2025: Cruel Year with Cancellations and Mass Layoffs in the Industry

The year 2025 is shaping up to be one of the most brutal in recent history for the video game industry, marked by a devastating wave of game cancellations and mass layoffs. Over 7,200 jobs have already been eliminated this year, adding to the more than 10,000 cuts in 2024, and the list of discontinued games grows each month, totaling 17 titles confirmed or reported as canceled. 

This scenario of widespread instability, affecting everyone from small indies to giants like Microsoft and Sony, raises serious concerns about the sustainability of the current development model and the impact on thousands of professionals. The reasons vary, from "rapidly changing market dynamics and corporate restructuring" to "rising development costs and other creative challenges." The lack of transparency in many of these corporate decisions only exacerbates uncertainty and insecurity for those working in the industry.

The 2025 Blacklist: High-Profile Projects Disappear

The series of cancellations in 2025 is a direct reflection of the pressure for financial results and portfolio reassessment by publishers. Many high-profile projects were simply scrapped, leaving developers and fans in limbo.

On January 8, 2025, Transformers: Reactivate, an online action game by Splash Damage (a studio owned by Tencent), was summarily canceled. Splash Damage issued a generic statement on X, providing no explanations, only stating that the decision "was not taken lightly" and that it was a "difficult time for the studio and our staff." The game had been announced at the Game Awards 2022.

Sony PlayStation also contributed to the list on January 16, 2025, with Bloomberg reporting the cancellation of two unannounced live-service games: one from Bend Studio (Days Gone) and a God of War live-service game from Bluepoint Games (Demon's Souls Remake). Sony confirmed that neither Bend Studio nor Bluepoint Games would be closed, and that the company would work with the studios to determine their "next projects." These decisions may be linked to Sony's previous efforts to scale back its live-service game plans, which have already seen the closure of Firewalk Studio (developer of Concord) and the cancellation of projects like a multiplayer game for The Last of Us by Naughty Dog, a supposed online game for Spider-Man, a Twisted Metal live-service game, and a Destiny spin-off called Payback.

On January 22, 2025, Extremely OK Games announced the cancellation of Earthblade, a 2D platformer that was meant to be the successor to Celeste. The decision, made in December 2024, came after a disagreement over the IP rights of Celeste with a former art director. The studio acknowledged that the game was not "as far along as one would expect after such a prolonged development process." The team is now "prototyping again and exploring at our own pace."

Football Manager 25 was canceled on February 6, 2025, marking the first time in 21 years that the annual football simulator will not have a release. Sports Interactive concluded that the game "would not meet the required standard," citing issues with the "overall player experience and interface." The series is set to return with Football Manager 26 later this year.

The Wonder Woman game was also canceled in February 2025, and the developer, Monolith Productions, would be closed. The decision came from Warner Bros. amidst a corporate restructuring. Comic book writer Gail Simone, who worked on the project, described the game as "beautiful and expansive." The game had been announced at the Game Awards 2021.

In March 2025, an unannounced multiplayer first-person shooter game from Respawn Entertainment (Apex Legends) was canceled. Considered an "incubation project," it was in its early stages of development. IGN reported that the team was working on a first-person shooter of Star Wars that had been canceled in early 2024.

A month later, Bloomberg reported that EA had canceled an unannounced Titanfall game as part of broader cuts in the company, affecting around 300 employees. Of these, 100 were from Respawn Entertainment. The Titanfall series is beloved by fans, with Titanfall 2 from 2016 being praised for its single-player campaign, which IGN ranked as the second-best FPS campaign of all time.

On May 14, 2025, Square Enix canceled Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link, an action-RPG mobile game with GPS mechanics similar to Pokémon GO. Square Enix stated that "it would be difficult to provide a service that players found satisfying over a long period of time." The company assured that development of the next main Kingdom Hearts game continues.

Battle Aces, a real-time strategy game from Uncapped Games, was canceled on May 23, 2025. The studio, in their statement on Steam, said that "the early testing feedback was not strong enough to support ongoing development."

The second comic book-based game to be canceled in 2025 was Black Panther by EA, announced on May 28, 2025, along with the closure of Cliffhanger Games, its developer. EA justified the decision as a way to "enhance our focus and put our creative energy into more significant growth opportunities." The game would have been a single-player open-world game, led by Kevin Stephens, former head of the now-closed Monolith Productions. EA stated that the cancellation of Black Panther does not affect its multi-game deal with Marvel, and that they will still develop at least three Marvel games, starting with Iron Man by EA Motive.

Hytale, a sandbox game inspired by Minecraft, was canceled in June 2025 along with the closure of Hypixel Studios. Hypixel admitted that they "couldn't bring Hytale to life in a way that truly fulfilled its promise," needing "much more time for Hytale to reach a point where it could support the ambitious vision for the game." Riot had helped fund Hytale before acquiring Hypixel Studios in 2020.

On July 2, 2025, Microsoft announced over 9,000 layoffs, including cuts at Xbox. As part of these cuts, the reboot of Perfect Dark was canceled and the developer, The Initiative, was closed. Perfect Dark was also being co-developed by Crystal Dynamics. Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, confirmed the cancellations in an internal email, stating that the decisions reflect "a broader effort to adjust priorities and focus resources to prepare our teams for greater success in a changing industry landscape." The Initiative was created by Xbox to develop "AAAA" games, and Perfect Dark, revealed at the Game Awards 2020 with a gameplay trailer in June 2024, was its only project.

Everwild, by Rare, was also canceled on July 2, 2025, as part of the same Microsoft cuts. The game, announced in November 2019, would have been Rare's first new title since Sea of Thieves in 2018. After the cancellation, Gregg Mayles, a Rare veteran of 35 years and creative director of Everwild, would be leaving the studio.

Finally, Xbox canceled an unannounced MMO from ZeniMax Online Studios (The Elder Scrolls Online) in July 2025. Codenamed Blackbird, the game would be a new science fiction IP, unrelated to The Elder Scrolls or Fallout. It had been in development since 2018 and was nearing completion. The development team of Blackbird was laid off together with the cancellation. Matt Firor, director of ZeniMax Online Studios since its founding in 2007, also announced that he was stepping down, being replaced by general manager Joseph Burba.

On July 4, 2025, the Polish media portal Pulz Biznesu reported that Techland (Dying Light) had canceled two games in development. Techland confirmed the report to Eurogamer, stating that "game development is never a straight line, and sometimes new approaches are needed to make great games." The company also confirmed that no jobs were lost due to the "reported changes."