The Future Awaits: The Most Exciting Games Set for Release in 2025!

The year 2025 is foreseen to be filled with an array of games from some of the largest studios in the industry.

Dominating the lineup is Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI, unless the company postpones it to 2026. Capcom is set to release Monster Hunter Wilds, an ambitious progression from 2018’s Monster Hunter Worlds. Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2 and Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 3 remake are also scheduled for 2025, alongside notable RPGs including Avowed and Crimson Desert. Historical and strategy enthusiasts can anticipate Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Civilization VII launching within days of one another, and FromSoftware is preparing to debut a multiplayer offshoot of Elden Ring.

It’s a significant amount to manage, but we’ve compiled a list of the 30 most significant video games of 2025 below for your convenience.

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Release date: March 6, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Hazelight, the firm responsible for the critically acclaimed It Takes Two, returns with a fresh co-op title called Split Fiction. It retains the core concept of two individuals collaborating — or contesting — to navigate through a series of challenges, but on a far more extensive scale. Mio and Zoe, the main characters, are two aspiring authors who become literally immersed in their worlds — one depicting sci-fi, the other fantasy — and must traverse each other’s mental realms to discover a way back to reality. Split Fiction includes a Friend Pass, which allows you to share the game with a friend after purchasing your copy.

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Release date: March 20, 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

After almost a decade of developing Assassin’s Creed titles with increasingly expansive maps filled with trivial tasks and lacking in stealth, Ubisoft is adopting a more concentrated method for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Shadows revives the dual-protagonist approach from Syndicate, featuring Naoe, a ninja skilled in stealth, and Yasuke, a samurai who favors a more direct combat style, akin to Eivor in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

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Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Release date: March 20, 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Despite Nintendo’s previous assertions to the contrary, Monolith Soft is reintroducing Xenoblade Chronicles X, formerly a Wii U exclusive, to the Nintendo Switch. Xenoblade Chronicles X heavily incorporates sci-fi themes and follows a cadre of explorers striving to establish a foothold on a perilous planet following a seemingly unexplainable catastrophe that obliterates Earth. The definitive edition offers enhanced visuals consistent with the initial Xenoblade Chronicles’ Switch adaptation, alongside new narrative elements exclusive to this release.

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Dying Light: The Beast

Release date: Summer 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Dying Light creator Techland originally initiated The Beast as the second expansion of Dying Light 2, yet the narrative expanded so extensively that they opted to transform it into a standalone project. The latest installment features Kyle Crane from the original Dying Light as the titular Beast, a protagonist who has become a half-monster after enduring brutal experiments over 12 years. Techland shifts the survival horror action from an urban environment to the shadowy, unpredictable wilderness for the franchise’s first time.

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Dune Awakening

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Many games over the past decade aim to recreate the classics that inspired their developers, which makes Clair Obscur, from the fresh studio Sandfall Interactive, a breath of fresh air. The team at Sandfall is open about the games that motivated them to develop Clair Obscur; however, rather than simply mimicking the well-known, they aspire to assist in the genre’s evolution, especially concerning combat. Expedition 33 follows a group of everyday individuals in an alternate version of France where everything looks like an Impressionist canvas — and everyone is fated to perish at 33 due to the curse of a wicked sorceress.

Combat is menu-driven and turn-based, yet Sandfall has integrated parrying mechanics akin to those utilized by FromSoftware in its Dark Souls series, along with active-time inputs that modify skill functions.

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Pokémon Legends: Z-A

Release date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Game Freak and The Pokémon Company focus on iteration rather than reinvention, which rendered Pokémon Legends: Arceus — with its entirely novel approach to capturing Pokémon and a heightened focus on physical and cultural exploration — particularly shocking. Pokémon Legends: Z-A takes that concept and alters it again. It occurs completely within Lumiose City — the Pokémon universe’s rendition of Paris from the 2013 Pokémon X and Y games — and delves into the identity of a singular locale and its inhabitants.

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South of Midnight

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S

South of Midnight interlaces Black folklore and Southern culture into a narrative centered on Hazel, a young woman attempting to endure the aftermath of a hurricane. As the figures and fears from childhood stories materialize, Hazel navigates through the myths to unravel secrets from her family’s history and restore order to the world once more.

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The Outer Worlds 2

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Evidently, 2025 is the year of renewed opportunities, and Obsidian is seizing one with The Outer Worlds 2. The studio’s initial space title garnered positive acclaim but also a shared sentiment that it offered little innovation and could have embraced greater ambition. The Outer Worlds 2 seeks to amend that with a more intricate narrative featuring an interstellar conflict between corporations and religious extremists, as well as a world that reacts more profoundly to player decisions.

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Borderlands 4

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Following the Borderlands film’s worldwide disaster at the box office, it’s safe to assert that Gearbox’s formula is better suited for video games, and the studio has some innovative concepts to explore in Borderlands 4. The first new installment in the Borderlands franchise since 2019 introduces a new batch of Vault Hunters — the cadre of mercenaries that the heroes of Borderlands always belong to — to an uncharted planet caught in the crossfire of a conflict between machines and humans. However, that plot is not the central focus of Borderlands 4. That distinction goes to the mayhem generated by equipping players with countless weapons and destructive tools.

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Mafia: The Old Country

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Hangar 13 opted to follow the BAFTA-nominated Mafia 3 not with a sequel, but with a journey to 1900s Sicily. Mafia: The Old Country delves into the Cosa Nostra crime family’s roots against a backdrop of social and political turmoil, as Sicily reluctantly enters the 20th century. This is a more linear Mafia experience than its predecessor, eschewing expansive regions and open-world exploration in favor of cinematic moments as protagonist Enzo Favara strives to carve out a reputation in the criminal underworld.

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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 stands as one of the most impactful stealth games of the 2000s, recognized for its intricately designed puzzles and intense spy narratives. Simply reintroducing it in Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection clearly was not sufficient for Konami, as the studio is also creating a remake featuring updated visuals and controls. It serves as a faithful rendition of the original with minimal changes, so don’t expect any Final Fantasy 7 Remake-style meta-commentary on the series.

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Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Release date: 2025
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Metroid Prime 4 represents Nintendo’s first new 3D Metroid installment in almost 15 years, succeeding 2011’s Metroid: Other M on the Nintendo Wii. Intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran makes her return to confront a new menace, this time from rival bounty hunter Sylux, who makes a dramatic entrance accompanied by some of the game’s titular beasts. Metroid Prime 4 has encountered a tumultuous development process. Nintendo first announced it in 2017 alongside Bandai Namco, only to restart development under Retro Studios — the team responsible for the original three Metroid Prime titles — in 2019.

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The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

The minds behind the acclaimed mystery series Danganronpa and Zero Escape are operating under a new studio called Too Kyo Games, and their inaugural project is The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy. This title combines adventure elements with tactical strategy, as a group of Tokyo adolescents find themselves in an otherworldly institution, tasked with defending their home from invading creatures. Protagonist Takumi Sumino can forge meaningful connections with his peers and sway the battle against the encroaching foes.

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Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2

Release date: 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Vampire Bloodlines 2 has undoubtedly experienced a tumultuous development trajectory. Numerous delays, a near-cancellation, and a reboot under a new studio — it’s a lot for any title, but especially for the much-anticipated follow-up to one of the most significant RPGs. Bloodlines 2 unfolds in Seattle and follows Phyre, an elder vampire who takes it upon themselves to halt a civil war among the city’s vampire factions before it spirals out of control. Bloodlines 2 leans more into action than its predecessor, yet player choices will still hold substantial significance in how the narrative progresses.

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Crimson Desert

Release date: Late 2025
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

Pearl Abyss garnered recognition with the multiplayer title Black Desert Online, and now, with Crimson Desert, the studio is venturing into a self-contained, single-player odyssey. Crimson Desert initially appears as standard high fantasy, featuring its gallant hero and warring kingdoms, but Pearl Abyss is pursuing a far more ambitious vision with the scope of Crimson Desert. Players can dismantle a castle siege riding a dragon, wield magic to alter their environment, integrate into daily life within towns, and even sprout wings to soar across valleys and mountains. It’s a highly aspirational venture that attempts a plethora of elements while promising vast freedom for players.