COGconnected GOTY 2025 – Best New IP
While franchises and sequels are cool enough, there’s nothing quite so exciting as some brand new IP. What kind of incredible world are you stepping into? What sort of characters will you meet, what kind of mechanics will you have to master? Plus, you never know if you’re picking up the start of some future genre-defining franchise. These ten games were the absolute best new properties we played in 2025. Hang on tight, because there are some serious contenders coming down the line.
10. Ball x Pit
Devolver Digital is always good for something unique, engaging, and slightly unsettling. Ball x Pit takes a familiar premise (remember Breakout???) and turns it into a hopelessly addictive roguelike. Though you start out launching simple white balls, soon your screen is filled with lasers, fireballs, earthquakes, and poison gas. In between rounds, you’re building a whole civilization on the edge of a bottomless pit. You’re almost guaranteed some sleepless nights after installing this one.
9. Peak
It’s the cooperative mountain climbing game that spawned a thousand memes. While 2025 was a banner year for excellent multiplayer titles, there’s just something remarkable about Peak. The charming visuals, hilarious physics, and excellent voice chat all work together to create a downright unforgettable online experience. See you at the top?
8. Abiotic Factor
Every digital storefront is absolutely crammed with survival crafting games. At first, Abiotic Factor looks like one out of thousands. The key difference being that it’s actually fun. Also, the Half-Life vibes are powerful in this one. While the genre is tried and true, the premise (hapless employee enduring a mad world of science gone wrong) feels brand new.
7. Where Winds Meet
Where Winds Meet is an insane idea that I can’t believe we haven’t gotten to before now. It’s a free-to-play, open-world, wuxia RPG crammed to the lid with systems and ideas. The physics engine is a half-hearted suggestion, boss fights end with a jarring smash-cut to a prone body, and bears can teach you martial arts. The whole game is a hot mess, but how could it not be? This is a beautiful, ambitious project that you can’t put down, if only to see what kind of psychotic thing you’ll see next.
6. Absolum
Absolum is a mish-mash of subgenres. You’ve got a little beat-em-up, a bit of roguelike, and a healthy dose of action-adventure. On top of all that, the art style is that of a fluid, seamless comic book in action. Also, the game is fun! It’s extremely cool to kick monster ass with each and every one of these fabulous heroes. You’ve got branching paths to explore, upgrades to tinker with, and bosses to annihilate. This could be the start of something wonderful, that much is certain.
5. Blue Prince
Blue Prince came out of nowhere and immediately drove everyone insane. But in a good way! It’s such a simple premise with so much potential for mystery. Potential that the game makes full use of, to be clear. Creaky old mansions are the perfect setting for digging into sinister family secrets. The gameplay loop is incredibly smooth, with one run blending seamlessly into the next. Soon enough it’s 2 AM, and you’ve promised yourself the next run will be your last for the night. This is a lie, of course. What more could you want from a brand new IP like Blue Prince?
4. Arc Raiders
Arc Raiders is an extraction shooter in a league of its own. The visuals are polished, the plot is cohesive and snappy, and the gameplay loop is well-crafted. Your missions to the surface are dangerous but thrilling, and every one feels essential. This game represents a critical point in the evolution of the whole extraction shooter genre. It just goes to show that if you put in the work at every level, you’ll be similarly rewarded with the results.
3. Dispatch
A good narrative can lift a game to new heights. Dispatch is what happens when the whole experience is built out of that good narrative. We’re inundated with superhero content these days. And yet it’s so rare to see a superhero story from such a fresh perspective. The writing is crazy slick, the voice acting is amazing, and the direction is executed with care. The results speak for themselves. If you’re the kind of gamer who gets sucked into a great plot, Dispatch should be at the absolute top of your list.
2. Split Fiction
Remember A Way Out? What about It Takes Two? Josef Fares has exactly one mission in life: to take co-op gaming to new heights. And he does this like, every time his company releases a new game. Split Fiction follows two writers forced to explore each others’ wild ideas through a fully immersive virtual simulation. The puzzles are fiendishly clever, the action is satisfying, and the story is excellent. If you loved Hazelight’s previous games, you gotta check this one out. And if you’re fully unfamiliar with the series? Well, this is the perfect time to jump in. Each one is better than the last
1. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Expedition 33 isn’t just a breath of fresh air. This is pure oxygen after escaping a house fire. You know you’re in for an all-timer right when that opening chapter begins. This world is tragic, compelling, and heartbreakingly beautiful. I love a gorgeous, doomed world, and Clair Obscur is a singular entry in that category. The voice acting, the writing, the visuals, all of it is expertly crafted and beautifully executed. This is a brand new world that makes all those massive franchises feel stale and weightless by comparison. If you’re looking for something truly new, Expedition 33 is the gold standard. Games hardly get more groundbreaking than this.
While there were some amazing new IP released this year, COGconnected has plenty of other accolades to hand out. Check out some of our other 2025 GOTY articles here, here, and here.