Alongside our Game of the Year top 10 list and personal picks from the Push Square editorial team, we are recognising the best PS5 games of 2025 in select categories. Today is the turn of the best PS5 developer of 2025.
Bronze Trophy: Nihon Falcom (Trails through Daybreak 2 + Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter)
Trails developer Nihon Falcom always seems to be pumping out a new entry in the franchise every five or six months or so, whether that's a new entry, a localised port, or a remake. However, in 2025, it finally gave so many potential new fans the perfect jumping-on point: Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter. This masterfully brought back the original tale, attracting veterans and newcomers alike.
The best part is, though, the team had already pleased the former crowd earlier in the year with Trails through Daybreak 2. The studio is now admirably fighting on two fronts: it's satisfying its core fanbase while also getting newcomers up to speed.
Silver Trophy: Level-5 (Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time + Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road)
For a good while there, Ni no Kuni developer Level-5 lost its way. However, 2025 marked a strong return to form for the studio, as it launched the very popular RPG Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and brought Inazuma Eleven to PlayStation for the first time, offering a strong anime twist on football.
The future looks bright for the company, too, as it also has DECAPOLICE on its books. For now, though, 2025 represents the beginning of Level 5's comeback story.
Gold Trophy: Embark Studios (ARC Raiders + The Finals)
The multiplayer community has known — and been quietly excited — about ARC Raiders for years now. The promise of an accessible extraction shooter came with a good degree of promise, and as Embark Studios launched the online title earlier this year, its popularity skyrocketed. ARC Raiders is now one of the most played multiplayer games of 2025, all thanks to the overwhelming quality of the experience it has to offer.
It launched in tip-top shape, has been well supported in the months since, and is addressing any player issues quickly. Embark Studios managed all while continuing to support its other multiplayer shooter, The Finals. While it's not as popular, seasonal content updates have continued throughout the development of ARC Raiders, and after it. The team now offers two of the strongest online games on the market.
Platinum Trophy: Sandfall Interactive (Clair Obscur: Expedition 33)
Sandfall Interactive made a Game of the Year winner with its first game as a studio. Is there anything else that needs to be said?
Probably nothing you haven't already read before in the many months since its big breakout release, but Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 put Sandfall Interactive on the map, and the community and excitement that's built up around the game since has made it a household name in record time. You won't just hope the next Sandfall Interactive game will be any good; you'll know it will be.
Because of that, the team will never be able to do another release like it — everyone knows about the French studio now. However, in 2025, it's been the talk of the town, and it deserves it, having made one of the PS5's best RPGs.
Do you agree with our picks for the best PS5 developer of 2025? Share your thoughts in the comments below and check out more of our Game of the Year coverage through the link.
What was your favourite PS5 Developer of 2025? (311 votes)
- AdHoc Studio
- Embark Studios
- Epic Games 0%
- Kojima Productions
- Level-5
- Neobards Entertainment
- Nihon Falcom
- Sandfall Interactive
- Sucker Punch Productions
- Other (let us know in the comments!)
Comments 26
KojiPro is life.
Kojima or Sucker Punch Productions. I leaned more toward Kojima, because that team upped the ante more than SP did with Ghost of Yotei, but either one is an acceptable pick. These are technically proficient studios that understand how each piece of game development interrelates with each other piece and forms a cohesive whole.
The battle system in E33 was awesome, and the soundtrack too. But the visual design language was like staring into a public toilet. Hideous and repugnant. There were technical issues, performance stutters and a general lack of polish in a few key areas that holds the game back from phenomenal and keeps it simply great.
Neither Death Stranding 2 nor Yotei pushed absolute cutting edge tech (Yotei had minimal Ray traced GI, although their pc releases might go a step further), but the end products were both astonishingly well crafted by any metric one could throw at them. Each individual aspect of these games stands on its own, with nothing dragging down the whole. Same can’t be said for E33, and that’s why I’d toss that aside and put a more deserving developer in that premium position.
Removed - trolling/baiting; user is banned
@Deljo Sandfall’s use of GenAI is nowhere near the level of egregiousness of Arc Raider’s use. Arc Raiders has AI voices presently in the game, was rich off the success of The Finals, has 330 employees (not including outsourced work), and continues to express desire to use GenAI in the future.
Sandfall used the technology when it was new in 2022, removed all but 1 placeholder texture by the time the game launch, is a much smaller studio in terms of revenue and team sizes, and has denounced the use of AI in the future.
These situations aren’t comparable.
I have to go with Falcom, to be pumping out multiple quality games per year is quite an achievement for someone their size. Plus they don't use AI unlike the rest on this list.
Can't say I agree with Level 5 though, I mean they put out two games that were originally planned for 2023....
Wait I just saw that Level 5 was on this list.
Idk how having games being stuck in development hell & being extremely vocal about GenAI is worthy of making it on the list.
@Deoxyr1bose Was just about to say the same too.
Granted I played a ton of Fantasy Life i since launch (which was originally planned for a 2023 release iirc), but yeah since the dev's AI statement was recently brought up, I doubt I might be looking forward to many more of their titles going forward.
@Deoxyr1bose you do realise arc raiders devs pay the people providing voice lines for ai voice changer or do you just stay stuff without research first
"Sandfall interactive is overrated" in 3, 2, 1...
@Deoxyr1bose @Deljo apparently with arc raiders they actually used voice actors who consented for them to use ai to train there voices and were compensated so it i dont see any issue really.
@Deoxyr1bose I think that the furore over the AI generated voices in Arc Raiders is pretty sad. I'm not bothered in the slightest by its use and its pretty well implemented. In fact I can't think of any of the guys I team up with pretty much every night that has a problem with it either as we are all too busy having a blast.
@Hi569 @Shadeon_Koopa sometimes I think that some of these posts are AI generated 🤣
War horse not mentioned is certainly a choice...
@Northern_munkey definitely deljo was ragebating 🤣 and it worked the ai cult came out in full force not stating any facts at all just spouting typical bs 🤣
@Hi569 its so much fun when they can't tell 🤣
@Deoxyr1bose embark had 100 or less devs when finals came out the success of the game got them more people to work on arc raiders are the extra 200 employees ai or human? And for outsourced work I bet you e33 outsourced more than arc raiders
@Bsb56 Sandfall has 30 staff members, yet over 400 people worked on the game. So yeah they definitely went all out on outsourcing.
Nihon Falcom getting flowers? That's amazing! I'm on a Trails break, but they're so darn good.
Had to vote Neobards. Silent Hill f is my game of the year (on PS5 at least), and I really appreciate what the studio accomplished. A lot was riding on this game too, for them and the franchise, and I think they knocked it out of the park by taking Silent Hill in a unique and exciting direction. Shout out to Kojima too!
Warhorse and Bend for me.
Needs a Team Cherry option.
Level 5???
I picked Kojima or Sucker Punch
ctrl+f
AI
Hoes mad
@Balaam_ wow I'm baffled by this comment but to each their own I suppose.
Falcom gets my vote, 2 mainline Trails games in the same year is insane. 2026 will repeat the trend with Horizon and Sky 2nd Chapter, I can't wait!
Kojima all the way babyyyy
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