Welcome to the FPS vibe shift | PC Gamer

The FPS is once again in transition. It's a change that's been percolating for a while, but 2025 was the year a number of developing trends in PC gaming's favorite genre finally boiled over. (Image credit: EA) (Image credit: Embark) (Image credit: Activision Blizzard) (Image credit: Embark Studios / 1047 Games) (Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios) (Image credit: EA) The time of extreme skill ceilings and the pursuit of metallic ranks defining every new multiplayer FPS is behind us. The escalation of gaudy, overpriced cosmetics created a distaste so palpable that Call of Duty had to desperately change its game plan. The two biggest shooters this year cost money, and there were no major free-to-play releases. The theme of this new era, as I see it developing so far, is remembering that shooters can be both casual and thrilling. High fun, low emotional investment. An old guard of life-consuming live-service games remains a vibrant and popular part of this genre, but they're once again sharing the space with-and even adopting the attributes of-a more casual breed. Games that don't mind if you only play them once in a while. Games that let you make your own fun, encourage cooperation, or earn our respect by not bombarding us with ads. Welcome to the FPS vibe shift. Here's how it happened: Vibe shift: The biggest FPS of the year was Battlefield (Image credit: EA) I don't think any single event encompasses the changing attitudes of FPS fans more than the triumphant release of Battlefield 6, a game about large-scale chaos featuring zero ranked modes. The series that hasn't been truly relevant for nearly a decade came out swinging with guns, maps, and modes that appealed to the skillful yet unserious fun that the FPS genre once produced like every other week. Flashback to 2018-the year Battlefield 5 released to indifference amidst the battle royale boom and continued dominance of hero shooters-and it's wild to watch sentiments swing back the other direction. Battlefield Studios deserves plenty of credit for BF6's enhancements on the series, but I'd argue the appetite for Battlefield comes down to people burning out on the competitive games they've been playing for years and gloming onto something more casual and immediately rewarding. That, and a bunch of Call of Duty fans jumped on board, culminating in the best-selling FPS of the year. Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Vibe shift: Arc Raiders won people over with wholesome interactions (Image credit: Embark) Arc Raiders is not a first-person shooter, of course, but its unexpected popularity was more evidence of a vibe shift. Arc Raiders' slick shooting, surprising enemy AI, and fantastic maps make it good, but its unexpectedly wholesome community make it great. The ways Embark tweaked the incentives of the Tarkov-style extraction shooter to make PvP truly optional and cooperation often preferable is a milestone for the subgenre, capturing the magic of early DayZ with slightly...

Preview: ~500 words