The PS5 players' guide to the latest Xbox gaming bonanza

With Sony remaining quiet and no PlayStation State of Play on the horizon, Microsoft has used the quiet as a chance to showcase new Xbox games in a Developer Direct stream. Here is a guide to the bonanza for PS5 and PS4 players.

Hardy PS5 and PS4 players, here is a guide to the gaming bonanza that occurred in the Xbox Developer Direct showcase. While we wait for Sony to finally announce the next PlayStation State of Play, it's worth taking a look at the 2023 Xbox Series X|S lineup to see how and why it might affect what we get up to on our platform.

Xbox Developers Direct — Minecraft Legends

Minecraft Legends

Minecraft Legends isn't an Xbox exclusive — it's also coming to PS5 and PS4 on April 18th, 2023. In this new spin-off of everyone's favourite free-form survival, crafting, and building game, the blocky kingdom is getting an action strategy twist this time around. You will be gathering an army to fight against the invading Piglins in PvP or PvE. It sounds and looks pretty fascinating, and this latest footage from the showcase gives us a much better look at the game in action.

Forza Motorsport

Forza Motorsport is Xbox's premiere exclusive sim-racer, much like Gran Turismo 7 on PS5 and PS4. It is coming at some point in 2023 to Xbox Series X|S and PC only. This new version of the game is dropping the number permanently, and going for the more live-servicey brand name-only title. It was expected that there would be a release date here, but none was given in the end, but it's possible that the team is gunning for the end of the year.

FM7, the prior entry, had a good start off the line but fumbled into the next few corners for a lot of fans — much like Gran Turismo 6 and Sport. To get the series back at pole, developer Turn 10 is bringing 500 real cars with around 800 mods and upgrades to the new game. Performance-wise, you are looking at a sturdy 4K60. There are 20 environments with the customary different layouts. As for the racing, there will be a more detailed damage system and ten times the car detail, a dynamic day-night and weather system, rubber lay-in and track temps, proper spectators by the track, and unique dirt and grime buildup.

With GT7 struggling to get it's live-service functioning properly, the FIA removing it from official tournaments until the online experience is more robust, and the lack of a PC port, it looks like Forza has a big opportunity to take the lead here. That being said, Forza has, for me at least, always felt a little artificial and rubbery. If that aspect can be solved and its PC port can be made a decent enough rival to iRacing and Assetto Corsa Competizione, we have a race on our hands.

Hi-Fi Rush

Hot off the back of GhostWire Tokyo, Tango Gameworks announced that its new rhythm action game Hi-Fi Rush would be coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC day and date (and Game Pass, of course). A malignant cooperation accidentally fuses the heart of wannabe rocker Chai with a music player and proceeds to label the lad a defect. You fight in sync with the beat — always a winning combo in our books — and try and bring down the corporate overlords and their robot army. While the art style put us off initially, in action it looks good (TT boss Rich is enjoying it right now!) and a new big date and day release is always exciting!

Xbox Developers Direct — Elder Scrolls Online Necrom

Elder Scrolls Online Necrom

The Elder Scrolls Online is the MMO that is available on everything. This new slice of content continues its ever-expanding growth into a Final Fantasy XIV rival, and this new Necrom slice of content is really hammering its size home with more content in Morrowind involving the Dark Elves. It's been a while since anyone explored that part of Morrowind — since 1994 to be exact (thank you TA Staff Writer Tom) — and now you'll get to trapeze through the city of Necrom in a new story chapter. The expansion arrives on June 20th for PS5 and PS4.

Redfall

Here we go — Redfall is the new co-op vampire shooter from Arkane Studios, whose secondary team brought us Deathloop for PS5 not so long ago. As for Redfall, you are looking at a Series X|S and PC exclusive that is launching on May 2nd, 2023. The gameplay showcased a substantial amount of shooting, stealthing, and exploring. It also showcases a lovely big map and some of the vampire enemies in the game. Instead of explaining it to you, we recommend checking out the trailer embedded above.

It looks like a solid bit of Bethesda output and it's interesting that it is releasing so soon in the May 2023 slot. That gives Xbox an exclusive in every quarter of the year if Forza releases at the end of 2023. At present, it doesn't look like Sony's first-party games will be achieving that feat. Instead, it will rely on Square Enix exclusives in the form of the underwhelming Forspoken (check out Sean's Forspoken review, by the way) and the promising Final Fantasy XVI on June 22nd, 2023. Insomniac Games will be publishing Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at yet-unconfirmed release date at the end of 2023. That gives Xbox and PlayStation a fascinating dual-lineup over the course of the year, and we can't wait to play everything!

Did you enjoy this article? What do you think of what Microsoft showed? Will any game top the best PS5 games? Let us know in the comments and see you there!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favourite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.