10 predictions for the games industry in 2025 and beyond

In this piece, Dima Karpenko, our Market Research & Analysis Team Lead, predicts how the games industry might change in the coming years, using his and Room 8 Group’s own market research and industry analyses.

1. The definition of quality will shift from ‘polish’ to ‘purpose’?

Prediction: The industry will fundamentally redefine what constitutes a quality game—moving from technical excellence and polish toward purposeful design and meaningful player impact.?

Why: The market is challenging traditional notions of what makes a ‘good’ game. While technical polish and visual fidelity were once paramount, successful games increasingly prioritize unique experiences and meaningful connections over technical maximalism. This isn't about lowering standards—it's about redirecting development resources from surface-level polish to core experience design. Minecraft and Roblox proved that technical simplicity doesn't hinder success, but they're just the beginning. The next wave of hits will win not because they're perfectly polished, but because they're perfectly purposeful, delivering exactly what their target audience needs, even if that means intentionally leaving some traditional ‘quality markers’ behind.?

(Room 8 Group's Head of Creative, Benjamin Paquette, wrote a piece for Game Developer last year in which he made a similar argument. Read that here.)

2. The rise of ‘minimum viable innovation’?

Prediction: Successful new IP will start smaller but iterate faster based on player feedback.?

Why: The numbers tell a brutal truth: out of 19,000 new games on Steam last year, 80% failed to gain even minimal visibility. Big-budget projects are dying before launch in part because they can't prove market fit. Smart studios are learning from tech startups: launch faster with core innovations, test real player reception, then scale what works. It's better to find out a game concept doesn't work with a $1m experiment than a $100m failure.?The 'big bang' era of game launches might not be over, but it will correct, because the market now punishes?massive upfront investments in unproven concepts.?

3. The ‘Hollywood-ization' of game development will accelerate?

Prediction: The Hollywood production model, already standard for major publishers, will be widely adopted by leading development studios and new companies.??

Why: While major publishers have long operated like Hollywood studios—maintaining control of core creative and technical elements of IP while divvying production between multiple partners—market research shows this model is now penetrating deeper into the industry. Development studios are increasingly switching to this approach, which is being accelerated by industry veterans, who, after recent layoffs, are forming new studios built on this model from day one—focusing on creative direction and IP development while orchestrating a network of production partners.?

4. Geographic redistribution will reshape development?

Prediction: Major game development hubs will shift dramatically to emerging markets as cost pressures intensify.?

Why: We're seeing a clear pattern: North American studios are moving operations to Europe and Latin America, while European companies are relocating production staff to Eastern Europe and Asia. This isn't temporary—it's a strategic response to unsustainable development costs in traditional hubs like Los Angeles. Our research shows this migration is accelerating as rate sensitivity increases and companies seek partners who can deliver more value for money.?Emphasis on hotspots like LA—and on having teams at the same location and in the same timezone—is diminishing.

5. Value-adding multi-service providers will dominate?

Prediction: Companies offering the widest range of high-value expertise under one roof will capture the outsourcing market, especially those operating from cost-effective regions.?

Why: The market increasingly favors partners who can provide multiple forms of value-adding expertise while maintaining lower overheads through strategic location choices. This ‘one-stop shop of experts’ model proves more efficient for developers than managing multiple vendors, particularly when these value-focused teams operate from regions with lower operating costs. The stronger a provider’s expertise across a range of solutions, the better, and this will only become more important from 2025.

6. The game pricing model will fundamentally change?

Prediction: Game prices will go down as the model of how games are sold will shift to smaller, more frequent releases.?

Why: Increased living costs worldwide are reducing entertainment spending. The industry's response won't be just simple price cuts—we will see a shift toward releasing games in smaller, more focused installments. ?

Some, like Matthew Ball, have argued the opposite: game prices might be due an increase soon because, in real terms, they have not risen (and may have even decreased) over many years.

However, the real challenge is value justification.?For a customer every purchase is an equation. On one side you have the value (the experience, the entertainment, and the prestige of the game), and on the other its price. If games become 30% or 40% more expensive, people will become even more selective about which experiences justify that cost.?Will most?players feel they’ve got their money's worth if a game costs them $100??This is price elasticity: push the price too high and demand can do more than just dip—it could plummet, especially when consumers are struggling financially. While core franchise fans might be less price-sensitive, maintaining mass-market appeal at such price points is risky.?

Also, the industry is moving toward standardization—take for example the widespread adoption of Unreal Engine—which typically drives costs down, not up. While custom engines might justify higher costs, the general trend toward standardization should theoretically reduce prices.

7. Co-dev partners must evolve from understanding to predicting player behavior?

Prediction: While understanding player psychology and genre dynamics is already essential, successful co-development partners will need to more effectively predict emerging player trends and behaviors, becoming proactive advisors rather than reactive implementers.?

Why: Basic understanding of player values, motivations, and genre dynamics is now table stakes—the market is oversaturated with partners who can speak this language. Steam data shows only 20% of new games gain meaningful traction, signaling that mere understanding isn't enough. The next evolution requires co-dev partners to analyze patterns across multiple genres, IPs, and player segments to identify emerging trends before they become obvious. This capacity to predict can turn companies from knowledgeable service providers to invaluable strategic advisors who can spot opportunities and risks early. It's about evolving from ‘we understand what players want now’ to ‘we can see where player preferences are heading and why’. For co-dev partners, this will be crucial for earning profit-sharing arrangements with IP holders and a meaningful voice in project decisions.?

8. A new genre will emerge?and dominate

Prediction: After the popularity of Battle Royale games from around 2017, we will see another game genre emerge which gains massive traction in the near future.

Why: The mass cancellation of big-budget traditional projects is forcing studios to fundamentally rethink their approach to game design and player engagement. With major studios now carefully reconsidering their green-light processes and studying audience behaviors more deeply, we're primed for genuine innovation in game formats. The market is hungry for something fresh, and the current industry reset creates perfect conditions for breakthrough ideas to emerge.?

9. AI will transform both development and content delivery?

Prediction: AI tools will create a new category of ‘augmented developers’ while revolutionizing the pace of content updates—shifting the industry toward smaller, faster, more frequent releases.?

Why: AI tools are already revolutionizing asset creation and coding efficiency. This will allow creators to use AI to augment their work, dramatically reducing the resource gap between indies and established studios.

We surveyed dozens of key decision-making gaming executives for our recent Game Development Industry Survey 2025. 60% of respondents are planning to implement AI, are already using it, or are actively evaluating options. At the same time, Most respondents will start to use AI for basic, standardized tasks in the next few years, but just 10% will reduce human production capacity as a result. ?

Most AI use leans more toward augmentation (57%), where AI collaborates with and enhances human capabilities, compared to automation (43%), where AI directly performs tasks. We at Room 8 Group found this in our own research: we reviewed 34 AI tools for 2D/concept game art and found that some tools are great for augmenting (but remain far from replacing) the work of artists.

More importantly, AI will enable a fundamental shift in content delivery: instead of large, infrequent updates, games will receive smaller but more frequent content injections, produced faster and at lower cost. This will create a more dynamic relationship between developers and players, with constant fresh content keeping games alive longer.?

10. Co-development will become central to project funding?

Prediction: External partners will increasingly operate on reduced rates in exchange for profit-sharing on promising projects, fundamentally changing the co-development landscape. More critically, having reliable co-dev partners will become a mandatory component of project funding pitches.?

Why: The industry is moving beyond simple work-for-hire. Forward-thinking service providers will start to work at minimal margins or even at cost when they're confident in a project's market potential and have skin in the game through revenue-sharing agreements. This model allows publishers to keep development costs low while incentivizing partners to contribute beyond mere technical execution—they become true stakeholders in the game's success. But there's an even more fundamental shift: investors and publishers will expect making co-dev partnerships to be a key factor in project funding decisions. It's no longer enough to pitch just the creative vision and market potential—investors want to know: “Who's actually going to build this?” Having proven, reliable co-dev partners attached to a project will become as important as the game concept itself. It's a win-win-win: publishers get more committed partners and lower upfront costs, service providers get access to potentially massive upside, and investors have greater confidence in the project's ability to deliver both quality and market success.?

From 2025 we will see a fundamental restructuring of how games are made and sold. The companies that adapt to these changes may well define the next era of gaming.