The 2025 slate is packed, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo have the publishers exactly where they want them and are aiming for fewer-but-larger launches, smarter cross-play. If you’re still booking your preorders, you’ll want to block out some time for a lineup that ranges from record-breaking open worlds, auteur-driven experiments and a few crowd-pleasing shooters that will doubtless hold sway atop the multiplayer charts.
Open-world epics take the lead
Grand Theft Auto VI is the black hole at the center of the year. The first teaser attracted a Guinness world record for non-music YouTube views in a single day, indicating an incredible demand. Look for a return to Vice City, along with a dual-protagonist storyline, social-media-driven screwing around, and the sort of living-city simulation Rockstar continues to iterate on better than anyone else. If grand theft auto online’s lifetime sales and engagement is any indication, the successor ecosystem will be the true endgame.
Monster Hunter Wilds is the blockbuster swing from Capcom, which updates a series that has sold nearly 100 million copies according to Capcom’s investor reports. The pitch: no seams between biomes, tracking transforms hunts, monsters that are far more communicative, and full cross-play at launch. For co-op groups, the tension between realism (ecosystems responding to your presence) and arcade action (14 guns, deep builds) will be irresistible.
Action and RPG heavy-hitters
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach doubles down on Hideo Kojima’s unique mixture of traversal, tension and celebrity-studded performances. Using the Decima engine, it’s constructed to leverage contemporary hardware with dense weather simulation, tactile DualSense feedback, and a more hostile overworld. If you were hooked by the first game’s community-forged infrastructure, the larger scale and stranger threats in the sequel seem like a bold escalation.
Fable aims to bring a uniquely British sense of being to RGP fantasy. Playground Games returns with a (presumed) open-world masterpiece, and playful morality system, to follow in the footsteps of Hare and Tortoise story, the vegetable-throwing satire, and adaptable combat. The studio’s tech pedigree promises a world with fast load times, that responds to the choices you make, and that rewards goofing around as much as the heroic mainlining.
Nintendo’s big exclusives
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond finally puts Samus front and center in the first person. The return of Retro Studios implies deliberate exploration, environmental narrative, and precision-focused boss battles. The series’ trio of gameplay beats: scanning, puzzle layering, and combat upgrades, feel as timely now as they were when the series first debuted; the question is to what extremes this new installment will yank AI behavior and verticality while keeping that clean, readable HUD design Prime nailed.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A is billed as the second significant shake-up to the franchise. Placed in Lumiose City during a sweeping urban redevelopment, it offers the open-area freedom that made Legends: Arceus such a hit, with more densely packed city ecology and more dynamic trainer–Pokémon interactions. The Pokémon Company’s cadence points to quality-of-life upgrades for the catching, crafting and team-building systems that keep longtime fans — and newcomers — equally engaged.
Shooters and co-op ones to keep an eye on
Doom: The Dark Ages transports id Software’s torturous gunplay to a dour, medieval prequel. The saw-shield and flail expand a series-wide concept of its “combat chess,” pressing you nearer to your enemies while maintaining the rhythmic weapon-swapping that has become the signature of modern Doom. Reckon with pristine performance targets and an animation priority that makes even 120 Hz modes feel surgical.
EA has already said the next Battlefield is coming this year, and that many studios are helping out. After years of iteration, the series gets the most attention when scale and destruction are the stars — emergent chaos, squad synergies and sandbox tools that turn every broadcast of a game into a highlight reel. Annualized titans like Call of Duty will, of course, hog the spotlight in the premium shooter space, but Battlefield’s comeback story is one of the most intriguing subplots of 2025.
Indies and AA surprises to follow
Hades II is anticipated to leave early access and nail down a final build. Already has?—Supergiant’s [looping] backbeat—narrowing up aspects of weapon componentry, blanketing meta-progression, and sculpting the curves of its difficulty—loops the loops has already gotten it what’s by all indications a ferociously replayable sequel. If its first go-round is any measure, a discussion of awards is in order, as is another trip to the top of user-voted charts.
It’s all white whale on Hollow Knight: Silksong. Ratings board activity and perennial showcase cameoing continue to inflate expectations; if it does appear, imagine a faster, more aggressive combat loop, a denser quest structure, and the sort of hyper-precise platforming speedrunners would kill for. On the PC, watch out for action RPGs and survival sandboxes graduating from early access to 1.0—these tend to punch well above their budgets once the systems have solidified and the mod scene takes root.
Why these games matter
Circana’s market tracking indicates that big tentpole launches concentrate spending and hours played, while cross-platform support and live updates extend tails. The Entertainment Software Association’s consumer research has made it clear: Co-op, social features are where retention is driven, which is why you see cross-play, cross-progression, community tools baked into most of this list.
One final word about platforms and performance: as is now the norm, everything is current-gen-only, so you can generally anticipate swifter load times, denser worlds and more ambitious AI. As always, all plans are subject to change, but the 2025 calendar is already deeper than most years. If it’s scale and polish you cherish, your best bets are GTA VI and Monster Hunter Wilds; if the weird and wonderful is what you’re after, Death Stranding 2 and Doom’s brutal prequel just leap out.