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Our picks for this year's greatest games.
2024 is a wrap, and 2025 is upon us. It's time to recap another year of amazing games across Xbox and PC.
It has, once again, been a strange year in the gaming calendar. Layoffs dampened what was otherwise an absolute bumper year for high-quality games across Xbox and Windows systems. Spectacular indie games cut through the zeitgeist on sheer creativity alone, while mega franchises found new footing despite showing their age.
It was the first full year of Activision-Blizzard under the Xbox banner, as Microsoft shifted its strategies to target gamers outside of the Xbox console ecosystem, potentially risking it all in the process. PlayStation revived the platforming genre with its Astrobot win at The Game Awards, and rumors of the Nintendo Switch 2's imminent reveal keep fans on their toes.
Valve's Steam platform continues to find new ground with its hardware offerings, and cloud gaming from Xbox and NVIDIA brings AAA games to people who simply don't want to buy a more expensive system. Generative AI also lurks in the rafters and will likely rear its head more definitively in 2025, both for game development and in-game features.
The Windows Central Game Awards are hardly scientific but are instead a simple homage from our small team to all the great games we loved this year. We pool together our own nominations and then vote for the games we love the most as we complete another journey around the big glowing orb in the sky. Let's get right into it.
Best Xbox Game of 2024
We do love a bit of hyperviolence.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Windows PC Game
The best horror shooter in years.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Indie Game of 2024
It'll take over your life.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Most Anticipated Game of 2024
Time to polish those hunting horns.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Expansion / DLC of 2024
Did you expect anything else?
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Ongoing Game of 2024
It's time to admit Fallout 76 is good.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Story Direction of 2024
ATLUS can't stop winning.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Game Pass Addition of 2024
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 boosts Game Pass.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Art and Visuals of 2024
Hellblade 2 is state of the art.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Best Sound and Music of 2024
An audio experience like few games can offer.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Editor's Choice Award 2024
An honorary mention, for the Emperor.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
Game Developer Excellence Award 2024
Another addictive masterpiece.
(Image credit: Windows Central)
And that's a wrap!
With 2024 fading into memory, 2025 is looking ready to be another hyper-packed year for gaming. We have Civilization 7, Monster Hunter Wilds, Avowed, and various other games dropping in Q1 already, and then the hype train for the Xbox Showcase 2025 and Summer Game Fest will begin in earnest. We should also be getting an Xbox Developer_Direct showcase in January or February that could give a glimpse at some of Xbox's games for 2025. Fable, DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, The Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, and perhaps other surprises are on the horizon, giving Xbox a strong line-up for the next calendar year.
Xbox's strategy of putting games on PlayStation and Nintendo threatens to cannibalize their console business potentially, which right now owns the lion's share of Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. PC and cloud are growing, though, heaping reasons to remain optimistic about the future of the Xbox ecosystem. Xbox's ability to deliver high-quality exclusives seems to be hitting its stride, but it might be too late for its console business as users establish their digital presence across PlayStation and PC. It'll be interesting to see how Microsoft and Xbox react to this in 2025, particularly as rumors of new Xbox hardware continue to mount. An Xbox handheld sure sounds cool to me, at least.
As for games and their developers, from artists to marketing to PR to technicians and everyone in between: Thank you on behalf of everyone here at Windows Central for your art and passion, and we can't wait to see what you're bringing to us in 2025.
Hope you enjoyed this news post.
Thank you for appreciating my time and effort posting news every day for many years.
2023: Over 5,800 news posts | 2024 (till end of November): 5,298 news posts
RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend 
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