The last twelve months have been packed with massive titles to compete for your attention, whether you play on a Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox console, or one of the best gaming laptops. Here’s our guide to the best upcoming games for 2025.
Admittedly, some of these titles are ones that we had anticipated last year but got delayed. Nonetheless, after a couple of years of adjusting to both the latest console generation and development challenges brought on by the pandemic, the current-gen is finally hitting its stride.
But whether it’s the start of spring, a stacked summer, or beyond, there are plenty of exciting games coming up regardless of the platform you’re playing on. Read on for our picks of the best upcoming games. (And before you ask, you won’t find GTA VI in this list until we know it definitely is coming in 2025.)
1. Hollow Knight: Silksong
Platforms: PC, Switch, Xbox, PS5, PS4
Made by just a team of three people, Hollow Knight is an indie Metroidvania that has just grown and grown in cult status since first releasing in 2017. Unsurprisingly then, anticipation for its follow-up Silksong has reached fever pitch.
Set in a haunted world of bugs, but presented in a gorgeous hand-drawn style, you play as the nimble Hornet, previously a deadly antagonist in the original game, facing all-new enemies and all-new challenges as you try and making your way up to the top of the kingdom you’ve been imprisoned in.
We still don’t know when Silksong will release, or whether Team Cherry will just drop it out of the blue, but at least throughout all the agonising wait, it’s been confirmed for every major platform, including Game Pass on day one.
Due: TBA
2. Monster Hunter Wilds
Platforms: PS5, Xbox PC
As morally conflicted as we are about the slaughtering of massive, majestic monsters for entertainment, there’s no denying the appeal of Capcom’s action-RPG series, which seems to grow in popularity with each new modern entry. Monster Hunter Wilds looks set to build on the more approachable Rise before it, with the new Focus Mode allowing you to more easily target weak points and rideable monster mounts making a return.
Longtime Monster Hunter fans will spot a host of gameplay tweaks and adjustments, but the core loop remains the same: take down monsters, harvest gear from their remains to improve your weapons and armour, preparing you to take on even bigger beasts. It’s a winning formula, and Wilds is looking like a Monster Hunter game for the hardcore fans and newcomers alike.
Due: February 28, 2025
3. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Solid Snake meets real snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a game that sees the brooding mercenary go full Rambo. Coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is a pretty true to the title remake of Hideo Kojima’s masterpiece, albeit without his actual involvement.
Gameplay footage and previews have shown off jungle critters being eaten, enemies being thrown down with CQC, and a level of detail the PS2 could only dream of at the time. But if the remaster of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is anything like the original, it’ll be the strongest game in the series.
Due: 2024
4. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC
These days, new Like a Dragon games seem to be arriving with the same regularity as FIFA and CoD, which is daunting for those still playing catchup, but great news for its many devoted fans. Last year’s brilliant Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth took the series out of Japan for the first time, with the majority of the game set in Hawaii, and it’s there we stay in the fantastically titled Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, a spin-off that takes place right after the events of its 2024 predecessor.
Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (again, real title) is a spin-off that focuses on returning character, Goro Majima, who finds himself stranded on an island near Hawaii with no memories of who he is. So of course he becomes a pirate captain embroiled in a conflict involving both his fellow buccaneers and members of the yakuza. Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii returns to the beat ‘em up combat system of the original games and includes naval combat. It all looks and sounds predictably bonkers, and we can’t wait, frankly.
Due: February 28, 2025
5. Split Fiction
Platforms: PS5, Xbox, PC
Hazelight’s previous game, It Takes Two, is for our money the best co-op game ever made, so naturally we’re very excited about follow-up Spilt Fiction. In this one you and your co-op player play as a pair of writers, one of sci-fi and the other of fantasy, who both become trapped in their own fiction and have to work together to make it back to reality.
It Takes Two’s great strength was its variety and blend of different genres, and Split Fiction looks just as creative as its predecessor, with the split-screen nature of the game allowing you to hop between the fantasy and sci-fi settings. And like in It Takes Two, only one person needs to own the game, with the second player able to join via the Friend’s Pass system.
Due: March 6, 2025
6. Ghost of Yōtei
Platforms: PS5
As one of the big success stories of the PS4 generation, we fully expected a sequel to 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima to get a sequel eventually, and that game is set to arrive in 2025, with an exact release date yet to be announced. Taking place in 1603 Japan, a couple of hundred years after the events of the original game, Ghost of Yōtei will see us play as an all new female character named Atsu.
We don’t have much to go on as far as story is concerned yet, but expect another open-world epic with a healthy blend of stealth and cinematic samurai combat. Ghost of Yōtei also looks absolutely stunning already in its debut trailer, and there’s no doubt that Sony will push it as one of the big reasons to buy a PS5 Pro next year.
Due: 2025
7. Mafia: The Old Country
Platforms: PS5, Xbox, PC
The Mafia series has always excelled at narrative, and while it could be considered a risky release if GTA 6 does turn up next year, Mafia: The Old Country will offer something very different to Rockstar’s sprawling open-world epic. In fact, The Old Country isn’t open-world at all, with developer Hangar 13 instead opting for a linear, story-driven experience as it explores the origins of the Mafia in Sicily in the 1900s.
As well as taking the series back to its roots (Mafia III’s open world felt a bit sparse compared to some of its contemporaries), Mafia: The Old Country makes the jump to Unreal Engine 5 to give its developer the best shot of realising its cinematic ambitions. Perhaps there’s room for more than one crime drama on the 2025 slate after all.
Due: 2025
8. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
Platforms: Switch
To say Metroid Prime 4 has been on a journey is an understatement. It might belong to one of the most critically acclaimed series’ in all of gaming, but the game was effectively completely restarted five years ago, with the reins handed back to the original Metroid Prime studio, Retro. That last bit was music to the ears of longtime Metroid fans, but it did mean that they’ve had to wait a very long time to see the game action, with what felt like countless Nintendo Directs coming and going without giving us so much as a glimpse of Samus.
That finally changed this year, and the game we now know to be called Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is due to arrive next year, likely either as one of the final Nintendo Switch games, or a launch title for its successor. We’d take either. Nintendo hasn’t given away a huge amount yet, but the first gameplay trailer is unmistakably Metroid Prime-y in vibe, a mixture of first-person combat, exploration and puzzle solving on a mysterious alien planet. And assuming it is running on the current Switch hardware, it’s already looking like one of the most graphically impressive games on the enduring little console. Hopefully not too much longer now.
Due: 2025
9. Jurassic Park: Survival
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
You’d have thought people would stop going back to Jurassic Park, given the bad press it always seems to be getting. But you can’t blame the lead protagonist of Jurassic Park: Survival.
Set the day after the events of the original 1993 Jurassic Park, this first-person survival follows InGen scientist Dr. Maya Joshi, who was left behind when sweet ol’ Jeff Goldblum rode off into the sunset in a helicopter. Nice, Goldblum. While movie tie-ins can be pretty hit and miss, even when the film was released 30 years ago, a nice concept has us excited for Jurassic Park: Survival.
Due: 2025
10. Avowed
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PC
2024 was a good year if you like fantasy RPGs. We got Dragon’s Dogma 2 and the Elden Ring DLC, but if you’ve finished both circle February 2025 in your diaries: that’s when Xbox and PC players will get their hands on Avowed, the next game from the now Microsoft-owned Obsidian. With its first-person perspective, varied landscapes and abundance of monsters to hit with swords and cast spells at, it’s hard not to to think of Skyrim, but Avowed is no Elder Scrolls copycat.
For one, it isn’t a truly open-world game, with Obsidian opting for a more authored experience akin to the one it served up in its 2019 sci-fi RPG, The Outer Worlds. The companions you pick up throughout your adventure will be key to the story, and from what we’ve seen so far, there’s plenty of depth to the combat. One to watch for sure.
Due: 18 February 2025
11. Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S
2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was an entertaining throwback to the long-running Ubisoft series’ roots, and one that you could easily work your way through over a weekend, which was welcomed by those who have grown fatigued by the hundred-hour RPGs that previous entries had become. Mirage did feel more like a side dish than a main course, though, and the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks set to make more of a splash, with Ubisoft finally taking the series to Japan – specifically 16th century feudal Japan.
The game features two different playable characters, each with a very different approach to assassinating. Naoe is a shinobi who prefers to operate from the shadows, picking off targets quietly without raising the alarm. The classic Assassin’s Creed approach. But you can also play as the newly qualified samurai Yaskuke, who’d rather put on his armour and get straight down to business with a sword. Rather than making you choose which character you want to play the whole game as, Assassin’s Creed Shadows lets you switch between them at will, blending the sneak-focused older games with the more in-your-face combat of an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It looks great.
Due: 11 February 2024
12. Rematch
Platforms: PS5, Xbox, PC
Paris-based developer Sloclap’s last game was Sifu, a hard-as-nails and breathtakingly stylish Kung Fu brawler, and with martial arts well and truly mastered, the studio is turning its hand to football. Unveiled during the Game Awards, Rematch is a 5v5 online multiplayer game that looks a bit like Rocket League but with people instead of cars. You only control one player on your team and the camera is low and very much focused on you. Showboating is clearly encouraged here.
Whether Rematch can mount a serious challenge to Rocket League or that quite popular football game made by EA remains to be seen, but Sloclap seems to favour cinematic flair over respect for the beautiful’s games rules (there are no fouls or offsides slowing things down here), and we can’t wait to get our hands on it in 2025.
Due: 2025