14 Big Ideas for Games in 2025
In this special edition of the A16Z GAMES newsletter, our team shares their big ideas for how gaming and related technology could change in the year ahead.
Video games are constantly evolving. The hardware and infrastructure gets stronger, designers get more ambitious, and every year innovative gamemakers bring us entirely new genres and experiences. So how will gaming change in the year ahead?
As part of a16z’s Big Ideas in Tech push, members of the A16Z GAMES team are sharing one big idea for how interactive entertainment could evolve in 2025.
Let’s jump in.
1) A Next-Gen Pixar Will Emerge
I believe we’re on the precipice of seeing a next generation Pixar leverage AI-native storytelling formats that blur the lines between film and video games.
Traditionally, most video games are rendered deterministically using pre-baked assets built over years of development. Now there’s a new, AI-native storytelling format called interactive video that can generate an entire game on the fly. There is no game engine required, no assets that need to get built in advance. Interactive video consists of video frames generated entirely from neural networks in real-time. An image generation model infers the next gameplay frame based on player input. The result is personalized, infinite gameplay that blends the accessibility of TV/film with the dynamic, player-driven systems of video games.
Recent advances in model distillation for image generation have been astounding: over the past year, we’ve seen groundbreaking video foundation models from OpenAI, Luma Labs, Pika, Runway, and more. With more research underway, including by teams at DeepMind and Microsoft, we believe we’ll soon see the rise of a new, iconic media company that tells stories via interactive video, led by a team that successfully bridges the disciplines of video games, film, and AI.
2) AI Companions With Their Own Inner Worlds
Millions of people have downloaded AI companions and interact with them for hours each day. But the experience has limitations: the current generation of companions are passive, only reacting to conversations you initiate. Outside of your interactions, these companions have no friends or external context. In other words, they don’t have inner worlds.
I believe the next generation of companions will become much more engaging and lifelike. They’ll have their own virtual friends, reactions to news, and emotions. They’ll have their own motivations, missions, and desires, and they’ll chat with you about yours. Your friendships will be give-and-take.
The future design of AI companions can learn a lot from what has worked for video game franchises. As with video games, your conversations with companions should have a purpose and be driven by your motivations (akin to “quests” in games, whether you call them that or not). Companions should make reference to other characters, introduce you to friends, and discuss places, topics, and issues in their world. Sometimes they’ll text or call you for a long conversation, other times they’ll simply react. AI companions will feel increasingly real when they, themselves, believe they have a world to live for.
3) Games as Real-World Simulations: How Game Tech Will Power Tomorrow's Businesses
Traditionally, games have been virtual world simulations designed for fun. Now gaming technology is extending beyond entertainment to transform how businesses operate.
While gaming has long pioneered breakthrough technologies — from Nvidia’s graphics to Unreal Engine's real-time 3D rendering — these tools are now solving critical business challenges. Consider Applied Intuition, a company built on Unreal Engine, which creates virtual simulations to train and test autonomous vehicles.
Three forces are accelerating this shift: generative AI is slashing the cost of virtual content creation; advanced 3D capture technologies are digitizing real-world environments (aka digital twins); and next-generation XR devices are making immersive experiences practical for workers.
The applications are already here: Anduril leverages game engines for defense simulations; Tesla creates virtual worlds for autonomous systems; BMW is incorporating AR in future heads-up display systems; Matterport revolutionizes real estate with virtual walkthroughs; Traverse3D helps companies unlock virtual interactive training for their workforce.
Whether it’s training autonomous systems in virtual environments, helping consumers shop with 3D visuals, or scaling tomorrow’s workforce via simulations, I think game tech will infuse every sector in 2025.
4) A Second Wave of “Faceless” Video Creators
“Faceless Creators” are digital-native video creators who keep their appearance hidden from their audience. “Facelessness” exists on a broad spectrum: on one end, there are creators who hide their likeness and rely purely on their voice as a means of expression. In between, there are creators who take on an alternate persona, obfuscating their identity as a guise or costume. On the far end, there are those whose identities are fully associated with a virtual avatar, like VTubers.
For aspiring creators, content that used to require cameras, audio equipment, and green screens can now be replicated with AI software. By concealing their identities, creators can leverage a growing arsenal of AI-enabled tools and capabilities, such as speaking in non-native languages, in non-native voices. A creator from India, for example, can produce a video essay on the Louvre in a French-accent, recorded on a laptop enhanced to sound like a $400 podcast mic.
Ultimately, viewers will decide what merits our attention. If the information delivered feels meaningful, entertaining, or insightful, do we really care about the face behind the camera?
5) A New Media Paradigm: Interactive Video
By Colin Campbell - X | LinkedIn
I believe generative video tools will usher in new types of interactive video content that will resonate with consumers, and new distribution platforms will emerge to support this new content. However, it will take time for creators to figure out what type of interactive video will appeal to audiences. For example, the iPhone came out in 2007, and we did not get Pokémon GO until 2016.
The type of interactive video that most people think about is choose-your-own-adventure storytelling where you choose between different plot paths–but developers of interactive video platforms are working on other possibilities. Some of the most interesting ideas are (1) video foundation models you can play like a video game, (2) community driven television that adapts to social feeds discussing the video, and (3) video scenes that change as you interact with them with your cursor or finger.
Different people will resonate with different types of interactivity, and new distribution platforms with features to support this interactivity will need to emerge for audiences to consume this content.
6) The Next Take-Two Interactive Only Takes Two
I believe the first two-person AAA studio will be founded this year. A lot of game developers have been forced back out onto the market this year with some of the deepest layoffs in recent history. Those same developers, looking skeptically at yet another AAA job opening with the same old office politics and greenlight committees, may instead start playing around with the emergent AI creativity suite and decide to build their own game.
While in the past small teams were relatively limited in the scale, sophistication, and polish of games they could create, effectively painting them into a corner of indie and AA development, soon access to venture capital, SaaS and Gen AI development tools, and world class outsourcing (not to mention a publishing landscape in a state of disruption) opens the door for the next Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck duo to build LoL on their own. This, combined with entirely new ways of connecting with millions of players, plants the seeds for the next decade of genre-defining games (and game studios) to look very different from those of the past.
7) Mixed Reality Goes Mainstream
Many large game franchises first went to mobile as companion apps before developers figured out how to build compelling native experiences. Farmville was huge on Facebook, and released a companion app on mobile in 2010 before the first native mobile Farmville game launched in 2014. 2010 also saw the launch of companion apps for AAA franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Need for Speed, and Battlefield before native mobile game launches years later. These companion apps were often a low-friction way for developers to bring popular IP to a new platform in order to learn how to develop great native experiences later.
Mixed Reality device sales and adoption are on the rise. We’ve seen many experiments on the devices and strong early social games on the platform, including large publishers building the equivalent of “companion apps” in the form of low-risk ports of their existing 2D experiences. But we’re rapidly approaching critical mass where truly socially-driven experiences are possible at scale and the first generation of native XR creators have paved the way, showing the rest of the ecosystem how to build native experiences for mixed reality audiences.
I believe in the next year, mixed reality will have its Pokémon GO moment.
8) Imaginary Friends Become Real
By Doug McCracken - X | LinkedIn
Young kids are living in a world where their imaginary friends are becoming real. With incredible advances in AI, Robotics, and digital to physical connectivity – physical toys that act like real friends are now possible.
Many kids toy fads have been driven by interactive toys including: Teddy Ruxpin in the 1980s, Tamagotchi in the 1990s, Furbies in the 2000s, Sphero’s BB-8 in the 2010s. Kids want virtual friends IRL to share their lives with.
Buzz Lightyear now acts real and you can buy an AI powered stuffy voiced by Grimes, if you’re able to get into the beta. Soon kids (of all ages) will be able to design their own physical imaginary friend or import their favorite character from another IP world.
It won’t be long before kids have an AI powered Skibidi Toilet to share their dreams with, but I’m personally waiting for Hobbes to become real.
9) You Will Be A Character In A Game
By Jordan Carver - X | LinkedIn
In 2025, we expect to see the next big step for personalized in-game characters. With advancements in 3D asset generation and AI, players should be able to upload a simple photo and generate a lifelike or stylized version of themselves as a main character or NPC. This technology, driven by photogrammetry and AI tools like NVIDIA's Omniverse and Apple's Object Capture API, allows for high-fidelity 3D modeling using everyday devices like smartphones. AI will even aim to handle refinement and error-correction of these models, making it easier than ever to create digital avatars.
AI is poised to shape not only the look of your in-game character but also how the narrative reacts to you. LLMs have the potential to power dynamic storytelling, using personality tests and player decisions to create emotionally resonant narratives. These AI-driven stories could adapt in real time, offering personalized dialogue, branching plotlines, and unique character interactions that reflect a player’s traits and choices. The result? A deeply immersive, tailor-made gaming experience where the narrative evolves with you, making each playthrough feel uniquely yours.
10) Single Player Games Will Be Co-Op with AI
In 2025, I expect AI NPCs will be upgraded to in-game AI Companions with more knowledge and functionality than ever. These companions will aim to assess game strategy, take in-game action autonomously, and even communicate with you to warn you of danger. The experience will be like playing a Co-Op game with a friend (or another person), except maybe better.
In 2025, in certain games, you will be able to calibrate the companion to your wants and needs, preventing the need to text your friends to play with you, or match with a random stranger who is…not so nice. Games such as Ghost Recon Wildlands and Kingdom Hearts already have this type of functionality in campaigns, but I expect companions to get smarter, stronger, and more widely available in 2025.
11) Next Gen Viral Growth will be Through Messaging
Distribution is one of the most difficult challenges that games and apps struggle with. TikTok, paid UA, influencer marketing, partnerships and brand marketing are all different tactics that are leveraged, but it’s hard to build a repeatable flywheel for viral growth. This is now especially difficult given that iOS has changed contact flows and permissioning with iOS 18. Gone are the days where you could one-tap invite a bunch of your facebook friends or contacts… or are they?
Recent platform changes on Telegram, LINE, and Discord (even AppClips on iOS) are enabling the lost art of virality and moving towards mini-app ecosystems that are similar to the depth of WeChat’s. Of course you can still climb the Apple app store through clever design, but ultimately the best way to grow your app is still through viral word of mouth… digital, low-friction, invite-based word of mouth.
In 2025, I believe we will see viral social games skyrocket in the west on messaging platforms as developers seek new ecosystems that enable growth through network effects.
12) The Most Expensive Game Ever Has Already Been Made
By Justin Paine - X | LinkedIn
GTA VI’s reported $2B development cost will be remembered as the “peak” of AAA video games—the games industry’s Palace of Versailles.
Photorealistic, fully immersive, and lovingly handcrafted worlds are a marvel, but their rapidly escalating production costs feel outdated in today’s crowded market for attention.
AAA is no longer competing with just itself, but with Skibidi Toilet, Dress to Impress, and Khaby Lame—content achieving massive global scale despite its lower fidelity and grounded unit economics.
However, the industry’s current state of flux could yield a vibrant future. I expect spending will give way to the craft and the ingenuity of smaller teams augmented with advanced technology. This expected trend will continue to provide players with the groundbreaking experiences that define our medium as the most innovative and dominant form of entertainment.
13) When in Doubt, Mod It Out: AI-Powered Modding Will Revolutionize Game Development
In 2025, game studios should harness AI to accelerate modding—either by adapting existing games or building on platforms like Roblox and Fortnite. AI dramatically reduces production costs, enabling complex mods to be developed in a fraction of the time.
Adapting existing games has a proven track record: Dota, a mod of Warcraft III, evolved into League of Legends; Brendan Greene's DayZ mod led to PUBG and inspired Fortnite's Battle Royale mode. Platforms like Roblox now host high-fidelity games like Frontlines, showcasing what's possible. Roblox reports over ~80 million daily active users and has paid out more than $1 billion to creators.
By leveraging AI for asset creation and coding, developers receive immediate feedback and can iterate rapidly. Modding can address distribution challenges by tapping into massive user bases. Combining AI's efficiency with modding's reach solves two critical hurdles in game development.
In 2025, embracing AI-enabled modding isn't just a shortcut—it's a strategic imperative that could redefine the gaming landscape.
14) A Solo Game Dev Will Release A $100 Million Game
By Ryan K. Rigney - X | LinkedIn
Stardew Valley was the first to prove it was possible. The cozy farming game, built entirely by solo dev Eric Barone, reported over 30 million copies sold across all platforms as of this year, with the majority sold on Steam. Then came Lethal Company, a horror game made by a 21-year-old dev who cut his teeth on Roblox and itch.io. It sold over 10 million copies in mere months. At $9.99 a pop, that’s a nine-figure gross.
What happened? The publishers and retailers lost their grip on the games industry. PC gaming surged, growing by leaps and bounds while consoles stagnated. Next-gen dev tools, UGC platforms like Roblox, and new distribution channels made it possible for anyone to make a great-looking game. And traditional marketing channels lost ground to discovery algorithms on social networks and storefronts (mostly Steam) that recommend games based on how players engage with them.
If you’re an old-school marketer, things have never been less predictable. But if you’re a cracked solo dev with a dream and the ability to execute? Anything is possible.
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In response to the Co-op AI NPC ... what's the algorithm that stops the NPC from giving you the answer and spoiler alerting the whole experience? When does it know how to hint instead of blab?
Who's working on that? ... I have a great name for it ; )
Comment section(s) should be under each section for context relevant discussions.