June 2023’s big video game releases: Diablo 4, Street Fighter 6, & FF16

May wasn’t exactly small potatoes for video gamers — and June might be even more demanding of their attention. Still reeling from the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, fans have to reckon with three huge tentpole-franchise releases in June: Street Fighter, Diablo, and Final Fantasy.

Again, those are hardly the only games hitting the launch calendar of June 2023. Those three command huge audiences going back literal decades, but if none are your cup of tea, there are plenty more arriving in a month normally associated with E3 (where publishers are now left to their own devices).

Here’s a look at all of the good stuff coming to Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC in the coming month:

June 1

Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection

(Nintendo Switch, Windows PC)

Atlus’ new collection contains the first three titles of the series: Etrian Odyssey HD, Etrian Odyssey 2 HD, and Etrian Odyssey 3 HD, and promises “numerous quality of life improvements, like suspend saves [and] adjustable difficulty levels,” the publisher says.

June 2

Street Fighter 6

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X)

Image: Capcom

Fighting games are a genre so developed now that newcomers may feel them inaccessible; not so, according to Polygon’s review. “Street Fighter 6 is the biggest and most approachable package in the franchise to date, waiting for you with open, gentle arms.”

Super Mega Baseball 4

(Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

We Love Katamari ReRoll+ Royal Reverie

(Nintendo Switch)

June 6

Amnesia: The Bunker

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Diablo 4

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment’s winning dungeon-crawler formula returns for the series’ first mainline entry in 11 years. Diablo 4 leans into more than just the gameplay loop that has won it millions of fans: “There’s an aesthetic return to the guts of the series,” says Polygon’s review, “the infinite grossness of weird little freaks from hell and the viscera left in their wake.”

June 8

Harmony: The Fall of Reverie

(Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 , Windows PC, Xbox Series X)

June 15

Layers of Fear (2023)

(PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X)

Goodbye Volcano High

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC)

Image: Codemasters/Electronic Arts

June 16

F1 23

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Among sports video games, F1 23 continues to make the greatest ascent, from a boutique motorsports sim to a full-fledged sports lifestyle sim with a narrative mode (and familiar characters) to boot. Though the second chapter of Braking Point may get the most attention pre-release, the combined single/multiplayer F1 World mode looks to be a time vortex for thousands of racing fans, too.

June 20

Aliens: Dark Descent

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Crash Team Rumble

(PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

June 22

Final Fantasy 16

(PlayStation 5)

Image: Square Enix

As if the month could take one more, here is June’s third epic. Final Fantasy 16’s gameplay and visuals channel all of the current power of modern games development and hardware, while still finding room for the PlayStation 2-era motifs and touches that have charmed generations of fan. Says Polygon’s preview: “It has the flamboyant drama, the cool, moody attitude, and the playful self-mockery that characterized the era, as well as a focused, headlong approach to both storytelling and gameplay.”

June 29

AEW Fight Forever

(Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Yuke’s Co. is not out of the wrestling game altogether; though the WWE franchise is now fully in the hands of 2K Sports and its studio, the longtime wrestling and fighting developers return with AEW Fight Forever, based on the challenger series All Elite Wrestling.

June 30

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

(Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X)

Samba de Amigo: Party Central

(Nintendo Switch)

Image: Sega

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

(Nintendo Switch)