The moments set to shape video games in 2025
A look at the world prem-year ahead.
If there's one thing video games love, it's a marketing beat. Some major publishers and platform holders have settled into quite regular rhythms, spacing announcements out across the year in quarterly chunks. Some have a specific day they use every year without fail.
Beyond the straight marketing though, 2025 looks set to be a year of moments. This will be a make-or-break year for the traditional triple-A tentpole, the year we get a new Nintendo console, and the year we probably get Grand Theft Auto 6. There will be all the typical moments - your Summer Game Fests and your Gamescoms - but inevitably, and no doubt most excitingly, there will be surprises, be they official announcements, major reports, or defining conversations and developments that drive the conversation of the year ahead.
Below, we've mapped out the key moments we know about - and what we know about the less-certain ones we can hopefully expect - to give you an idea of how things might shape out. Here's the year ahead in video games for 2025 - and here's to a few more positive surprises this year than in the one gone by.
CES (Consumer Electronics Show)
Date: 7th - 10th January 2025
CES isn't a typical mark-it-in-your-diary event for major video game news, being an event you'd typically associate with impossibly expensive TVs and smart toasters in years gone by. But with Nvidia becoming the ultimate stock market darling in 2024, thanks to its big push into AI and the continuing hype that follows, CES is gaining a bit more relevance for video game folks. There have already been some big reveals at 2025's show, namely the new line of 50-series graphics cards, while eager accessory manufacturers are causing a deluge of Switch 2 leaks as they show off their wares. This is now a show where the first markers for the year are put down - or at least, the first big questions asked. Will AI become increasingly essential to the graphics performance of major video games? Will the Switch 2 really launch by April? The bold claims made on stage here will no doubt set the tone for the year ahead regardless. We'll be reporting on the news as it breaks, and Digital Foundry will have all their expert tech analysis with you very soon. - Chris
The February triple-A rush
Date: February 2025
Even accounting for the usual delays from Q4 into the following new year, the February release schedule is absolutely chock-a-block in 2025. Running straight on from Citizen Sleeper 2 and Sniper Elite: Resistance in late January, February kicks off on the 4th with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, then rolls straight into Civilization 7 on the 11th, Assassin's Creed: Shadows on the 14th (romantic backstab anyone?), Avowed on the 18th, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii on the 21st and Monster Hunter Wilds on the 28th. There are more in between, but those are proper, major triple-A releases. After a relatively barren 2024 for big, blockbuster games (though there were plenty of good games), this year's kicking off with the opposite. How well these games fair - each of them, aside from perhaps Like A Dragon, a major bet from their relative studios - will likely be a bellwether for the year ahead. Given how 2024 was for most of this industry, let's hope this one starts with a bang. - Chris
Pokémon Day
Date: 27th February 2025
After a quiet-ish 2024 - the mega success of Pokémon TCG Pocket aside of course - this year looks set to be a big one for Pokémon, which remains not only the largest gaming franchise but the largest entertainment franchise in the world. Each year on 'Pokémon Day', the anniversary of Red and Green's 1996 launch in Japan, the Pokémon Company organises a Nintendo Direct-style showcase of the year ahead. The tentpole game we know about already is Pokémon Legends: Z-A, a curiously-titled follow-up to the popular main series spinoff, Pokémon Legends: Arceus. The big question marks will be over its platform - or platforms - with Pokémon historically avoiding any main series releases within the first few series of new hardware.
But there's also another big question: can Game Freak get this one running a bit more reliably than the likes of Arceus, and indeed Pokémon Scarlet and Violet? And, if not, will the legendary but clearly strained studio's increasingly rickety output have any impact on the series' otherwise impervious success? Scarlet and Violet's huge sales - third in the series behind only Pokémon Red, Blue and Green and Sword and Shield - suggest, actually, maybe not. - Chris
GDC (Game Developers Conference)
Date: 17th - 21st March 2025
GDC isn't your typical, announcements-and-hands-ons-based video game convection in the shape of Gamescom, E3 or Summer Game Fest, but it has increasingly become a conversation-driver in an industry that is all about the discourse. Last year, taking place in the eye of a catastrophic layoff storm, major figures such as Larian boss Swen Vincke used the event and its developer-centric awards as a chance to opine about where exactly the industry is going wrong.
There were, also, still a couple of big reveals, most notably Amy Hennig's new venture Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra at the show's annual State of Unreal conference, which is typically focused on the engine tech behind the games themselves. Expect more interviews, behind-the-scenes development stories, state-of-the-industry chatter, and of course strong opinions this year again. - Chris
Switch 2's reveal, related Nintendo Directs, and launch
Date: Before 31st March 2025.
2025's biggest puzzle piece still to be fitted - when will Switch 2 launch? We know Nintendo will finally lift the lid on its Switch successor before the end of its current financial year on 31st March - although the reveal seems likely well before then, in part to stem the now-incessant tide of leaks. But when will it actually be released? When will the first Switch 2 games start arriving? Well, not before 31st March either, we expect, though perhaps not too long after. After missing 2024's lucrative holiday sales season to wring one last Christmas from the outdated Switch 1, the pressure is now on Nintendo's bottom line to get its newer hardware out as soon as possible, and avoid prolonging the wait any longer. - Tom P
Minecraft: The Movie
Date: 4th April 2025
We are in a rather golden age of video game adaptations, with TV series like The Last of Us and Fallout receiving critical acclaim, and the Mario animated film breaking records. However, when the Minecraft team debuted its first movie trailer last year, it's fair to say the reaction was less than enthusiastic. We were all left collectively scratching our heads wondering what exactly we'd just watched. What was going on with the film's CGI? Was Jack Black just playing Jack Black in a blue shirt? Also, what's with Jason Momoa's hair? Questions! A second trailer was soon released, digging into (no pun intended) Steve's lore. It offered a slightly more promising look at the soon-to-be-released film, but many of those questions still remained.
Around this time last year, the film's director said he wanted to avoid an "Ugly Sonic situation", referring back to the original design for the prickly blue blur from the 2020 film starring Jim Carrey. This design, you may recall, was less than stellar, and the Sonic team went back to the drawing board and came back with an improved looking hedgehog for the film's ultimate release. But has the Minecraft team done enough to avoid its own Ugly Sonic moment? Well, there's only a few months to go before we can know for sure. - Victoria
The Last of Us season two
Date: April 2025
Max is set to release the next season of its The Last of Us adaptation this spring and, as with the first season, those who have not played the games will surely tune in to find out what happens next in Ellie and Joel's story. This means we can expect plenty of discussions and debates to festoon the internet, as more of us meet the series' new characters and find out what their presence means for those returning faces.
One of the biggest unknowns for The Last of Us season two is how the team is going to break up the story. It was previously confirmed the second season won't cover the entirety of The Last of Us Part 2, so just where is the series' finale going to land? Perhaps the showrunners will mix things up by throwing a curve ball to those of us who know the game, and tell its story in a totally different order. Will we see more characters' stories expanded, with an episode akin to Bill and Frank's in season one, perhaps? There are plenty of questions waiting to be answered, but there isn't long before we find out more. The second season of The Last of Us is set to debut in just a few months time, with Max recently confirming an April release. - Victoria
Summer Game Fest (and all the events around it)
Date: June 2025
There's still no better umbrella term for the cluster of June events that have replaced the industry's now-defunct E3 trade show, but with its attention-grabbing annual livestream Summer Game Fest is the most notable of the bunch. For press in Los Angeles, Summer Game Fest is expected to once again provide a space for hands-on demos of upcoming games. For the public, there's IGN Live, and online there will undoubtedly be the usual cascade of other livestreams from game publishers, including usual suspects such as Nintendo, Xbox, Capcom and Devolver. - Tom P
.webp?width=1920&height=1920&fit=bounds&quality=80&format=jpg&auto=webp)
Gamescom
Date: 20th August 2025
The world's largest video game show by attendance, Gamescom's star has shone even brighter in recent years since the death of E3 and since the launch of its Opening Night Live livestream as another fixture in Geoff Keighley's thrice-yearly game announcement calendar, alongside The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest. After a notable absence last year, expect Nintendo to return to Gamescom in 2025 now it has new hardware and games to get in the hands of the event's more than 300,000 attendees. - Tom P
Super Mario's 40th anniversary
Date: 13th September 2025
The biggest anniversary of the year by some way, video games' de facto mascot turns a ripe and weary 40 years old this September (alright, technically Mario is 44, and the Super Mario game is turning 40, but the point stands). Nintendo likes to go pretty big on its anniversaries, and so it wouldn't be a stretch to expect news of some kind, even if it's just another theme park ride or a few more classic games coming out of the Switch Online vault. The pending arrival of Switch 2 adds another curious element here, of course. Will we get a new 3D Mario game? Will we finally see a new Mario Kart for the Switch 2? Will Mario's knees finally start to give out? Regardless, this will be a major moment for video games, the kind where mainstream media takes a moment to make a few butchered references to "the Nintendo" or opens a clunky report with the classic, did you know video games are big business? And its moments like these when the occasional, Miyamoto-shaped figurehead emerges to give a few sparse quotes to the world. - Chris
Grand Theft Auto 6's launch
Date: Q3/Q4 2025
The year's - and likely decade's - biggest game is set to dominate the back half of 2025, as long as Rockstar's current release window sticks. The impact GTA 6 is likely to have on the gaming landscape cannot be understated - expect it to act like a black hole for the industry, an all-encompassing giant that'll gobble up attention and dominate the cultural zeitgeist, and serve as a giant monster for other game makers to swerve when trying to launch just about anything else. - Tom P
The Witcher season four
Date: TBC
Two words: Liam Hemsworth. The Witcher's upcoming fourth season will mark the Aussie actor's debut as Geralt of Rivia, as he takes over the role from Henry Cavill. There has been much talk of Cavill's departure from the show after three seasons, and Hemsworth's subsequent casting. What happened behind the scenes that caused Cavill to - in his words - lay down his medallion and swords? Was there a dispute between the known Witcher aficionado and Netflix's showrunners? We may never know for sure, but there is no doubt there will be plenty of eyes on Hemsworth's portrayal of white haired monster hunter when the fourth season of The Witcher airs later this year. - Victoria
The Game Awards
Date: 11th December 2025
I can't believe we're already looking ahead to this year's Game Awards just weeks after 2024's 5am bedtime, but here we are. The Game Awards continues to assert itself as one of only a handful of game award shows worth paying attention to, with its regular mix of gongs and World Premieres. 2024's show brought glimpses at Naughty Dog's new project, The Witcher 4 and a new Elden Ring spin-off. What will 2025 bring? One thing's for sure, the industry doesn't clock off for Christmas til Geoff wraps this up. - Tom P
Now for the more speculative ones...
New PlayStation handheld reveal?
Date: 2025?
Nintendo's Switch success has several rival companies looking to capture that same magic - including PlayStation, which is reportedly now developing a handheld capable of playing PS5 games on the go. A Bloomberg report from late last year suggested the concept may still not make it to a public release, but considering Sony's dalliance with the PlayStation Portal, the fact it's still a good few years from reaping the profits of a PS6 launch and the potential benefits to immediately leapfrogging Switch 2, this one feels like a smart bet to see at some point. Will it be in 2025, though? We'll have to wait and see. - Tom P
New Xbox hardware/strategy reveal?
Date: 2025?
Xbox feels like a brand in transition. The company's own marketing campaign trumpeting that anything, basically, can be an Xbox, the move to launch Xbox exclusives on PlayStation and Nintendo, the increasing drag felt by developers having to release games for the Series S… It all points to more change on the horizon for Xbox in 2025. We're expecting Microsoft to double down on its cross-platform release strategy, and detail new hardware this year it can also label as an Xbox, too. - Tom P
Likely Xbox showcases, updates and reveals
Date: TBC 2025
It's all very vague for now - there are no showcases confirmed yet, as you'd expect for so early in the year - but even putting hardware and strategy aside, there's no doubt Xbox will be back again this year with more tentpole announcements. 2024 can offer a bit of context to illustrate how 2025 might play out. Last year, Xbox held a somewhat curious in-house podcast discussion on 15th February on "the future of Xbox", where bigwigs Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty discussed a next-gen Xbox that would "deliver the largest technical leap in a hardware generation," shared a few business-y updates on Game Pass subscribers, and also announced, to some consternation from fans, that several previously Xbox games would be coming to PlayStation - effectively soft-launching its new, multi-platform strategy. A "partner preview showcase" followed on 6th March, highlighting a load of third-party games coming to the console. On 7th May Xbox announced the year-defining slew of studio closures, such as that of Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks.
Then came its big Summer Game Fest showcase on 9th June, a smattering of trailers during Gamescom Opening Night Live, and finally another "partner preview" on 17th October, plus some reveals, such as The Outer Worlds 2, at December's The Game Awards. In other words, don't be surprised if there's a fairly major announcement beat in the near future - particularly with most of Xbox's 2025 slate still undated, and scant details available on Clockworld Revolution, Gears of War: E-Day, Perfect Dark and, erm, Everwild - plus a typical blowout in June, some possible updates at Gamescom, and at least one other beat in Q4. - Chris
Likely PlayStation showcase, updates and reveals
Date: TBC 2025
Just as with Xbox, there are no confirmed dates yet, but given PlayStation has taken a marginally different approach to Xbox with its timing in recent years it's worth running through the 2024 schedule again here for context. Back then, Sony had a similar opening to its year to Xbox, kicking things off with a State of Play broadcast on 31st January then, on 27th February, announcing it would be making 900 layoffs across its developers, as well as the closure of PlayStation London Studios, again setting the tone for a bleak year ahead.
There was another State of Play in May, but the platform holder then skipped Summer Game Fest, as it has done during every summer conference since its last E3 in 2018, with the next major news being its announcement of the PS5 Pro on 10th September. That was followed by a third State of Play on September 24th, where it revealed Ghost of Yotei and gave some more second-party updates. Finally, there was a round of reveals at The Game Awards in early December, including Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, and a PS5 Pro tech deep-dive from Mark Cerny on December 18th. A standard year might look like a State of Play early-ish in the year, another in place of any major presence at the main summer events and Gamescom, and at least one more beat later on in the year. Sony has been varied in its timings recently though, especially with its new Pro hardware in the mix, so we wouldn't be surprised if things changed. Really, we'll just have to wait and see. - Chris
Hollow Knight: Silksong reveal?
Date: "It can't be too much longer, surely!" - Team Cherry, May 2022