10 Reasons 2025 Is Make Or Break For Triple-A Games
Would you pay $100 for GTA 6?
Even though gaming is firmly dominant as the highest-grossing entertainment industry in the world, you'd barely know it given the dire straits the business has been in over the last few years.
Gaming has been defined by enormous uncertainty since the pandemic, and this is especially true in the AAA gaming space, which is going through some major growing pains at present.
AAA games are of course defined as large-budget projects published by major studios, with the expectation that investing more money in a massive, glossy blockbuster game will result in huge financial returns and even the potential birth of a franchise.
But AAA has been especially struggling as of late, amid runaway budgets, ludicrously long development times, a seemingly never-ending spate of layoffs, and ever-increasing expectations from shareholders that titles deliver growth.
Many believe that AAA gaming as we know it is reaching breaking point as a result, and 2025 will be a pivotal year for the industry one way or another.
It may be the ultimate test to see whether AAA as it exists now can survive, or if it'll have to mature into something new...
10. The Lineup Is STACKED
Even though 2024 offered up a ton of brilliant games, the general consensus is that it wasn't a massively stand-out year for AAA fare in particular, but 2025 shouldn't have the same excuse.
The tentative gaming line-up for the next 12 months is positively stacked with blockbuster behemoths, from Grand Theft Auto VI to Assassin's Creed Shadows, Doom: The Dark Ages, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Fable, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, and so, so many more.
Simply, if the AAA tentpole space can't thrive in a year with so many hotly anticipated titles in beloved franchises being released by acclaimed developers, then there's truly no hope left for it.
While publishers will need to stagger their releases carefully in order to avoid overwhelming players who have limited money and time to spend on games, if 2025 isn't a banner year for AAA games in terms of both sales and general acclaim, then it truly feels like this side of the industry is in irreversible freefall.