New Games 2025: September Week 1 Spotlight

Welcome back to our weekly gaming roundup! September has launched with an absolutely stacked lineup that includes one of gaming's most anticipated sequels, alongside fresh takes on classic franchises and innovative new experiences. Before diving into this week's remarkable new games 2025 releases, make sure to check out our esports predictions and analysis for comprehensive tournament coverage. This week brings everything from long-awaited sequels to experimental narrative adventures, plus some major industry shakeups that are reshaping the development landscape.

Game Releases

SHINOBI: Art of Vengeance

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Release Date: August 29, 2025

The legendary ninja returns in spectacular fashion, bringing the classic SHINOBI formula into the modern era with stunning hand-drawn visuals from the Streets of Rage 4 development team. This collaboration immediately signals quality, as DotEmu and Lizardcube have proven their mastery of revitalizing classic franchises while respecting their original essence.

Players step into the role of Joe Musashi, the iconic shinobi master whose village has been destroyed and clan turned to stone by an ancient evil. The quest for vengeance drives both narrative and gameplay, offering a deeply personal stake in the action. The game emphasizes precision combat with an expanded ninja arsenal including the legendary Katana Oborozuki, various kunai techniques, traditional ninjutsu arts, and powerful ninpo abilities.

Combat depth comes through limitless combo possibilities and unique special moves, while progression involves collecting amulets that enhance your abilities and discovering ningi tools that unlock new traversal options. The visual design showcases over a dozen distinct environments ranging from military installations to scorching desert landscapes, each presenting unique platforming challenges and hidden secrets. The hand-drawn aesthetic creates a timeless quality that honors the series' arcade roots while delivering contemporary visual sophistication.

Metal Eden

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Release Date: September 2, 2025

This cybernetic warfare experience positions players as HYPER UNIT ASKA, an advanced battle android on a desperate mission to rescue human consciousness from the monolithic city MOEBIUS. The premise alone establishes Metal Eden as something special in the crowded FPS landscape, combining philosophical themes about humanity's relationship with artificial intelligence alongside pulse-pounding combat. The gameplay revolves around your status as a specialized reconnaissance unit powered by a mysterious PHANTOM CORE. Enhanced parkour abilities allow wall-running, grappling, and dashing through enemy territory, while the unique ARMORED RAMBALL transformation provides tactical options for charging through heavily defended positions. The jetpack and gravity hook systems promise true three-dimensional combat encounters. MOEBIUS serves as both setting and antagonist, a massive orbital city that was humanity's hope but became their trap. The mysterious ENGINEERS who control this brutalist environment have created the INTERNAL DEFENCE CORPS, diverse mechanical forces that protect the city's secrets. Combat involves extracting energy cores and destroying defensive shields to gain battlefield advantages, suggesting strategic depth beyond simple shooting mechanics. The world-building extends to VULCAN, the mysterious planet below, hinting at larger mysteries surrounding this lost human colony.

Hell is Us

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Release Date: September 4, 2025

Creative Director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête brings his distinctive vision to this third-person action-adventure that explores humanity's propensity for perpetual violence. The setting combines civil war with supernatural calamity, creating a world where modern weapons prove useless against mysterious chimeras that have emerged from unknown origins. The exploration system represents the game's most ambitious feature, completely abandoning traditional navigation aids like maps, compasses, or quest markers. Players must rely entirely on environmental storytelling, visual cues, and personal instincts to navigate the world and discover objectives. This approach demands active engagement rather than passive following of waypoints, potentially creating more memorable and personal discovery experiences. Combat focuses on melee weapons specifically forged to battle supernatural creatures, including swords, spears, and axes that function where conventional firearms fail. The companion drone serves both tactical and narrative purposes, providing reconnaissance and support during encounters with the otherworldly threats. The game's central theme examining human violence as an emotional cycle suggests mature storytelling that goes beyond surface-level action, positioning Hell is Us as both entertainment and commentary on conflict's perpetual nature.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One

Release Date: September 4, 2025

After years of anticipation that reached legendary status within the gaming community, Team Cherry's masterpiece sequel finally arrives. Silksong's announcement alone sent Hollow Knight's concurrent player counts to record-breaking heights, demonstrating the incredible hunger for this experience. The wait appears justified, as this sequel promises to expand every element that made the original exceptional. Playing as Hornet, the lethal hunter from the first game, represents a significant shift in both character abilities and narrative perspective. The kingdom of Pharloom offers entirely new territories to explore, from mossy grottos and gilded cities to mysterious misted moors, all building toward the shining citadel that crowns this vertical world. The pilgrimage structure suggests a more focused journey compared to the original's interconnected exploration. Combat evolution brings enhanced acrobatic possibilities, with Hornet's moveset enabling swift, dance-like encounters between enemies. The expanded arsenal includes weapons, traps, and mechanisms that promise both combat depth and traversal solutions. With over 200 enemies and 40 legendary bosses, Silksong offers substantially more content than its predecessor, while the returning Steel Soul mode provides additional challenge for players who master the base experience. Christopher Larkin's return as composer ensures the audio design will match the visual and gameplay excellence, creating another unforgettable atmospheric journey through a beautifully tragic insect kingdom.

Shuten Order

Platforms: PC, Nintendo Switch

Release Date: September 5, 2025

This ambitious narrative experiment presents five completely different gameplay experiences within a single overarching mystery. With only 168 days remaining until humanity's end, players must solve their own murder as the resurrected founder of a death cult, armed with just four days and fragmented memories. Each suspect investigation transforms the game entirely. The Ministry of Security route becomes a stealth-action horror experience, fleeing from the legendary killer Nephilim while investigating from a top-down perspective. The Ministry of Justice offers classic detective work, interviewing suspects and analyzing crime scenes through visual novel segments enhanced by "Snapping" mechanics for detailed evidence examination. The Ministry of Science presents multi-perspective storytelling during a terrorist attack, where switching between character viewpoints reveals different survival possibilities. Most unexpectedly, the Ministry of Education becomes a romance adventure where building relationships with three mysterious girls becomes crucial to uncovering poisoning attempts. Finally, the Ministry of Health delivers escape room challenges with life-threatening consequences for wrong choices. This genre-blending approach creates a unique experience where solving the central mystery requires mastering completely different gameplay styles. The four-day time limit adds urgency to every decision, while the branching structure ensures multiple playthroughs reveal different aspects of the truth behind the Shuten Order's dark purpose.

Happenings in the Gaming World

Crystal Dynamics Faces Another Round of Layoffs

The Tomb Raider developer has eliminated "a number" of positions, though the exact figure remains undisclosed. The studio attributed these cuts to "evolving business conditions" and the need to ensure long-term stability in an increasingly volatile market environment.

Social media posts from affected developers revealed that Perfect Dark's cancellation directly contributed to these layoffs. Microsoft's massive July 2025 restructuring not only shuttered the reboot project but also closed The Initiative, the studio specifically created to handle the property. Crystal Dynamics had joined the Perfect Dark development in 2021, making this cancellation particularly impactful for their workforce.

The studio confirmed that their current Tomb Raider project remains unaffected by these changes. However, this marks Crystal Dynamics' second layoff event in 2025, following March's elimination of 17 positions. The pattern suggests ongoing instability despite the studio's acquisition by Embracer Group for $300 million in 2022, where they've primarily focused on Legacy of Kain and Tomb Raider remasters.

Hollow Knight Reaches Record Player Counts Ahead of Silksong

Team Cherry's original masterpiece has shattered concurrent player records on Steam following Silksong's release date announcement on August 21. The initial spike reached 16,640 players, surpassing any peak since the game's historical low pricing during 2022's "Going Rogue" Steam sale. The momentum has continued building daily, with the latest concurrent player count hitting 70,225 on August 31. This represents extraordinary sustained interest for a game released in 2017, demonstrating Silksong's incredible anticipation levels within the gaming community. The original has also climbed into Steam's top 20 bestsellers, suggesting newcomers are discovering the series ahead of the sequel's arrival.

Currently holding the position as Steam's most wishlisted title, Silksong's September 4 release represents one of gaming's most anticipated launches. The cross-platform availability ensures this enthusiasm extends well beyond Steam's ecosystem.

PlayStation Studios Reassesses Strategy After High-Profile Failures

A comprehensive Financial Times report reveals Sony Interactive Entertainment's efforts to balance creative independence with risk management following costly failures like Concord. Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst emphasized the need to "fail early and cheaply" rather than avoiding risks entirely.

Concord's catastrophic two-week lifespan before shutdown has prompted more rigorous testing protocols across PlayStation's development pipeline. The failure resulted in Firewalk Studios' closure and informed subsequent live-service cancellations, including projects based on God of War and The Last of Us franchises.

Hulst downplayed Sony's previous commitment to launching over ten live-service games by March 2026, stating that diversity of player experiences matters more than hitting specific numerical targets. The company's relationship with acquired studios like Bungie is also evolving, with CFO Lin Tao noting that "this type of independence is getting lighter" as Bungie integrates more closely with PlayStation Studios operations. Smaller studios within the PlayStation family expressed preferences for maintaining their current scale and creative autonomy. Team Asobi's leadership emphasized their intention to keep their 60-person team size, while Housemarque reflected positively on their 2021 acquisition, describing it as gaining access to resources while preserving their studio culture.

That wraps up our first September spotlight! Which of these releases has captured your attention? If none of these single-player experiences appeal to you, perhaps competitive gaming is more your speed. We provide comprehensive coverage of Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 tournaments! Check out our analysis and predictions, or test your skills with our Pick'ems system where you can predict match outcomes and win valuable Steam marketplace items and skins. Ready to put your esports knowledge to the test?