Where are the rest of 2022’s games?

Games were debuting at a breakneck pace throughout early 2022, but the industry’s release velocity is waning dramatically. The delineation between nonstop games and practically zero games came as April replaced March. The reason? March 31 is the final day of the fiscal calendar for many companies. And publishers and devs want as many sales before that date to make their financials look as strong as possible.

This is not a new phenomenon. But it was maybe more noticeable in 2022 than in past years. A major reason for that is the pandemic. Companies had a backlog of projects due to multiple delays over the last several years. And that caused a lot of games to line up in February and March.

But now that we have Elden Ring, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and Ghostwire Tokyo, the industry is slamming on the brakes. That naturally leads to a question about what is next. And while we have a decent idea of what is coming from companies like Nintendo, the overall calendar is looking rather barren.

Let’s take a look.

Big games with release dates for the rest of 2022

April 2022

• Nintendo Switch Sports — April 29

May 2022

June 2022

• Mario Strikers Battle League — June 10
• The Quarry — June 10
• Capcom Fighting Game Collection — June 24
• DNF Duel — June 28
• Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course — June 30

June 2022

August 2022

September 2022

October 2022

• Forspoken — October 11
• Gotham Knights — October 25

November 2022

• Starfield — November 11

Where are the rest of 2022’s video games?

Obviously, these are not the only games we will get for the rest of the year. Publishers and developers will begin filling in the holes in the calendar at some point. But why are we still waiting? Well, a lot of it comes down to timing.

In the case of Sony, fans are still waiting for a release date for the unreleased God of War: Ragnarok. But the company will certainly have more than that before the end of this year. Sony is likely waiting for the right time to make those announcements. And those could come in part during the summer game mess in the vacuum left by the defunct E3.

Xbox, meanwhile, is in a situation where it doesn’t have a lot of games coming out this year. We know about Starfield in November. But where is Redfall, which is supposed to launch this summer? Microsoft and Bethesda haven’t said anything about that game since last E3, which makes a release by August seem unlikely. But even if that game does launch, Microsoft may only have the next Forza Motorsport and smaller projects to fill out the rest of the year.

As for third-party publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Activision — all of those companies seem like they are scrambling. Sure, a new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is due out this fall, but Activision doesn’t have anything from Blizzard coming soon. EA will probably have Skate 4, Star Wars Jedi II, and Dead Space Remake in 2023 and then Dragon Age 4 beyond that. But in EA, it might only have the usual EA Sports titles.

That doesn’t mean that we should have low expectations for the rest of the year. All of these companies and more are bound to have surprises. And the next big game could come out of nowhere — like maybe the upcoming action-shooter Arc Raiders from new developer Embark.

For now, however, it’s probably time to actually finish the games we spent all Q1 saving up to buy in the first place.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz