For a while, fall 2025 was looking like a dead zone for new game releases. Publishers held plans close to their chests, ostensibly awaiting news of when industry titan Grand Theft Auto 6 would launch before publicly scheduling their games. Now that GTA 6 is supposedly set for a May 2026 release, games publishers have raced to fill the vacuum a pushed-back GTA 6 left behind. Except, perhaps, they’ve filled it up a little too much.
There are just too many games coming out, y’all, but at least the rest of this year has something for everyone.
Jonesing for more Indiana Jones in your life? The Great Circle’s Order of Giants DLC (Sept. 4) is here for ya. Need a new co-op game after wrapping up Split Fiction? Go be a sentient Lego in Lego Voyagers (Sept. 15). Want an open world ronin adventure? Here’s Ghost of Yōtei (Oct.2), you’re welcome. Excited for some Pocket Monster nostalgia? We got Pokémon Legends: Z-A (Oct. 16) around the corner. Burned out on Mario Kart World but still want to race your buddies? Nintendo’s got your back with Kirby Air Riders (Nov. 20).
And that’s to say nothing of the plethora of enticing indie games releasing over the next few months. Cozy horror Gloomy Eyes (Sept. 12), Double Fine’s lighthouse adventure Keeper (Oct. 17), and rock climbing sim Cairn (Nov. 5) are all trying to stand out in a crowded release calendar.
Here’s a not-at-all-comprehensive look at what’s launching from Labor Day until the end of 2025:
- Hirogami — Sept. 3
- Hell is Us — Sept. 4
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: Order of Giants DLC — Sept. 4
- Cronos: The New Dawn — Sept. 5
- Daemon x Machina: Titanic Scion — Sept. 5
- Terminator 2D: No Fate — Sept. 5
- Baby Steps — Sept. 8
- Garfield Kart 2: All You Can Drift — Sept. 10
- Borderlands 4 — Sept. 12
- Gloomy Eyes — Sept. 12
- Lego Voyagers — Sept. 15
- Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree — Sept. 19
- Silent Hill f — Sept. 25
- Sonic Racing CrossWorlds — Sept. 25
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles — Sept. 30
- [Deep breath]
- Ghost of Yōtei — Oct. 2
- Digimon Story Time Stranger — Oct. 3
- Absolum — Oct. 9
- Battlefield 6 — Oct. 10
- Little Nightmares 3 — Oct. 10
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A — Oct. 16
- Keeper — Oct. 17
- Jurassic World Evolution 3 – Oct. 21
- Ninja Gaiden 4 — Oct. 21
- Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault — Oct. 23
- Plants vs Zombies: Replanted — Oct. 23
- Once Upon A Katamari — Oct. 24
- The Outer Worlds 2 — Oct. 29
- Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake — Oct. 30
- Mina the Hollower — Oct. 31
- [Almost there]
- Cairn — Nov. 5
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 — Nov. 14
- Deadpool VR — Nov. 18
- Kirby Air Riders — Nov. 20
- Octopath Traveler 0 — Dec. 4
We still don’t have release dates for heavy hitters like Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (currently slated for a broad 2025 release), and there’s always the potential 1.0 launch of Hades 2 looming over the rest of the calendar. You know, in case that list wasn’t stacked enough already.
Oh, and did I mention that a little game called Hollow Knight: Silksong recently received a Sept. 4 release date? I think it’s going to be a big deal, guys.
Silksong has already blown up release plans for some indie games that were supposed to launch next month. Some publishers moved their games further back into the crowded fall calendar, while others elected to delay until next year entirely.
All this shuffling around has created a jam-packed release calendar to close out the year, and it may prove challenging for any one title to dominate the zeitgeist — let alone remain in it — for long when there are so many games coming out begging for your attention (and sales). The crazy thing is, we may be looking at a release calendar like this again next year.
No one can definitely promise Grand Theft Auto 6 will release next spring, not even the people working on it. Delays are just the nature of the industry. It wouldn’t be at all surprising for the end-of-the-school-year months in 2026 to look rather light, with publishers waiting for GTA 6 to cement itself, before a Grand Theft Auto 6 delay once again creates a vacuum to be filled to the brim.
But that’s for future versions of us to worry about. In the short-term, with GTA 6 a way’s out, the rest of 2025 is looking quite stacked with video games. Now if only I could find the time to play them all…
