Things gaming must leave behind in 2025 –

2024, what a year, huh? We didn’t have the constant bombardment of great games to distract us from the more negative side of the industry, and even with the good releases we got, it felt like there was such a wave of discourse surrounding it that it became hard to decide if you really liked the content or the conversation surrounding a title. There was a lot of good stuff in 2024, don’t get us wrong, but there are also some things we need to leave behind as we look forward to 2025 and beyond, so let’s take a look at what gaming needs to leave firmly in its rearview mirror.

1. Toxicity/The Woke Wars.

Begun, the woke wars have begun. It seems that 2024 – more than any other year in recent history – game discourse has become a lot more toxic, and when you wade in to say whether you like a game or not, it feels like stepping on ice as thin as a sheet of paper with a minefield underneath. We could write a lot on this topic, but it’s worth making clear that this point is less about the parties themselves and more about the way game discourse has shifted. The us-side mentality has never been stronger, and because of general terms like woke, DEI and more, it’s easier than ever to whip up a crowd over very small things. The leaps to extreme views have also become more obvious, and even if you agree that Concord’s draft was absolute ass cheeks, it’s hard to feel like you can throw yourself at the critics without joining racist Joe and all his friends.

The discussion about female representation in games in particular has taken a drastic turn this year, with many praising the release of Stellar Blade and its protagonist Eve as the Second Coming of Christ. It’s fine to have preferences for characters, especially in a medium like gaming where you hope to escape to another world, but it has become very strange how games like Intergalactic: The Heretic Profit, which gives their protagonist a different look, are mocked for not being as curvaceous as the other 2D women people have fallen in love with. The people who are so extreme are a small but very vocal minority, and in 2025, I hope a little more common sense can emerge on both sides, leading to good conversations again, without buzzwords and echo chambers.

2. Live-Service Slop

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League came out in 2024 and before an entire year had passed, it was given away for free through Prime Gaming. On Steam sales, it drops 95%. Concord was barely out for two weeks before it was discontinued. It’s tragic, especially when you consider how much time could have been spent pursuing something other than another live-service slopfest. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again and again: people, even gamers, don’t have unlimited time. They can’t spend forty hours playing Fortnite, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Helldivers II or any of the other games they really like, and then switch to yet another game desperately trying to get their attention. You can’t save every dog in the shelter, as much as you’d like to, and you can’t play every live service game. Sure, Marvel Rivals and Helldivers II might give suits just enough examples to believe they can make their $250 million dollar bomb a hit, but as we see more and more of these titles fall by the wayside, I’d rather see talented developers make something they’re passionate about, and leave the live service space largely behind.

3. Policy on greed/predatory

Speaking of live service, here’s one of the biggest sins. In forming this article, I asked around to see if anyone had anything they wanted to add to their list of bugbears, and a mix of responses came in around gatcha games, loot boxes, battle passes, and they can all be summed up in the general net of greed. Gaming is a big-money industry, and so it naturally attracts people who want to buy classic cars rather than help save their employees’ jobs. This overly corporate feeling has lingered in games for a while, where you can see that a title is made because of marketability rather than passion. More expensive editions of games, expensive cosmetic items and more have made their presence known in 2024, and while we don’t expect gaming to get cheaper, it would be nice not to feel like you’re getting an ice pick shoved between your buttocks when you log in to play your favorite titles. Not all games and companies are guilty of this, and there are some that realize that you can make a lot of money, more than enough money, without outwardly angering most of your player base, but until everyone figures that out, this will remain on the list.

4. Dismissed

Probably wishful thinking, this, but I really hope we don’t suddenly see thousands of people lose their livelihoods next year. We thought 2023 was bad, but 2024 took layoffs to a whole new level. Even creators of great games like Hi-Fi Rush were not safe, and you wonder if there’s anything that can keep a job in gaming safe if you’re not at the top of the ladder. Even in the journalism space, we have seen multiple closures, including GGRecon, Game Informer and Play Magazine. It’s very hard to stay positive about this piece of gaming when it seems like talented people are losing their jobs every week, but hopefully we can start to see some light at the end of the tunnel in 2025 and beyond.

5. Super early reveals

Before you start typing, I completely understand why companies reveal games that are more than five years away. It creates a buzz, it lets the public know what they are working on so they don’t get false hopes, it can also get games hired from potential developers, and it can inform shareholders what a company is working on. From a consumer perspective, however, it really feels like a knife in the stomach when you see the game you’ve waited years, maybe even a decade, only to be told you won’t see that release until you’re old and gray. It’s getting harder and harder to stay attached to franchises because the time between entries is just getting too long. I was in my mid-teens when I first played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and I don’t know if I’ll see the sequel before I’m 30. That’s not a great feeling to have, and although The Witcher 4 has only really been revealed recently, there are plenty of games that were unveiled years ago that have remained in the public consciousness, only to give us almost nothing. 2025 looks to be a phenomenal gaming year, but let’s hope we don’t have another run of Geoff Keighley saying with that soulless smile and unblinking eyes that we can expect that super awesome game he played this summer in 2043.

Before I close, I want to emphasize that although there were some gloomy things this year, gaming as a whole can still be a very positive thing. Being lucky enough to do this work and go to conventions, the people I meet always amaze me, from those who make and promote games to the people who are just there to enjoy them. There are also real troopers, like Amir Satvat, the man who went out of his way to find jobs for people who had lost theirs in gaming. Yes, the gaming community may show its toxic side again with someone like Satvat, but he is proof that there will always be people who love gaming more than people who pretend to love it just so they can grit their hatred for it.