The Verge’s 2023 in review – The Verge

8 great Apple Arcade games for your iPhone or iPad

2023-12-31T09:00:00-05:00

Apple Arcade remains one of the best deals in gaming - even after getting a price bump. Since launch, the service has steadily grown with a mix of original mobile releases and App Store classics, none of which are burdened with the ads or in-app purchases that so often plague smartphone games. 2023 was a particularly strong year for new additions, with everything from daily word games for the Wordle-obsessed to cozy adventures to relax with. If you just picked up a new Apple device, or are using the subscription service for the very first time, here are some great places to start.

Knotwords

Zach Gage and Jack Schlesinger have partnered on a …

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2023’s great games were overshadowed by a dark cloud of layoffs

2023-12-30T09:00:00-05:00

Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of any industry, but the scope and scale of video game layoffs in 2023 are far beyond a typical year. More than any specific video game or piece of news, layoffs defined the past 12 months. Companies large and small have felt their impact. Unofficial figures estimate 9,000 workers have been affected, and at the heart of it all are corporations that valued growth at all costs - including people.

In September, Epic Games laid off 830 employees. In a statement, CEO Tim Sweeney wrote, "We've been spending way more money than we earn. […] I had long been optimistic that we could power through this transition wi …

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The best shows on Apple TV Plus in 2023

2023-12-29T10:00:00-05:00

We're four years into the existence of Apple TV Plus, and the network still feels like it's punching above its weight class. It doesn't have nearly the expansive library of its competitors, but the shows (and occasional film) it does have are really, really good -usually.

I've heard friends compare it to HBO in the 2000s, and that feels like an apt comparison. There are plenty of great movies, but there's also an astonishingly well-programmed group of TV shows that seem to speak to a very wide audience, from its core group of science fiction shows like For All Mankind and Foundation to its more outlandish fair like Schmigadoon! and The Mor …

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The best shows on Max in 2023

2023-12-29T09:00:00-05:00

The streaming service formerly known as HBO Max completed its magical girl transformation this year, dropping arguably the most recognizable part of its name to just become Max. The questionable rename came at the conclusion of the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery and, according to WarnerDiscovery executives, was meant to signal to subscribers that the new Max has content for the whole family to enjoy.

Immediately post-merger, Max lost 1.8 million subscribers (that WarnerMedia attributes to simple attrition). But the great mushing together of libraries means that highly polished dramas like The Sopranos and Oz appear alongside the h …

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The best PlayStation games from 2023

2023-12-28T10:00:00-05:00

PlayStation's had an interesting year. The company ricocheted between the highs of launching new technology like the PlayStation Portal and a new PS5 Slim (now with a detachable disk drive!) and the lows of layoffs, game cancellations, massive data leaks, and the end of CEO Jim Ryan's 28-year tenure.

And though 2023 was the year of the cross-platform blockbusters like Diablo IV and Baldur's Gate 3, PlayStation still had a number of exclusives not to be missed.

Spider-Man 2

When you start out with a game as good as the original Spider-Man, you don't have to change much. And thankfully that's exactly what the developers at Insomniac did for …

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10 great shows from 2023 to stream on Amazon Prime Video

2023-12-28T09:00:00-05:00

Amazon Prime Video is the second-best perk that comes with a Prime subscription (aside from free two-day shipping, of course), and its library only continues to grow. While Prime Video is often overshadowed by the likes of Netflix and Max, it has surprising range, whether you're looking for a lighthearted comedy, psychological thriller, or a thrilling animated series.

With that out of the way, here's our list of the best shows released on Amazon Prime Video this year.

Invincible

If you're looking for a fresh take on the superhero genre, you'll want to check out Invincible. The animated series first debuted in 2021, but its second season jus …

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10 great Windows PC games from 2023

2023-12-27T09:30:00-05:00

2023 is likely to go down in history as one of gaming's greats, and at times it's been challenging just to keep up. Baldur's Gate 3 brought the 20-year-old PC franchise back with a bang, and smaller releases like Slay the Princess were a reminder of the important role PCs still hold for indie games.

Given how cross-platform the vast majority of games are these days, we're not going to primarily focus on PC exclusives. Instead, the aim is to highlight a great selection of games that show off PC gaming at its best in 2023. So alongside games like Slay the Princess, which are only available on computer platforms, there are also titles that wor …

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8 great series and movies to stream on Disney Plus

2023-12-27T09:00:00-05:00

Disney Plus is a service built primarily around the company's core brands of Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney - and that hasn't changed much this year. 2023's new releases were still dominated by superheroes and Jedi, but there were some Na'vi and Time Lords thrown in for good measure. In fact, this year the service's offerings were particularly solid for sci-fi fans, with stories spanning quite a few galaxies and timelines. If you're new to Disney Plus, here are a few movies and shows to stream first.

Loki

Since its first season, filled with branching timelines and retrofuturistic tech, Loki has carved out its own distinct space within the MCU …

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The Verge’s 2023 in review

2023-12-27T08:39:34-05:00

What a year, huh?

As 2023 draws to a close, it’s time to look back on the year that was. It was a great year for entertainment and a not-so-great year for the people who actually made that entertainment. It was the year Twitter died, and the year Matter mostly failed to launch. Gadgets got gadgety-er, photos got what-is-a-photo-ier, and generative AI was suddenly everywhere.

Now through the end of the year, we’ll recap the highs and lows in gadgets, social media, and entertainment, and look ahead at how 2024 is shaping up (spoiler: even more AI). We’ll talk about our favorite movies and TV shows of the year, including the best stuff on Max, Apple TV Plus, Prime, and Disney Plus, and our favorite games on every platform, from PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch to PC and Apple Arcade.

The year in review

Great entertainment

8 great games for your Switch from 2023

2023-12-26T09:30:00-05:00

It's been a fantastic year for the Nintendo Switch. We got new Super Mario games, some great remasters, ports of a few games that previously blew up on PC, and, of course, an absolutely massive sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Even though the Nintendo Switch's successor is likely just around the corner, there's no shortage of great games to play on the Switch you might already own. Nintendo can take all the time it needs to launch its next console; whenever that comes out, I'll probably still be working through quests in Tears of the Kingdom.

Here are some of the best Nintendo Switch games from 2023.

Advance Wars 1 + 2 Re …

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