Report: Majority Of Devs Expecting To Release New Games In 2025, Driving Industry Growth
Image: Pure Xbox

Let's have a bit of Friday night positivity, shall we? Despite what's been a rough year-or-so for the gaming industry, the outlook seems a bit better for 2025 so far - and a new report backs that up, as a majority of game developers expect the industry to grow this year.

Of 150 senior Unity game devs surveyed in a new report from Metaplay, 77% of them expect industry growth in 2025. Brand-new game releases are expected to help drive that growth, with 90% of these developers planning to release new games this calendar year.

In another stroke of positivity for the industry, the survey also concluded that more than two thirds of these game makers expect "fewer layoffs and studio closures" this year - which, after what we've seen over the last 12 months, is jolly nice to hear as well.

As we highlighted in our GTA 6 story earlier today, ballooning development costs have also been an issue for the industry in recent years, but the majority of devs surveyed here think that will get better in 2025 as well. The exact number of positive responses for that question was 63%, but "the use of technology rooted in artificial intelligence" is expected to be a driver in reducing these game dev costs - something that's likely to be highly controversial for fans.

Finally, despite news of two high-profile Sony shutdowns proliferating earlier today, live service games are still expected to be big money makers in 2025. More than three quarters of this surveyed game dev selection expect live service titles to boost revenue through this year, which is hardly surprising all-told.

What are your thoughts on this new industry survey? Talk to us about these results down below.

[source gamesindustry.biz]