats are lower quality.

Therefore the multiplats are disregarded only because people’s expectations are lower regarding them. For a platform evaluation though, you must add up third party as well. If you were comparing developers it would be different.