Episode 209: 2025 Gaming Predictions

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One hour of totally unfounded waffle and pointless commentary.

This week’s music is from the Super Mario Odyssey soundtrack by Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii and Koji Kondo.

2025 Predictions

Samuel

• I’ve got Nintendo Switch 2 launches in March 2025, cost £379.99 in the UK and launches with 3D Mario.
• Mario Kart 9 launches at Christmas on the Switch successor
• Resident Evil 9 is revealed this year, but launches in early 2026
• Nintendo Switch finally gets those Wind Waker and Twilight Princess remasters in the waning days of the Switch.
• GTA 6 doesn’t come out this year, but it’s not because a single player isn’t ready, it’s because GTA Online needs a longer runway.
• Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra is a game of the year contender.
• We see nothing of Wolverine on PS5 at all this year, but Sony has a good year with Ghost of Yōtei, Death Stranding 2 and the sequel to Returnal.
• Persona 6 is announced this year, then released in early 2026.
• Dynasty Warriors: Origins takes over the January gaming discourse (until Monster Hunter comes out)
• The consensus finally turns against SoulsLikes as we get nine more grey games with names like The Path of Death and Demon Sheath that no one remembers one month after release
• The Star Wars XCOM alike made by former Firaxis staff at Bit Reactor is unveiled this year
• A languid double bill of Hotel Dusk and Last Window drops on Nintendo Switch.

Matthew

• the 3D Mario team are making a 3D Donkey Kong game to launch alongside Switch 2
• Switch 2 will release with Mario Kart 9
• Square Enix to release a standalone version of Queen’s Blood, or at least or add online battling to Rebirth.
• Bluepoint will reveal an expanded remake of Bloodborne
• GTA 6 will contain a side quest where you work with a true crime podcaster to explore the events of the original Vice City, letting them dunk on some of the worst missions of the game
• Mark Strong will be announced as playing Ganondorf in the The Legend of Zelda movie
• Team Ninja will mark 30 years of their studio with a reboot of Ninja Gaiden
• The new game from the Yakuza team Project Century will be revealed to have a big hook where it’s not confined to 1915 and will jump through several time periods to show the evolution of one area over the last 100 years.
• 2025 is going to be an absolutely amazing year for visual novel likers
• Blue Prince is going to be the indie game of the year that loads of people end up hating and being a bit cross about because they don’t get it.
• The next Shu Takumi game will be a meta Ace Attorney game set across other Capcom franchises involving crime set in the universes of Monster Hunter, Resident Evil and Dead Rising.
• Judas triggers a tsunami of boring Ken Levine think pieces, but we’re all secretly thankful to have a traditional mainstream FPS that at least attempts something interesting narratively.

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