GTA VI, Doom: The Dark Ages, Monster Hunter Wilds, Death Stranding 2, Civilization VII, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Avowed, Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Borderlands 4, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Fable, Ghost of Yotei, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Metroid Prime 4, Pokémon Legends: Z-A… Ah! And the Nintendo Switch 2 with all the novelties that it entails. In this landscape for 2025, would you really even try to launch a mid-budget game to try your luck? Well, you’re not the only one.
The year of a thousand games
This is the case with Helldivers 2, which has been one of the big hits of 2024, partly because there haven’t been many blockbusters to compete with it. A year later, it would have been a disaster, and its director, Michael Eriksson, is perfectly aware: “We did very well launching it when we did, and I think our game has been very lucky. I like what we’ve done and what the studio has done, and I know our players love it too,” he commented.
In fact, it leaves a glimmer of hope: “I think that wouldn’t have changed no matter when we launched it, but I think luck has played a part in the timing. We launched it at a great time when there wasn’t too much competition”. Imagine all those small games that will try to overshadow GTA VI. Poor them.
Does that mean that in the future they will focus more on the launch window than on making a good title? Let’s see, that’s not it either: “There will be people who think about this, but we won’t while we are making the game, it’s not what we think about. We simply think ‘How can we make the best game possible for our fans?’, and that’s the only thing that matters. And then we commit to it, and we just hope it works”. In other words: the game is good, but luckily it wasn’t overshadowed by Rockstar.
