Just because I know that headline will have some of you primed to start typing in the Comments section, know that this column isn\u2019t about Xbox exclusives<\/i>. Those, as we all know by now, are still dripping out of the Xbox Game Studios spigot rather than flowing. But the back-pressure is rising, and I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll write more about what\u2019s next in a future column. For today, I want to focus simply on games being released for the Xbox Series X and S right now<\/i>, this Fall, whether they\u2019re exclusive or not. Most of them aren\u2019t, certainly, but it doesn\u2019t make the following statement any less true: we are in the single biggest 90-day stretch of game releases since Xbox 360\u2019s historic Fall 2007.<\/p>\n

That legendary run, culminating in the second anniversary of the Xbox 360 on November 22, included an insane smorgasbord of games that were <\/i>exclusives: Halo 3, BioShock, Mass Effect, The Orange Box, and Project Gotham Racing 4. Throw in the multiplatform releases of Rock Band, Assassin\u2019s Creed, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and, quite honestly, I\u2019m not sure if we\u2019ll ever top that. But Fall 2023, aka Right Now, is sure doing its damndest to try! Take a look at what\u2019s come out recently and what\u2019s still on the way in the next couple of months:<\/p>\n

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Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon<\/li>\n
Sea of Stars<\/li>\n
Starfield<\/li>\n
Lies of P<\/li>\n
Mortal Kombat 1<\/li>\n
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty<\/li>\n
Cocoon\u00a0<\/li>\n
Assassin\u2019s Creed Mirage<\/li>\n
Forza Motorsport<\/li>\n
Sonic Superstars<\/li>\n
Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1<\/li>\n
Ghostrunner 2<\/li>\n
Alan Wake 2<\/li>\n
Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name<\/li>\n
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
That\u2019s 15 big games in the span of about 12-13 weeks. There are more of course, but I\u2019ve particularly chosen the higher-profile releases, with the exceptions of Cocoon \u2013 which is from a gameplay designer who worked on Limbo and Inside and just got a glowing review on IGN \u2013 as well as Sea of Stars, which has already been released to excellent reviews<\/u>. Plus, Baldur\u2019s Gate 3 is due out on Xbox Series X and S by the end of the year<\/u>. And if only they came out at a pace of about one a week, as that averages out to! But alas, groups of them are clustered together, making it even trickier to find time to play them all as they each have their water-cooler moment. On the plus side, at least Sea of Stars, Starfield, Lies of P, Forza Motorsport, and Like a Dragon Gaiden either already launched or will be launching directly onto Xbox Game Pass on day one, making your potential financial outlay a bit less intense (or, perhaps more likely, allowing you to get more <\/i>of these games this Fall).<\/p>\n
By this point in previous years, we\u2019d typically see developers and publishers who\u2019ve realized that their game isn\u2019t going to be ready to ship during the Fall season push out into January, February, or Spring of the following year. But that\u2019s hardly happened this year. Everyone is simply releasing their game, and we are getting an El Ni\u00f1o-like storm of big-deal blockbusters. Are any of us complaining? Heck no! But it sure would be nice to have an extra 12 hours in the day to play them all. Still, it sure beats last year. Remember how dry that was? Conversely, I think we\u2019re going to look back on Fall 2023 with the same fond memories we have about Fall 2007. Let\u2019s enjoy the moment, shall we?<\/p>\n\n
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, <\/i>Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, <\/i>IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at <\/i>@DMC_Ryan<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n