On this week's episode of the Link-Cable podcast we discuss all the big gaming news from the previous week. From GTA V coming to the Epic Games Store, the Unreal Engine 5 demo and the Ghost of Tsushima State of Play.
O'Dell Harmon Jr. writes: "Before we say goodbye to 2025, let’s take a look back and see what were the most downloaded games of the year. It was a great time for sports, shooters, and some new PlayStation VR2 games. Sports favorites topped the charts in US/Canada and EU, with NBA 2K26 and EA Sports FC26, respectively.
Juggernaut GTA V found a home in the top three for both regions, with new 2025 release Battlefield 6 claiming second place in the US. Fortnite took top place for free-to-play games, and Beat Saber continues its PS VR2 success."
I think it shows how shortsighted it was for Sony to let go of Evolution and not get them to make some sort of competitor (open world Driveclub?) 10 years ago.
After Driveclub's reception, hard to say it would have done well enough to compete. It's easy to dream of such a thing, but to make it happen? It's taken how long for CoD to be dethroned? And it was dethroned by Hogwart's Legacy and has gained it right back just the next year.
It’s funny to watch the only games EU and USA agree on was Minecraft and back ops 7 both regions on 6 and 7 spot respectively other than that FIFA rules EU
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I would like to see a list that has both free to play and paid games together, but at least we have this.
To this day GTA5 is a top downloaded game and it makes me wonder if the industry is really ready for GTA6. I imagine almost nothing else will sell during that game's release window.
Another night of Fortnite with the boys then?
I’ve never played Fortnite GTAV or CoD BO7 but I do own GTAV for PS4/5 because I got them cheap.
What exactly are we not getting?
Did we not just have a 2025 filled with nice games like...
Silksong, Doom TDA, Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Ghost of Yotei, Dispatch, Split Fiction, Hades 2, DK Bananza, and so many more?
Agree that all you just posted are great games. Expedition 33 is one of my favorites. Spent a large chunk of time on BG3 in 2023. Another for my all-time list.
My point though not well articulated in the OG post is that we would get more of the games of the quality you mentioned if so many valuable resources were not allocated to FTP slop and/or heavy monetization schemes. Some of what used to be my favorite franchises have been ruined by them.
To sum it up, I would like to see games like 33 outperform the profits made by games like Fortnite so more resources are allocated to great games. When heavily monetized FTP games are at the top of the list, we end up being stuck with a significant chunk of games that are not good. Or worst case scenario games that spend years in development, but get cancelled due to industry trend chasing.
Popsicle, I actually think we're getting more great games because of the slop. Developers are seeing that people aren't happy and taking advantage of big AAA studios not delivering for people.
Revolution Team, the modding team behind GTA Vice City NextGen Edition, has announced GTA: San Andreas NextGen Edition.
I'm surprised modders haven't taken GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas and connected them as one big game. I remember GTA 3, you had to complete so much of the game to open up the other part of the city, which was connected by a bridge, although there was a flying car cheat.
