Gaming know-how improves with every new era of {hardware}, however that’s not all the time obvious on launch day. Typically, new consoles are coupled with a lackluster slate of launch video games, with builders needing time to totally benefit from the brand new {hardware}. While there are some standout launch titles that may all the time be remembered — Tetris on the Game Boy, Halo on the unique Xbox, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Switch — only a few consoles ever arrive with multiple or maybe two video games worthy of being referred to as system-sellers.

That’s trying to stay largely true with the launch of Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X / S subsequent week, regardless of the excellent-looking Tetris Effect: Connected port, the all-new Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and the Demon’s Souls remake, to call just a few. But there’s one upside right here that can’t be ignored: that is the primary time in fashionable console historical past that you’ll be capable of take your current library, be it bodily or digital, and convey it with you to a brand new platform.

That offers shoppers unprecedented freedom in deciding the place they wish to play and what efficiency advantages are worthwhile sufficient to improve. And applied sciences like cross-platform play and now even cross-generation assist will permit those that don’t improve to proceed enjoying with their mates.

Yes, each consoles are arriving inside days of one other, seven years after the final era of console {hardware}, and each have solely a small handful of video games that can be referred to as actually next-gen experiences. Most are merely remasters or cross-generation titles with minor efficiency bumps. The minor excellent news is that there are fairly just a few big-name franchise releases to assist fill the hole. Call of Duty is an apparent one, with Black Ops Cold War arriving the identical week the brand new consoles launch. The identical is true of the brand new Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

But the significantly better information is that — moreover 4K and the solid-state drives and different spec modifications — Microsoft and Sony have pledged to assist near every title within the current console platforms’ libraries. Every Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One game presently playable on current Xbox One {hardware} (minus Kinect video games) might be playable on the Series X / S, whereas Sony has dedicated to supporting a “vast majority” of PS4 video games totaling greater than 4,000 titles.

This modifications the calculus a bit with regard to purchasing a brand new console. No longer do you need to abandon what you have been enjoying in your previous gadget and begin anew. And due to some genuinely consumer-friendly initiatives like Xbox Smart Delivery and comparable improve packages, loads of the video games we personal now or are planning to purchase within the subsequent couple of months won’t solely work on the brand new platforms, however most often, they’ll additionally include free upgrades from the usual PS4 and Xbox One variations. Sony can be introducing the PlayStation Plus Collection, a library of PS4 video games accessible without cost with its on-line subscription.

That leaves us with one large concern: how do you know what new video games are popping out for which platforms and when? There’s additionally the painstaking technique of parsing whether or not a game firm is giving out a free next-gen improve of a cross-gen title, charging just a little further, or releasing a next-gen-only game.

We’ve compiled an exhaustive record detailing the launch slates of each new console platforms on day one in addition to what’s popping out this vacation season and past in 2021.

When the Xbox Series X launches on November tenth, it can have 30 absolutely optimized titles that may technically qualify as launch video games. The PS5 will launch two days in a while November twelfth, and it’ll have 20 video games. (This consists of solely absolutely optimized video games and never what’s merely supported by way of backwards compatibility. The record additionally excludes video games like Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima that will obtain advantages from next-gen {hardware} however are nonetheless not absolutely optimized.)

Here’s an inventory of every day-one game accessible on each techniques, notably excluding titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War that launch shortly after launch day and won’t be accessible by November twelfth. Also, some video games are famous as console exclusives regardless of having launched on different platforms just like the Nintendo Switch within the earlier era; we’re solely specializing in whether or not a game is unique to both the PS5 or Xbox Series X / S, and timed console exclusives are handled the identical as first-party everlasting exclusives till a writer or developer has a concrete cross-platform launch date to share.

The confirmed launch day lists solely scratch the floor of the upcoming game libraries for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. In the weeks following launch, dozens extra video games are on the way in which. And 2021 is packed full of latest releases and full optimizations of cross-gen video games that ought to additional pad out what’s accessible to play in your new system of alternative. We’ve compiled the record beneath to assist you perceive every game popping out throughout this 12 months’s vacation season and what’s been confirmed to this point for 2021.

This excludes video games with out launch dates that will have been beforehand introduced — like Elder Scrolls VI and the Fable reboot, for instance — and video games beforehand listed within the above chart. We’ve additionally chosen solely to record launch dates for video games for which the writer has chosen a concrete date with each day and month.