Metroid 4 Prime: Beyond

My most anticipated games of 2025 | The DeanBeat

I’m going to keep this post short as Rachel Kaser is giving this topic the real treatment. I wanted to weigh in on my own list of the most anticipated games of 2025. The list is in reverse order and the No. 1 most anticipated game is at the bottom of this post.

While a lot of this is subjective, it’s always critical for the game industry to see ahead and retain its optimism about the future. These titles are a mix of small and big games that should inspire gamers and those working in the game industry.

Here’s my list, and some of the images/videos associated with these games. Cheers and happy holidays! And here’s a list from earlier this year.

No. 14 Metroid 4 Prime: Beyond

Nintendo and Retro Studios for Nintendo Switch

No. 13 Kingmakers

TinyBuild

No. 12 Judas

Ken Levine’s Ghost Story Games

No. 11 Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra

Skydance New Media and Marvel Games

No. 10 Fable

Playground Games and Third Kind Games for Xbox

No. 9 South of Midnight

Compulsion Games for Xbox

No. 8 Assassin’s Creed: Shadows

Ubisoft

No. 7 Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Kojima Productions

No. 6 Mafia: The Old Country

Hangar 13 for Windows PC

No. 5 Doom: The Dark Ages

Id Software

No. 4 Ghost of Yotei

Sucker Punch Productions for PlayStation

No. 3 Civilization VII

2K Games/Firaxis Games for PC/Mac/Linux

No. 2 Intergalactic: Heretic Prophet

Naughty Dog for PlayStation

No. 1 Grand Theft Auto VI

Rockstar Games/Take-Two Interactive

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.