10 Reasons 2025 Is Make Or Break For Triple-A Games

9. The Live-Service Gold Rush Is Over

Grand Theft Auto VI
Sony

Though publishers thought that live service games would be their next big meal ticket, the market has proven otherwise, given the public rejection of numerous ludicrously expensive blockbuster live service games in recent times - most notably Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Concord.

The industry has reacted quickly to this clear lack of player interest, what with Sony cancelling many of their planned live service titles over the past year, seeming to confirm that the bubble has well and truly popped.

The successful likes of Fortnite, Destiny 2, and Helldivers 2 aren't going anywhere, though they're also exceptions in a market that's wildly overcrowded with mediocre me-too games trying to muscle in on a slice of the pie.

And so, 2025 should see a continued pivot away from Live Service Slop, at which point publishers will hopefully invest more of their cash in quality, curated AAA fare rather than soulless, trend-chasing cash-grabs.

If any publisher continues to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into high-risk live service content when the public has categorically ignored so much of it, they've got only themselves to blame when it likely implodes.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.