2025 is packed with dozens of games from some of the industry's biggest studios.
Looming over them all is Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI, assuming the company doesn't delay it into 2026. Capcom is launching Monster Hunter Wilds, an ambitious evolution of 2018's Monster Hunter Worlds. Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2 and Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3 remake are planned for 2025, alongside high-profile RPGs such as Avowed and Crimson Desert. Fans of history and strategy get Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Civilization VII within a week of each other, and FromSoftware is gearing up to launch a multiplayer spinoff of Elden Ring.
It's a lot to keep track of, but we've rounded up 30 of the biggest video games in 2025 below so you don't have to.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Release date: Feb. 4, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
It's not often a studio gets the chance to make their dream game twice, but Warhorse got lucky. After releasing Kingdom Come: Deliverance in 2018 --a buggy, but captivating historical drama about political unrest in 1400s Bohemia -- Warhorse is launching a sequel with the scope and complexity they originally planned for the first game, including a bigger map, more quests and a deeper story.
Henry, the orphaned son of a blacksmith, finds himself embroiled in Bohemia's civil war and fighting to bring down Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, but like its predecessor, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 is as much about the bizarre, often emotional stories that take place in between major plot points -- like promising to make a healing potion for a village, despite being unable to read complicated books.
Civilization VII
Release date: Feb. 11, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch
For Sid Meier's Civilization, Firaxis generally ascribes to the philosophy of not fixing what isn't broken, but the studio is taking a more inventive approach to Civilization VII. A host of new features, including towns, navigable rivers and new military units, sit alongside a revamped age structure where each major period ends in some kind of catastrophe that reshapes the global landscape for the age to come.
Leaders can come from anywhere in a society -- think Benjamin Franklin and Harriet Tubman instead of George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt -- and players can even choose a leader who isn't tied to the civilization they're playing.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2
Release date: Feb. 14, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch
Nihon Falcom's Trails series is the longest continuous story in the RPG genre, spanning 21 years and 11 games released outside Japan. Trails through Daybreak 2 makes it a dozen. It's a direct sequel to 2024's Trails through Daybreak and follows the same cast and similar themes as its predecessor.
Unlike earlier Trails games, which Falcom loosely based on European history and political theory, Trails through Daybreak and its sequel concern themselves with modern society and its problems -- anti-immigration sentiment, loss of opportunity for young people, injustice and political corruption. It helps that they quietly introduced some of the most promising innovations on turn-based combat in years, with seamless transitions in and out of combat, complex combo chains and extensive character customization.
Avowed
Release date: Feb. 18, 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
Obsidian Entertainment's take on first-person fantasy RPGs comes at an interesting time. In an environment where Baldur's Gate 3 set a new standard for choice-driven stories and where Skyrim remains culturally relevant, it's easy to wonder what Avowed can offer. Obsidian has one advantage most other RPGs lack, though: complete freedom in combat. Players are free to specialize in magic or melee and can dual-wield weapons, essentially creating their own character classes and battle styles on the go.
Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
Release date: Feb. 18, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
The makers of Life Is Strange are branching out with a new narrative drama, Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. Lost Records follows a group of friends in the 2020s as they relive their last summer together from the mid-1990s and try to uncover the truth behind a dark series of events that changed their lives forever.
How players navigate relationships in the past will influence the narrative the friends remember in the present and whether they uncover the secrets of their teenage years or keep them buried forever.
Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Release date: Feb. 20, 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5
Releasing a new game every year seems like the perfect way to lose creativity fast, but Ryu Ga Gotoku is handling its demanding release schedule in a rather different way. Instead of launching a full sequel to 2024's Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, RGG is expanding horizontally by telling side stories.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii follows loose cannon and sometimes-hero Goro Majima after he washes up on a Hawaiian beach with no memories. After saving a local kid from some thugs, Majima decides to set sail and become a pirate, as you do, and he finds himself an over-the-top new fighting style in the middle of a pirate war.
Monster Hunter Wilds
Release date: Feb. 28, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Following a brief return to closed zones in Monster Hunter Rise, Capcom is bringing its monster-mashing game back to an open-world setting with Monster Hunter Wilds -- and what a world it looks to be. Weather events that influence the course of a hunt, herds of monsters tame and feral with unique behaviors, snazzy new gadgets, a stronger emphasis on cinematic storytelling with a ragged band of hunters at its center, and a striking selection of new monsters to get to grips with.
Capcom is hosting a Monster Hunter Wilds beta test for anyone interested in trying the game before its launch.
Football Manager 2025
Release date: March 2025
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Women's football finally joins Sega and Sports Interactive's Football Manager this year, along with the chance to make your own Premier League using a full set of licensed assets, including kits and logos. Hopefully, it'll give us enough reason to stop playing the excellent Football Manager 2023.
Split Fiction
Release date: March 6, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Hazelight, the studio behind the award-winning It Takes Two, is back with a new co-op game called Split Fiction. It shares It Takes Two's fundamental idea of two people working together -- or against each other -- to get through a series of levels, but on a much grander scale. Mio and Zoe, the protagonists, are two aspiring writers who get literally absorbed in their worlds -- one sci-fi, the other fantasy -- and have to navigate each other's mental landscapes to find a way back to reality. Split Fiction features a Friend Pass, which lets you gift the game to a friend after you buy your copy.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
Release date: March 20, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
After nearly a decade of making Assassin's Creed games with increasingly large maps full of busywork and light on stealth, Ubisoft is taking a more focused approach for Assassin's Creed Shadows. Shadows revives the two-protagonist format from Syndicate, with Naoe, a ninja who excels at stealth, and Yasuke, a samurai who prefers a more straightforward approach to combat, similar to Eivor in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Release date: March 20, 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Despite Nintendo's earlier claims to the contrary, Monolith Soft is bringing Xenoblade Chronicles X, formerly a Wii U exclusive, to Nintendo Switch. Xenoblade Chronicles X leans heavily on sci-fi elements and follows a group of explorers trying to settle a dangerous planet after a seemingly inexplicable disaster destroys Earth. The definitive edition comes with refreshed graphics in keeping with the first Xenoblade Chronicles' Switch port, along with new story elements exclusive to this version.
Dying Light: The Beast
Release date: Summer 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Dying Light developer Techland originally started The Beast as Dying Light 2's second expansion, but the tale grew so big that they decided to make it a standalone thing. The latest game stars Kyle Crane from the original Dying Light as the eponymous Beast, a hero turned half-monster after enduring horrible experiments over 12 years. Techland takes the survival horror action out of a city setting and into the dark, unpredictable wilderness for the first time in the series.
Dune Awakening
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Funcom is combining the complexity of large-scale survival games with the cooperative -- or competitive -- nature of MMORPGs with Dune Awakening. Players must find ways to meet their basic survival needs on Arrakis and eventually band together to form guilds, build bases and deal with rivals competing for scarce resources while navigating the planet's harsh ecosystem. Funcom is the team behind the equally expansive and deep Conan Exiles, so it's well-equipped to handle this task.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5
Dakota Fanning, puppets filmed in stop-motion, a KISS-themed villain with a superpowered electric guitar -- Death Stranding 2 certainly isn't shy about being even less predictable than its predecessor. Kojima Productions' sequel to 2019's award-winning Death Stranding follows Sam Bridges -- played by Norman Reedus again -- on another trip around the remnants of the United States. Instead of restoring connections like in the first game, though, Bridges and his friends start to wonder whether people are better off alone.
Ghost of Yotei
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5
Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch's first game built for the PS5, is more of a successor to Sucker Punch's Ghost of Tsushima than a direct sequel. Yotei unfolds in 1603 as the Tokugawa Shogunate establishes its control over Japan, but its heroine, Atsu, lives on Ezo -- modern Hokkaido, but home of the indigenous Ainu people at the time. Sucker Punch was light on details in the initial reveal, but the studio did say player choice has a more noteworthy effect on how Ghost of Yotei plays out.
Doom: The Dark Ages
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
"What if Doom, but with medieval weapons and castles?" That seems to be the premise behind iD Software and Bethesda's Doom: The Dark Ages. It takes the Doom Slayer back in time with a new set of medieval-ish weapons on a demon-slaying quest across castles and through haunted woods that look like what you'd get if Halo crossed over with Game of Thrones. There's probably a reason for traveling back in time, but the "why" in Doom has always been less important than the "how you slice and blast through hordes of hellspawn."
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
FromSoftware is making a multiplayer Elden Ring spinoff called Nightreign, a roguelike boss rush for one or three people. By day, players scour the land for equipment and helpful items to ready themselves for nightfall. That's when the bosses come out, and FromSoftware is bringing together some of the toughest enemies from Elden Ring and the Dark Souls trilogy. Surviving a single night won't result in victory. You have to survive three.
Professor Layton and the New World of Steam
Release date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Twelve years after the last Professor Layton game, Level-5 is bringing its gentleman detective back. Layton and his perpetually adolescent assistant Luke travel to the Layton world's equivalent of the United States in the midst of an industrial revolution -- and a crisis.
A mysterious phantom is causing earthquakes and other disasters, and the only way to find out the truth behind these odd happenings is -- in usual Layton fashion -- by solving dozens of puzzles. Akira Tago, the puzzle master responsible for the six original Layton games, died in 2016, and a new group with little online presence called QuizKnock is handling puzzle design for New World of Steam.
Grand Theft Auto VI
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Grand Theft Auto VI is one of 2025's most hotly anticipated games, so much so that, despite Rockstar sharing few details about the project, analysts already predict it'll top $3 billion in sales during its first year. Leonida -- Rockstar's version of Miami -- is Grand Theft Auto VI's setting, and it begins as thief and former inmate Lucia celebrates regaining her freedom by deciding to take on one more big job.
How this fits in with everything else Rockstar showed in GTA VI's first trailer -- the walks down crowded beaches, alligator attacks, penthouse parties and half-naked old men shouting at people walking past -- is anyone's guess at this point. The studio has shared no development updates since December 2023, although it still plans to release the game later in 2025.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
So many games in the last decade try to recreate the classics that inspired their creators, which makes Clair Obscur, from new studio Sandfall Interactive, refreshing. The folks at Sandfall are candid about the games that made them want to create Clair Obscur, but rather than imitate the familiar, they're aiming to help the genre evolve, particularly where combat is concerned. Expedition 33 follows a team of ordinary people in an alternate version of France where everything resembles an Impressionist painting -- and everyone is doomed to die at 33 under the curse of a malevolent witch.
Battles are menu-driven and turn-based, but Sandfall incorporated parrying elements similar to what FromSoftware uses in its Dark Souls games and active-time inputs to change how skills function.
Pokémon Legends: Z-A
Release date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Game Freak and The Pokémon Company are about iterating, rather than reinventing, which made Pokémon Legends: Arceus -- with its completely new take on catching Pokémon and a stronger emphasis on physical and cultural exploration -- so surprising. Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes that idea and changes it again. It takes place entirely in Lumiose City -- the Pokémon world's version of Paris from 2013's Pokémon X and Y games -- and explores the identity of a single place and the people who live there.
South of Midnight
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S
South of Midnight weaves Black folklore and Southern culture into a fantasy story that follows Hazel, a young woman trying to survive the aftermath of a hurricane. As the figures and nightmares from childhood tales come to life, Hazel struggles through the myths to uncover secrets from her family's past and set the world to rights once again.
The Outer Worlds 2
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Apparently, 2025 is the year of second chances, and Obsidian is getting one with The Outer Worlds 2. The studio's first space game released to warm praise but also a consensus that it did little new and could have been more ambitious. The Outer Worlds 2 aims to fix that, with a more complex story involving an interplanetary war between corporations and religious zealots and a world that reacts more strongly to player choice.
Borderlands 4
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
After the Borderlands movie's global flop at the box office, it's safe to say Gearbox's formula is better suited to video games, and the studio has some fresh ideas to play with in Borderlands 4. The first new Borderlands game since 2019 takes a new set of Vault Hunters -- the group of mercenaries that Borderlands' heroes always belong to -- to an unexplored planet in the middle of a war between robots and humans. That story is not Borderlands 4's main focus. That honor belongs to chaos born from giving players thousands of firearms and destruction devices.
Mafia: The Old Country
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Hangar 13 decided to follow the BAFTA-nominated Mafia 3 not with a sequel but with a trip to 1900s Sicily. Mafia: The Old Country explores the Cosa Nostra crime family's origins against a backdrop of social and political upheaval, as Sicily drags itself, often unwillingly, into the 20th century. It's a more linear Mafia than its predecessor, forgoing large areas and open-world exploration in favor of dramatic moments as protagonist Enzo Favara struggles to make a name for himself in the criminal underworld.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater was one of the most influential stealth games of the 2000s, with its tightly designed puzzles and dramatic spy stories. Making it available again in Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection was evidently not enough for Konami, as the studio is also developing a remake with modernized visuals and controls. It's a faithful adaptation of the original with few alterations, so don't expect any Final Fantasy 7 Remake-style metacommentary on the series.
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Release date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Metroid Prime 4 is Nintendo's first new 3D Metroid game in nearly 15 years, following 2011's Metroid: Other M on the Nintendo Wii. Intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran returns to deal with a new threat, this time from fellow bounty hunter Sylux, who bursts onto the scene with a couple of the game's eponymous monsters in tow. Metroid Prime 4 has had a troubled development cycle. Nintendo initially announced it in 2017 in partnership with Bandai Namco, before rebooting development under Retro Studios -- the studio that made the first three Metroid Prime games -- in 2019.
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch
The creators of the popular mystery series Danganronpa and Zero Escape are working under a new studio called Too Kyo Games, and their first project is The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. It's part adventure game and part tactical strategy, where a group of Tokyo teenagers find themselves in an otherworldly school, tasked with defending their home from invading monsters. Main character Takumi Sumino can forge close bonds with his classmates and influence the struggle against the enemy.
Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines 2
Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Vampire Bloodlines 2 has certainly had quite the development cycle. Multiple delays, nearly getting canceled for good, rebooting development under a new studio -- it's a lot for any game, but especially for the highly anticipated sequel to one of the most influential RPGs. Bloodlines 2 takes place in Seattle and follows Phyre, an elder vampire who takes it upon themselves to stop a civil war among the city's vampire clans before it's too late. Bloodlines 2 is more action-heavy than its predecessor, but player choice will still play an important role in how the story unfolds.
Crimson Desert
Release date: Late 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Pearl Abyss made its name with the multiplayer game Black Desert Online, and now, with Crimson Desert, the studio is trying its hand with a self-contained, single-player adventure. Crimson Desert is standard high fantasy on the surface, with its knightly hero and warring kingdoms, but Pearl Abyss is getting much more ambitious with Crimson Desert's scope. Players can break a castle siege with a dragon, wield magic to reshape the world around them, make themselves part of daily life in town, and even sprout wings and fly across plains and mountains. It's a highly ambitious project that tries a bit of everything and promises extensive freedom.