Summary
- After a long break, Game Freak is releasing Pokemon Legends: Z-A in 2025, which may finally take the franchise to its next level.
- Hazelight Studios’ Split Fiction, a unique adventure with dual protagonists, is set to innovate the co-op genre.
- Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto VI is highly anticipated as the most ambitious title of the year, but many fears it will be possibly delayed to 2026.
2025 is shaping up to be one of the best years for gaming, due to the fact that publishers are going to release many promising video games every single month. But what’s especially interesting about this new year is that multiple beloved developers are going to make their long-awaited comeback in the upcoming months.
Needless to say, game development is both complex and time-consuming, so it’s understandable why these developers would go MIA for such a long time. Fortunately for their fans, however, the stars have finally aligned. Some of the industry’s most important studios are set to release new games in 2025.
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8
Game Freak Will Release Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Last Game: Pokemon Scarlet And Violet (2022)
Three years may not seem like much time at first, but it’s important to keep in mind that Game Freak is the main development studio behind the Pokemon franchise, and it usually works on yearly releases. It seems like the Pokemon Company learned its lesson after the polarizing reception of 2022’s Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, so it has given Game Freak much more time to work on its next project.
The next entry in the mainline Pokemon series is Pokemon Legends: Z-A, which was announced in early 2024 with a tentative 2025 release. More than a year after the initial reveal, Game Freak still hasn’t said anything else about the game — which, weirdly enough, has given fans hope that the studio is dedicating a lot more time and care to it. As a result, Pokemon Legends: Z-A has the potential to become one of the best games in the franchise, especially if it improves on the refreshing new ideas introduced in Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
7
Hazelight Studios Will Release Split Fiction
Last Game: It Takes Two (2021)
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi
Fantasy
Josef Fares’ development studio, Hazelight Studios, has made a huge impact on the gaming industry with its innovative co-op games, like A Way Out and It Takes Two. The latter even obtained the Game of the Year award in 2021. Now, four years after that massive success, Hazelight Studios is returning in March with its most ambitious project yet.
Originally revealed during The Game Awards 2024, Split Fiction is a split screen co-op action game with two female protagonists: Mio, who writes a science fiction story, and Zoe, who writes a fantasy story. As a result of this dichotomy, both players will have to constantly keep playing through their respective themed levels. This brilliant mechanic has the potential to turn Split Fiction into a distinctive and innovative experience.
6
Sucker Punch Productions Will Release Ghost Of Yōtei
Last Game: Ghost Of Tsushima (2020)
Action
Adventure
Open-World
Sucker Punch Productions disappeared during the late 2010s in order to deliver its magnum opus, Ghost of Tsushima, in 2020, at the very end of the PS4’s lifespan. This was such a high-quality game inspired by Japanese culture that most fans had no problem with waiting five more years for the next installment, and that’s precisely what ended up happening.
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The sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, titled Ghost of Yōtei, is slated to come out sometime in 2025, and PlayStation fans couldn’t be more excited. While the studio hasn’t revealed much information about its upcoming project, the new setting, new main character, and beautiful graphics are already making Ghost of Yōtei look like one of the best PS5 exclusives of the year.
5
Kojima Productions Will Release Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Last Game: Death Stranding (2019)
Everybody knows that Hideo Kojima is one of the most creative auteurs in the entire video game industry. After leaving Konami, he established a brand-new studio, Kojima Productions. There, he and his team made Death Stranding, one of the weirdest but most brilliant action-adventure games ever made.
A world as unique as this one, populated by so many wacky characters, needed to be explored a second time, so Kojima Productions is busy with the development of the sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Judging by the trailers, this game promises to be even more over-the-top and innovative than its predecessor, with the potential to become another Kojima masterpiece. Kojima Productions is currently working on many other projects, like OD and Physint, but it is confirmed that Death Stranding 2 will come out in 2025, so it’s definitely the studio’s biggest priority at the moment.
4
Compulsion Games Will Release South Of Midnight
Last Game: We Happy Few (2018)
- Released
-
2025
- ESRB
-
rp
- Publisher(s)
-
Xbox Game Studios
We Happy Few is a unique first-person video game that came out in 2018. Despite its admittedly divisive reception, it at least put its developer, Compulsion Games, on the map. Weirdly enough, the studio disappeared from the public eye after it was confirmed that Microsoft had acquired it, so players were left wondering what they were working on.
Over the past seven years, Compulsion Games has been hard at work, developing a new third-person action-adventure game titled South of Midnight. With its fascinating setting based on Southern American myths , coupled with a beautiful art style, dynamic mobility and satisfying combat, South of Midnight looks like the comeback that Compulsion Games needed to make a bigger impact on the industry.
3
Rockstar Games Will Release Grand Theft Auto 6
Last Game: Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)
- Released
-
2025
- Platform(s)
-
PS5, Xbox Series X|S
There’s no denying that Grand Theft Auto 6 is not only the most anticipated game of 2025, but maybe the most anticipated game of the entire decade. After all, it has been seven years since Rockstar Games released its last open world masterpiece, Red Dead Redemption 2, and twelve years since the launch of the last game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 5.
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Since the early 2000s, Rockstar Games has been focusing on making massive open world titles with lots of content and possibilities. But these types of games have gotten more and more ambitious with time, meaning that their development also takes a lot of time and money. Grand Theft Auto 6 may be the biggest and most revolutionary video game of the generation. However, its scope has seemingly expanded so much, that many fans are afraid Rockstar Games will delay it to 2026, especially since it hasn’t revealed much more information after its initial 2023 announcement.
2
Retro Studios Will Release Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Last Game: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (2014)
Many gamers keep wondering what Retro Studios has been working on since 2014. After all, one of Nintendo’s most prestigious subsidiaries has completely vanished after the release of the excellent Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Wii U. From 2019 onwards, it has been working hard on the long-awaited fourth entry in the Metroid Prime series.
It’s because of this, coupled with the fact that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption came out in 2007, that Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is arguably the biggest and most anticipated Nintendo Switch game of 2025. It’s important to keep in mind that Retro Studios has worked on 2023’s Metroid Prime Remastered, but that was just a remaster it developed alongside Iron Galaxy Studios. Metroid Prime 4 will be its first full new game in eleven years and fans are extremely excited, especially because all the previews so far made it look absolutely incredible.
1
Ghost Story Games (Irrational Games) Will Release Judas
Last Game: Bioshock Infinite (2013)
The excellent Bioshock trilogy was synonymous with high-quality single-player games of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Yet, it disappeared from the gaming industry after the launch of 2013’s Bioshock Infinite, alongside its creator, Ken Levine, and his development team, Irrational Games. After years of planning, they’re finally coming back in 2025 with a promising spiritual successor to Bioshock titled Judas.
The studio is now called Ghost Story Games, but that’s just a new name and a rebranding. It’s still working as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive, with Ken Levine still at the helm. The studio hasn’t revealed much about Judas yet, but it seems like it’s going to be yet another incredible first-person shooter with a unique setting and heavy political and social commentary. Take-Two expects this game to come out around March 2025, so it seems like Ken Levine and Ghost Story Games will be making their long-waited comeback very soon.
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