While scanning the news feeds of late for something interesting to talk about, an odd trend developed in terms of future releases, particularly for the Xbox One. Specifically, there were a lot of titles coming up, and I was downright shocked at the sheer array of titles on hand here. These weren't just simple titles, either, but some really impressive stuff, and some things I didn't even expect to see coming.

First was the revelation that a lot of indie titles—particularly “Shovel Knight”--were poised to come out in rapid fashion. While some of these were comparative unknowns, some—like “Shovel Knight” and perennial favorite “Mighty No. 9”--were much bigger names just waiting for a shot at our systems. While there wasn't a lot of word in terms of release dates for these impressive little nuggets, the fact that they were recently getting shown off at the Game Developers Conference suggested that arrival would likely be sooner than expected.

But that was just the start. A couple of fairly big surprises joined in the fray, like the summer 2015 release of “Elite: Dangerous”, the big PC game that introduced us to a universe so big it would take decades to explore. Indeed, reports note that the February Community Goals content, as well as the Wings content, would also get into the picture. That's a lot of content, and a lot of universe for us to explore in what is normally one of the sparsest release periods gaming knows. Just to top it off, the “Mad Max” release a lot of people had been waiting for was set for September, and even “Wasteland 2” made an appearance, even if only “soon”, perhaps the worst release date ever.

It was a common joke back in late 2014, that the last half of 2014 had been postponed to 2015, because pretty much every game that was due out in 2014 had been delayed to 2015. Now, 2015 is here, and it's beginning to look like a downright amazing year for gaming. Some huge titles, and some that we didn't even expect to see are coming out. Naturally, anything can go wrong—and often does—when it comes to game releasing, so we may not see half the stuff that's supposed to hit. But if it does, man, are we ever looking at a “take the phone off the hook and order in for the rest of your life “ kind of gaming season. This could be a very big time for us to come, and with all this potential greatness on tap, there could be a real shakeup in the wider market. With Sony currently ruling the roost as far as console sales go, we may well have an opportunity for Microsoft to catch up thanks to an array of new and interesting games that can't be had just anywhere. But that's a matter that only time will tell, in the end, and we'll likely see how it all boils down in just a few months.