Allow us to toot our personal horn for a short second. GamesIndustry.biz put out an unbelievable vary of features in 2025, and with 2026 quickly approaching, now looks as if an opportune time to pick out some highlights. Under are some alternative cuts which can be nicely price your time to revisit.
Huge video games
We spoke with the individuals behind some of the largest video games of 2025, together with Blue Prince creator Tonda Ros and the of us behind the breakout hit Dispatch, whereas François Meurisse from Sandfall Interactive and Matthew Handrahan from Kepler Interactive defined why they have been eager to maintain workforce sizes small following the monumental success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
We additionally came upon how different huge hits are affecting studios’ plans, with Brandon Sheffield detailing how Necrosoft Video games was pressured to postpone the launch of Demonschool to keep away from the juggernaut of Hole Knight: Silksong. And we appeared forward to tomorrow’s titles, interviewing Quantic Dream about their surprising pivot into MMOs with Spellcasters Chronicles, and grilling Neon Big about No Regulation and their persevering with love affair with cyberpunk.
Reactions and insights
GamesIndustry.biz gathered up insightful reactions from trade leaders to the shock buyout of EA, the rebrand of GDC as a ‘Pageant of Gaming’ (we talked to its organisers, too), the shock delay of GTA 6, and the impending buy of Warner Bros. by Netflix in phrases of what that can imply for its video video games division.
We additionally appeared into the scarcity of Swap 2 improvement kits at the console’s launch, and questioned the co-founder of Metacritic on how the web site truly works. Jeremy Peel requested ‘What is going on on with Steam and itch.io’s crackdown on grownup content material?’ and, in the same vein, investigated how video games and web sites have been being blocked in consequence of the UK’s newly launched On-line Security Act.
BAFTA’s government director of awards and content material instructed us precisely how the BAFTA Video games Awards are judged, and two studios defined how they handled the disagreeable enterprise of layoffs. Unity supplied some insights into recovering from the Runtime Payment debacle, whereas the head of Godot defined how the open-source engine has benefited from that very same episode, and is constant to develop.
One of the most-read features on the web site this yr was a take a look at what went fallacious with the To The Moon Expo at the Birmingham NEC, and we additionally interviewed Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva about why Steam’s ban of their sport Horses may imply curtains for the studio.
Lastly, zooming out just a little, we requested whether or not the video games trade will develop or plateau, and in an enormous, two-part function entitled The Huge Image, analysts together with former PlayStation head Shawn Layden totally examined the issues of the current and the doable future trajectory of the video games trade as an entire. Plus, we requested the all-important query: The place did all the cash go?
Trade traits
One of the largest traits in gaming at the second is transmedia, and we checked out what the barnstorming success of A Minecraft Film may imply for future sport diversifications, in addition to speaking to Thatgamecompany about their struggles to seek out funding for a film primarily based on their big hit Sky: Youngsters of the Gentle.
We noticed a quantity of comparatively tiny video games seemingly blow up out of nowhere on Steam this yr, and Rick Lane examined how one of them, the drug-dealing simulator Schedule I, managed to seek out such an enormous viewers. Equally, a brand new viewers is rising in the type of VR natives: younger individuals who principally play multiplayer video games in VR.
The overall recommendation on chasing gaming traits is mostly to not do it, since by the time your trend-chasing sport is completed, the viewers may have moved on. However Allan Smith defined how he was in a position to leap on the Vampire Survivors bandwagon by pivoting his in-progress sport extremely quick, one thing that concerned some very late nights certainly.
The transfer in direction of unionisation in the video games trade continued apace in 2025, and we spoke to the IWGB union about their efforts in the UK, in addition to overlaying ZA/UM’s profitable formation of a union.
In phrases of tech, we spoke to the individuals behind the new sport bundle platform Digiphile, the ‘Goodreads for video games’ app Playnist, and the AI NPC idea Teammates from Ubisoft. And in phrases of publishing, we examined the pitfalls and alternatives of user-generated content material, in addition to speaking to Devolver Digital and 11-Bit Studios about their transfer in direction of specializing in smaller video games.
CEO chats
Firm heads have been queuing as much as converse to GamesIndustry.biz in 2025. Under are some of the highlights:
Gaming historical past
In addition to inspecting current issues and waiting for the future, a number of features on GamesIndustry.biz this yr checked out gaming’s previous, in addition to the right way to protect it.
Nightdive Studios CEO Stephen Kick instructed us that it was “disheartening” to see Nintendo introduce Sport-Key Playing cards for the Swap 2, as we appeared into the state of video games preservation extra usually. Digital Eclipse, in the meantime, talked about the video games they’d wish to convey again, together with a Sega Saturn-based preventing sport assortment.
Peter Molyneux shed some mild on what occurred to his much-vaunted Kinect sport Undertaking Milo, and former Deep Silver head of communications Martin Wein defined why Yager’s model of Useless Island 2 was canned (“It could have killed the franchise”).
Former SIE Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida shared his reminiscences of the European launch of the PlayStation 30 years in the past, together with his want that extra Japanese video games had made it to the West, and Alex Josef defined why he wished to resurrect Acclaim, and why the new model of the writer is not bringing again the previous video games.
Remaining highlight
Lastly, we wish to spotlight a trio of thought-provoking features. Ignas Vieversys spoke to Palestinian Voices in Video games about their effort to empower present and rising Palestinian sport builders, and we additionally spoke to a spread of actors about how contract negotiations are one thing of a nightmare in the UK – and why that’s. Lastly, Vic Hood interviewed a dozen girls about their experiences in the trade in the decade since Gamergate, and the way issues want to vary to encourage and retain extra feminine expertise.