{"id":22274,"date":"2025-12-23T02:12:38","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=22274"},"modified":"2025-12-23T02:12:38","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T18:12:38","slug":"the-biggest-disappointments-of-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=22274","title":{"rendered":"The Biggest Disappointments of 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">2025 has given us plenty of entertainment worth celebrating, but it\u2019s also gone and brought us consoles that cost more now than when they were first released, a Tron movie featuring Jared Leto, and an even bigger hole in our lives where Grand Theft Auto 6 was supposed to be.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">From price hikes to lowlights, and missed expectations to cruel cancellations, these are the biggest disappointments of 2025.<\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Box Office Blunders<\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">Tron: Ares turned out to be yet another lacklustre system reboot for a franchise that should have been sent to an e-waste disposal center by now.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Marvel may have kicked off 2025 by sending a brand new Cap into a Brave New World, but audiences clearly had more than a few gripes with Anthony Mackie\u2019s turn in the Stars and Stripes. <u>Despite what pre-release trailers had suggested<\/u>, Captain America: Brave New World held back Harrison Ford\u2019s transformation from President Thaddeus \u2018Thunderbolt\u2019 Ross into a scarlet shade of Hulk until the final few minutes of the film, which certainly had fans seeing red \u2013 just not in the way the filmmakers had intended. All told, <u>Captain America: Brave New World suffered a 68% drop-off at the box office in its second weekend<\/u> and is yet to break even on its estimated $425 million budget, making it closer to a Hulk shrug than a Hulk smash.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Meanwhile Tron: Ares turned out to be yet another lacklustre system reboot for a franchise that should have probably been shut down, boxed up, and sent to an e-waste disposal center by now. The latest instalment in Disney\u2019s videogame-inspired sci-fi series may have featured a certifiably banging soundtrack from Nine Inch Nails, but audiences weren\u2019t exactly burning doing the new Tron dance. Not since Jared Leto\u2019s Morbius had a Jared Leto-led movie performed so poorly at the box office, with <u>Tron: Ares\u2019 mustering up just $60.5 million worldwide in its opening weekend<\/u>. Despite its disastrous reception, Tron: Ares features <u>a mid-credits scene that seemingly sets up a potential fourth film<\/u>. Just don\u2019t expect it for at least another 15 or so years, which appears to be the typical Tron cycle. (Not to be confused with one of those bitchin\u2019 motorbikes.)<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it\u2019s off live-action Disney remakes that audiences seem to have gone, or at least that\u2019s how it appeared after <u>the middling performance of 2025\u2019s Snow White<\/u>. To be fair, a tick over $200 million in global box office revenue is nothing for Sneezy to, well, sneeze at. However, there was clearly only one live-action adaptation about short people carrying pickaxes and singing catchy songs that most families wanted to see this year, and that was <u>A Minecraft Movie<\/u>, which hit theaters just two weeks after Snow White and completely <em>dwarfed<\/em> its performance at the box office. Disney would live to live-action again, though, since its Lilo &amp; Stitch reboot would crack a billion dollars just a couple of months later, possibly due to the fact <u>it was actually a good film<\/u>. So who\u2019s the fairest of them all? Moviegoers, it would seem.    <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Elsewhere, The Alto Knights proved that drafting in the writer of Goodfellas, the director of Rain Man, and a double dose of Robert De Niro, <u>didn\u2019t guarantee a good time at the movies<\/u>. In spite of positive reviews from critics (<u>IGN gave it a 9\/10<\/u>), Elio suffered <u>the worst opening weekend of any Pixar movie ever<\/u>. (Yes, even worse than The Good Dinosaur.) Sony videogame adaptation Until Dawn managed to both <u>fumble its source material<\/u> and <u>fail to properly credit the series\u2019 creators<\/u>. And Dwayne Johnson\u2019s The Smashing Machine <u>failed to punch above its weight<\/u>, returning $6 million on its opening weekend against A24\u2019s reported budget of $50 million, not including \u201cmany millions more on promotional efforts\u201d. It seems fair to say that The Rock is no longer cooking. Now it seems he\u2019s just cooked.  <\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Streaming Piles<\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">The War of the Worlds was reimagined as a 90-minute-long Ice Cube reaction GIF. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The bombs weren\u2019t confined to the big screen, though, and there was certainly no shortage of disappointment conveniently streamed directly to our televisions, tablets, and toilet televisions (that\u2019s what we call our phones). Anyone who made the mistake of watching Star Trek: Section 31 must have been begging Scotty to beam that stream back up to Paramount+\u2019s servers, because this intergalactic block of generic sci-fi schlock was so surprisingly awful it left audience faces set to stunned. <u>IGN handed it a rare 2\/10<\/u>, stating that \u201cSection 31 will infuriate Star Trek fans and bore everyone else.\u201d Star Michelle Yeoh, coming off an Oscar win in 2023 for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, was forced to concede that <u>\u201cit\u2019s very hard to please all of your audience all of the time.\u201d<\/u>  We\u2019d argue that Section 31 didn\u2019t even manage to please <em>some <\/em>of its audience <em>any <\/em>of the time, and that this particular Star Trek would have been better off lost in space.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Unfortunately, Star Trek wasn\u2019t the only legendary sci-fi property to be completely mishandled in 2025. In July, Prime Video went back to the well \u2013 or specifically, H.G. Wells \u2013 to produce a modern-day adaptation of The War of the Worlds. The century-old classic novel has previously inspired radio plays, feature films, comic books, and video games, but in the hands of director Rich Lee, The War of the Worlds was reimagined as\u2026 a 90-minute-long Ice Cube reaction GIF. To be fair, we can\u2019t say that this braindead disaster didn\u2019t deliver on its promise \u2013 at least if you took the \u201cIt\u2019s much worse than you think\u201d tagline from its trailer as an honest appraisal of the movie\u2019s quality rather than a reference to the alien invasion in its plot. <u>War of the Worlds debuted with a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,<\/u> although has since skyrocketed to a whopping 4%. <u>Meanwhile its producer insisted that there wasn\u2019t any product placement in the film<\/u>, despite the fact that it\u2019s a movie on Amazon\u2019s streaming service that makes a hero out of an Amazon delivery driver and hinges its climax upon the daring piloting of an Amazon drone. You couldn\u2019t get product placement more intentional than that if it was a package left on your doorstep.     <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Dropping a US president into Die Hard-style scenarios is nothing new, see Harrison Ford in Air Force One or Morgan Freeman in the Has Fallen films, but despite its lack of originality, Amazon\u2019s G20 still had a couple of big positives going for it \u2013 namely Viola Davis as the arse-kicking commander-in-chief, and The Boys\u2019 Antony Starr as Homelander turned hammy Hans Gruber. Sadly neither had an approval rating high enough to elevate the dopey dialogue and choppy action sequences of this formulaic action flick. <u>IGN awarded the film a 3\/10<\/u>, stating that \u201cG20 isn\u2019t just another streaming movie that feels designed to be half-watched; at times, it only feels half-made, too.\u201d      <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">The Electric State could also be accused of being half-made, at least by human hands, given that it was seemingly a co-production between the Russo Brothers and Netflix\u2019s machine-learning algorithm along with help from <u>some AI-based post-production tweaks<\/u>. The controversial practice of using AI in film is widely assumed to be a way to keep production costs down, yet despite that the budget for this thoroughly disposable hodgepodge of superior sci-fi stories still spiralled to a reported $320 million, making it the most expensive film Netflix has ever made. <u>IGN handed it a 4\/10<\/u>, stating that The Electric State \u201cfeels calculated to remind you of something you\u2019ve already enjoyed.\u201d For all that money and in spite of the star power of Chris Pratt and Millie Bobbie Brown, The Electric State failed to really spark.<\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Game and Shame<\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">With a pile of performance issues and a complete lack of freedom, substance, and\u2026 an ending, MindsEye was far and away one of 2025\u2019s most disappointing games.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Any year in video games is invariably going to be a bit like a Guns N&#8217; Roses album. That is, chock full of absolute bangers but, shortly after you\u2019ve worn out your neck headbanging to You Could Be Mine, My World arrives and promptly ruins the good times. Like the infamously terrible final track on Use Your Illusion II, 2025 has had us leaping for the eject button faster than a flaming fighter jet pilot on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">With a pile of performance issues and a complete lack of freedom, substance, and\u2026 an ending, <u>MindsEye<\/u> was far and away one of 2025\u2019s most disappointing games. Unfortunately, its June launch went so badly that more than 90 staff at its developer Build a Rocket Boy later referred to it as <u>\u201cone of the worst video game launches this decade\u201d in an open letter to company management<\/u>. The letter called for change at the studio, apologies for not listening to staff concerns about the game, and \u201cproper compensation for laid-off employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">On the topic of compensation, 2025 marked the year when Nintendo decided it ought to be compensated in some way for instructional tech demos of its new products, leading the company to release <u>Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour<\/u> as a paid product, also in June. You want a tutorial about the console you just bought? Better cough up some more cash. Want to fully complete it? <u>Better cough up some more for the required accessories.<\/u> Remember the much-celebrated free pack-in Wii Sports? Former Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aim\u00e9 does, and <u>he certainly posted about it on social media at an intriguingly coincidental time.<\/u><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Of course, just because a game is free, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s good. For evidence of that, look no further than EA\u2019s reboot of the much-loved Skate series. 2025\u2019s early access, free-to-play Skate is just like the old Skate games, only without the style, the atmosphere, the pros, the customisation, the campaign, the music, the varied maps, the humour, or the intro movies. It did, however, have <u>a cardboard costume inspired by the Isaac Clarke\u2019s Dead Space exosuit that cost around $35 to secure.<\/u> <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Call of Duty went back-to-back Black Ops in 2024 and 2025, but the only thing to come out of the decision is back<em>lash<\/em>. Containing what\u2019s quickly becoming regarded as the worst Call of Duty campaign in the long history of the series, Black Ops 7 has been widely shredded to pieces following its November release for its unwelcome reinvention of campaign mode. Now always-online and co-op focused, Black Ops 7\u2019s campaign mode has none of the rollercoaster-like pacing of a cinematic Call of Duty story, and opts instead for multiplayer-inspired maps and progression, with no checkpoints, and no ability to pause (even when you\u2019re playing alone). The result is quite baffling, which is some result considering the fact Black Ops 7 is intended to be a direct sequel to Black Ops 2 despite releasing immediately after Black Ops 6 is already confusing enough. In the weeks that have followed, the Call of Duty team has promised <u>no more back-to-back releases of sub-series like Modern Warfare or Black Ops<\/u>, but this guarantee feels unlikely to help Black Ops 7 at this stage. <u>Sales figures or player counts are still yet to be discussed<\/u>, which strongly suggests Black Ops 7 is deep in the red. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the games that disappointed in 2025, and we haven\u2019t even touched on FBC Firebreak, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad, Football Manager 26, Project Motor Racing, or the grammatically abhorrent Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game. Have we missed any? Let us know in the comments. <\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">Rainchecked Release Dates<\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">We\u2019ve been waiting for a new GTA game since Ben Affleck was Batman, Game of Thrones didn\u2019t yet suck, and everyone was still doing the Harlem Shake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Some of the biggest gaming disappointments of 2025 weren\u2019t the games that came out, but rather the ones that didn\u2019t. After its public alpha test in April <u>drew a heated response from fans<\/u> and even <u>accusations of plagiarism<\/u>, <u>Bungie decided to delay its live-service shooter Marathon<\/u> from its intended September 23, 2025 launch to a March 2026 release window. <u>In a post on its website<\/u>, Bungie stated \u201cwe know we need more time to craft Marathon into the game that truly reflects your passion.\u201d To be fair to the former house of Halo, it is a Marathon and not a sprint.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Meanwhile, Microsoft made the call to hold back its Fable reboot for another year. The fantasy RPG series that hasn\u2019t been seen since the Xbox 360 era is currently being reimagined by the talented team at Playground Games, best known for its Forza Horizon open-world racing series. We\u2019re keen to find out how the developer makes the adjustment from speed racers to chicken chasers, but for now <u>Fable is a tale that won\u2019t be told until sometime in 2026.<\/u><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">At least Fable was only delayed just once, though, unlike Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra. In May, the planned release of the narrative-driven adventure featuring Captain America, Azzuri, and the Black Panther of the 1940s, was <u>pushed out of 2025 and into early 2026<\/u>. Then in November, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was delayed again, this time to the somewhat vague sounding window of <u>\u201cbeyond early 2026.\u201d<\/u> Considering we haven\u2019t seen anything new from the single-player superhero story since <u>an Unreal Engine 5.4 tech demo way back in early 2024<\/u>, we\u2019re inclined to assume that this one is still a ways off. Will it be worth the wait? Well, the fact that <u>it\u2019s being directed by the creator of the Uncharted series<\/u> fills us with more optimism than a pep talk from Steve Rogers.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Of course, the most devastating delay \u2013 and arguably the most predictable \u2013 was that of Grand Theft Auto 6. Rockstar Games proved with Red Dead Redemption 2 that it was prepared to take its time in order to produce <u>the best game possible<\/u>, and that steadfast approach <u>clearly paid off<\/u>. Still, given that we\u2019ve been waiting for a new GTA game since Ben Affleck was Batman, Game of Thrones didn\u2019t yet suck, and everyone was still doing the Harlem Shake, it certainly left a lot of fans crying in their Pi\u00dfwassers when the series\u2019 long awaited return to Vice City was <u>pushed back from Fall 2025 to May 26, 2026<\/u>. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Things only got all the more agonising when that date slipped again, with <u>GTA 6 currently not expected to launch until November 19, 2026<\/u>. Beyond leaving fans feeling the lowest of Lazlows, the further postponement of Rockstar\u2019s landmark launch will likely cast major ripples across the games industry, with analysts predicting everything from<u> frantic release schedule reshuffling by competing Q4 2026 titles looking to get out of GTA 6\u2019s way<\/u>, to even <u>a potential delay to the arrival of the next console generation<\/u>. Will GTA 6 live up to the unprecedented level of hype and expectation? Will GTA 6 suffer another delay? And why do men have nipples? We\u2019ll have the answers to at least a couple of those questions in a little less than a year\u2019s time.<\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\"><strong>Unhappy Endings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">The lights have gone out on Perfect Dark, permanently.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">While game delays are frustrating, they\u2019re typically a considerably more tolerable option to the alternative: cancellation. That is, being postponed is better than never arriving at all. One is steaming into New York a day or two late, the other is hitting an iceberg and becoming James Cameron\u2019s favourite holiday destination, two-and-a-half miles below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In July, Microsoft <u>cancelled the long-gestating Perfect Dark reboot<\/u> and completely shut down The Initiative, which was the development team behind the troubled project. The Initiative had been developing the game alongside Crystal Dynamics, <u>which was revealed to be partnering on the project in 2021<\/u>. Xbox <u>officially revealed Perfect Dark\u2019s return at The Game Awards 2020<\/u>, but it had established The Initiative back in 2018 as <u>the company\u2019s first \u201cAAAA\u201d studio<\/u>. Unfortunately, it appears AAAA appears to have simply been shorthand for, \u201cAAAArgh, it\u2019s all gone wrong.\u201d Perfect Dark actually didn\u2019t <em>completely <\/em>cease development at that time, however, and remained in production at Crystal Dynamics up until August. Crystal Dynamics was reportedly close to securing a deal with Take-Two to save the game, <u>but this fell through<\/u>. This resulted in <u>an unconfirmed number of layoffs at Crystal Dynamics<\/u> as the lights finally went out on Perfect Dark, permanently.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Avalanche Studios\u2019 Contraband was also shut down at this time. The studio behind Just Cause and Mad Max had been developing Contraband in conjunction with Xbox for four years, but it appears we\u2019ll never see it. A co-op, open-world smuggling game set in the 1970s, Avalanche confirmed at the time that <u>active development on the game had stopped while it evaluated the project\u2019s future<\/u>, but since then <u>Avalanche has laid off staff in Malm\u00f6 and Stockholm in Sweden, and closed its UK studio in Liverpool.<\/u><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Legendary UK studio Rare\u2019s <u>Everwild was also cancelled by Microsoft<\/u> during this same period. Everwild was <u>announced way back in November 2019<\/u> during Xbox\u2019s X019 presentation, but little concrete information about how the end product was going to play was ultimately revealed over the nearly six years that followed. These cancellations were associated with mass layoffs at Rare and elsewhere around Microsoft as the company grappled with\u2026 record financial performance levels in 2025 and a 15% increase in revenue, at $281.7 billion. These layoffs also hit Forza Motorsport developer Turn 10, with some reports claiming that the Forza Motorsport team was essentially <u>\u201cno more.\u201d<\/u> It\u2019s since been clarified that Forza Motorsport will apparently <u>continue to see support in spite of the staff cuts<\/u>, but whether the racing series will have any future after 2025 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\">Forza Motorsport will continue to see support, but whether the racing series will have any future after 2025 remains to be seen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Sadly, one racing game with <em>no <\/em>future is EA Sports WRC, with Codemasters <u>confirming in May that there will be no follow-up to its official WRC game<\/u> and that the team has \u201creached the end of the road\u201d working on the series after just one game. Unfortunately, alongside this news came the additional confirmation that the EA-owned studio is also \u201cpausing development plans on future rally titles,\u201d which is a big dose of dirt to cop in the face from a team that\u2019s been at the forefront of rallying video games for almost three decades, dating back to 1998\u2019s iconic Colin McRae Rally. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">WRC wasn\u2019t the only victim at EA, either; the company was swinging the axe quite liberally in 2025. In March it was reported that EA had quietly cancelled an <u>unannounced, multiplayer first-person shooter<\/u> from Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, although the game in question was apparently only in extremely early development. It\u2019s not at all uncommon for things like this to happen, however, and if you poured one out for every unannounced, unnamed project that didn\u2019t make it out of incubation you\u2019d die of thirst. That said, a month later it came to light that EA had also reportedly cancelled an <u>unannounced Titanfall game<\/u>, which <em>does <\/em>hurt slightly more than usual considering Titanfall 2 contains what\u2019s widely considered to be one of the <em>very best FPS campaigns in the history of the genre<\/em>. We\u2019re officially living in a world where <u>Bubsy 3D can have a sequel announced in 2025<\/u>, while Titanfall 2 has one cancelled. Nothing makes sense anymore. This unknown Titanfall game appears to have been a victim of EA layoffs that hit 300 workers, around 100 of which came from Respawn Entertainment. No other details regarding what this Titanfall project was are known.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">But wait, because EA wasn\u2019t done: in May it <u>cancelled its Black Panther game<\/u> and shuttered Cliffhanger Games, which was producing Black Panther as its debut project. Black Panther, which was <u>announced back in July 2023<\/u>, was set to be a single-player open-world game. EA claimed at the time that the decision to ditch the project was made in order to \u201csharpen\u201d the company\u2019s focus and put its \u201ccreative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.\u201d We\u2019re guessing EA\u2019s spreadsheet squad were unenthused by this single-player game\u2019s lack of a Wakanda Ultimate Team mode.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Black Panther isn\u2019t the only superhero to have the rug pulled out from beneath them in 2025, either. In February 2025 it was confirmed that Warner Bros.\u2019 <u>Wonder Woman game was cancelled<\/u> and developer Monolith would be shut down. In a horrible twist, Wonder Woman would have been Monolith\u2019s follow-up to its much-loved Middle-earth series and was expected to feature Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War\u2019s excellent and <u>patented Nemesis system<\/u>.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><u>First announced<\/u> at the 2021 Game Awards, Wonder Woman was a victim of a Warner Bros. decision to restructure its operations around \u201cbuilding the best games possible\u201d with its \u201ckey franchises.\u201d Of course, despite an overt focus on more Warner Bros. franchises than you could poke a carrot at, this restructure also didn\u2019t involve the survival of WB brawler MultiVersus, either. The free-to-play fighting game <u>was taken offline permanently and delisted in May.<\/u> <\/p>\n<h2 data-cy=\"title2\" class=\"title2 jsx-1903782357 jsx-3735650234\">A Price To Play<\/h2>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\"><\/p>\n<figure class=\"jsx-313219616\"><img alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" decoding=\"async\" role=\"presentation\" class=\"progressive-image article-image article-image-full-size jsx-1809694635 jsx-2338608387\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><figcaption data-cy=\"caption\" class=\"caption jsx-1762799490 jsx-479945570 article-image-caption\"> Xbox console prices climbed by a further $20-$70, for the second time in less than six months. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Rising prices are impacting plenty more than just video games. Hell, if supermarkets get any more expensive, groceries better start coming gold-plated. In the context of video games, however, 2025 has been like Quentin Tarantino sitting down and watching back-to-back Paul Dano movies: it\u2019s just one massive disappointment after another.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In April, Sony <u>raised the recommended retail prices of PlayStation 5 consoles across Europe<\/u>, Australia, and New Zealand, citing \u201ca challenging economic environment, including high inflation and fluctuating exchange rates\u201d as the catalyst for the increase. Following similar price hikes <u>made back in 2022<\/u>, the PS5 was now considerably more expensive in many territories than it was at its launch. Sony subsequently <u>also pumped up the price of all PlayStation 5 models in the US<\/u>, with the RRP of each of these jumping by 50 bucks in August.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Microsoft <u>raised the prices on Xbox consoles and various accessories back in May<\/u>, and <u>in October it kicked Game Pass prices into the stratosphere<\/u>, with prices now reflecting a 50% hike in subscription costs since the previous 2024 price bump. Microsoft tempered this October surprise by stressing that there&#8217;d be no further price increases for Xbox\u2026 outside the US. <em>Inside <\/em>the US, however, <u>Xbox console prices climbed by a further $20-$70, for the second time in less than six months.<\/u> Xbox Series X|S? More like Xbox Series <em>Excessive<\/em>. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Not to be outtrumped, <u>Nintendo also announced a range of price increases in August<\/u> \u2013 for the <em>eight-year-old<\/em> original Switch and its proceeding Lite and OLED models. Pricing for the Switch 2 was left alone, but Nintendo\u2019s move did come with a warning that price adjustments to things like the Switch 2, physical and digital Switch and Switch 2 games, and Nintendo Switch Online memberships \u201cmay be necessary in the future.\u201d Nintendo is likely trying to prepare us for the worst here, but there\u2019s no escaping the fact it sounds like the kind of ultimatum you typically get from two heavyset guys carrying baseball bats, driving a 1979 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. <\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">That said, Nintendo president Shuntaru Furukawa <u>recently indicated Switch 2 pricing should stay put for now<\/u>, saying Nintendo believes it can \u201cmaintain the current level of profitability for hardware for the time being unless there are significant changes in external factors, such as a shift in tariff assumptions, or other unexpected events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">It\u2019s already been widely discussed how US tariffs have resulted in significant adjustments to how companies balance the books, with increased costs unsurprisingly being passed onto consumers. Inflation pressure is also a contributing factor; after a long period of stability since the global financial crisis in 2008, global inflation surged dramatically in the wake of the pandemic and Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The frustrating part, however, is that this remains all quite unprecedented. That is, this generation Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft have completely flipped the script on console pricing trends that date all the way back to the \u201970s and \u201980s. Over many decades, consoles have reliably and traditionally dropped in price over their lifespans \u2013 first via slow but natural erosion in value caused by the effects of standard inflation, and then by overt price cuts that bring the price of entry right down. This current crop of consoles, however, is not dropping in price \u2013 in fact, they\u2019re going the complete opposite way.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Unfortunately, if people keep buying them at these prices, console price drops may go the way of old-timey bicycles and the funniest two-digit number between 60 and 70 being 69: a thing of the past.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN&#8217;s Sydney office. Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/the-biggest-disappointments-of-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025 has given us plenty of entertainment worth celebrating, but it\u2019s also gone and brought us consoles that cost more now than when they were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[978,13937],"class_list":["post-22274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-biggest","tag-disappointments","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}