geary
Member
2025 in games was kind of a weird one. Not a disaster year, not an all-timer either. More like the year where a lot of long-running trends finally hit their consequences.
On the plus side, it really felt like single-player games stopped being treated as some risky niche. A bunch of big releases actually showed up in decent shape, and when they didn't try to nickel-and-dime everyone, people rewarded them. You could tell which games had a clear vision and which ones had been rebooted three times in pre-production. The former mostly slapped, the latter… you could feel the seams.
Mid-budget stuff was honestly the highlight for me. AA games just kept showing up, being fun, and then leaving without asking for a battle pass or your soul. Smaller teams, tighter ideas, less corporate sludge. Kinda wild that the "not blockbuster" games ended up feeling the most confident.
Live-service though? Yeah, that bubble finally popped for real. So many games launched with huge marketing pushes and then just… vanished. Servers up, but nobody home. Turns out players don't want a second job unless the game is actually great. Who knew. Seeing some of those shutdown announcements only months after launch was rough, especially knowing how many devs got burned for decisions they didn't make.
AAA was polished but safe. Lots of sequels, remakes, spiritual successors, legacy branding doing the heavy lifting. They looked great, ran better than we're used to at launch (low bar), but not many of them took big swings. Felt like publishers were scared of missing rather than excited to hit.
And man, the industry vibes were still bad. Layoffs kept happening even when games sold well, which really killed the whole "support the devs" messaging companies love to roll out. It's hard to get hyped when you know a studio might get gutted regardless of performance.
Pricing didn't help either. $70 is just the baseline now, but then you've got deluxe editions, early access tiers, preorder bonuses that are basically paid FOMO. People are definitely more suspicious now. A lot less blind hype, a lot more "I'll wait a week and see."
Overall, 2025 felt like a reality check year. Players are tired, devs are tired, and the old tricks don't work like they used to. The good games still shined, but you could feel the patience wearing thin across the board.
Not the year that blew everything open — but probably the year that decided what survives going forward.
And here's Skillup "This year in video games"
What's your ups and downs in this year?
On the plus side, it really felt like single-player games stopped being treated as some risky niche. A bunch of big releases actually showed up in decent shape, and when they didn't try to nickel-and-dime everyone, people rewarded them. You could tell which games had a clear vision and which ones had been rebooted three times in pre-production. The former mostly slapped, the latter… you could feel the seams.
Mid-budget stuff was honestly the highlight for me. AA games just kept showing up, being fun, and then leaving without asking for a battle pass or your soul. Smaller teams, tighter ideas, less corporate sludge. Kinda wild that the "not blockbuster" games ended up feeling the most confident.
Live-service though? Yeah, that bubble finally popped for real. So many games launched with huge marketing pushes and then just… vanished. Servers up, but nobody home. Turns out players don't want a second job unless the game is actually great. Who knew. Seeing some of those shutdown announcements only months after launch was rough, especially knowing how many devs got burned for decisions they didn't make.
AAA was polished but safe. Lots of sequels, remakes, spiritual successors, legacy branding doing the heavy lifting. They looked great, ran better than we're used to at launch (low bar), but not many of them took big swings. Felt like publishers were scared of missing rather than excited to hit.
And man, the industry vibes were still bad. Layoffs kept happening even when games sold well, which really killed the whole "support the devs" messaging companies love to roll out. It's hard to get hyped when you know a studio might get gutted regardless of performance.
Pricing didn't help either. $70 is just the baseline now, but then you've got deluxe editions, early access tiers, preorder bonuses that are basically paid FOMO. People are definitely more suspicious now. A lot less blind hype, a lot more "I'll wait a week and see."
Overall, 2025 felt like a reality check year. Players are tired, devs are tired, and the old tricks don't work like they used to. The good games still shined, but you could feel the patience wearing thin across the board.
Not the year that blew everything open — but probably the year that decided what survives going forward.
And here's Skillup "This year in video games"
What's your ups and downs in this year?
