My Top 10 Anticipated Trailers of 2025 - Delayed Input

Let me ask you this,

if video games are not art,

why do they make me cry?

KYLE: We don't have a lot of annual
traditions here at Delayed Input

but for the last 2 years running,

I have been making a list of my
Top 10 Most Anticipated Trailers.

I figure we should keep it running tonight.

A couple of things to cover
before we get into the list itself.

Firstly, I believe that a god video game
trailer doesn't necessarily

have to present a good video game
to be entertaining.

If the trailer's an absolute mess, it hasn't
necessarily wasted your time if you had fun.

And, along those lines,
I feel like it's hard to anticipate

a trailer for a game that you have
a pretty good understanding of.

I think an anticipated trailer needs a
certain level of mystery and dangerousness.

Danger.

Let's begin my:

Now, I know that's a basic pick.
That's why it's #10.

But looking back at 2023's GTA VI trailer,
it racked up a lot of views,

got a lot of attention.
It's frankly-- It's a nice edit.

But do you know what was missing?

Moments.

And not like this.
Not a moment like that.

I'm talking about a moment where you,
the player, are playing the video game,

apparently, doing something.

A moment where a player
is doing something,

preferably a thing that hasn't been
in a GTA game prior to this one.

This was a teaser.
GTA VI has barely begun trailering.

I think the next one is gonna go wild.

And on top of that,
you get the additional benefit of

new anime games trying to look
like the new GTA VI trailers.

So this one almost counts for 2.

Hades II is facing a sort of
marketing conundrum

because the game's out.
It's in Early Access.

I think that was right call
for the video game itself

but it does kind of feel like it's
been around for a while at this point.

I wonder what a trailer has to do to
get people excited about version 1.0.

We're already seen the cinematic reveal
of the new characters.

New gameplay features will
probably already be well understood.

And so it kinda seems like
they're low on opportunities left

to surprise and excite anybody
who hasn't bought in on this game yet.

I feel like one, the easiest
possible thing to do is wait,

wait, wait, wait.
Hold up, hold up

until the release date is really soon.
I think that would be a real exciting thing.

"Here's the version 1.0 trailer

and it's out next week."
You know, that kind of thing.

But also, I think, like,
the strategy to use is, like,

when you see a kind of compelling trailer
(or commercial, I mean)

for a TV show
that you don't normally care about.

You know, when it's like, "This Thursday,
The Rookie witnesses a new crime."

You don't care.
But, "This Thursday,

The Rookie might get murdered
by his daughter because of what he said at

Bath & Body Works."

Suddenly, I got plans for Thursday.

Look, I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.
EA is in the dumps.

Dragon Age Veilguard whiffed
and even worse,

people aren't buying ultimate team cards
for sports games like they used to.

There's immense pressure on
the Battlefield franchise to perform.

Like, it's now or never, right?

But there's also immense pressure
on this trailer.

All they've shown so far
is this piece of concept art.

You can already--
You can hear this. Sounds like

[Kyle makes intense SFX]

The Battlefield trailer itself is
going to have to quickly demonstrate

a good time.

I feel like that's the biggest difference
between the marketing of

Call of Duty games and Battlefield games.

It's like, Battlefield seems dead set
on conveying epic seriousness.

But if their intent is actually, actually
to get back to basics,

I'd love to see a trailer where

it shows you throwing C4
onto your team's parked airplane

and somebody gets in it
and then you explode it

and then they blow up.

Like, that's part of Battlefield.

I sense doubt from you.

There was a time, to be fair,

where Square Enix would announce
video games way too early.

But without any evidence,
I'm here to tell you, that time is over.

There's going to be a
Kingdom Hearts IV trailer in 2025

and it's gonna blow your socks off.

Yeah,
just like Sora.

So it was, like, 14 months ago
when Sega put out this trailer.

I feel like it was met
with a lot of excitement

just based off of
nostalgic brand recognition.

"Dang, they're bringing Golden Axe back?"
we all said.

But I think the dark truth there
is that each of those games

kind of benefited from
being a part of a montage.

It's like when me and all my cheerleader
friends stand next to each other.

We're all generally more attractive
just from being a part of a group.

I kinda get the impression
the same thing was happening here.

Now, these poor Sega games
have to start coming out at some point.

No, I don't fear for Jet Set Radio.
That one's in the bag.

But really, what was happening
with this Golden Axe game?

Working on this video game has to be
one of the easiest jobs on the whole planet.

Making a video game about Wolverine
is the simplest possible home run

you could ever have in your life.
It's like-- It's like, you get to--

You get to pick up the baseball
and walk it out of the stadium

and you get credit for that.
It's like-- It's that level.

What I'm saying is that if Wolverine
has claws that cut, you could put--

You could put the whole game
in a bread factory

and that's gonna be fun for 20 hours.
You don't have to worry about anything.

You don't have to worry about cutscenes
or enemy AI or global illumination.

You don't-- As long as Wolverine has claws
that retract and come out

and can slice things, that's an easy
10 million dollar-- 10 million--

And that's what so exciting
about this upcoming trailer

is that we're gonna know.
It will be apparent within 5 seconds

whether the claws are good
or

need work.

A lot of these entries essentially
boil down to "Prove it," right?

"Prove that you're fun.
Prove that you're deep."

I don't really worry
about those things for Fable.

Fable's greatest challenge ahead
is proving that

it's funny.

Now if you read all the comments
on this YouTube channel

there is strangely one thing
that everyone seems to agree upon:

I'm kind of a master of comedy.

[HONK]

So when I say this game isn't funny,
you know I don't say that lightly.

They've been trying desperately
to convey a sense of wit

ever since that CGI reveal teaser.
And frankly,

not once since have they earned
even the slightest huff of a laugh.

GIANT: I'm here
to conquer the vegetable.

Not a euphemism.

KYLE: [huffs]

Last year, I had PlayStation GAAS
on my list as a sort of,

"How are they gonna pull this off?"
curiosity, right?

"How are they gonna this?
It's gonna be tough."

This year,
obviously a lot of things have changed.

Yeah, there was Concord, if course.

Recently, 2 games were outright canceled.

So if you want to
advertise for video games,

I feel like Sony's upcoming slate
of live service games represents

the maximum difficulty.
It's the hardest your job will ever be.

It's like going to a carnival and watching
people play the basketball game

where the hoops are super high
and shaped like ovals.

There's no possible way for the ball
to fit inside of that hoop but

you're still back there watching people
try to do it because it's entertaining.

To the marketing team of Fairgame$,

have fun.

My second most anticipated trailer
of 2025 is:

So when Nintendo revealed
the Switch 2, finally, two weeks ago,

it did end with this end slate:
"If you have any more remaining questions

please look forward to the
Nintendo Direct on April 2nd."

That's two freakin' months from now.

And seemingly, publishers and developers
are still unallowed to announce

that they have Switch 2 games
in development.

So what we're lookin' at here
is basically

maybe the longest runway of excitement
Nintendo has ever given for a Nintendo Direct.

With all due respect to Mr. Keighley,
I feel like this is going to be

the most hyped-up gaming showcase
of the entire year.

Imagine what they could possibly
end this showcase with.

'Cause Nintendo knows.
They know to save their best thing for last.

They know they have a surprise

locked and loaded for the end of their
biggest Nintendo Direct of the last 5 years.

What if--?
What if--? What if--?

I'm just sayin' "What if?"

What if this thing ends
with a new Smash Bros. trailer?

Do you understand what I'm asking you?

You understand,
you could watch every movie in the year,

you could go to every concert,

you would witness
somebody rescuing a dog from a river,

and a new Sakurai directed trailer will
still be the best thing you've seen all year.

And, #1:

And again, I realize it's an obvious pick.
We all agree on this.

We're all wondering,
"What's going on with Digimon?"

How come Bandai Namco put so
many resources into Sword Art Online and

Sand Land games
when Digimon are right there?

Bandai Namco, have you seen Gabumon?

That's flawless design.
He's perfect.

You own him.
That's YOUR IP.

Now, last year Bandai Namco did announce
that they're canceling 5 in development games.

If any of them were Digimon games,

that company is truly lost.
They're harming society.

If there is to be a Digimon game this year

featuring even the modest budget
of a Synduality Echo of Ada

(you know, something like this),
its trailer will

shake and destroy the very foundations
of the games industry as you know it.

I won't have to be here every week talking
about rising costs and studio closures.

Gabumon will cure all that.

And that concludes my
Top 10 Most-Anticipated Trailers

and, of course, Delayed Input.
I will be back next week.

Thanks for watching.

You may have noticed
throughout this entire video

I neglected to show you
2024's Most-Anticipated Games list.

And the truth is, I though it would undercut
the stakes of what we're doing here

because it turned out so bad.
But, you have the right to know.

It looked like this.

Yeah, Final Fantasy IX, BioShock,
and, technically, New Nintendo Hardware

didn't make it into 2024.

That means I did have a
higher hit percentage than 2023

but that's not the point.

A lot of the trailers
I was anticipating turned out

unremarkable.

You're basically looking at a list
of unspecial trailers.

And I stand by it.
That Metroid Prime 4 trailer from last year

was not that good.
Maybe restrained.

Maybe they wanted to show
as little as possible.

But, yeah, that made for a boring trailer.

Truly, though, truly,

the number one thing I'm most disappointed
we didn't see much of in 2024 was

yeah, down there:

I was truly expecting more games
to try to capitalize and chase that

fearlessly horny attention that
Baldur's Gate 3 got in 2023.

Maybe I didn't give them enough time.
I'm not giving up on that one.

I DO think that's going to be
a trend in 2025.

And so I do have a few more:

also

So yeah,
it's probably not crazy to assume

there's gonna be Balatro-like games
in 2025 and beyond.

But I think we're also gonna see trailers
that communicate in Balatro language, right?

Like a trailer that can--
You know how, like,

when somebody wakes up
from spawning in trailer you know,

"Oh, okay, I'm basically--
I'm watching a roguelike."

I think there's gonna be
things like that for Balatro-likes

where it's like you see them
hit their blinds.

It's like, "Okay, yeah."
You get what this is.

I think Stellar Blade basically
figured out the ratio last year

of how much big butt
one can put into a video game trailer

while still having enough regular video game
around it to look like a regular video game.

The prototype is out there.
There will be copycats.

And finally,
#4 on the Trailer Trend Watch:

This one you might have to hear me out on.

So in a movie trailer,
an actor doesn't always necessarily

need to be saying something
or doing something,

Sometimes they are merely there.
They're present and blinking emotionally.

You know, like:

Video games typically
can't afford to be so mundane.

Video games in the 2010s needed explosions
to prove they were graphically impressive.

In the 2020s,
it's all gonna be about emotional blink.

[explosion sound]