Every year, the team at TheGamerdoes a fantasy draft for video games. It’s like fantasy football, but dorkier. Then again, also less work, so maybe nerds will rule the world. In any case, how it works is we all get together and predict what we think the best games of the year will be, then through the year we add to this roster bit by bit. It doesn’t matter who wins, but since you asked, last year it was me. It always gives mea fresh perspective on the year ahead, and 2025 is no different. 2025 is the year of Maybe, Baby.
In total, between us, we drafted 76 games, and through the season will collectively pick up 76 more. That’s a lot of games. I made my prospective list of 76, digging intothe depth of my indie knowledge, and hoped these deep cuts would come clutch. Others were murmuring that they couldn’t get to 76, while I looked at the rear end of my list and sawRue Valley, Afterlove, Wheel World, andDespelote, and fancied my chances. But the draft never got that far, because there is so much Maybe in the air.
So Many Games This Year Feel Like Unknown Quantities
What I mean by this is there are a lot of games that will maybe come out this year, and will maybe be good. Nobody seems to fancy my chances much withMafia: The Old Country, while games I had side-stepped due to an abundance of quality control or release date caution likeSkate,Gears of War: E-Day,2XKO, andJudaswere slurped up by other players. My perfectly constructed list of dark horse indies never came into play. Everyone kept commenting as we drafted about how many great games were coming out this year, and all I could think was “Maybe”.
That’s not to say these games won’t be good. That’s my whole point. They may be. But while you can never know when you’re drafting (except me, last year’s winner and thus queen Nostradamus), last year I didn’t feel this way. I knewTekken 8would score well. I knewFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirthwould score well. I knewLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealthwould score well. Et cetera. I’m sure that confidence will come for some of these games in time, but the moment we chose them, I knew these were bankers. That’s not the case in 2025.
The game you’d most hang your hat on in 2025 isGTA 6, but withno second trailerandrumbles of a delay, people were cautious about it. I had a late pick and thus it had gone before I got round to it, but a lot of people swerved it out of fear of scoring a bagel on a game bumped to 2026. You can throwHollow Knight: Silksongon that pile too. This year, the game I’d say I have most faith in isMonster Hunter Wilds, from a series that has touched 90 once, withWorld, orDoom: The Dark Ages, from a series that never has.
I’m personally rooting hard forGhost of Yotei, but withTsushimascoring 83, it’snot a sure thing.
We Still Haven’t Heard Of This Year’s Big Games
TheMario Elephantin the room are the ‘unannounced’ picks. Every year, at the start of the year, we each pick a game that has not been officially announced yet, but is rumoured (or even just hoped for). Last year, not one of these games came out. In a heartbreaker, two years ago one of the editors picked Unannounced Team Asobi Platformer, but neglected to pick it back up in 2024 whenAstro Botwould have stepped into its shoes that summer andscored big in September. This editor has alsopicked Silksong first three years in a row - we fear for him.
The point is, this year there was a rush to pick unannounced games. The very first game drafted was, in the form ofSuper Mario.Mario Kartwent soon after, while others amongst us pinned our hopes onKirby,Animal Crossing, a differentPokemontoZ-A, and from yours truly,a Hail Mary for Kid Icarus. But it’s not just because it’sa Switch release year.Half-Life 3,Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, andResident Evil 9were all grabbed early thanks to some juicy rumours, though I personally think leaks point to it being a year too soon for Resi.
No one seemed to bite at the news ofPlayStation restoring some “legacy IP”, though I did have Ape Escape in my back pocket.
This is another way 2025 is a year of Maybe. If the Switch launches with a bumper catalogue, the Half-Life and Elder Scrolls rumours are true, GTA 6 holds its date, Silksong finally emerges, and all the games like Mafia,Dispatch,The Outer Worlds 2,South of Midnight, andDeath Stranding 2arrive as the best version of themselves,2025 will be a year for the record books, surpassing 2023 and even the legendary years of yore. If they don’t, it will be bland and forgettable with a few standouts amongst the chaff. It’s all Maybe, Baby. We just have to wait and see.
