Our boldest predictions for PC gaming in 2024

Gaming IndustryOur boldest predictions for PC gaming in 2024When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Wizards of the Coast)

A wizard stares at an orb through a telescope

Predicting the future of something as volatile and changeable as videogames truly is a mug’s game. Well, fill us up with coffee because we are apparently mugs.

In 2023, the most talked-about game of the year was a CRPG with turn-based combat, and the most quickly forgotten one was a new Bethesda open world. While award shows patted the industry on its back for a bumper year of quality games, studios closed, publishers were acquired, and layoffs were rampant.

After all that, imagining what 2024 could possibly have in store for us is a daunting task, but we’ll give it a shot anyway. We can drop the difficulty down to Story for this bit, right? No? Ah.

Once again we’re gazing into the web of possible futures to determine what the year ahead will bring. We’ve got our deck of self-made tarot cards right out of The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood and our crew of divination wizards have rolled their portent dice. Here are our best, or at least boldest, guesses at what will happen to PC gaming in 2024.

Planet-sized planets are the new hotness

Chris Livingston, Senior Editor:I saw it twice in 2023 and we’re going to see more of it in the year ahead. At GDC in March, Brendan Greene showed me a demo ofProject Artemis, which is (or will be) a digital planet the size of a real planet. Then at The Game Awards, Sean Murray of Hello Games revealed the next project for the No Man’s Sky studio, a digital planet—you guessed it, the size of a real planet—in thetrailer for Light No Fire.

(Image credit: Hello Games)

A fantasy open world

Maybe thanks to games like No Man’s Sky, Elite Dangerous, and most recently Starfield, we’re all just a little burned out on tons and tons of (mostly uninteresting) procedurally generated planets, so sticking with one planet, but making it utterly humongous, is our gaming future. I bet we get two or three more game announcements this coming year about digital planets as big as Earth.

A good AI-powered game will release

Tyler Wilde, Executive Editor:When I spoke to Unity exec Marc Whitten at GDC in March of last year, he was all in on the idea ofruntime AI: That’s generative AI not as a game production tool, but running live while you play, doing things like speech recognition or object detection, and even potentially generating dialogue or imagery or maps or anything else a machine learning algorithm can be trained to produce and remix. It was all a bit speculative, and there wound up beingbigger Unity happeningsto report on in 2023, but I think this is the year we see runtime AI used in games that actually demand serious attention.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

(Image credit: Hidden Door)

So far, experiments in the field have been novel oddities, like the ChatGPT-powered Skyrim companion whotried to murder Chris' characterwith bad advice, or remarkable only for illuminating the ethical quagmire generative AI is mired in. But at least one upcoming game I know about, a multiplayer storytelling platform calledHidden Door, looks like it could actually be fun, and although it can’t totally escape hard questions about the whole generative AI pursuit, its developer is approaching machine learning as responsibly as any I’ve seen, with plans to license worlds and writing styles from their authors.

In arecent article, Josh compellingly argued that we shouldn’t and don’t have to accept the notion that generative AI will inevitably replace creative workers with fancy Xeroxes of the art they used to be paid for. I don’t think that’s an inevitable nor desirable outcome, either. But AI development will certainly continue, and in 2024, I think we’ll start interacting with machine learning systems in mainstream games (beyond using DLSS for a framerate boost), and we might even discover that we like it.

(Image credit: Kinmoku)

Jody Macgregor, AU/Weekend Editor:Anything that happens at the intersection of social media and videogames is especially hard to predict. Who could have imagined people on TikTok would take audio clips of Neuvillette from Genshin Impact saying “Oratrice Mecanique d’Analyse Cardinale” and turn them into adance trend? But as Twitter dries up and shrivels like an old cob of corn and people find its replacements don’t give them exactly what they want—because what they want is a time machine that transports them back to when social media was good—videogames will fill the gap.

We’ve seen a version of this in games like Videoverse and Emily is Away, which fictionalized the early 2000s era of instant messaging and forums. It’s time for indie devs to make games about doomscrolling, whether as a backdrop for solving a mystery like the Orwell series, or to comment on our desire for internet fame like Needy Streamer Overload. Your number of retweets and followers was always a score you were trying to make go up—Twitter barely needs to be gamified to become a game.

Live service games invent a new grift

Lauren Morton, Associate Editor:Live service games are due for another new monetization creation. We’ve survived loot boxes and are now entrenched with their gacha game cousins. I’ve come to terms with season passes, battle passes, limited-time events, and more. I can resist a cash shop skin. It’s about time for the constantly morphing live service boss to adopt a new form for snatching my cash. I have no idea what it’s going to be, just some entirely new scheme that I’m totally unprepared for.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf releases, is actually quite good

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf screenshot detail - city at night

Ted Litchfield, Associate Editor:Hey, a fella can dream, right? Even as Obsidian thrives crafting experimental delights like Pentiment or Grounded and Larian just takes the crown uncontested as everybody’s favorite maker of big-ass RPGs, I’ll still carry a torch for BioWare, the developer that first got me into the genre.

Dreadwolf’s development has now stretched for so long I’ve started to find BioWare’s yearly ritual of tossing us a brief, show-nothing teaser trailer to be almost endearing⁠. It’s a fool’s errand to keep getting mad about yet another 30-second motion graphic of concept art with no release date in sight. What do you expect at this point?

Despite all of that, I dogenuinelythink it’ll be good, at least an 8/10 sort of joint. Even as its storytelling and high-level direction faltered in Andromeda and Anthem, BioWare’s only been getting better at making fun RPGs over the years.

Dreadwolf has been cooking for so long its rumored origins as a live service-style game may have burned away at this point, and the actual, honest-to-god in-engine area shots from this year’s show-nothing teaser were kind of pretty⁠—I’m excited to hang out in Antiva. I’m not over the moon with hype for Dreadwolf, but I’m still cautiously optimistic.

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be delayed, and it won’t be great anyway

Fraser Brown, Online Editor:The BioWare that gave us Dragon Age: Origins doesn’t exist now. BioWare has been gutted, and it hasn’t released a good game in nearly a decade. I have no faith that EA or the current incarnation of the studio will be able to right the ship. Nothing we’ve seen of the game inspires confidence, and that’s because we’ve basically not seen anything at all. What even is Dreadwolf? I know it’s an RPG, but beyond that? No idea.

(Image credit: EA)

Dragon Age trailer still.

But you know what? I don’t really care. Like I said, the BioWare responsible for so many beloved RPGs is dead. I’m not expecting it to set my world on fire. Baldur’s Gate 3 reminded me what a genuinely great RPG looks like, and there are plenty of interesting projects following in its footsteps, or the footsteps of RPGs like Disco Elysium, that I don’t need anything from BioWare now.

Another gaming handheld launches running SteamOS

Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor:Before Valve released the Steam Deck, it vowed to make SteamOS publicly available—and also said that it was open to other handheld PC makers running the customized version of Linux. Despite sounding like direct competition for the Steam Deck, being open with SteamOS actually makes a lot of sense—Valve only stands to benefit from more PC handhelds out there booting directly into the Steam store, rather than Windows. So far we haven’t seen another device launch with SteamOS, but I think 2024 will be the year—especially becauseValve recently told usmaking that possible “is very high on our list.”

(Image credit: Future)

SteamOS on multiple handheld gaming PCs

“We’re hoping soon, though, it is very high on our list, and we want to make SteamOS more widely available,” said Valve’s Lawrence Yang. “We’ll probably start with making it more available to other handhelds with a similar gamepad style controller. And then further beyond that, to more arbitrary devices. I think that the biggest thing is just, you know, driver support and making sure that it can work on whatever PC it happens to land on. Because right now, it’s very, very tuned for Steam Deck.”

I’m actually optimistic that this will be a pretty easy problem for Valve to solve. While there are a lot of competing gaming handhelds out there now, from theAsusROG Ally to Lenovo Legion Go to the broad range of Ayaneos, a lot of them are running on similar hardware—the same AMD APUs are at the hearts of most of them, and I bet they’re pulling from a limited pool of displays, too. I’m particularly hoping to see one of the smaller, lighter gaming handhelds like theAyaneo Airrunning on SteamOS. I love the Deck, but it is most definitely a chonky boy.

More about gaming industryLords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’LatestCivilization 7 has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch next monthSee more latest►

More about gaming industry

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its gamesEpic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

Lords of the Fallen (2023) promotional image - very large man with a very large hammer on a very large horse charging a very small man with a very small magic sword

Lords of the Fallen studio embraces fear of the DEI boogeyman, says it will not include ‘any social or political agendas’ in its games

Tim Sweeney

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says tech leaders are ‘pretending to be Republicans’ to gain favor with Trump, skirt antitrust laws, and ultimately ‘rip off consumers and crush competitors’

LatestCivilization 7 has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch next monthSee more latest►

Latest

Civilization 7 has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch next month

Digital Ben Franklin looking very perturbed on dark background

Civilization 7 has been Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch next month

See more latest►

Most Popular

This bizarre roguelike has a new take on the Vampire Survivors formula: letting you build your own custom weapons out of brains, eyeballs, and chimpanzee spines

18 games the PC Gamer team can’t wait to play in 2025

The Witcher 3’s now 2-year-old bonus quest is our first taste of the ‘vibe’ CD Projekt is going for in The Witcher 4

2024 was the year updates for old games beat out all the new ones for me

Train like you game with this adventure-inspired workout

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review: An anarchic treasure trove of jokes and skits

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review—like juggling chainsaws on horseback

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Planet-sized planets are the new hotness#

A good AI-powered game will release#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Live service games invent a new grift#

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf releases, is actually quite good#

Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will be delayed, and it won’t be great anyway#

Another gaming handheld launches running SteamOS#