2024 is almost over; gone, done, finito, so it’s time to look ahead at what’s to come. Okay, so what can we expect in 2025? As is usual for for this time of year, a lot of games have been announced but most games don’t have a solid release date. We’re also moving into the fourth year of next generation of consoles which, if the rumors are true, Nintendo will finally join!
For better, or worse, there just aren’t a lot of games announced for 2025 past March. This is fairly typical, but still, we don’t really have any idea what big titles to look out for in the back nine months. This tells me two things; game companies are more reluctant to announce a date for fear that they will receive backlash if t gets delayed and, I think more likely, it just takes too god damn long to make video games now. Anyway, grab your notepad and set aside some cash now folks because, as always, it’s going to be another expensive year in gaming.
January
January 2025 finds us in the same spot we’ve kind of been in for the last few years, the continued domination of remakes and re-releases. Nintendo are typically the king’s of January, putting out a must play title just about every year for the last 4 or 5, but this year they’ve gone back to well with an HD remaster of Donkey Kong Country Returns, the 2010 Wii title (that already got one remaster in 2013 on the 3DS).
Continuing the remaster/re-release train are Ys: The Oath in Felghana, Tales of Grace f Remastered, Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles, two PS5 games jumping to PC, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth and Spider-Man 2, and a Switch port of Guilty Gear -Strive-. If you’re looking for something new then you’re going to want to check out Dynasty Warriors Origins, though I’m hesitant to get too excited as Dynasty Warriors 9 was one of the worst games I’ve ever played.
Other new titles in January include everyone’s favorite Nazi execution series Sniper Elite: Resistance, the sequel Phantom Brave: The Lost Hero (likely out first 100+ hour RPG of 2025), and a new entry in the Orcs Must Die! series called Deathtrap.
February
January was just the appetizer to February’s main course, where we get a whole slew of amazing games. MY most anticipated game of the month has got to be Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii where we get to play as the legendary yakuza, Goro Majima; the first time since Yakuza 0.
As if that wasn’t enough, we’ve also got Civilization VII, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which was pushed up from it’s November 2024 date in order to give the developers more time to polish the game in the wake of Star Wars: Outlaw’s poor reception. There’s a strange feeling surrounding AC: Shadows, almost like this is Ubisoft’s last chance to prove it can make a hit game before it is, I don’t know, sold off? Taken private? In any case, if Ubisoft is a company you think is worth saving then you might want to look into picking up Shadows.
If giant RPG’s are your thing, February has you covered with AT LEAST three to choose from. There’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II, and a new game set in the Obsidian’s Pathfinder universe, Avowed. Now, Avowed is only available digitally, with physical copies only containing a code to download the game. I’m not sure how I feel about this, personally, but I’ll still probably pick it up.
Wrapping up February, we’ve got a new game from Don’t Nod called Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, another one of their standard narrative adventure games. This will separated into two episodes, February’s Tape 1 followed by Tape 2 in March. We also can’t get away from the remasters/re-releases as Tomb Raider IV – V – VI Remastered comes out, joining last year’s re-release of the first three Tomb Raider games. Just what are parts IV-VI? Why, they’re the worst three games in the series, The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and Angel of Darkness. Yay?
March
March doesn’t feel as high octane as February does, but we still have time for something cool to get announced. What we can look forward to, though, is more remasters/re-releases and massive, 100+ hour RPGS! The biggest of these is probably Monolith Soft’s 2015 Wii U title, Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, that is finally coming to Switch. There’s also another big RPG to look forward to, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, as well as a brand new massive RPG, with a name that is far too long, Atelier Yumia: Alchemist of Memories & the Envisioned Land. I got winded just typing that.
There are, of course, some actual brand new games to check out (that will all get 8K remasters in 10 years). The biggest game announced for March, so far, is Josef Fares’ new co-op game Split Fiction, where each protagonist experiences the same world but with different settings, one is fantasy while the other is sci-fi. The long delayed Tales of the Shire: A Lord of the Rings Game is finally coming out (probably), there’s a new “hardcore” action RPG to check out called The First Berserker: Khazan, and we’ve got the delightful looking Two Point Museum, the third game in the franchise.
“Confirmed” for 2025
That’s pretty much it for games with announced dates. April actually has a couple, the PC port of The Last of Us Part II Remastered will drop, while the next entry in the Fatal Fury series, City of Wolves, also arrives later that month. After that we’ve only got some release windows; Spring 2025 is supposed to give us yet another remaster, Lunar Remastered Collection, another huge RPG in Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma, and an expansion for Sea of Stars called Throes of the Watchmaker.
In the Summer of 2025 we’re going to see the newest entry in the Mafia series, The Old Country, as well as a brand new Ninja Gaiden game called Ragebound. Finally, later in 2025, we’ll get an expansion for Dave the Diver called In the Jungle; phew.
The Rest…
As always there are a ton of games that have been announced but have no release date aside from either a generic “2025” or “Coming Soon”. Some of these I expect to arrive this year, like Borderlands 4 and Doom: The Dark Ages, while some I would not be surprised to see in 2026 (or later) like Kojima’s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach or Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto VI.
We’ve also got two Switch games that could, potentially, be launch titles for the rumored “Switch 2”, or whatever they end up calling it, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond & Pokémon Legends Z-A.
- Anno 117: Pax Romana
- Borderlands 4
- Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
- Doom: The Dark Ages
- Fable
- Ghost of Yotei
- Grand Theft Auto VI
- Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
- The Outer Worlds 2
- Pokémon Legends Z-A
- Slay the Spire 2
- South of Midnight
What are the odds we see something wild come out this year, like Dragon Quest XII, Elder Scrolls VI, Marvel’s Wolverine, or Star Wars: Eclipse (which is, like, vaporware now, right)? Be sure to call out anything I’ve missed, and chastise me soundly if I’ve messed anything up. I won’t pay attention to it, but it’ll make you feel better.
Next week will see this column go back to regular coverage, however I would not expect it to be full of notable or big titles, so maybe catch up on your 2024 backlog for now. Be safe this week, have a happy New Year’s Eve, and here’s to another great year of gaming and eating Taco Bell!
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