The best and worst in the gaming world in 2025

As you know, we've finished publishing our lists of the best games of 2025 in a range of different categories. But there have also been a lot of developments in the gaming world that don't really qualify for these lists, both good and bad. With this in mind, I am now summarising the five best and five worst things in the gaming world from the past year - excluding game releases (you can find those in the games of the year lists).

The best things that happened in the gaming world in 2025:

5. Battlefield 6 challenges Call of Duty

It's no secret that many believe the Call of Duty series has been coasting on its name for too long and has failed to deliver the quality entertainment one would expect from the game that continues to be the world's best-selling game year-after-year. That's why it was such great news that Battlefield 6 was such a huge success when Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 failed to deliver. For the first time in decades, Activision Blizzard's gem looks set to take a beating, and now a quality boost is needed, something we will all benefit from.

4. More multi-format

It's too early to say if this is a lasting trend yet, but Microsoft released Gears of War for PlayStation 5 and announced Halo: Campaign Evolved for the same format, and Sony launched Helldivers II for Xbox and said it had been a good deal. At the same time, it's becoming increasingly obvious to release everything for PC. Perhaps we are entering an era where we will increasingly avoid missing out on major games due to the format we choose.

3. Steam Machine & Xbox Ally offer new ways to play PC games

Sure, this point should probably be included in 2026, and Steam Machine has not yet been released. But... it has been announced and is already making a big impression, while Xbox Ally was launched a few months ago. Thanks to these, we can look forward to completely new ways of consuming PC games in the coming year, where user-friendliness and optimisation have been the guiding principles in a way that we otherwise associate mainly with the world of consoles. In short, it has never been easier to play PC games, and perhaps this is a sign that PC and console games are completely merging?

2. Indies led the way

While so-called AAA games continue to take at least five years to develop and cost hundreds of millions (yet are still crammed with microtransactions) and still receive lukewarm reviews due to their bland design, indies led the way more than ever before. Titles such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Dispatch, Peak, Blue Prince, and Absolum have dominated this year's gaming discussions and often scored incredibly well. 2025 was a year where quality paid off.

1. Switch 2 was released

The original Switch was launched back in 2017, and at the time, many people were disappointed with its performance. When Nintendo said they had no new hardware in the pipeline in early 2020, many people thought they were lying because it was unthinkable that the Switch would remain relevant for so long. Now we know that Nintendo was telling the truth, and Switch 2 was released this summer. Perhaps a little less exciting in design than we had hoped for, and with fewer games than we would have liked, but what a breath of fresh air in an otherwise unusually dull gaming world with few new big titles, where negative headlines have been at least as common as positive ones.

The worst thing that happened in the gaming world in 2025:

5. AI takes over the gaming world

Studio after studio is talking about how they have started to implement AI in their work. Fundamentally, this is a good thing that will make life much easier, but it's also likely to be the beginning of a slippery slope, where AI use takes over more and more (does anyone seriously believe that it will stop here or even decline?). Games with so-called AI slop are becoming more and more common, and there is an imminent risk that creativity will suffer. Why invent something that others will quickly copy with AI?

4. Unreasonable price increases from Microsoft

Microsoft isn't the only one to have raised prices this year, but they have definitely led the way in the gaming industry and gone so far that sales of the Xbox Series S/X have taken an even bigger hit than they already had. However, the real blow came in the autumn with Game Pass, where the Ultimate subscription was increased by a staggering 50%, and the nickname "the best deal in gaming" is now definitely questionable.

3. Grand Theft Auto VI was delayed

One of the reasons why 2025 was so empty of planned big game launches was down to Grand Theft Auto VI. Companies are terrified of releasing their games close to it, and many had therefore postponed them until 2026. But as mentioned, Grand Theft Auto VI failed to materialise, leaving a huge black hole in release lists, which, apart from being hugely disappointing for fans, is also likely to have negative consequences next year. Which games will now rush out before autumn 2026 to avoid a clash, and which games will be postponed until 2027 instead for exactly the same reason?

2. Heavyweight closures

While indie games have flourished and delivered success after success, AAA has had a tougher time. In 2025, we have had the dubious pleasure of repeatedly reporting on cancelled games such as Black Panther, Contraband, Hytale, Perfect Dark, Transformers: Reactivate, Wonder Woman, and countless unnamed titles such as a fantasy game from Sony's London Studio, a God of War game from Bluepoint, and much, much more. Unfortunately, the AAA industry does not seem to be in the best of health right now.

1. Massive layoffs

Things have calmed down a bit towards the end of the year, but too much of 2025 has been about thousands of developers losing their jobs while their studios were also shut down. Of course, it's not possible to keep people at any cost, but we would have preferred better foresight and planning rather than pulling the rug out from under people's feet. Unfortunately, it will be difficult for people to bounce back as AI increasingly makes its mark and the AAA industry is not at its best, and this is unfortunately the sourest point of the whole year.