It would seem that February is slowly but surely becoming one of the busiest months in the games industry. This February has been an interesting one, to be sure, as top-selling games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Avowed have made some big waves, but how does it measure up against last year's month of love?
Perhaps the greatest difference between this February and last is consistency: there haven't been as many genre-defining or record-breaking games in the past month when compared to February 2024, but there haven't been any colossal flops either. This is decidedly different from what the gaming community experienced around this time last year, when mind-blowing crowd-pleasers like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fought with beleaguered disasters like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for players' attention.
Monster Hunter Wilds Isn't the Only Reason February 28 is a Significant Day in Video Games
Capcom's Monster Hunter Wilds will debut on February 28 but it wasn't the only impactful game to release that day in video game history.
February 2024 Was Defined by Ambition and Disaster
Biggest Releases of February 2024
- Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
- Foamstars
- Helldivers 2
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong
- Penny's Big Breakaway
- Persona 3 Reload
- Skull and Bones
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
February 2024 was certainly an emotional rollercoaster for gamers. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Persona 3 Reload, for instance, are widely hailed as some of the best JRPGs of the past several years, despite being remakes. Then there was Helldivers 2, a breakout live-service cooperative shooter whose inventiveness helped it skyrocket in popularity. Penny's Big Breakaway rapidly achieved cult status as well thanks to its frenetic and satisfying platforming, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong was another successful, albeit less electrifying, remake of a beloved classic.
But the industry also got ugly in February 2024. Foamstars, although garnering some positive buzz during previews, was ultimately dead on arrival, with Square Enix shutting the game down just last month. Skull and Bones was also an unceremonious failure, though many would argue that the writing had long been on the wall for Ubisoft's bizarre pirate live-service game. But both of these flops pale in comparison to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which would have been the uncontested biggest flop of 2024 were it not for Concord's historically bad rollout. All in all, last February was a month of tremendous highs and crushing lows.
February '25 Was Strong, but Relatively Conservative
Biggest Releases of February 2025
- Avowed
- Civilization 7
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
- Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
- The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak
- Lost Records: Bloom and Rage
- Monster Hunter Wilds
This past month has certainly not disappointed: the only somewhat contentious game from the above list is Civilization 7, though it's been receiving the same mixed reception as Civilization 6 did upon launch. In other words, games like Civilization arguably need a bit more time on the market before firm conclusions can be drawn about their quality. Avowed also landed to a mixed reception, but the range of opinions has been relatively small: very few love it, and very few hate it.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and Monster Hunter Wilds dominated the month as some of the best-reviewed games of 2025 thus far. But what's interesting about these games is that, for the most part, their success was easy to predict. LaD: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and Monster Hunter Wilds are both great, but they are great in the way that fans of the series have come to expect. And while KCD2 has garnered more attention than its predecessor, it's still a fairly linear progression from it. These games are a far cry from the likes of Helldivers 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which far exceeded almost everyone's expectations.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 89 /100 Critics Rec: 95%
WHERE TO PLAY
The unbridled force of nature runs wild and relentless, with environments transforming drastically from one moment to the next. This is a story of monsters and humans and their struggles to live in harmony in a world of duality.
Fulfill your duty as a Hunter by tracking and defeating powerful monsters and forging strong new weapons and armor from the materials you harvest from your hunt as you uncover the connection between the people of the Forbidden Lands and the locales they inhabit.
The ultimate hunting experience awaits you in Monster Hunter Wilds.
- Engine
- RE Engine
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes, all platforms
- Cross Save
- No
- Franchise
- Monster Hunter
- Number of Players
- 1
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- PS5 Release Date
- February 28, 2025
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
