As 2024 begins, it’s time to find out what Xbox has in store for us this year. Now with even more studio acquisitions than before, the Xbox Developer Direct is getting pretty packed. Xbox has confirmed that we’ll be hearing from Obsidian, Machine Games, Oxide Studios, and Ninja Theory. Blizzard isn’t getting into the mix during this show, but there will be a Diablo 4 developer update happening a few hours beforehand.
Here’s exactly where and when to watch the January 2024 Xbox Direct and what we’re expecting to see from its studios.
How to watch the Xbox Direct
The Xbox Direct for January 2024 premieres at noon Pacific on Thursday, January 18 on Twitch and YouTube. Here’s when that is in other time zones:
- 12 pm PST (Los Angeles)
- 3 pm EST (New York)
- 8 pm GMT (London)
- 7 am AEST (Sydney)
From what Xbox has told us already, we’ll be getting “extended gameplay” from the as yet untitled Indiana Jones game that Machine Games is working on, Obsidian’s next big RPG Avowed, the 4X strategy game Ara: History Untold, and Ninja Theory’s new sequel Hellblade 2.
That’s plenty of big name games for a first quarter showcase. In particular, we know essentially nothing about that Indiana Jones game. Since we’ll be seeing some first gameplay, presumably we’ll also get an official title and maybe even a release window announcement.
As for Avowed, it’s one of the biggest RPGs in development right now, and looks like an Elder Scrolls-style first-person fantasy adventure—something Obsidian has experience with in sci-fi settings as the creator of Fallout: New Vegas and The Outer Worlds. Though it had a gameplay trailer last summer, it was staged and cinematic-looking. A more genuine look at gameplay is what I’m hoping to see here.
Since those are going to be four pretty big games to show off, I’m not expecting any surprise announcements waiting in the wings. The old “one more thing” is usually a June showcase maneuver, not January.
