GameCentral takes a look at the biggest video game news stories of 2025 and what impact they’ll have on the new year to come.
If you can say one thing about video games in 2025, it certainly wasn’t boring, although that’s not necessarily a good thing. It followed the pattern of the last couple of years, with plenty of incredible video games produced in spite of the industry’s machinations and not because of them.
This year brought with it more layoffs, more acquisitions, and more cynicism. Executives, and shows like Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards, will tell you everything is fine, and that gaming’s only going to get better, but that’s despite even the very biggest franchises faltering and struggling to meet financial expectations.
There’s certainly a chance that some of these issues will improve in 2026, especially after the great progress shown by indie studios this year, but clearly the future is not going to be a smooth ride.
1. Nintendo Switch 2 launches and has an incredible first six months
This time last year, the news cycle was dominated by constant Nintendo Switch 2 leaks, most of which proved accurate when Nintendo finally lifted the lid on the new console. That did little to dilute peoples’ excitement, but the Switch 2’s reveal proved surprisingly contentious. Some weren’t impressed by it just being a more powerful Switch 1 and Nintendo’s decision to charge upwards of £75 for first party games attracted loud online complaints.
Despite the criticisms, the Switch 2 hasn’t just sold well, it has sold incredibly well; becoming the fastest-selling video game console of all time. At 10.36 million sales worldwide, it’s also comfortably on track to meet Nintendo’s target of roughly 15 million sales by the end of March 2026.
Yet the Switch 2’s first six months have been… odd when it comes to the games themselves. Mario Kart World was a smart pick for a day one title and Nintendo’s efforts to revitalise Donkey Kong (complete with a redesign) with Donkey Kong Bananza appear to have paid off.
But these were the only big names Nintendo had and when it comes to first party output, the Switch 2 has mostly relied on upgraded Switch 1 ports and more niche games, like the less than impressive Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment and Kirby Air Riders.
It says a lot that the console’s big Christmas game was Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which while not completely awful has not pleased long-term fans.
And then there were the digital-only oddities – Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour and Drag X Drive – which are still baffling to think about and rare examples of genuine duds from Nintendo.
There wasn’t even a new 3D Super Mario game for the franchise’s 40th anniversary (we got Super Mario Galaxy re-releases to tie in with next year’s movie instead) and with no major releases scheduled for 2026 yet, the Switch 2’s future is looking awfully unclear.
2. GenAI grows more prevalent but not more popular
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The games industry is always looking to capitalise on the latest tech trends, but whereas its obsessions with blockchain technology and NFTs quickly fizzled out, generative AI has remained a hot topic for the past couple of years and it’s only becoming more commonplace.
AI generated artwork and voice performances were already creeping into games, but now companies are looking to further integrate the tech, if not use it to make entire games.
Microsoft, in particular, is all in on genAI, proudly announcing its Muse AI tech, which it swears is being used to ‘empower’ creators and not replace them; a promise pretty much every other AI-positive company makes. Microsoft even says its next Xbox console will be powered by AI, but it’s yet to explain what that actually means.
The PlayStation 6 is also said to make use of AI, with ChatGPT support, and leaked footage of a prototype of an AI-powered Aloy from the Horizon games – one that can converse with players and directly respond to questions – showed Sony is experimenting with the technology.
It’s abundantly clear, though, that there’s no real demand for genAI in games from actual players. Companies like it because, ideally, they can save money by not paying human developers, artists, voice actors, etc. For instance, staff who helped train AI tools for Candy Crush Saga found themselves out of work now that those tools could do their jobs instead.
As such, there remains a very vocal pushback against it. Some developers have publicly condemned its usage and now use the lack of genAI as a selling point for their own games. And they’re not a vocal minority either. AI tools remain a hard sell for most people, with The Information reporting that Microsoft has had to scale back its AI goals because not enough people are using them.
Meanwhile, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had its awards stripped from it by The Indie Game Awards for breaking its rules over using AI.
Unfortunately, genAI can only get harder to spot and even if companies don’t hide it (Steam, for instance, requires developers to state if genAI is used in their games), it’s increasingly being used in small ways that are deemed more acceptable.
Arc Raiders, for instance, openly admits to using AI voicework and yet the game has been a massive hit. As such, we’ll very likely see more major releases in 2026 make use of genAI in more ways than just placeholder art.
3. Sony does nothing – has a fantastic year anyway
2025 should have been a bad year for Sony. Its live service game plans continued to implode, following the failure of Concord in 2024, with more unannounced projects (including a new God Of War) reportedly being cancelled.
Those plans haven’t been completely abandoned but FairGame$ remains MIA and there’s so little enthusiasm for next year’s Marathon reboot that Bungie’s future under Sony looks increasingly bleak. As for the newly announced Horizon multiplayer game, it’s mostly being handled by an external studio and isn’t even coming to PlayStation 5.
The assumption is that Sony put too much stock in live service games and that’s why there’ve been few major single-player releases for the PlayStation 5. This year, Sony’s only published two console exclusives – Ghost Of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2 – and the second one wasn’t even made internally.
Not to mention Sony’s had to start putting games on other platforms besides PC. Helldivers 2 (the one live service success Sony has) is now on Xbox and select PlayStation games have seen Switch ports. Things aren’t so bad for Sony that it’ll have to port major franchises to Xbox and Switch, but clearly they are willing to forgo some exclusivity to try and improve revenue.
And yet 2025 has not been a fiscal disaster for Sony, far from it. Even before those generous Black Friday discounts, console sales shot up this year so there’s clearly still plenty of interest in both the PlayStation 5 and its software. Although this is likely less to do with Sony’s business decisions and more due to Xbox failing to offer any real competition anymore.
That said, 2026 could be a strong year for the PlayStation 5, thanks to Saros and Wolverine. While it’s apparently still more than a year away, Naughty Dog’s next game is also still in the pipeline and, with any luck, Sony has some welcome surprises that have yet to be announced.
4. The Xbox you knew is dead
No matter how much of a positive spin Microsoft tries to put on its business decisions, it’s abundantly clear that Xbox’s name no longer carries any weight or glamour to it. The writing was on the wall when Xbox exclusives began appearing on PlayStation 5, but this year has only accelerated Xbox’s downfall.
The lack of any Black Friday discounts shows Microsoft has completely given up on selling the Xbox Series X/S, with even the Nex Playground, a console barely anyone had heard of, outselling it by catering specifically to young children and families.
And even though it was hotly rumoured, confirmation of Halo (once the Xbox’s biggest exclusive) coming to PlayStation, through a remake of the first game, felt like the final death nail for the branding. If even Halo can be played elsewhere, why bother getting an Xbox at all?
Microsoft remains committed to new hardware, though, partnering with Asus to launch the ROG Xbox Ally. However, it’s an incredibly niche product and more a handheld PC than a portable Xbox.
Most damning of all, though, were the widespread layoffs that look place in July. While it’s been far from the only one to let go of staff, Microsoft has drawn the most ire since it had the gall to brag to employees about how profitable the company and its gaming division were as it announced redundancies.
This also resulted in several cancelled projects, including the Perfect Dark reboot (the very first Xbox Series X exclusive Microsoft announced) and its developer The Initiative (which was formed specifically to handle Perfect Dark) being shut down. Combined with previous layoffs, more than 6,000 Xbox employees have been let go in the last two years, with more rumoured to go early next year.
Even if Microsoft isn’t suffering financially, Xbox’s reputation is in the mud and there’s perhaps no salvaging it or at least not in terms of being a hardware manufacturer.
5. GTA 6 gets delayed twice
GTA 6 is such a huge deal for the video game industry that every other publisher is trying to plan around its release… something that’s incredibly hard to do when its release date keeps changing.
Initially scheduled for a vague autumn 2025 window, Rockstar then announced in May that it would be pushing GTA 6 back to May 26, 2026, suddenly leaving that autumn window open for the rest of the industry.
Just six months later, though, Rockstar delayed GTA 6 again, to November 19, 2026, saying that it needs extra polish. That’s a whole year later than the original release window, which is bad news for impatient fans but has at least given games coming out in early 2026 some breathing room.
While that first delay did yield a new trailer, it didn’t reveal much new info outside of some possible gameplay glimpses and vague character profiles. Given how uncommunicative Rockstar’s being a third delay is not out of the question.
That’s far from the only issue Rockstar faces, though. The abrupt firing of over 30 staff members faced accusations of union busting and protests outside Rockstar’s offices, with some suggesting that the internal turmoil is one of the reasons for the new delay.
Rockstar may have hoped to simply weather it out but the issue’s become widespread enough that even Prime Minster Keir Starmer got involved. As such, the company now faces a full government investigation into the matter.
6. Next gen rumours
Although neither the PlayStation 6 or next gen Xbox have been formally announced, Sony and Microsoft have already begun discussing new hardware, which means the next generation of consoles aren’t more than a year or two away now.
The only official details we know of either console is that they’ll involve AI somehow, but frequent leaks and rumours have helped paint a picture of what else you can expect.
For the PlayStation 6, the consensus is that Sony is actually working on two models: one being a traditional console and the other being a portable handheld akin to the Switch. Considering it’s supposed to be capable of natively running games, not just streaming them like the PlayStation Portal, it’s assumed it will be much less powerful than the PlayStation 5 or 6.
However, people think the new power saver mode for the PlayStation 5 could demonstrate how the handheld will work, running games at a lower frame rate and resolution to reduce power consumption.
As for the new Xbox, everything points to it being more of a PC than a console, as it’s reportedly aiming to offer full backwards compatibility with all Xbox games. If so, it’s unlikely to be any more affordable than an actual PC.
Initially, both consoles were expected to launch in 2027, but many worry that the increase in chip prices, especially RAM, brought on by the rise of AI may force those plans back.
There’s also the matter of GTA 6. With that coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in late 2026, and guaranteed to drive up hardware sales, Sony and Microsoft will want to take advantage of that for as long as possible.
7. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 changes the game for indies
2025 was another cracking year for independently developed video games, with the likes of Blue Prince, Ball x Pit, and, of course, Hollow Knight: Silksong just to name a few. But if one game defined 2025 for indies, it was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Developed by French studio Sandfall Interactive, which only consists of around 30 people (although they were assisted by hundreds of contractors), the game exceeded all expectations, becoming a poster child for how small teams with small budgets can still make incredibly successful and beloved video games.
If the rest of the industry wasn’t already paying attention upon Clair Obscur’s launch, it certainly should be now that it swept The Game Awards 2025, taking Game Of The Year along with eight other trophies.
Sandfall itself has said that it hopes Clair Obscur will spark a resurgence in double-A games; an area that has seriously dried up over the years, as big publishers focus almost solely on big budget triple-A fare.
However, it’s naïve to assume Clair Obscur will single-handedly fix all of the industry’s problems. Traditional publishers have increasingly had an all or nothing approach to modern gaming and are only interested in the very biggest titles or, ideally, live service games that will run for years.
8. Everything gets more expensive
Gaming has never been the cheapest hobby, but 2025 has made it abundantly clear that anyone who wants to enjoy the biggest new releases from day one will need a sizable income going forward. Whereas hardware used to get cheaper as it got older, the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, which were already extremely pricey at launch, have instead grown more expensive.
Xbox’s price increases have been particularly egregious since they also impacted the Xbox Game Pass service. Subscriptions are now 50% higher and despite Microsoft adding further incentives to justify it, it was met with unanimous outrage from Xbox players and many cancelled subscriptions.
Even Nintendo wasn’t immune to this. The Switch 2 itself, while more expensive than the Switch 1, is actually decently priced but Nintendo is willing to sell select games at upwards of £75 for the physical version, which will undoubtedly incentivise other publishers to follow suit.
Aside from general inflation, these price increases can be attributed to US president Donald Trump’s tariffs, which greatly impacted China, where most gaming hardware is manufactured.
The tariffs proved so chaotic that Nintendo had to delay Switch 2 pre-orders in the US and while the console avoided a price hike mere days after its announcement, accessories were affected and Nintendo is concerned the tariffs will impact its profits.
Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have worked to get around this by moving hardware production to other countries, like Vietnam, but prices stand to only climb upwards, not just for consoles but gaming PCs too.
The AI boom means companies are buying up RAM, something which AI technology requires a lot of, which has led to stock shortages that could last well into next year and thus increase prices on what is left.
To tie this back to the next gen consoles, this would give Sony and Microsoft another reason to hold off on releasing new hardware. With both expected to be very expensive (with price tags of over £1,000 being thrown around), barely anyone will be able to afford new consoles.
As evidenced by the success of the Switch 2 and the PlayStation 5’s increased sales, these price hikes have yet to negatively impact companies. So, publishers have little reason to fear a drop in revenue, even as some fans are forced to abandon day one purchases.
Additionally, this will only see more and more people put their time and money into free-to-play games, which in turn continues the cycle of companies trying to release their own games into an already oversaturated market, dominated by the likes of Fortnite, and then abandoning them because they don’t become overnight successes.
9. More consolidation with EA, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. buyouts
The way things are going, there will barely be any major independent game publishers left. The idea that a company as large as EA would need to sell itself off seemed laughable years ago, but that’s exactly what’s happened. Assuming the $55 billion deal isn’t blocked (which it likely won’t be), EA will soon be under the ownership of a consortium of investors that includes the PIF (Public Investment Fund), the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia.
And while it’s not technically been sold off, Ubisoft still required a £1 million bail out from Tencent, giving the Chinese conglomerate a lot of control over a new subsidiary that’s focused on Ubisoft’s biggest franchises.
What this is likely to lead to is both companies tripling down on their core IPs. Indies and more experimental games will become far less of a priority because the end goal is to make back those investments, not take risks on unknown new titles.
EA, especially, will need to make a lot of money, and fast, since the terms of its buyout means it’s now saddled with $20 million of debt. Unfortunately, aside from selling games, there are other means of recouping costs, such as laying off staff (which feels inevitable since EA reportedly has plans for AI usage) and shutting down studios.
Some analysts believe EA could opt to sell studios and certain franchises, so perhaps the future will see the likes of BioWare and Mass Effect change ownership. Or, ideally, studios will buy themselves out and go fully independent.
Ubisoft may not end up doing things too differently than it has before, saying earlier this year that it will continue to focus on open world adventure games and trying to crack the live service games market.
Ubisoft has routinely failed to find success in the latter, but though the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws suggested open world games were suffering diminishing returns, Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ success shows there’s still an appetite for such games.
This isn’t even getting into whatever’s happening with Warner Bros. and its gaming division. Aside from Hogwarts Legacy, the company’s gaming efforts have yielded enough negative results recently for it to shut down three studios, including Monolith Productions, and now sell off a significant portion of itself to Netflix (or Paramount, depending on how things are going by the time you read this).
Considering Netflix itself has found little success in releasing its own games, and it’s admitted Warner Bros.’ gaming library had very little influence on its acquisition offer (via PocketGamer.biz), it’s hard to imagine those studios thriving under new management.
Looking back at all this, it really feels like the Western games industry is slowly collapsing, with the few remaining big publishers set to be stripped for parts.
10. Fall Of Duty
Call Of Duty has had bad years before. 2021’s Call Of Duty: Vanguard was a sales disappointment and 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 reboot was critically mauled for blatantly being DLC sold as a brand new game, but these did little to hurt the series’ momentum and stop people coming back each year.
But something has changed this year. Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 was quickly labelled as a dismal follow-up to last year’s excellent Black Ops 6, for its awful campaign, lack of new ideas, and use of AI artwork.
And this time, it’s led to a serious impact on the game’s sales. Activision and Microsoft have not shared official figures, but that itself is very telling, and it’s suggested that the numbers are certainly worse than last year’s game.
Most importantly, Call Of Duty had had genuine competition this year, in the form of extraction shooter Arc Raiders and EA’s Battlefield 6, which quickly garnered popularity during its pre-launch period and stuck the landing, enjoying a bigger launch than Black Ops 6.
We’re sure EA will get cocky and screw things up (they’re already causing controversy with their vulgar use of AI), but for now it’s Activision which is on the back foot, especially when it reportedly dismissed Battlefield 6 as a serious rival, earlier in the year.
Microsoft may have claimed otherwise but Call Of Duty was obviously a big part of its Activision Blizzard buyout and was meant to become a key franchise for the company. But already new entries becoming day one additions to Game Pass seems to have backfired, since that obviously eats into the sales figures and it reportedly hasn’t even managed to improve the continually dwindling player numbers.
If you needed any further evidence, Activision itself has acknowledged how poorly Black Ops 7 is doing and pledged not to ever do back-to-back Modern Warfare or Black Ops games again. This doesn’t mean an end to annual releases in general, but it does mean studios like Treyarch won’t be asked to pump out new games two years in a row.
It’s also been rumoured that Activision is facing pressure from Microsoft to change its approach to the series, which could result in studio mergers and reworked monetisation, although Activision has denied these claims.
A new Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 4 – is expected to launch in 2026 and is rumoured to take the series to Korea, which is at least a new setting. But a change in scenery won’t be enough of a band-aid for Call Of Duty’s ongoing problems.
11. Return of the Steam Machine
It’s too soon to tell, but theories are already flying that Valve’s Steam Machine will be quite the game changer in 2026, even potentially taking Xbox’s place in the market. Although that depends on how far Valve is willing to push its new hardware.
As a reminder, Valve attempted to break into the console market once before with the Steam Machine concept, which was marketed as an easier-to-access PC specifically meant for games. A sound idea for attracting console owners to the PC ecosystem, but it never caught on, partially due to an unattractive price tag.
Even now, Valve’s yet to share pricing for this second attempt and it’s unlikely to be particularly affordable, especially since Valve won’t be selling it at a loss like Sony and Microsoft typically have with their consoles.
But if Valve is smart in how it advertises it, the Steam Machine could find a new audience outside of the hardcore Steam crowd. Especially since it’s becoming more expensive to build proper gaming PCs (thanks to the aforementioned supply issues) and the Steam Machine being tied to the Steam ecosystem means free online multiplayer; something you need to pay extra for on PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
It’s also rumoured that Half-Life 3 is in the works and will be a launch title for the Steam Machine. Half-Life 3 is one of those legendary games that’s long been demanded but seemed more like an urban legend than a real possibility. If it actually came out, even as a temporary exclusive, it would make for quite the killer app for the Steam Machine.
Such hardware, however, has always been niche. PC handhelds like the Steam Deck have their audiences, but they’ve never come close to the best-selling consoles. Even consoles like the PlayStation Vita, a metric failure by all other standards, sold more units than the Steam Deck.
It is entirely possible Valve has no grander ambitions for its Steam Machine, and the company is notoriously unpredictable. But for it to even consider bringing its not-console back after so many years suggests a shift within Valve’s priorities, which could dramatically shake up the console market, and the wider games industry, in an interesting way.
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