Welcome back to our weekly gaming news roundup.

January is a magical time in the video game industry. We’ve just closed out 12 months of marketing hype and shifting production timelines, and the year ahead is filled with the promises of new titles and fresh hardware. During this special month, we can look at the 2024 release calendar with excitement and optimism, before the delays start rolling in. So, let’s get to it — these hearts aren’t going to break themselves.

This week’s stories

Arcane season 2 teaser

You watched Arcane, right? The Netflix series set in the League of Legends universe debuted in late 2021 and it was an instant sensation, starring fan-favorite characters like Jinx, Vi and Caitlyn. The next season is set to come out in November and Riot dropped a one-minute teaser for it last Friday. The trailer has Singed experimenting on himself in a dreary laboratory, while a creature that looks like Warwick hangs above, connected to tubes and IVs. It’s gonna get dark, kids.

If you haven’t watched season one of Arcane, do that now.

This kid beat Tetris

I guess we can all stop playing Tetris. 13-year-old Willis Gibson became the first person to reach the killscreen in the classic NES version of Tetris, 34 years after the game’s debut. Gibson caught the moment on camera and honestly, it gives me goosebumps every time I watch it. The competitive Tetris scene has been steadily growing over the past few years, and players are using a new input technique called rolling that allows them to move pieces faster than ever. If you’re into this kind of thing, I recommend watching Classic Tetris Monthly on Twitch or YouTube.

Promises, promises

Before we get back into all the award shows and livestreams and media events this year, let’s take a look at the video game promises heading into 2024.

There’s nothing official yet, but it looks like Nintendo is preparing to release the Switch 2 in 2024, seven years after the launch of the original Switch, and right in the middle of the PS5 and Xbox Series X console cycle. According to early reports, the Switch 2 will be an iterative hardware update with slightly more processing power and support for DLSS and raytracing. The big news is that Nintendo has finally joined us in the 21st century, and players should be able to transfer their Switch games to the new console without any roadblocks.

Outside of the new Switch, 2024 is all about games. We know how this goes, right — in video games, a release date is really just the first step before a delay, so whatever you’re into, prepare for heartbreak over the next 12 months.

There are two games I’m confident will actually hit the market on their release dates in 2024, and that’s only because they’ve been in development for years and delayed multiple times already. Ubisoft’s open-world pirate simulator Skull and Bones is due out on February 16 for PS5, Xbox and PC, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will hit PS5 on February 29. Rebirth looks legit, while Skull and Bones … doesn’t.

Overall, we have a healthy lineup of titles to get excited about in 2024. First, on the mainstream front:

• January 18: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Ubisoft Montpellier

• January 19: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered | Naughty Dog

• January 26: Tekken 8 | Bandai Namco Studios, Arika

• February 2: Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League | Rocksteady Studios

• February 2: Persona 3 Reload | P-Studio

• February 16: Skull and Bones | Ubisoft

• February 29: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth | Square Enix

• March 22: Dragon’s Dogma 2 | Capcom

• March 22: Princess Peach: Showtime! | Nintendo

• March 22: Rise of the Ronin | Team Ninja

• 2024: Silent Hill 2 remake | Bloober Team

• 2024: Star Wars Outlaws | Massive Entertainment

• 2024: Avowed | Obsidian Entertainment

• 2024: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 | Ninja Theory

• 2024: Concord | Firewalk Studios

• 2024: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door | Nintendo

This isn’t a comprehensive list for the year in AAA gaming, but it’s a solid start.

And then there are the games I’m personally looking forward to in 2024. Most of these still have vague release windows — it’s as if the developers didn’t want to give a timeframe at all, so they just whispered 2024 to their marketing teams and hoped no one would notice. But I did. I always do. I’m always watching.

Here are the games on my underground radar this year (again, this isn’t an exhaustive list because there are so many fantastic games nowadays, but these ones spring to mind):

• January 16: Home Safety Hotline | Night Signal Entertainment

• August 20: Black Myth: Wukong | Game Science

• 2024: Skate Story | Sam Eng

• 2024: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes | Simogo

• 2024: Baby Steps | Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, Bennett Foddy

• 2024: The Plucky Squire | All Possible Futures

• 2024: Mewgenics | Edmund McMillen, Tyler Glaiel

• 2024: 33 Immortals | Thunder Lotus

• 2024: Thank Goodness You’re Here! | Coal Supper

• 2024: Despelote | Julián Cordero, Sebastian Valbuena

• 2024: Time Flies | Playables, Raphaël Munoz, Michael Frei

• 2024: Cryptmaster | Paul Hart, Lee Williams, Akupara Games

• 2024: Hades 2 | Supergiant Games

• 2024: Hyper Light Breaker | Heart Machine

When any of these titles is inevitably delayed, we can all gather right here and have a good cry. Let us know in the comments what you’re looking forward to this year and why it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Now Playing

I’ve been sticking with local co-op games during these chilly winter months, and now I’ve moved on to Baldur’s Gate 3. I know, I know, everyone is already telling you to play it, but this pitch is strictly for the splitscreen crowd — Baldur’s Gate 3 is a joy to play alongside a loved one, as long as your cleric actually remembers to heal your party every now and then. You know who you are.