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00:00you're gonna eat those twinks that's not what they're you know what help yourself to say that
00:122025 has been a tumultuous year for gaming would be an understatement while there has undeniably
00:18been no shortage of high points they're almost eclipsed by the number of layoffs studio shutdowns
00:23controversies and the overabundance of ai at least we got to play some incredible games despite all
00:28of that welcome to mojo plays and 2025 was probably one of the best years for games and the worst for
00:35every other aspect of the industry so let's take a look back at the highs the lows and the darkest
00:41pits of hell for the state of gaming in 2025 you're fighting to change things for those who come after
00:52right before we continue be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
01:01about our latest videos let's start with the good 2025 will likely go down as one of the best years
01:09this entire generation for the sheer quantity and quality of some of the year's biggest games
01:15however the biggest change this year is most of these titles didn't come from the typical
01:20triple a developers and publishers but smaller independent or double a studios titles like claire
01:26obscure expedition 33 hollow knight silk song schedule one ball pit megabonk and hades 2 are just a
01:34sampling of the incredible games we got to experience and were all developed with either a small
01:38studio with a fraction of the typical dev team or a single developer the shift from standard triple
01:45a releases was undoubtedly one of the most impactful turns of the year with hollow knight silksong's
01:50release even crashing nearly every storefront the game released on as players who not so patiently
01:55waited seven years for the game all rushed to be the first to play for far too long gamers have had to
02:01endure buggy broken launches of yearly franchises each dropping in quality with every new release and
02:08gamers have finally realized not only that they deserve better from these multi-million dollar companies
02:13but that there are better options as long as even one of us stands our fight is not over the rise
02:21of independent gaming from smaller teams has had its biggest impact on gaming this year in particular
02:26with the release of game of the year clear obscure expedition 33 developed by an incredibly small team
02:32by today's standards expedition 33 did everything the gaming industry told us was impossible it had an
02:39original story polished gameplay impeccable performances and featured turn-based gameplay which we'd been
02:45told we didn't want anymore expedition 33 was developed by ex-ubisoft devs who had grown tired of
02:52working on the same assassin's creed entries year over year so they set out to make their own game
02:57within five years and with a team of less than 50 people sandfall interactive created and released one of
03:04the best games of this entire generation clear obscure expedition 33 wasn't the only game to come
03:10from former ubisoft devs tired of the same boring routine the episodic superhero title dispatch released
03:16in october through november and received endless accolades for resurrecting the telltale games formula
03:21and offering a fresh and interesting take on the superhero genre full of unique characters
03:27shaped by the player's actions just be careful kid the answers are out there if you just listen to the wind
03:37throughout all of 2025 the rise of independent game design has stood in stark contrast to an
03:43industry that continues to push for charging players more while delivering less and poorer quality titles
03:49big triple-a studios such as ubisoft have attempted to defend their financial failings stating gamers
03:55simply aren't buying as many games anymore but even a cursory glance at sales of these independent
04:01games will prove that gamers aren't buying fewer games they just not buying yours i'll have a tight
04:17much of this came to a head this year with the near constant announcement of layoffs shutdowns and even
04:22buyouts from major studios giants like ubisoft have all but crashed amidst abysmal sales and near back-to-back
04:29subpar releases of assassin's creed shadows skull and bones and avatar frontiers of pandora despite
04:36supposed strong sales for games like assassin's creed shadows ubisoft is partnering with mega corporation
04:42tencent to basically keep the lights on while also forming a subsidiary studio called vantage studio
04:48to work on what used to be ubisoft's biggest franchises assassin's creed tom clancy's rainbow six and the far
04:54cry series going forward we are the shadows that serve the light
05:09ubisoft wasn't the only one to be basically bought out either electronic arts one of the biggest
05:14manufacturers of controversy and bad takes was recently acquired by saudi arabia's public investment
05:20fund jared kushner's affinity partners and silver lake with saudi arabia's public investment fund owning
05:26over 93 percent of ea after the sale is complete while ea themselves have been coasting on the success of
05:33their yearly sports franchises nearly all of their titles outside of those reiterations have not only
05:39suffered in sales but also in quality battlefield 6 only recently returned glory to the name battlefield
05:46after the shockingly bad battlefield 2042 it's not all bad news for ea however as joseph ferris's
05:52split fiction was one of 2025's biggest highlights and an early game of the year contender
05:59we sure cause a lot of explosions
06:01the hits kept on coming however as microsoft continued their downward spiral to ruin their
06:10brand completely as they announced price increases for xbox not once but twice for the first time in
06:17console history it was actually a better investment to have purchased the console at launch microsoft
06:24wasn't alone however as both sony and nintendo also announced price hikes due to ongoing economic
06:30inflation and supposed tariffs but microsoft was far more egregious and didn't stop there in october
06:37microsoft not only finally announced the handheld but also a price increase to game pass while the
06:43xbox rog ally was already an investment coming in at 600 or a thousand dollars depending on the model
06:50the 50 price increase in their monthly service was too much for many gamers and xbox's own website
06:56crashed under the pressure of players canceling their subscriptions xbox has long struggled since
07:02the release of the xbox one back in 2013 amazing how much damage a single interview can do fortunately
07:08we have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity it's called xbox 360.
07:14right so stick with 360 that's your message if you don't well like it and while game pass had released
07:19to much fanfare subscriptions in the service had become stagnant and the investment for the quality of
07:24games was no longer there for many players the price increase was just the final straw i know i
07:30canceled my subscription how about you but microsoft's woes didn't end there after rumors began swirling
07:37about plans for their next console being abandoned microsoft waited ages to shoot down these rumors and
07:43reassure the few xbox fans that remained that there would be another console coming but then once again
07:49shot themselves in the foot by also announcing it would be a premium console akin to a pc this
07:55announcement immediately set off warning sirens for a brand that was becoming increasingly out of touch
08:00with their fan base and consistently overcharging and pricing themselves out of their market is everyone
08:06trying to kill you it kind of seems like it yet once again microsoft's problems didn't end there
08:15hot off the heels of microsoft's expensive announcement steam announced the gabe cube or
08:20i mean the steam machine a steam powered plug and play pc although previous versions of the steam
08:26machine were poorly received the recent success of the steam deck has granted steam a lot of goodwill
08:32and confidence that gabe will deliver a quality machine for those hesitant about jumping into the
08:37constantly overpriced pc market while the price has yet to be confirmed at the time of writing
08:42given steam's history of player first mentality it likely won't break the bank in the way microsoft's
08:48next box will putting the final nail in the xbox brand for good r.e.p xbox you had a good run and the
08:55xbox 360 will forever stand tall next to the ps2 as one of the greatest consoles of the 2000s
09:02if you knew how you were going to die
09:03how would you live your life differently on the flip side of xbox failings nintendo had one of the
09:14most successful console launches in history selling a whopping 10 million switch twos in only four months
09:21carried by titles such as mario kart world and donkey kong bonanza the switch 2 is a certified success
09:28however everything else surrounding nintendo is kind of a mess while the switch 2 is a decent if
09:34iterative console all of nintendo's worst practices also came bundled with the console alongside the
09:40new key card which makes physical copies of games almost non-existent as these cartridges are nothing
09:46more than a passkey to download a digital copy of the game nintendo also took the first step the rest
09:52of the industry had been daring each other to do and began charging 80 for some of their games
09:58this move also prompted microsoft to jump the gun and announce the same only to later walk it back
10:03after backlash and already low sales of their titles this somehow isn't even the worst of it however
10:10most recently with the release of the long-awaited and much anticipated metroid prime 4 beyond nintendo
10:16decided to lock the music tracks for the desert level behind their amiibos meaning if you don't pay an
10:22extra 30 dollars for their accessories you only have the sounds of your bike to keep you company
10:27what the actual hell are we doing here nintendo seriously
10:40and yet believe it or not this is not the end of nintendo's scummy and greedy practices no no no it
10:48gets much worse see nintendo is currently suing pocket pair over copyright infringement for their game
10:55pal world using patents that they only filed after pal world became a success while this is sketchy at
11:02the best of times nintendo then attempted to take things a step further and not only patent using balls
11:08to capture creatures and flying or gliding on said creatures they attempted to patent the mere act of
11:15summoning yes the game mechanic used by hundreds if not thousands of rpgs nintendo is now attempting to
11:22claim ownership over a game mechanic that has been around for almost 40 years and one they didn't even
11:28invent thankfully this and likely more of nintendo's patents have been announced for review and will
11:34likely be struck down by anyone with even a cursory knowledge of video games all of this while nintendo
11:40and game freak release what is arguably the most phoned in and soulless pokemon game in the entire series
11:46pokemon legends z a circling back to ea and battlefield for a moment it had been some time
12:01since battlefield felt like a true contender against the juggernaut call of duty series amidst claims from
12:07activision that call of duty was too big to fail call of duty black ops 7 released with a resounding
12:13thud i mean honestly look at this what are we even doing here how is this call of duty
12:20battlefield 6 reignited the series and completely crushed call of duty and not only sales but also
12:26player numbers while call of duty black ops 7 has since gone on to become one of the lowest rated titles
12:31in the series from actual players at least my fellow we will prevail
12:46this marks another shift for the industry the end of journalistic credibility for decades players relied
12:52on gaming sites reviews and magazines for their news about games their developers and all their updates
12:58about upcoming games and more however lately video game sites feel less like journalism and more like
13:05paid sponsorships while gamers are speaking out against low quality efforts in games alongside broken
13:11and buggy messes these once trusted sites are running coverage for the industry's worst practices
13:16fearing reprisals and loss of their exclusive access to games and perks countless hit pieces have
13:22been written about gamers siding with mega publishers instead of pushing for the industry to improve
13:28and it's not just the journalists either the unexpected success of titles like clear obscure
13:33expedition 33 and the surprise release of hollow knight silksong led many fellow developers to push
13:38back against these games and their developers basically shaming them for going against the established
13:44status quo the rise of independent studios alongside homegrown content creators has become the biggest
13:49threat to an industry that has become complacent won't yet understand
13:56but this is a kindness
14:00not the cruelty
14:03review scores have come to mean little when arguably some of the most broken and buggy messes of games
14:09have been released this year and been given a pass because of the developer while some disasters were
14:13rightfully derided such as mind's eye others such as borderlands 4 and monster hunter wilds had
14:19most of their flaws overlooked to this day monster hunter wilds is still an unoptimized mess on pc
14:26while gearbox ceo randy pitchford blamed gamers for not having a pc capable of running borderlands 4
14:33why should you get to be free
14:35all you do is destroy this then leads us to the other big controversy of 2025 the rise of ai ai has
14:45seen an unprecedented and meteoric rise in just a few short years and 2025 represented the tipping
14:51point companies began firing hundreds of devs and employees using the ai these people trained as their
14:58replacement gamers have been conflicted on its use with some defending the use of ai to speed up the
15:04already absurd development times while others vehemently argue against its use at all the
15:09overabundance of ai in all aspects of life particularly in gaming has led to a lot of good
15:15hard-working people losing their jobs ai is meant to be a tool to assist developers not replace them
15:22and if the recent batches of ai generated content is anything to go by then developers are clearly
15:27rushing into a cost-cutting measure that isn't ready for it former rockstar ceo dan hauser said it
15:33best when he compared the use of ai in gaming to mad cow disease in which all we can do is feed ai
15:39content that has already been created meaning it can never truly create something original and will
15:44eventually end up copying itself killing the man is a hell of a lot easier than killing the idea
15:52the use of ai has its place and there's no denying that it's not going anywhere but it's all in the
15:58implementation and its use arc raiders recently caught some unnecessary controversy for its use of
16:04generative ai voices within the game replicating real voice actors performances to create dynamic
16:09lines of dialogue to make the world feel more reactive while some such as euro gamer blasted the
16:14developer and the game itself in a purely performative virtue signal embark used the same
16:19technology in their previous title the finals with no opposition from the review site it was later
16:25revealed that the voice actors themselves had signed off on the use of their voices rather than
16:29the inconvenience of constantly needing to go to the studio to record new lines of dialogue whether we
16:34like it or not ai is here to stay at least for the time being but we do have to call out studios who
16:40use it to replace developers and artists as a cost-cutting measure rather than a tool to assist in the
16:46game's development as it should be i need people i can count on ones that are going to stick around
16:522025 marked a dynamic and cultural shift for the industry and one that we both hope and expect will
16:59carry over into 2026 as well the delay of grand theft auto 6 allowed countless other games that
17:04would have otherwise been overshadowed to have their time in the spotlight but also highlighted
17:09just how many triple a releases this year fell short compared to their independent contemporaries
17:14in an industry that is constantly pushing subscription services season and battle passes and an overabundance
17:21of microtransactions in full-priced games the rise of double-a and independent game developers was
17:27inevitable as we move into 2026 which is arguably even more stacked with games than 2025 including
17:33the much-anticipated release of gta 6 2026 could be a formative year for games with eastern studios
17:40releasing consistent successes while western studios continue to struggle and suffer countless layoffs delays
17:46and complete shutdowns we could begin to see a shift towards japanese korean and even chinese
17:51developers overtaking the industry while some many big-name developers and publishers have yet to
17:56even release a single title five years into this generation this isn't even mentioning the unexpected
18:02success stories that are also likely to be released in 2026 that no one is anticipating games that focus
18:08on nothing more than the player having fun which is what gaming is meant to be in the first place
18:14here's looking forward to 2026 and the future memories we make together playing games
18:23you're nothing but a bug well i'm destined to have it
18:30what was your favorite and least favorite gaming trend of 2025 and what's your personal game of the
18:35year share your thoughts and your picks in the comments did you enjoy this video check out these
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