THE 20 GAMES OF 2020:
SEPTEMBER STEPPING away from the endless deluge of events (although Tokyo Games Show is slated for mid-September, since you ask), September marks the first anniversary of Apple Arcade. Apple’s gaming service is part of an ongoing trend in games towards subscription-based models, and so far has proven to be remarkably successful. Of course, it remains to be seen if other companies can replicate Apple’s success here, without their unfathomable wealth that allows them to cut deals with mobile developers while still charging just £4.99 for an entire catalogue of games, but plenty will try anyway.
NOVEMBER THIS month will see the hugely anticipated launch of a new console generation with the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The silicon is rumoured to be more similar than ever before, with both promising huge leaps in processing and CPU performance plus instant loading thanks to SSD drives. Alongside all that will be the Golden Joystick Awards, celebrating the swansong years of both PS4 and Xbox One.
OCTOBER OCTOBER marks another, quite different anniversary. Microsoft’s streaming service and Google Stadia competitor Project xCloud launched via a preview in October 2019. As things stand right now, Microsoft certainly seems to be winning the PR war against Stadia – boasting a larger catalogue of games, and positive reviews of the preview performance. However, while the Stadia may have had a rocky launch, with many of its features missing, it has a significant head-start in terms of an actual commercial service out in the wild to build upon, alongside the huge opportunities for YouTube integration with its State Share feature.
DECEMBER ONE final event to close the year. The annual Game Awards is bound to return once again in December 2020, run and hosted as always by the one and only Geoff Keighley, who has claimed ownership of the event ever since it rose from the ashes of the Spike Video Game Awards. Coming after the launch of a new generation of consoles, this year’s Game Awards is bound to be an interesting one – Especially with such enormous franchises such as CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 and Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II releasing this year to bring this console generation to a spectacular finish, not to mention any potential launch titles for both the Playstation 5 and the Xbox Series X.
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