Around this time every year the gaming industry is full of optimism. We start to focus on what the year will bring and we get excited. It's kind of like the pre-season in sports where every fanbase is excited for the season. Usually as the season progresses some teams exceed expectations and some don't live up to them. The same can be said in gaming for the big 3 console makers. But could 2025 finally be the year all 3 have great years? It seems like it.

It's kind of crazy to even think about, but I can't recall the last time all 3 platforms have had a year where they are all firing on all cylinders in terms of software. In 2024 both PlayStation and Xbox had solid years while Nintendo for the most part sat out the year. In 2022 and 2023 it was Xbox failing to live up to expectations. We could probably say 2021 was solid for all 3, but nothing like 2025 might be.

But why is there so much reason for optimism? All 3 companies certainly have question marks going into the year. Xbox has exclusivity questions as the hardware lags further behind. PlayStation insists on leaning into games as a service with mixed results. And finally Nintendo is keeping things heavily under wraps before they launch the Switch 2.

Despite those concerns it's hard not to look at the PlayStation and Xbox roadmaps and get excited. And you know Nintendo won't launch the next Switch without a killer app or two. But let's dig a little deeper into all 3 shall we as we preview 2025.

PlayStation's Continued Excellence

If I were writing this exactly one year ago I'd be saying PlayStation looks like they will have a slow year. We had no real roadmap from the company and most of their studios had recently released games. They had some third party exclusives lined up but first party was going to be a bit dry.

Fast forward 12 months and that empty roadmap sure didn't seem to affect them did it? Heck the 2 games we did know about no longer exist. The Last Of Us Factions got cancelled and Concord lasted all of 2 weeks before being swiftly shut down. Despite that PlayStation launched the surprise hit of the year Helldivers 2 as well as solid games Rise Of The Ronin and Stellar Blade. Oh and there was also our Game Of The Year winner Astro Bot. Add in those third party games like Silent Hill 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and it was indeed a fantastic year despite the lack of a roadmap.

That's what makes 2025 all the more exciting for PlayStation. They actually have a roadmap we can talk about for the year. With Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2 PlayStation has two of the years most anticipated titles. Even if PlayStation doesn't announce anything else for the year those 2 games alone would likely be enough for a good year.

This is PlayStation we are talking about though, so I fully expect a couple more games in the pipeline that we don't know about. And surely they will have a couple of those third party exclusives as well.

There are still those questions I discussed earlier though. Will those games in the pipeline be more service games? And if they are will they hit like Helldivers 2 or Concord? As well Square Enix, a company known for taking exclusive deals with PlayStation seem to be less interested in that. Those games will still be on PlayStation. But for those that care about exclusivity that could make the year feel a little less impactful.

All in all, expect 2025 to be more continued success for PlayStation.

Xbox Building Momentum, With Software Anyway

Next year is going to be Xbox's year! Does that sound familiar? It's a line I feel like we say every year and it's almost getting tiring to say. Having said that 2024 ended up being a great year for the publisher, specifically the last couple of months. Hellblade 2, Indiana Jones, Call Of Duty Black Ops 6, Diablo IV Vessel Of Hatred, Age Of Mythology Retold, Flight Simulator 2024 and Ara History Untold were all varying degrees of great. Add in Stalker 2, Dungeons Of Hinterberg and Creatures Of Ava and it's hard to complain about that lineup.

Xbox's biggest problem in 2024, outside of its exclusive drama, was spacing. Again outside of Hellblade 2 Xbox's lineup was pretty barren for most of the year until the end of the year. Their 2025 roadmap is currently loaded with games, so they must do a better job spreading them out.

With South Of Midnight, Fable, Doom The Dark Ages, Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2 and the inevitable Call Of Duty, they certainly have the ammo to spread around. That's a stellar lineup as is. If they somehow manage to add even another game such as State Of Decay 3 or maybe a new Forza Horizon and it could be historically good.

Of course this is all on paper. 2023 on paper looked pretty incredible for Xbox as well until Redfall bombed and Starfield and Forza Motorsport ended up being more polarizing than expected. Everything currently coming though looks great, so there is reason for optimism.

There's also the whole exclusivity debate and whether Xbox is or isn't headed in the right direction as a platform. Until Xbox management is crystal clear on what the plan is, the debate will likely rage on about every game.

Add in Xbox Game Pass and it's already stellar lineup and it's hard not to be excited about the future of Xbox.

Nintendo Set To Drop The Switch 2 Bomb

Lastly we have to talk about Nintendo. 2024 was pretty quiet by Nintendo standards. They had Zelda Echoes Of Wisdom and some HD remakes but all in all it was a fairly tame year.

Of course there was a reason for that as Nintendo is busy at work on their next console which is expected in 2025, the Switch 2. With all the secrecy around the next Switch we really don't know much about what Nintendo is cooking up in 2025.

Even so, this is Nintendo, so we should fully expect 1 or 2 of their major IPs to launch in 2025. If not on the console launch day then shortly thereafter. What those IPs will be is anyone's guess but you can likely bank on at least one of Mario or Pokémon to make an appearance.

Because of this secrecy it's hard to talk too much about what we can actually expect compared to Xbox and PlayStation, but rest assured Nintendo will pull out all the stops to have a successful launch of their hardware.

2025 Might Go Down In History

If all of this has got you excited, you aren't alone. I didn't even talk about the plethora of third party games coming in 2025 such as Borderlands 4, Assassins Creed Shadows, GTA VI and more. Even if some of this stuff gets delayed, the year might just end up being the year we talk about for years to come.

Buckle up gamers, regardless of what platform you play on, we're in for a wild ride in 2025.