{"id":181729,"date":"2025-12-08T21:25:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/181729\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T21:25:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:25:08","slug":"10-talking-points-from-video-games-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/181729\/","title":{"rendered":"10 talking points from video games in 2025\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally. After years of speculation, Nintendo released the Switch 2 in May 2025. As of November, over 10 million units have already been sold, making it the fastest selling console of all time. What does the Switch 2 do differently? Not much at all, in truth. This machine is ultimately just a more powerful version of the original console, but that will keep Mario, Link, Pokemon and countless others in gaming households for years to come.<\/p>\n

Clair the way\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ClairClair Obscur<\/p>\n

Most games fail. They cost time, money and the market is gobbled up by the biggest releases. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the nigh-on miraculous exception to that rule. Created by a small team of French developers, cobbled together by a visionary producer, it has sold millions of copies and redefined what storytelling and maturity looks like in the JRPG genre. Destined to be remembered.<\/p>\n

Ex-box\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u2018console wars\u2019 have been part of gaming lexicon since the 1980s, but that may have changed for good this year. Microsoft announced a strategy that will see them effectively cede ground to become a publisher first and foremost, with their flagship Xbox consoles unlikely to compete with Sony and Nintendo in future. They even announced that Xbox icon Halo would be coming to PlayStation. Raise the white flag!<\/p>\n

Peak interest\u00a0<\/p>\n

The term \u2018friendslop\u2019 surfaced this year, meaning silly, smaller games to be played co-operatively with other people. No game fit that description better than Peak, where players work together (or not) to ascend a mountain in the centre of an island. It\u2019s an experience meant to create hilarious, stressful, triumphant moments with friends organically \u2013 and it does a great job of that. Peak gaming? Maybe not. Peak fun? Definitely.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arab-EA\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"EAEA Sports, the creators of the world’s most popular football game, were taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.<\/p>\n

Anyone following the sporting and business landscape in recent years will have noticed Saudi Arabia\u2019s many investments globally, as the region looks to expand their economic interests. However, it was still a surprise when their Public Investment Fund (PIF) spent $55 billion to acquire Electronic Arts (EA), the company who make EA Sports FC and Battlefield among others. Whether this huge acquisition will have an impact on culturally sensitive topics in EA\u2019s video games remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Smooth as silk\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HollowHollow Knight: Silksong<\/p>\n

Seven years after it was initially announced, indie sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong was released in September after years of delay, briefly taking over the gaming world. Silksong\u2019s delay and the lack of communication from its two-man team had long become an internet meme. Many people speculated it was in development \u2018hell\u2019 and would never emerge. Instead, Silksong not only released on just two weeks\u2019 notice, but crashed digital marketplaces due to demand. It also became one of the best-rated games of 2025.<\/p>\n

Battle ready\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BattlefieldBattlefield 6<\/p>\n

Over the years, online shooters have become something of a metaphorical battleground themselves, with gamers struggling to connect with the \u2018live service\u2019 model that prioritises player spending over simple fun. So, it was refreshing to see EA listen to their audience and release Battlefield 6 in a form that harks back to the series roots. Battlefield 6 isn\u2019t perfect, but its huge success shows that sometimes the best approach is one that simply gives gamers what they want.<\/p>\n

Auto seen it coming\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\u00a0Grand\u00a0Grand Theft Auto 6 has faced several delays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s another 12 years? Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed not once, but twice in 2025. Originally announced for a release this November, that was pushed to May 2026 and once more again to November 2026. Take Two CEO Straus Zelnick said they have “never regretted delaying a game\u2019” in order to release the best version, but if another delay is announced next year dark clouds may start to gather around the biggest video game release of the decade.<\/p>\n

Ring in the old\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was the year of remakes. From Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, to Metal Gear Solid Delta, to Silent Hill 2 on Xbox, to Trails in the Sky, to the announcement of yet another full Halo Combat Evolved remake, what was old became new again. Games first released 20 years ago are now perfectly primed for a graphical update that ravenous fans are more than happy to purchase. Delta sold 2 million copies and Oblivion saw 9 million players within a few months of release, so this trend is only likely to continue.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll never beat the Irish\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA scene from Ready or Not, the tactical first-person shooter video game created by Cork-based software development company Void Interactive.<\/p>\n

The big Irish story of 2025 continued to be Ready Or Not, the online shooter developed in Cork. Ready Or Not saw a very successful launch on consoles this year, taking overall sales to an estimated 13 million. Indie hit The S\u00e9ance of Blake Manor, developed by Galway team Spooky Doorway, was released to rave reviews in October. Meanwhile, Irish luminaries Sean Murray and Brendan Greene continued to work on their next games, Light No Fire and Prologue: Go Wayback! respectively, with the latter now in early access. Go on the Irish!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally. After years of speculation, Nintendo released the Switch 2 in May 2025. As of November, over 10…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[61,60,6405,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-181729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-music-movies-reviews-munster","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}