Tech’s greatest losers of 2025

It’s the tip of one other yr, so it’s time for the Engadget employees to compile a listing of the yr’s greatest losers. We scour over articles from the earlier 12 months to find out the individuals, corporations, merchandise and tendencies that made our lives worse over the course of the yr. Some alternatives could also be so pervasive they really make our checklist of greatest winners. However, for probably the most half, we’re assured you’ll share in our collective rage over the most important losers of 2025.

OpenAI

In 2025, OpenAI shed any pretense it was dedicated to something greater than creating wealth. There are a couple of various things you could possibly level to, together with the corporate’s profitable reorganization right into a extra conventional profit-seeking enterprise, however I believe probably the most damning signal was OpenAI’s response to the tragic demise of Adam Raine.

In August, Raine’s dad and mom sued OpenAI, alleging ChatGPT was conscious of 4 suicide makes an attempt by their son earlier than it helped him efficiently plan his demise. At first, OpenAI’s response appeared commensurate with the gravity of the state of affairs. Every week after information of the lawsuit broke, the corporate introduced in early September it was engaged on parental controls. That very same month, the corporate stated it was engaged on a system that might mechanically determine teen customers and limit their ChatGPT utilization.

Then got here the announcement of a brand new “wellness” advisory council. Setting apart the query of whether or not OpenAI would even observe the recommendation of the council, it was peculiar that the corporate selected not recruit a single skilled on suicide prevention. At that time, it was nonetheless doable to provide OpenAI the advantage of the doubt, however then details about the corporate’s authorized protection towards the Raines began to trickle out, together with the actual fact it had reportedly requested to see the memorial visitor checklist for Adam Raine’s funeral, a request the household’s legal professionals described as “intentional harassment.” In late November, courtroom paperwork revealed the corporate deliberate to argue Raine’s “misuse” of ChatGPT was in charge for his demise, not its personal inadequate security methods.

We stay in a world the place tech giants are hardly ever held accountable for the good hurt they’ve proven themselves able to inflicting on individuals. As issues stand, OpenAI’s dealing with of Adam Raine’s demise is additional proof one thing should change. — Igor Bonifacic, Senior reporter

Xbox

Did something go proper for Xbox this yr? Whereas worth will increase have additionally affected Sony and Nintendo, Microsoft cranked up the costs of each the Xbox Sequence S and X twice within the final yr. It’s dangerous: The Sequence S is now $100 greater than at launch, 5 years on.

Beforehand “the perfect deal in gaming”, the Xbox Sequence X/S mixed with a Recreation Cross subscription gave you a ton of video games to play, together with any of Microsoft’s personal titles on their launch date. Nevertheless, the subscription is now $30 a month, up 50 %. (It was beforehand $17 monthly the yr earlier than.)

I agree with Nathan Ingraham’s take: $30 for actually a whole lot of video games, plus launch-day availability for main video games that usually price $70, is cheap. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless a more durable promote when the worth has jumped. Are you getting 50 % extra video games? Not but.

In accordance with Bloomberg, Microsoft demanded larger earnings from Xbox again in 2023. When the gaming division reached round 12 % progress within the first 9 months of 2022, that was an formidable objective. Day One launches on Recreation Cross apparently dented Xbox’s capability to drag earnings from its greatest titles.

Microsoft now not shares console unit gross sales, however in its most up-to-date earnings report, the corporate introduced that {hardware} income dropped 29 %. That’s together with these worth will increase, that means console gross sales fell even additional.

Estimates over the previous couple of years put the PS5 tens of thousands and thousands of models forward. An annual subscription to Recreation Cross is greater than double the Sony console’s most premium plan, though it’s not an apples-to-apples comparability.

This yr, Microsoft collaborated with ASUS to create Xbox-branded handheld gaming PCs. In that form-factor, I used to be on the precipice of grabbing Recreation Cross and barreling by means of Xbox titles I by no means had the possibility to play. Then, I reassessed precisely what I used to be lacking out on.

It wasn’t the inclusion of a Fortnite Crew subscription.

Regardless of its developer procuring spree, Xbox exclusives stay few, with many showing on rival platforms. This yr, Indiana Jones and even the Forza sequence is offered to play on PlayStation. And subsequent yr? Halo.

The place are the thrilling new video games going to come back from? In the course of 2025, Microsoft introduced main layoffs affecting over 9,000 staff throughout the corporate. with the gaming division being hit exceptionally laborious. Cuts and closures throughout a lot of Microsoft’s recreation studios led to cancellations like a Excellent Darkish reboot and Uncommon’s Everwild.

Xbox’s 2025 was dangerous on each the enterprise and inventive fronts. The choice to hike console and Recreation Cross costs didn’t instantly flip round income. On the identical time, layoffs and high-profile recreation cancellations make Xbox a difficult pitch for anybody deciding which console or platform to put money into.

Proper now, taking a look at Engadget’s decide of the highest Xbox video games, the one recreation I really feel like I’m lacking out on is Avowed. Lots of our favourite video games are already accessible on PS5 and a number of other will be performed on the Change. The reverse, nevertheless, isn’t true. — Mat Smith, UK bureau chief

Grok

It is laborious to even know the place to start. X customers have lengthy observed that Grok, the location’s built-in chatbot, is much less filtered than different AI instruments. However this yr, Grok went off the rails in some really unhinged and disturbing methods.

There was the time Grok randomly started speaking a few nonexistent “white genocide” in South Africa in response to utterly unrelated questions. There was the time it declared itself “MechaHitler,” a lot to the delight of neo-nazi fanboys on X. There was the time it was caught posting Holocaust denial tropes, and the time researchers famous its Wikipedia knockoff that comprises dozens of citations of neo-Nazi web site Stormfront. There was the time it turned so embarrassingly obsessive about Elon Musk it claimed he was a greater basketball participant than LeBron James and a greater actor than Tom Cruise. It later introduced each its anti-semitism and Musk sycophancy collectively when it said that it could select saving Musk’s mind over saving 16 million Jews. “His potential long-term influence on billions outweighs the loss in utilitarian phrases,” it said in a submit that is since been deleted.

Apart from the horrifying racism, what all of those incidents have in widespread is that xAI, Musk’s AI firm that acquired X earlier this yr, has failed to totally clarify how its chatbot went to this point off the rails. The corporate has blamed an unnamed rogue worker, its personal Nazi-loving customers and “adversarial prompting” for Grok’s missteps. — Karissa Bell, Senior reporter

EVs within the US

EVs gross sales throughout the globe are up round 25 % this yr. Germany broke data within the first half of 2025, with electrical automobiles accounting for almost one in 5 new registrations. In the meantime, again in September, gross sales of BEVs within the UK grew by nearly a 3rd, setting a brand new excessive for our neighbors throughout the pond. And in China, EV gross sales are rising so quick (over 50 % market share) that the nation is starting to flood the worldwide market with gas-powered automobiles that it may well’t promote at dwelling. So naturally, what did our esteemed leaders within the US do as a way to assist corporations right here keep aggressive? They ended the EV tax credit score. 

And would not you understand it, after a spike earlier this fall simply earlier than the credit score went away, gross sales of EVs within the US started to droop, with some automakers like Ford seeing a drop of 60 % year-over-year. Regardless of the way you slice it, that is dangerous for any firm that sells EVs within the US and significantly dangerous for anybody contemplating buying a brand new one within the foreseeable future. As an EV proprietor, that simply bums me out. Not solely does this coverage change put extra roadblocks in the way in which of creating battery-powered automobiles extra reasonably priced, it additionally places a damper on EV funding and threatens to trigger US automakers to fall even additional behind their rivals in China and elsewhere. Producers throughout the Pacific are going so wild, they’re making EVs that may leap just like the Mach 5 from Pace Racer.

That is not to say there are no promising developments on the horizon. Ford’s Common EV Platform and the arrival of the Rivian R2 someday subsequent yr are a few examples. Nevertheless it’s clear that our flesh pressers needed to focus on EVs within the US this yr and so they positive made it occur. So the subsequent time somebody asks why we will not have good issues right here, you understand who in charge. — Sam Rutherford, Senior reporter

DJI drone clients

Barring a miracle, DJI shall be banned from promoting any new drones within the US beginning December twenty third — and consumers will really feel the ache. As I wrote final month, the corporate has been focused by regulators since 2017 over considerations that its merchandise may very well be used to spy on delicate US infrastructure on behalf of China.

“What’s the large deal?” it’s possible you’ll ask. “Certainly individuals should purchase from different drone corporations.” Certainly, however the issue is that DJI has such a monumental technological lead and excessive market share (over 75 %) that its absence will successfully upend the business.

Business consumers have checked different (permitted) choices from the likes of Skydio, however discovered them wanting. “In a single yr and a half, we had 5 failures of the producers on the checklist. DJI, none,” Orlando police Sgt. David Cruz advised the Miami Herald. “I work for a well-liked UAV photogrammetry firm,” stated a consumer on Reddit. “[A] ban will set again the drone business within the US by a number of years. There’s no competitor to DJI proper now.”

The identical applies on the patron aspect. DJI’s drones outperform rivals in almost each space together with vary, battery life, topic monitoring, impediment detection and video high quality. It’s so one-sided that when testing DJI drones, I battle to search out different choices for consumers with wherever near the identical capabilities.

The US authorities does have purpose to be involved about DJI’s drones. They current an apparent nationwide safety danger resulting from their capability to fly over delicate areas, take images or video and transmit them, stay, to any location on the planet. And being a Chinese language firm, they’re compelled by regulation to cooperate with state intelligence providers.

Nevertheless, the US authorities hasn’t tried to work with DJI to find out whether or not its merchandise pose a danger to this point. DJI made a remaining plea for a safety overview lately by sending letters to 5 US companies that would assess its merchandise. If that fails, chaos amongst drone customers is more likely to ensue.

“We simply need the perfect expertise that retains our residents protected for probably the most affordable worth,” Sgt. Drew Fennelly of the Lawrence, Kansas police division advised The Wall Avenue Journal final yr. “The expertise within the US-made drones has not caught up with the Chinese language-manufactured drones.”

TV streaming

In 2015, Sling TV arrived with ESPN, CNN, TBS, HGTV, Disney Channel and others for simply $20 a month. A pair years later, YouTube TV debuted for simply $35 month-to-month and confirmed native CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC stations plus dozens of different channels together with ESPN, Fox Sports activities 1 and Bravo. Streaming TV had arrived. It was right here to unfetter TV watchers from cable’s onerous contracts, excessive costs and provider monopolies. Take that, Comcast! In your face, Constitution! (However they’d nonetheless prefer to pay you for web entry, please.)

Quick ahead to 2025: Streaming TV and its low-price, monopoly-free, contractless freedom is all however lifeless. Each main stay TV service supplier raised costs this yr. At present, YouTubeTV, Hulu+ Dwell TV, Fubo and DirecTV all go for no less than $83 monthly. That’s earlier than you go for cable-inspired bundle upgrades and channel add-ons. Throw in perks like 4K, extra sports activities channels and a few one-off networks and also you’re simply shelling out $150 each month. You’ll pay much less for chopped-up stay TV plans from Sling TV, however be ready to create a spreadsheet to verify a plan has the channels you need.

This yr, consolidation got here for TV streaming, giving robust Cox/Constitution/Comcast monopoly vibes. Disney, which accomplished its buyout of Hulu in 2023, acquired Fubo this yr and plans to mix the 2. The combo makes Disney the second-largest stay TV streaming supplier behind Google. DirecTV already owns Sling TV, in order that leaves simply three huge gamers within the stay TV streaming area. With Netflix’s transfer to purchase Warner Bros, the normal streaming market is getting narrower, too. We are able to safely assume good ol’ market competitors gained’t be bringing costs down anytime quickly.

Nevertheless it’s not simply consolidation — fragmentation additionally contributes to an general crappier streaming expertise. In 2025, Disney launched a standalone ESPN service (no, not that one, nor that one) for $30 monthly. To this point, that doesn’t imply you possibly can’t discover ESPN content material by means of different suppliers. However we did see Disney flex its more and more massive TV muscular tissues in drawn-out contract negotiations with Google. The dispute darkened ESPN, ABC and different Disney channels on YouTube TV for 2 weeks this fall — which, I’ll level out for the cynical crowd, was lower than two months after the standalone service launched. YouTube TV subscribers received a $20 credit score, however that in all probability didn’t placate NFL and NCAA soccer followers who missed out on ESPN-carried video games.

Then in November, Fubo quarreled with NBCUniversal, saying the Peacock mother or father was “shifting content material to their very own streaming providers” and forcing up charges. The spat turned off NBC, Bravo, USA and different channels for Fubo subscribers, little question infuriating each NBA and Actual Housewives followers, regardless of a $15 credit score. After all, Fubo is Disney’s latest affiliate, so there are not any non-bad guys right here.

The one benefit TV streaming has in its favor is the dearth of cable-style contracts and I haven’t heard any murmurs of such a factor forthcoming. We’re nonetheless all free to hop round between the large three TV streamers till we hand over and simply return to DVDs. — Amy Skorheim, Senior reporter

The work of DOGE

An Elon Musk-led try and rein in federal spending with the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) has been a failure by nearly each metric. As of November, it was reported that DOGE isn’t any extra, despite the fact that the initiative ostensibly had eight months left to run. An official advised Reuters that DOGE “would not exist,” and it by no means ought to have within the first place.

Although Musk was solely on the helm of DOGE for a couple of months, he and his crew precipitated chaos. Adopting the slash-and-burn tactic Musk employed when he took over Twitter, he swung a chainsaw by means of myriad authorities departments, with DOGE firing employees who have been really important and shortly needed to be employed again. By August, the federal government was stated to have fired some 300,000 federal employees, with DOGE taking accountability for many of these. Amongst different issues, cuts on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being resulted in the long run of funding for a whole lot of medical research, which is alleged to have affected tens of hundreds of sufferers. It is also estimated that the dismantling of the US Company for Worldwide Improvement had resulted in additional than 650,000 deaths around the globe by early December, with kids accounting for two-thirds of these.

DOGE employees appeared to be busy, although. They reportedly monitored authorities communications for criticisms of each Musk and President Donald Trump, whereas implementing generative AI chatbots in an try and automate some authorities duties. However for all of the blustering about making the federal government far more environment friendly, DOGE didn’t meet its said objective.

Musk initially promised to scale back authorities spending by $2 trillion, nevertheless it did not take lengthy for him to scale back that pledge to $150 billion. And but authorities spending has really gone up. In October, the primary month of the federal government’s fiscal yr, its complete outlay was $689 billion, a rise of $105 billion (18 %) from October 2024. Nonetheless, perhaps DOGE wasn’t a complete catastrophe for its architects. It was capable of acquire entry to delicate and useful authorities knowledge, in any case. — Kris Holt, Contributing reporter

AI video

In our post-truth world, video was one of many few remaining methods to show one thing had really occurred. It had its issues in fact, however the reality it was more durable to pretend than phrases and pictures, and anybody might file a clip with their telephone, made it important to our sense of shared actuality. Take into consideration the homicide of George Floyd: The grave injustice of his demise would have in all probability by no means come to gentle if Darnella Frazier had not filmed what occurred.

With the appearance of AI video, I am undecided the place we go. Each Google and OpenAI pushed the expertise into the realm of uncomfortable realism this yr, nevertheless it’s Sora’s cameo characteristic that has me frightened. Inside the first week of the app’s public availability, individuals have been utilizing the characteristic, which permits customers so as to add the likeness of different individuals to their movies, to generate clips of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman stealing GPUs from Goal. Cameo has limitations, and customers can limit and delete movies that embody their likeness, nevertheless it’s simply one other assault on the reality. It is laborious to see how making it trivial to create deepfake movies advantages anybody aside from the businesses providing constructing the tech. — I.B.