// A Race to the Bottom

Welcome back to Video Game Power Rankings for Q2 (ish) of 2025.

Let’s see how these companies have risen or fallen now that we’re halfway through the year. You can read the Q1 rankings here.

Looking over the list, a lot of companies have done things to drop themselves down. Conversely, only a few have done great things to move up! A lot of gains based solely on the fact that another company fucked up. Q2 2025 might be battle of the least-bad.

Note: I’ve included quotations from the previous entry like this.

// 1. Koei Tecmo [+4]

KT is in a good spot, and they only stand to keep moving in that direction.

This still rings true! Ninja Gaiden II: Black and Atelier Yuma were both released to solid reception. Ragebound and NG:4 are still highly anticipated.

The announcement of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment is by far the biggest thing they’ve announced since last time. A new Zelda announcement on its own could raise a company up a few spots.

This is an undoubtedly consistent lineup, but it’s the absence of complete fuck-ups that lands them the #1 spot.

// 2. Bandai Namco [+5]

By all accounts, Nightreign has been Good. A good amount of players, good reviews – Good.

Little Nightmares III and Digimon Story: Time Stranger were both announced to be releasing later this year.

Shadow Labyrinth released last week to fair reviews.

While just Good might not sound spectacular, the absence of any actual negative points puts Bandai Namco quite high on the rankings.

// 3. Nintendo [-2]

The hype will only grow in April with the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. Unless they bungle it.

I wouldn’t say that they bungled anything about the Switch 2 itself. Instead, Nintendo found themselves amidst a wildfire of price-increase discussions. It’ll be tough to look back at the launch of the Switch 2 and not have a bit of a black cloud hanging over the period.

Debate has raged on if this is the fault of Nintendo or the international trade Situation. However you feel about that, it certainly wasn’t what Nintendo wanted to be the main talking point.

Tack on some dissatisfaction with Nintendo mucking about in Mario Kart, and they’ve earned some lumps.

Donkey Kong Bananza on the other hand, has been a smash hit. That’s on top of actually launching a fantastic new console that is very technically impressive. Nintendo has had some big wins and taken some big hits, but I don’t think they can rightfully be put any lower than #3.

Once GTA6 is delayed into 2026, the Switch 2 will almost certainly be the year’s biggest item.

Called it.

// 4. Sega [-2]

SEGA made #2 on the previous list because of their powerful and consistent releases.

They’re still plugging a long, but the impact of their games right now are certainly a bit smaller than in the last rankings. The delay of Sonic Rumble is also a strike against them.

Upcoming they have Shinobi: Art of Vengeance and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. They also saw Two Point Museum release to solid reviews.

Not quite the same impact as a new Yakuza game, but still good.

// 5. Konami [-1]

Silent Hill and MGS: Delta are still Konami’s biggest bets, and they are yet to release. 

Since last time: The Suikoden remasters were well received.

I expect a surge for Konami if their two big titles are hits, but for now, there are other things on people’s minds.

// 6. CD Project Red [+6]

CDPR keeps producing updates for Cyberpunk 2077! This time, a Mac version. Is it a massive deal? Not really. But I personally care, and it’s my list, so I’m bumping them up.

They also put it on Switch 2 and saw a lot of folks jump back in.

// 7. Capcom [-4]

Although Monster Hunter Wilds has some performance issues on PC, it was an absolute stellar success in both it’s critical reception and sales. 1.3 million peak players on Steam and 8 million sales in 3 days were both records for Capcom.

Monster Hunter: Wilds has not aged as well as it might’ve. Continued performance issues on PC landed the game’s recent reviews in Overwhelmingly Negative on Steam. It’s player count also fell off a cliff, with only an ~22,000 24-hour peak. That’s just barely above Monster Hunter: World’s 19,700.

Their revival of Onimusha and anticipated Resident Evil 9 announcement are also front-of-mind for a lot of video game enjoyers.

They finally did it! While it was just a cinematic trailer, the fake out reveal courtesy of Geoff Keighley was a wonderful “oh shit” moment. We’ll still need to wait until 2026, but I suspect hype for this will raise Capcom back up in the coming months.

// 8. 2K [+1]

Same business as last time, more or less. Mafia: The Old Country got a release date in August. 2K had a strong start to the year, and they will likely have a strong finish, but right now we are just waiting.

// 9. PlayStation [+9]

It’s been a busy few months for PlayStation. Since the last Power Ranking, they announced a release date for Marathon, held some alpha tests, got busted for stealing the entire art direction of the game, and delayed it. Oh, what fun!

Yotei is on schedule for October this year. Thankfully, it looks great.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach was a success, and Lost Soul Aside is lined up for 2025 as well.

Regardless of the fate of Marathon, all that’s left of Sony’s live-service-fuck-ups are it and Fairgame$. All I want at this point is for the poor folks working on these things not to lose their jobs.

Despite the Marathon situation, I think Sony as a whole is closer to the light at the end of the tunnel. DS2 and Yotei are sure to be two of the year’s biggest hits, and contenders come GOTY season.

// 10. Larian Studios [+2]

It will be a long while before their next game, but their prestige and good will from the gaming community at large gives them a decent rank here. 

Still true.

Since then, they also released those horrible action figures. So, strike one for those things.

// 11. Tencent [0]

It’s hard to move Tencent up or down in this ranking. It’s mostly more of the same. 

Revenge of the Savage Planet and Dune: Awakening are both owned or funded by Tencent, and people said nice things about those games. They didn’t shake up the industry much, however.

// 12. Epic [+3]

Fortnite good. Epic Games Store bad. They are a universal constant. 

Revisiting this list after a few months is interesting. It really sinks in just how much some of these companies are able to rely on their live service behemoths and nothing else.

// 13. MiHoYo [+3]

Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero are all rolling along.

Anyone else getting Deja Vu?

// 14. NetEase [-6]

FragPunk was kind of a fart in the wind. Currently, it has about 3,700 active players on Steam. In the world of live service games dropping like flies, I wouldn’t be shocked if FragPunk has its last buzz before it turns 1.

Marvel Rivals is still going strong with ~140,000 concurrent players as it’s 24 hour peak. A lot of the hype has died down, and it’s settling into a groove.

// 15. Rockstar [-5]

We’re all tuned to anything with the stink of GTA news, so expect big movements for Rockstar on this list three months from now. Hopefully.

We got it. See you next year, folks!

// 16. Ubisoft [+4]

One great AC game doesn’t fix their ship, but one bad one might just sink it.

Thankfully for Ubisoft, they are still afloat. AC Shadows was well received, and did good numbers for them. Rumours of a sale have died down since Ubisoft chopped off one of their legs and gave Tencent a 25% stake in it.

This adds something of a patch to the sinking ship. However, they’ll need to start producing games. They don’t have a lot on the horizon with real release dates as of now. It might be weird to see Ubi this high on the list, but they’ve taken the, “no news is better than bad news,” approach since last time.

// 17. Xbox [-13]

A lot of folks think they have the most exciting lineup of 2025.

Oh how quickly public opinion can shift when you lay off thousands of people and bring the axe down on a handful of games.

While I gave them a nod for Expedition 33 because it was included in GamePass, I can’t assign much credit to them for its success since they had nothing to do with making it.

Doom and South of Midnight were both solid entries. Games definitely worth playing, but not revolutionary. Certainly not good enough to overshadow everything going on at Microsoft and Xbox.

Murmurings of an Xbox handheld, as well as Xbox’s ongoing ambitions to let you play games any-damn-where you please, show good initiative.

This was announced as an Xbox integrated ROG Ally. While this probably makes the most sense for them, it’s not as exciting as I had hoped.

Xbox has done a lot of good since our last check-in – possibly the most – but they’ve also done by far the most bad, so they dropped to here.

// 18. EA [+4]

> They have a lot of planned titles for the future. A new battlefield, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Black Panther, and more. These all float around untitled and without a release window. I think the consensus from most people is more akin to, “I hope these games actually release,” as opposed to, “I can’t wait for those games.”

Is anyone else having Deja Vu?

// 19. Embracer Group [0]

They’ve spent the past two years going into debt, laying off thousand of people, and cancelling dozens of projects. In 2024 alone, they cut their workforce in half.

Despite this, they still announced they want to release 76 games in 2025/26. Everything from Spongebob to Metal Eden (which actually looks cool). Better get to it!

Forgive the skepticism, but I’ll believe it I see it.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra was delayed to 2026.

// 20. WB Games [+1]

We left Warner Bros. Games as a hot mess. Where do we find them now? Basically the same.

They’ve committed to focusing on their key franchises like Game of Thrones and Batman. I don’t see WB climbing this list too high in the near future.

Without much on the horizon, all they’ve managed since last time was a Hogwarts Legacy port to Switch 2. This is admittedly a good fit, and the only reason they moved up one spot. 

// 21. Niantic [-4]

Niantic has announced it wants to move away from game development and into AI technology. If nothing new comes about by Q3, you can expect them to be dropped from the list all together.