"I think the franchise is dead," says Saints Row design director
Original Saints Row design director Chris Stockman has declared the Saints Row franchise is "dead".
Original Saints Row design director Chris Stockman has declared the Saints Row franchise is "dead".
Microsoft has revealed the next batch of games coming to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service this February, and into next month.
43.8 million player votes later, the winners of the 2025 Steam Awards have been announced, with Hollow Knight: Silksong securing top prize, Game of the Year.
It's a big year for gaming anniversaries. There are five massive series that turn 40 years old in 2026 - The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Dragon Quest, Kid Icarus, and Castlevania - whilst Sonic the Hedgehog turns 35, and Persona and Pokémon both turn 30. There's probably a lot of celebratory stuff coming over the next 12 months, but let's start with a franchise we know is getting some attention this year before anything else: Persona.
It's been another strange, difficult, and yet somehow also brilliant year for video games in 2025. Triple-A releases have been sparse again, compared to the boom times of old, with a great big GTA 6-shaped hole left in the final few months of the year. And yet once again, every gap left by the established order has been filled twice over with something brilliantly new.
2025 has gone by in a flash, hasn't it? Well, apart from the days I've spent tabulating all your Game of the Year votes and presenting the results here - that has felt like an eternity and I think has given me permanent neck pain. But, let's not worry about that. I'm sure you'll agree it was worth the sacrifice.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 may have been the most underrated game to release in 2025. It's difficult to say that about a title that came fourth in our own Game of the Year 2025 list and picked up awards at other, inferior, websites. It even got nominated for the big gong at the Geoffies. But when I talk to my friends , colleagues, or strangers online, it rarely enters the conversation despite being one of 2025's biggest hits and arguably the best medieval game ever made. However, the next game from developer Warhorse Studios could be very different, thanks to job listings that suggest a change in engines.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 developer seems to be working on a secret Unreal Engine project

From human-eating sharks to... human-eating zombies, the latest Carnage Collection from Humble Bundle is a gory treat of goodies for under $2 each. Even if the Steam sales are coming to an end, closing off the season of festive discounts, you can still score games like Dead Island 2 and Trepang2 for a fraction of the price. They're even cheaper than they ever were on Steam.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Grab Dead Island 2, this underrated Fear-style FPS, and six other games for under $2 each

Right, get ready for some chatter about where the contents of our collective wallets have gone over the past year. Valve's list of the highest-grossing games on Steam in 2025 has emerged from the great mists, and in a nice revelation, features a larger number of fresh releases than last year's ranking. That's alongside all of the moderately to quite old stuff which more folks keep hopping on the train of with every passing 12 month period.
It was an interesting Advent Calendar this year, from my perspective. My top four games - Arc Raiders, Silksong, Clair Obscur, and Hades 2 - were all highly ranked. And then none of my remaining games made the cut. I guess I should have strategically placed these games higher up for a better chance of making the cut. Bit of gaming the system, you know?
Payday 3 has been a thorn in Starbreeze's side since it arrived back in 2023. Despite its predecessor being one of the most beloved and best co-op games around, Payday 3 launched in a terrible state and with a web of new and reworked systems that players just didn't gel with. The result? On Steam at least, Payday 2's recent daily player counts are roughly 20 times higher than they are in Payday 3. Instead of calling it quits though, Starbreeze is committed to turning things around - it recently canceled a DnD project it was working on and handed Payday 2 support over to a different studio, all so it could put more resource behind the struggling game.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Payday 3 tears up one of its worst systems and replaces it with a shiny new one, and it's a huge step in the right direction

Whether it's the sound of clashing swords or the whispers of the wind in crowded markets, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a masterful take on medieval life. It is not only one of this year's best RPGs, but also an essential role-playing experience for fans of the genre, delivering a harsh world that is both beautiful and dangerous. I can't recommend it strongly enough. If you're looking to live out the full life of a 15th-century warrior, the entire Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 experience is here, with the Royal Edition now at its lowest price ever.
Read the full story on PCGamesN: Get one of 2025's highest-rated RPGs with all its DLCs as Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 hits its cheapest price
