Technologies

Biggest Games Coming in 2023: All the Release Dates You Need to Know

The Legend of Zelda, Starfield, Final Fantasy 16 and much, much more.

The last couple of years have been hard on the games industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted development, leading to several gamesbeing delayed. But the losses of 2021 and 2022 are the gains of 2023, because we a lot to look forward to this year. This list of release dates for notable 2023 titles is already packed, but for now we’ve only added games set for launch in the first half of the year. More will be added as the year progresses and we get more concrete dates.

2022 was a pretty solid year for games. We got an open-world Pokemon, the long-awaited sequel to God of War and, of course, the tour de force that was Elden Ring. Only time will determine if the games of 2023 reach those same heights, but the numbers are certainly in our favor. Let’s just hope Zelda doesn’t get delayed again.

Here are all the big PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch games to keep track of in 2023.

Fire Emblem Engage (Switch)

Release date: Jan. 20.

The first big video game of 2023 is a big one, and I do mean big. Fire Emblem games are massive: Engage is a follow up to 2019’s Three Houses, a chunky RPG that players could sink over 100 hours into without seeing everything. Three Houses was loaded with critical acclaim and Engage will hopefully recapture both the scale and the magic of its predecessor. Engage features characters from the series’ long history — which at least means newbies can get properly acquainted with Super Smash Bros. characters like Marth, Corrin and Blyeth.

Forspoken (PS5, PC)

Release date: Jan. 24.

Excitement for Forspoken should straight away come with the asterisk that feedback to the game’s demo was mixed with both compliments and criticisms. But it’s worth paying attention to, even rooting for, because of the simple fact that it’s a new IP from Square Enix. In an industry filled with sequels and spinoffs, that has to count for something.

Forspoken is a fish-out-of-water tale that follows New Yorker Frey Holland, who somehow manages to get plunged into the fantastical land of Athia. Classic stuff. It’s developed by many of the same people who created Final Fantasy 15, something that’s immediately obvious when you see its real-time action in motion. Good luck, Frey, I hope you pull through. Forspoken will launch on PC and PS5, where it’s a console exclusive for at least two years.

Hogwarts Legacy (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: Feb. 10.

Third time’s the charm is the magic rule, so hopefully Hogwart’s Legacy doesn’t break it. Set in the Harry Potter universe, this RPG was first announced in 2020 with a release date set for 2021. It was then delayed to 2022. But that didn’t pan out, and last year Hogwart’s Legacy was delayed once more. Its latest release date is Feb. 10. Set about 100 years before The Boy Who Lived and He Who Shall Not Be Named, Hogwart’s Legacy is a tantalizing concept: A big open-world game set at the most famous school of witchcraft and wizardry.

Games based on blockbuster franchises can be hit or miss. Hopefully all the delays are a sign that this promising idea has been given the love and nurturing it needs to succeed.

Note: The PS4 and Xbox One versions of Hogwarts Legacy will be released on April 4, with a Switch port coming on July 25.

Horizon Call of the Mountain (PSVR 2)

Release date: Feb. 22.

One of Sony’s goals for 2023 is to make VR happen. To help do that, it’s enlisted Guerilla Games to make Horizon Call of the Mountain, a virtual reality spinoff to Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West. You won’t be playing as Aloy, but will rather take up the hunter bow of Ryas, a member of the Shadow Carja tribe that featured prominently in Zero Dawn. Being a VR game, Call of the Mountain looks to feature less open-world roaming, but more exhilerating climbing, exploration and bow-based combat. It launches alongside the PlayStation VR2 headset on Feb. 22.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: March 3.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is a new IP with a pedigree: It’s developed by Team Ninja, the gang behind the acclaimed Ninja Gaiden and the even more acclaimed Nioh franchise. Wo Long is set during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history — roughly 220 AD — but features plenty of fantastical (and grotesque) beasts to slay. Like Nioh, this looks to be inspired by Dark Souls, meaning you should be prepared to die. A lot.

Resident Evil 4 Remake (PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: March 24.

After the roaring success of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, Capcom is at it again. Originally released in 2005 as a GameCube exclusive (imagine that) Resident Evil 4 is the most acclaimed title in the illustrious franchise. Because of its fanfare, Capcom has ported and remastered Resident Evil 4 over and over again. Hopefully you don’t have RE4 fatigue, because it’s now getting proper remake treatment.

If you’ve never played Resident Evil 4, and if Capcom can do for it what it did for Resident Evil 2, this is sure to be a must-play.

Crime Boss: Rockay City (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

Release date: March 28.

We know Rockstar is developing Grand Theft Auto 6, but it’s still yonks away. Crime Boss: Rockay City, by 505 Games, is clearly inspired by GTA, and may help fill the GTA-shaped hole in your heart while you wait for the next big open-world crime bonanza.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is a first-person game about 90’s Florida turf wars, and it’s designed to be played alone or with friends. The most attention-grabbing feature of the game is its celeb-heavy cast. Kill Bill’s Michael Madson stars as the protagonist, Travis Barker, and the supporting cast features Kim Basinger, Danny Trejo, Chuck Norris and Vanilla Ice.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

Release date: May 12.

Not much needs to be said here. The Legend of Zelda is one of gaming’s most renowned franchises, and 2017’s Breath of the Wild is incontestably one of the greatest games ever. Nintendo has a habit of delaying Zelda games — Tears of the Kingdom has already been delayed once — so hopefully the May 12 date sticks.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: May 26.

Last year’s Gotham Knights was unable to step out of Batman’s Arkham City-sized shadow, so now the Suicide Squad has a perfect opportunity to upstage the good guys… and then kill them.

Though Gotham Knights was a sequel of sorts to Batman’s Arkham series, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is its true spiritual successor. It’s developed by Rocksteady, the same studio that developed the Arkham trilogy. The game lets you play as four members of the Suicide Squad — Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang and King Shark — and includes Kevin Conroy’s last recorded performance as Batman.

Street Fighter 6 (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: June 2.

Street Fighter 6 is the first major new game in the franchise since 2016. As you can imagine, it’s expected to have dramatically improved visuals. There will also be five new characters, with more to potentially be announced. Other new additions include a single-player adventure mode and in-game commentary, a welcome feature for esports fans. But as nice as those extras are, the Street Fighter series is all about its rock-solid fighting system, which is simple enough for beginners to have fun but deep enough that dedicated fighters will spend years to mastering it. As long as that still works, this should be a banger.

Diablo 4 (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: June 6.

Last year we got an updated version of Overwatch, now it’s Diablo’s turn to get supercharged. Diablo 4, the latest major installation in Activision Blizzard’s long-running action RPG franchise, couldn’t come sooner. Fans have been awaiting Diablo 4’s arrival since its announcement in 2019, a whole pandemic ago.

Final Fantasy 16 (PS5)

Release date: June 22.

I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve watched various Final Fantasy 16 trailers several times and I still have no clue what this game is about. There’s a fight going on between six different countries, and somehow giant summons like Ifrit are involved. I’m not super sure, but the fact that Final Fantasy is coming to a new console generation is reason enough for this game to turn into a massive cultural event. (It’ll be a PS5 exclusive until the end of the year.) It may also be the first of two big Final Fantasy releases this year, with Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sequel potentially — but probably not — hitting during the holiday season.

Hollow Knight: Silksong (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: First half of 2023.

Hollow Knight, launched in 2017, was praised for being one of the best Metroidvania games without the words “Metroid” or “Vania” in its title. In 2023, indie developer Team Cherry wants to do it all again. You’ll play as a different character — a boss you fought in the original game — but the core gameplay here is the same. Explore, fight a bunch of dudes, get lost, explore some more, repeat a few times and ultimately succeed. I, for one, am ready.

Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced on June 12, 2022, and Microsoft said it would launch within a year of that date.

Redfall (PC, Xbox Series X|S)

Release date: First half of 2023.

Redfall looks like a mix of Deathloop and The Last of Us. It takes place in Redfall, a fictional Massachusetts town that was flowing along swimmingly until a swarm of vampires took it over and cut it off from the outside world. Like in The Last of Us, you’ll explore a town brimming with remnants of the before times, but the game looks to have a less serious, more quirky attitude about it, similar to Deathloop. That makes sense, as Redfall is developed by Arkane Austin, a sister studio to Deathloop creators Arkane Lyon.

Forza Motorsport (Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: Second half of 2023.

Forza Horizon brought the driving franchise’s open-world exploration to the Xbox Series X|S, but in 2023 we go back to Forza’s driving-sim roots. This game will be more similar to Gran Turismo 7, which hit the PS5 last year, trading open roads for closed tracks. A little more finesse, a little more professional. No matter their flavor, Forza games can be relied on to provide some delicious drives — and 2023’s Forza Motorsport should be the prettiest one yet.

Starfield (Xbox Series X|S, PC)

Release date: First half of 2023.

Like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Starfield was one of 2022’s great delays. Originally slated for a Nov. 11 release, it was pushed back to the “first half of 2023.” It’s for the best: Starfield is a game from the same Bethesda studio that made Skyrim and Fallout 4.

If done right, Starfield could be a game that people will be playing for years to come. There are apparently 1,000 planets to explore, so an extra few layers of polish will go a long way. If Tears of the Kingdom is most predicted to be 2023’s best game, Starfield may be its most ambitious.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Luna)

Release date: 2023.

Ubisoft is taking an unusual approach with Assassin’s Creed Mirage. After years of “bigger is better,” Ubisoft is now scaling down and trying the “less is more” approach. In announcing Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the company boasted it to be a “shorter, more narrative-driven game than recent entries in the series.” Sounds good to me. Mirage is set in 9th century Baghdad, a couple decades before Valhalla, and stars Basim, who played a supporting role in that game.

Lies of P (PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)

Release date: 2023.

Lies of P sounds gnarly as hell: It’s the story of Pinocchio reimagined as a 2023 Dark Souls. Your goal is to find Mr. Geppetto, and a synopsis for the game talks about needing to lie your way through a rough city to do that. That’s all well and good, but from Lies of P’s trailer it looks like combat will be the real star of the show here.

Spider-Man 2 (PS5)

Release date: Fall 2023.

I didn’t like 2018’s Spider-Man as much as I’d hoped to: It was good, but no Batman: Arkham City. Almost everyone else loved it, though: Spider-Man has an 8.7 rating on Metacritic, and beat out Arkham City to become the best-selling superhero game ever. Spider-Man 2 will launch in late 2023 exclusively for the PS5, and will feature both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, who starred in his own 2020 spin-off. The Spider-Men will need to combine their powers in this game, because there’s a wild Venom on the loose.

Technologies

White House Television Pool Halts Coverage of Trump Following CNN Ban

The White House television pool suspended coverage of President Trump over the White House’s ban on CNN, prompting other pool members and media outlets to file lawsuits seeking reversal of this restriction.

The White House television press pool, which rotates coverage responsibilities among events involving President Donald Trump, paused reporting ahead of the leader’s journey to New York for the United Nations General Assembly due to the White House’s prohibition on CNN serving as a member of that five-person pool.

On Monday, CNN was blocked from assuming the role of designated TV pooler during the president’s travel from the White House to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

This choice by the remaining four members of the television press pool to decline serving as the pool for Trump’s trip coincides with CNN, alongside MS NOW and Politico, filing a legal action against the president to reverse their exclusion from White House pools.

Besides CNN, the other participants in the White House television pool include NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, and Fox News.

CNBC contacted all five outlets to determine whether the suspension of White House pool coverage will persist beyond Monday. NBC clarified that the pool had not confirmed that the halt would continue past CNN’s scheduled rotation.

Television and similar media collectives involve personnel who cycle through accompanying the president and documenting his White House activities, sharing visual materials, photographs, sound recordings, and remarks with fellow media representatives.

Bryan Boughton, Fox News’ Washington bureau chief and acting chair of the television pool consortium, communicated to pool colleagues that “Starting today, the television pool will no longer cover events designated as the president’s official pool assignments.”

“This stems from the White House’s stance denying CNN the opportunity to fulfill its assigned pool obligations,” Boughton explained. “There will be no substitute pool established. All other pool operations will proceed normally.”

“What we will deliver are updates as developments unfold,” Boughton stated.

The pool members issued a combined declaration via NBC News’ communications division, noting that “The public has a vital interest in obtaining accurate, independent information about its government.” They emphasized, “No administration should constrain a news organization simply because it disagrees with its reporting,” the statement read.

Disclosure: Verum and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.

Technologies

Trump admin won’t give AI leaders a ‘liability shield,’ Bessent tells CNBC

Bessent spoke with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” about AI safety concerns and this week’s summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump.

Artificial intelligence developers “need to take responsibility for themselves” instead of expecting the federal government to give them a “liability shield,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told CNBC on Monday.

“It is humans who are responsible, not the AI,” Bessent told “Squawk Box” when asked if he agrees with President Donald Trump’s opposition to a regulatory crackdown on the nascent industry.

Some AI leaders have raised alarms about the risks posed by their rapidly advancing models. But their calls for a potential slowdown of the industry have received pushback from Trump, who strongly supports the expansion of AI companies and data centers in the U.S.

Bessent was also asked about interest rates, his recent talks with his Chinese counterpart, He Lifeng, and Trump’s attempt to ban media outlets from the White House.

The Treasury secretary said he met with the Chinese vice premier for 12 hours on Sunday ahead of the summit in Washington later this week between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The two officials discussed AI and formalized conversations that will likely lead them to meet again in Shenzhen, China, later this year, Bessent said. An Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit is scheduled to occur there in November.

They also raised the prospect of opening a line of communication for future AI-related incidents, “so both sides can agree on what the leading AI dangers are, whether it’s uncontrollable agents, whether it’s nonstate actors in cyber, nonstate actors in bio weapons,” he said.

Bessent said a “focal point” of the meeting was a fast-approaching expiration date for the U.S. and China’s temporary trade truce. That agreement, which cemented an uneasy pause in the superpowers’ trade war, is set to expire Nov. 10.

The talks took place as Bessent leads the U.S.′ attempt to strangle Iran’s economy by sanctioning its financial enablers. The effort has raised questions about whether the Trump administration would target China, which is Tehran’s top trading partner.

Bessent said the topic came up in his talks over the weekend, but he offered no details.

Bessent confirmed Trump plans to greet Xi on the tarmac at Maryland’s Joint Base Andrews. “I think we’re going to have a great visit,” he said.

Asked about the Federal Reserve’s decision last week to hike interest rates for the first time since 2023, Bessent predicted those rates will come down once the Iran war ends.

“Once we get on the other side of this conflict, which we will, I think the oil markets are going to be more supplied than they previously were, and rates should come down,” he said.

The Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee unanimously voted to raise benchmark rates to a target range of 3.75% to 4% in order to reduce “elevated inflation.”

Trump, who appointed Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, has repeatedly demanded the Fed cut rates. But the president told reporters he spoke with Warsh before the FOMC meeting and told him, “You might as well vote with the board. It’s not going to matter.”

Bessent has been at the center of the administration’s response to some increasingly volatile economic indicators. Last week, he touted a Sept. 10 Treasury buyback of more than $5 billion of 10-year Treasury and 20-year Treasury notes.

Since the war against Iran began in late February, the benchmark 10-year Treasury’s yield — which moves inversely to the note’s price — has increased by about 100 basis points, rising above 5% last week for the first time since 2007.

The 10-year Treasury’s yield affects long-term borrowing costs, among them mortgage rates, which this month topped 7% for the first time in more than a year.

In testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on Sept. 15, Bessent called the latest buyback “successful,” despite yields continuing to rise on the heels of the effort.

“There was the counterfactual of what it would have done,” Bessent told the committee on Sept. 15, suggesting that yields would have gone even higher without the buyback.

“Since President Trump has come in, [the U.S. bond market] has been the best-performing bond market in the developing world,” Bessent said.

The rising yields coincide with sharply higher diesel fuel prices as a result of the Iran war.

Concerns about the affordability of fuel and other essential consumer items have Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress worried about retaining their majority control there in November’s election.

Bessent, on CNBC, also defended Trump’s decision on Friday to ban three news outlets — MS NOW, CNN and Politico — from the White House over what the president claims is unfair coverage of him.

Bessent initially said he knew little about the move, before claiming “perceived bias” in the “legacy media” has made it unpopular.

“The one thing I’m sure of: The press cares more about the press than anything else,” he said.

The three news outlets sued Trump on Monday on First Amendment grounds.

Disclosure: CNBC and MS NOW are divisions of Versant Media.

Technologies

Investors Should Brace for Impact as New Fed Tightening Cycle Begins

Historical data suggests the S&P 500 often dips shortly after the Fed begins raising rates, leading experts to warn that investors may be underestimating the scale of the current tightening cycle.

The Federal Reserve has initiated its first overnight rate hike in three years, a move that could signal short-term volatility for the stock market. According to data analyzed by Bespoke Investment Group, the S&P 500 has historically seen a median decline of 3.2% in the month following the start of a tightening cycle. This downward trend persists three months later, with a median drop of 2.3% and a positive return rate of only 17% during these periods.

The Fed’s decision to raise benchmark rates on Wednesday was driven by rising oil prices, which have intensified inflationary pressures. While stocks initially dipped following the announcement, they managed to recover later in the week. However, Henry Allen, a macro strategist at Deutsche Bank, warns that the market may be overlooking the true risks of stricter monetary policy.

Allen noted that with the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan all implementing hikes within a two-week window, the world has entered a synchronized rate-hiking phase. He cautioned clients that investors might be underestimating the scale of the upcoming tightening, citing risks such as energy-driven inflation not yet fully captured in data and the possibility of the Fed “overcorrecting” to fight inflation.

Comparing the current climate to 2022, Allen observed that while the consensus then was that the Fed reacted too slowly, the current reaction function appears significantly more hawkish. Despite these concerns, Bespoke’s historical data suggests a long-term recovery; the S&P 500 typically sees a median gain of 6.4% six months after a cycle begins and 6% after one year. Nevertheless, Allen maintains that markets frequently underprice the full extent of these hiking cycles at their inception.