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With rising development costs for AAA games steadily climbing, the video game industry experienced mass layoffs in 2024, with reverberating effects on both established game development studios and emerging companies. This was attributed to the many mergers and acquisitions taking place, artificial intelligence, and the general global economic slowdown.
Despite being in the midst of one of its most difficult years in recent memory, the video game industry is poised to return to growth in 2025, with predictions that it will surpass the record highs set during the COVID-19 pandemic. With many new video games consoles already on the horizon, such as the Nintendo Switch 2, and another jam-packed year of AAA game releases, there’s plenty to look forward to.
Please check out our top 10 anticipated games for 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Nintendo Switch, and more.
Perfect Dark
The Initiative, Crystal Dynamics | Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Developed in collaboration between The Initiative and Crystal Dynamics. Set in Cairo, this will be a reboot of the N64 original, following Joanna Dark, an agent of the Carrington Institute research centre, as she attempts to stop an extraterrestrial conspiracy by rival corporation dataDyne. With the series set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2025, it’s likely to be released in Q4.
Avowed
Obsidian Entertainment | Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S
This upcoming action role-playing video game, from developers Obsidian Entertainment, takes place in the same universe as Pillars of Eternity in the world of Eora. Rather than offer a full open world game, Obsidian devided to instead offer large open zones, with a heavy focus emphasis on story and characters. The first-person fantasy action RPG launches on the 18th February.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Kojima Productions | PlayStation 5
The sequel from Hideo Kojima, who once again writes, produces and directs, features the previous game's central characters, including Sam Porter Bridges, Fragile and Higgs. The game involves Sam expanding the Chiral Network as part of a private organisation. With companions by his side, he sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction.
Fable
Playground Games | Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Set in the fictional world of Albion, the game is positioned as a reboot, with Playground Games aiming to update the series with contemporary gameplay mechanics and visuals, targeting a new generation of players. The story will be centered on a hero named Humphry, who “will be forced out of retirement when a mysterious figure from his past threatens Albion’s very existence.”
Mafia: The Old Country
Hangar 13 | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
Based around the origins of the Mafia, the game takes place in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily, in the fictional town of San Celeste. Fight to survive in this dangerous and unforgiving era. A prequel to the first game and the fourth entry in the Mafia series, the narrative and setting is more aligned with the first Mafia game and is due to launch in Q2.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
Konami | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S
With modern graphics and enhancements, the game follows a FOX operative codenamed Naked Snake, who must save a Russian rocket scientist and sabotage the Soviet nuclear superweapon. Developed and published by Konami, it is a remake of the 2004 game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, the fifth main entry in the series and the first chronological game overall.
State of Decay 3
Undead Labs | Windows, and Xbox Series X/S
Like the previous entries in the series, you must carve out a life for your community of survivalist homesteaders during a zombie apocalypse, in this open-world survival game from Undead Labs. Likely to release late in Q4, the game builds on the foundation of its predecessor in a "much larger, truly shared open world”.
Atomfall
Rebellion Developments | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
This first-person survival action game is set in an alternate history in which the 1957 Windscale fire rendered much of the Lake District a radioactive fallout. Survive the quarantine zone, five years after the nuclear disaster and uncover what happened to those who survived. Inspired by Fallout: New Vegas and the film Children of Men, it launches on the 27th March.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft Quebec | PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, macOS, iPadOS
The role-playing game from Ubisoft is the fourteenth major instalment in the Assassin's Creed series. Taking control of two protagonists: a female shinobi, and an African samurai, the game is set in 16th-century Japan and focuses on the millennia-old struggle of the Assassin Brotherhood. The action-adventure stealth game launches on the 14th February.
Grand Theft Auto VI
Rockstar Games | PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
GTA VI is set in the open world state of Leonida—based on Florida—and its Miami-inspired Vice City. You take control of a criminal duo evading custody on a crime-fuelled odyssey, taking in the sights and sounds of Leonida. Probably the most anticipated game of 2025, it's map is rumoured to surpass the vast expanse of Red Dead Redemption 2, and will launch late into Q4.
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