Despite spending a lot more money buying up developers in the past few years, Xbox lost to both PlayStation and Nintendo in 2022 in terms of actual games due to a lack of first-party momentum – not just immediate releases, but also plans for what’s next. The year-end announcement rush revealed a particularly brutal gap, with Xbox a virtual no-show at The Game Awards, the holiday season’s biggest gaming hype storm. So it’s both encouraging and unsurprising to see Xbox follow PlayStation in emulating Nintendo – still the GOAT of live shows – by launching its own Direct showcase.
