Our Big Predictions for Video Games in 2025

So for Christmas, I got the hot new video game handheld console.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I got the Vanillaware Go.

Have you heard about this one?

It's pretty popular.

Yeah, the Vanillaware Go.

So the basic idea is it's this like amazing, beautiful handheld that it it only plays all of Vanillaware's games, except for like the most recent one.

Yeah, sure.

So it's only for adults, is what you're saying?

Yeah, and you shouldn't play it in public, also.

I should mention that.

But Muramasa, the Demon Blade, Odin Sphere, Grimoire.

You know, these like kind of iconic, universally beloved games.

So universally beloved that you've long had physical copies of all of these games, and now you're finally getting the opportunity to play them.

This is actually true.

These are a lot of games I've owned, but never fully played.

Grey Knights History.

I mean, the list goes on.

And by goes on, I mean, I think there's maybe one more.

Yeah.

And

it's just

so great for the dozens of us

out here.

The weird thing about it, though, is it does play Dynamite Dika, a Diehard Arcade, inexplicably.

And effectively like every other video game released before the PlayStation 3.

That does seem weird.

I don't know why they branded it like this.

Right.

It does seem weird to brand it specifically like vanillaware.

Yeah.

And the weird thing is it came in a box that I had wrapped in paper myself and scrawled vanillaware go on.

But then when you tore off that, it said Retroid Pocket 5 underneath it.

And that looked like it was like somebody had actually put some real work into it.

I thought there was a busty lady on the box.

Well, I had drawn that.

Yeah.

I'd also drawn, because I want to be fair here, many busty men

of just absolutely shredded beefcakes.

Yeah.

I'm starting to think that I might have been in a fugue state and it was kind of like, you know.

I mean, this is Chris playing autopilot.

He just ends up with a bunch of vanilla wear games.

I think that.

Yeah, you're right.

Like, I went to sleep and then kind of like my own Santa Claus, I cobbled together the system of my dreams.

I woke up the next morning covered in cookie dust.

Oh, good.

I'm glad it was cookie dust.

Yeah.

And

yeah.

So anyway, that was my Christmas.

How was yours?

How was your Hanukkah?

Great.

Cool.

Let's talk about video games.

My name is Christopher Thomas Plant, and I know the best game of of the week.

My name is Russ Freshdriker.

I know the best game of the week.

Welcome to the besties where the world's best friends pick the world's best games.

This week we are talking about our predictions for 2025 and looking back on our predictions from 2024, which is a tradition amongst Frostdick and I.

You might have noticed by now there are two McElroys who are not here.

Yeah, they both died.

They both needed a holiday break, which is understandable.

Is that what it is?

Yeah, that's what it is.

Which it feels like to not have them around.

It feels like this giant gaping hole in our heart.

That is sad, but I am so excited to be able to continue this tradition, which we've been doing for a few years now.

Yeah, it's a nice tradition, and it's also nice because we originally were going to put this episode, this predictions episode behind the paywall for the rest of these folks.

But because Justin and Griffin were not here and because it's the first episode of the year, we thought where better to put it, y'all had a bonus episode from our bracket episodes, and now we have, I guess, another almost Patreon bonus.

Although, there will be also a Patreon Rusties coming to you shortly as well.

So, you're getting both.

This is a chance for you to hear what's been going on behind that wall and be like, you know what?

I want to go see more of that stuff.

Or you might be like, you know what?

If I have to hear Plant talk about vanillaware games one more time, I need to go back to the normal main feed.

And you know what?

Either one's cool.

I'm cool with it either way.

For people who are unfamiliar with this, just real quick, we'll do the rules and then we'll take a break.

The way this works is we

go through a list of predictions that we've made, kind of a pool of predictions, and then we draft them.

That's our current standard of them.

We pick five each, and then we reflect back on them to see who had the most success.

I think this is going to be a contentious episode, and I can't wait.

So let's throw it to the break, and we'll be right back.

Awesome.

Hoo-boy.

Okay.

So the so the first half of this episode is going to be dealing with the predictions from last year to determine who got more right.

Correct.

And I'm very excited because I think because of the new drafting format, it did result in more positive answers than previously.

And I'm very excited to see which you consider to be right answers versus wrong answers.

But Should we just like list out the ones that we got right?

Let's dig into.

All of the predictions and see what we got right and wrong.

How about we just go through the predictions top item real quick?

Okay.

We'll go back and forth between mine and yours.

Okay.

Okay, my first one.

We haven't even heard the name of 2024's Game of the Year yet.

And this prediction is made in January 2024.

Correct.

Yours.

My first prediction was the Borderlands movie will have a rotten on rotten tomatoes, and at least one outlet will question Hollywood's rush to adapt video games.

Okay.

Next one I have is Bobby Koddick has a new executive job before the end of the year.

Next one I have is How Handheld Not Made by Valve will launch with native Steam OS support.

I've got Switch goes for two.

Nintendo Switch has at least one other iconic IP in its first three months, not including Metroid.

And to be clear, you were talking about

the Switch 2 when you were talking about that.

Or are you going to make it?

Yeah, no, I'm not going to.

I was talking about the Switch 2.

Yeah, okay.

My next prediction was Fortnite will drop one more standalone mode akin to Lego, Rocket Racing, or Fortnite Festival before the end of the year.

Developed by Epic or a studio that Epic owns, it can't be a one-off experience like the Alan Wick thing that they did.

Okay, next up, I've got one of the five major Japanese publishers will be acquired.

Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Vanda Namco, Sega.

This is tricky because some of these have huge parent companies, and recently we haven't seen big consolidation amongst Japanese studios.

Mine is Nintendo will make some public reference to the durability of the Switch 2 analog sticks in either marketing materials or an official press release.

An interview does not count.

And last one for me, Hades 2 will have a horde mode, i.e.

instead of going room to room, you have to survive against waves a la vampire survivors or like traditional horde modes.

Yeah, and my last one is Hollow Knight Silk Song will come out and let you play as a character other than Hornet.

And this character has to be really playable and not like a rideable Hornet.

Not like a rideable.

Hornet cannot be near the other playable character.

This is only because we had some fun last year about the Zelda prediction where I tried to make a case for a giant robot that you ride being a separate character.

Anyway, it doesn't matter because fucking Silk Song didn't come out.

So some things you should know as we we go through this and actually see if we nailed these is we actually set out to make these more difficult.

I remember.

No, I don't think so.

No, so we let each other draft, which was to create a sense of fairness where like neither of us was able to set up easy ones for ourselves.

But we do push on these to be like challenging.

We don't set the...

I don't think we like...

We could pretty easily pick...

10 predictions.

Oh, yeah, sure.

That is true.

We do want it to be a bit of an X factor.

Yes, yes.

And it can't be stuff we already know, et cetera, et cetera.

So, okay, so let's go through this from the top.

What are the ones that you think you got?

Sure.

So the two that I got were the Borderlands movie being Rotten on Rotten Tomatoes and at least one outlet questioning Hollywood's rush to adapt video games.

And the other one that I got right was Fortnite will drop one more standalone mode akin to Lego, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival by the end of the year, developed by Epic, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay, so tell me about the Borderlands one first.

Obviously, it's rotten on Rotten Tomatoes.

Yes, no problem.

Do we need to check the score?

I haven't seen it in a long time.

We don't need to check the score.

I'm going to check it.

Okay, great.

So the score for the Rotten Tomatoes movie, I'm sorry, the score for the Borderlands movie right now sits at 10%.

Cool.

Which I believe is rotten.

Unquestionably rotten.

Tiers of rotten that have not yet been seen.

So the really second part of this is really just having an outlet talking about the rush to

adapt video games.

I have a few links here.

The first one comes from Time Magazine.

This is an article called Borderlands is a video game movie made for absolutely no one.

The quote is, right as Hollywood has started to learn how to successfully adapt videos from the screen, Borderlands arrives as a reminder on how not to do it.

I have another link.

This comes from Screencraft.

I'll just give you the article title, Why Video Game Adaptations May Work Better as TV.

And the last one is from Tech Radar.

Borderlands is proof that the era of video game adaptations is officially over.

Good video game adaptations officially over.

Okay,

that last one feels like it nails it.

Yeah.

The first two

back and forth.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

And then walk me through the Fortnite one.

Sure.

So Fortnite,

as of just a couple weeks ago, released a mode called Ballistic.

Ballistic is.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

What did you think I was going to say?

I had no idea.

This was the one I was like, what are you talking about?

I was too busy thinking about

IP.

I was thinking like, well, no Disney thing came out.

No big IP thing came out.

But you're right.

Tell the listeners what ballistic is for people.

Ballistic is effectively an answer to games like Counter-Strike or Valorant.

It's a 5v5 first-person shooter

set, you know, with Fortnite characters and the Fortnite universe, but like the gameplay is following the model of Counter-Strike.

It really plays nothing like Fortnite.

And internally developed and released, I think it basically checks all those boxes.

Okay, okay.

I think that's definitely that you got

those two.

I think that makes perfect sense.

Okay, so mine.

I have,

we haven't heard the name of 2024's game of the year yet.

The case for this being that I said that game, most publications of game of the year has yet to be formally announced.

Or if it is public, it's not from an existing franchise.

There are two games that I think would need to actually pass this test.

And that is Bellatro, which I think is like the easy pass.

And then I think the other one is Astrobot, which is also passes.

Yeah.

Astrobot is actually not even a question.

There was a post, I think, on Reset Era.

I'm doing your research for you.

That collated like all the major publications and their pick for Game of the Year.

Yeah.

And Astrobot was the leader by a mile.

It had dramatically more picks than any other game in the list.

Yeah, I wanted to favor the Polygon Game of the Year, too.

That's nice.

I got to do what I can.

No, I appreciate it.

Okay.

I would have pushed back if you said Balacher.

I would have pushed back.

Here's the tricky one.

And I'm curious where we land on this.

Okay.

One of the five major Japanese publishers will be acquired.

And I'll read the entire blurb.

Capcom, Screenix, Konami, Bandai, Nemco, Sega.

And I said, this is tricky because some of these have huge parent companies.

And recently I haven't seen big consolidation amongst Japanese studios.

The company, the parent company that owns Elden Ring Maker from Software is in the process of acquisition with Sony,

which is a massive, massive, massive company.

The tricky part is that from Software is not technically owned by Vandai Namco,

but it is owned by a company that is bigger than Van Dynamco.

And that's where I feel,

I think it's like, if we're going by the sanctity of what we meant when we said it, I don't think I was like, oh, somebody's got to go buy up Pac-Man.

I think what the clear intention there is somebody's got to buy up from software on Van Dynamco.

I would agree with you if you said that someone buys from software.

And honestly, even if you had said that, I would push back because no one has bought from software at this point.

They're just talking about it.

Well, no, no, no, there's a letter of intention for the acquisition.

You couldn't, we could never say

buy within the calendar year because what happens in any acquisition process is the letter of intention of acquisition.

Well, let's look at the black companies.

Let's look at the language.

It looks like

one of the five, maybe one of the five major Japanese publishers will be

no oh okay

that you know you know just as well as i okay that's fine if you want an acquisition if you want to i'm

i think there's just no scenario where like i'm giving you credit for someone buying bandy namco because another company mentioned that they're intending to acquire from software and they and sony is like considering the acquisition.

That's those are there's like a mile between those two.

I think we should put it up to the listeners.

We can put it up to the listeners.

I'm prepared to lose at the hands of the listeners.

I'm fine.

I've seen the

pesky mofo last year with the Zelda thing and the and the Yoshi thing.

Do I expect to lose?

Yes.

Yeah.

But do I think I am still,

you know, and the heart, right?

I think the intention of it is pretty clearly right, which is like one of the, if not the biggest.

I don't even think, correct me if I'm I'm wrong, I don't think, I don't think Sony's the one that would acquire it.

Is that right?

Yeah.

I don't think they've officially said that they're going to move forward with it.

I think they've just said that they're considering the acquisition.

But tell me if that's incorrect.

I don't think that's correct.

Also, you would never say that.

You would never, unless you, you would never publicly say

that you are going to acquire something.

I mean, there might be like a formal business step anyway.

Yeah, in IGN 20 November,

yeah, it's intense.

You can put your evidence in the thing.

Okay, okay.

I think my evidence is simple.

The words from software were never uttered in this prediction.

So

that's really what it was titled.

If you guys want to give Chris Plant a pity quarter point, I'm fine with that.

Quarter point, full point.

I have a feeling that I'm not.

It's crazy to get a full point.

I have a feeling I will lose.

So if I lose,

what am I going to get?

What did we agree on for the winter?

Well, we did the art last year.

I thought that was a nice thing.

What did you think?

You remember what we got?

I liked it last year.

So

I think I would need to find you a piece of kind of like a waifu pillow.

Is that what you're looking for?

I got you a very respectable, near-nonsense thing for the wall that you could actually hang up and not be embarrassed.

It's surprisingly difficult.

Was it surprising?

No.

I don't think it was difficult.

It wasn't surprising.

You know what?

I'm just going to say I lost because I don't want to tie.

That doesn't sound good.

And also, you're right.

By the letter of the law.

This is a good lesson for me about how I come up with my answers moving forward.

Language is very important.

And part of this,

as established by the Triple Click podcast, language is in the way that, you know.

We all know the Supreme Court considers language very importantly and never gets anything wrong.

That's so true.

I do like to think that we are better at this than the Supreme Court.

I think that's a fair assessment.

Okay, okay.

So I'm going to find you a gift and I'm going to be seeing you in person in only a couple of weeks.

I'm going to maybe

have to do it that quickly.

We'll see.

We'll see.

That'd be exciting.

Okay, I feel good about this.

You know what?

We actually did pretty okay.

I think

we did better than we've done previously.

If I recall correctly, in previous years, we've gotten like one and maybe one and a half right, if then.

Yeah.

Well, and what I feel good about this with is like the stuff we didn't get

is

kind of still in play for the most part.

I brought some of these.

I don't know if that's fair, but I have them in the draft.

I added some of the ones that I didn't get this year because I do think they are going to happen and we maybe just got the timing wrong.

Yeah.

But

some other stuff that we had from last year that we ended up not going with.

We had Xbox will show its hand.

We will see gameplay from at least two of these five borderline vaporware games.

Everwild, Contraband, Perfect Dark, Dark, Avowed, South of Midnight.

If either of us had taken that, they would have gotten it.

Yeah.

Silent Hill will be relevant again.

Either Silent Hill 2 or the new Silent Hill release will score above 80 on Metacritic.

We would have gotten that one right.

But then there's some ones that we would not have gotten right.

Control of Remedy, Epic, Sony, and Microsoft will acquire Remedy.

They actually went the other direction.

Remedy has really begun to set its independence.

They're securing their IP and doing their own thing.

Yeah.

YouTube enters the gaming space.

YouTube adds games.

People can publish games directly onto YouTube.

Didn't see that.

I think there is an interactive YouTube gaming thing.

I remember seeing it, but I didn't look directly into it because we didn't pick that one.

Yeah, that would have been a reach, I think, even if either of us had done this.

And then Return of the Classic: three franchises that haven't had a mainline entry in at least five years will return.

Their publishers will announce new titles.

So this excludes games already already announced, like Metroid and Prince of Persia.

This, I think, is a perfect pick for 2025.

I think this is like

the future.

I think everybody's going to try to do the Nintendo model if they have a deep pool of classic IP.

Sega's already there, right?

Sega's...

really rushing to bring back a lot of its popular franchises.

Yeah,

top of my head, also like things like Fable.

Yes, that.

But I think we'll also, you know, in 2025, see stuff like

New Castlevania announced, new Metal Gear

announced.

I would not be surprised at all.

And also,

Pac-Man and Dig Dug.

I mean, I just feel like old IPs are coming back in a big way.

And I think is Sony going to allow Pac-Man and Dig Dug to come out after they buy Bandai Namco?

Okay.

Listen, you're getting your art.

You're getting your art.

And every little joke you make is one step closer to

your waifu pillow.

Understood.

Understood.

It's going to be great.

Okay, this is good.

You want to go to the meet and talk about our predictions for 2025?

Let's do it.

Cool.

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Okay, we are back and here is the meat.

Here is the good stuff, the fresh stuff, the what is going to happen in the future.

We are looking into our crystal ball and telling you exactly what to expect for the months ahead.

You might be saying, but you only got a third right on the last segment.

Hey, a third?

That's pretty damn good.

And I'm feeling even more powerful this year.

It's good enough that you can walk away from this episode knowing something that will happen in the future, but not so good that you can gamble on it, which I would say we do intentionally.

I would hate for you to lose your house on something like this.

So here's how it will work.

We are going to read

through all the predictions we have here.

And then we will draft them.

So as we read through these, I think this is a good chance for us to hone them.

If either of us have any concerns about them or just want to talk through why we picked them, we can do that now and the draft will be kind of bam, bam, bam at the end.

That sound good to you?

That sounds great.

Cool.

So I'll kick things off with my first prediction.

Mafia releases in 2025, the new mafia game, and GTA 6 bumps to 2026.

Here's my logic behind this.

Mafia the old country.

Mafia the old country.

Thank you.

Words matter.

The rumor, I think it's, it might not even be confirmed yet, but the rumor is that Mafia the Old Country should release in June or July.

And I think it will hold to that date.

I don't understand why Take-Two would release both of these games in the same year.

That doesn't make sense to me.

They have a crowded year already, and this is a publisher that is known for for kind of clearing the runway for its major releases so i mean yeah do you honestly think let's say for argument's sake mafia does come out in june or july and again argument's sake gta 6 were to come out in october do you honestly think mafia sales would at all impact gta sales it's the opposite it's the opposite gta sales affect mafia sales yeah i think the rationale being that like maybe sales would have tailed off by then i agree with the premise.

I don't agree with the rationale necessarily.

I think whether GTA 6 comes out this year or not has nothing to do with mafia.

It has everything to do with when can they put this game out and not have it be a disaster.

And given the complexities of these games and given the cyberpunk of it all, where no big studio wants to risk their cash cow,

They're gonna make sure this game is fucking great.

And I think a game this complex has a tendency to get bumped.

So I think for sure, I mean, I agree with this premise, but I guess we'll get to the drafting part later.

Cool.

But I think we're both on the same page in terms of the actual letter of the law.

Next up.

Do you want me to do this one?

Should I switch off?

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake will be announced and released in 2025.

So there's been rumors very recently of an Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake happening,

HD remast or whatever it's going to be.

There's been rumblings of it.

There's been word that it's going to get announced pretty soon.

There's been no news about a release date, but that's pretty much all we know.

So obviously it being announced and releasing in the same year, pretty straightforward.

Yeah, it feels to me like the cadence for announce to release for these remakes, remasters, especially something like this, is pretty quick.

I also think Bethesda has a bit of a history of putting games out shortly after announcing them.

This is following the weird.

Was that a joke?

No, there was a weird.

There was that point where they had not been acquired by Microsoft yet, and they clearly wanted to be acquired.

And they announced every game they would make for the next 15 years.

And then they went pretty quiet for a couple of years and started doing this thing where it's like, oh, we announced the game in June.

It comes out in August or September.

Yeah.

But I could be wrong.

I would be very excited.

I think Oblivion's great.

I think it's kind of unheralded because obviously Skyrim has been around for so long.

It is much weirder than Skyrim is.

It allows you to like break the game in fun ways.

So I'd be very happy to see that.

But yeah, good prediction.

Okay, next up I have Death Stranding breaks 85 on Metacritic and gets a glowing write-up in the New York Times or New York Mag.

Okay, this is a pretty interesting one.

I think from a,

I mean, I'm a I'm a fan of simplicity.

I would probably just lose the New York Times or New York Mag thing.

It feels like snobby media talk.

And if it's, it breaks 85, that seems like enough for me.

Whether an editor at the New York Times thinks that's worthy of coverage is a different story.

So I would just lose the second part.

I'm fine losing the second part.

I'm going to

bonus worth no points.

Okay.

Just to have it there because yes, the reason that I want to include that just as a calling our shot is it feels like such a game that is going to get the exact story that people have been telling about Death Stranding 1 is going to finally be said on the New York Times and presented as wholly new by like some random writer.

Well, they've also done, I don't know if the New York,

I forget who did it, but either New York Times or New York Mag has done like the profile Kojima

thing.

I think Simon Parkin did a good one over at New Yorker.

Yeah.

But yes, I could be wrong, but it just feels like we're going to get the, hey, this was a game about the pandemic story

a few years late.

That said,

I'm curious because by the time that that game comes out,

the games writing writing at New York Times is getting better.

Like, it's just getting better and better.

So, I mean, it doesn't.

Whether they're good or not does not determine whether they're going to write a glowing review.

None of this counts as a point.

I don't know why we're going to be able to do that.

That's true.

I just find it interesting.

Okay, Death Stranding breaks 85 on Metacritic.

That would suggest that it gets a better score than the current one, which I think has an 82 on Metacritic.

And

I think it's gradually gone up.

The director's cut is at 85, which I think is a more representative.

That was like the post-release included whatever, add-ons and shit.

So it would have to do better than the previous one on Metacritic.

Okay, okay.

I think that's good.

Okay, what do we got next?

Next up, Nintendo Switch 2 isn't released until the second half of 2025 and launches with either a new Mario or a new Mario Kart.

How do you feel about that one?

Well, I don't know that I want to put a ton of thumb on the scale for any of these, whether I I think they're legit or not, because it's going to impact our drafting.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

I will say, like, a lot of these came from you.

I added ones at the end of the list, so we are just reading them back and forth in order, but that was one that you added.

Okay.

You want to read the next one?

Yeah.

EA releases a new Battlefield and Break75 on Metacritic.

I had a bonus here with no points.

A major outlet or YouTuber describes it as a comeback for the series, which I think is like like kind of a given.

If this game is even mildly good, somebody major will say those exact words.

Yeah.

This is an interesting one because the last game, if I recall, I think it was an 81.

But it also, those reviews came out before the huge blowback of the entire community and the game being a total disaster.

So there is, I think, a narrative currently that Battlefield games are bad.

So really.

if it's bad, it will be punished.

Yeah, yeah, pretty severely.

I think it was probably a little bit defended by its IP,

and that won't happen again.

Yeah.

Okay, what do we got next?

Next up, the Game of the Year winner at the

2025 Game Awards is released after June 1st, but at least three games from the first half of the year are nominated for the award.

That's very complicated, but I think I understand it.

Here's my logic behind this one.

There are going to be a bunch of big games in the first half of the year.

Like, just an onslaught.

We have a bunch of AAA stuff that got delayed into that window.

I don't think any of it will actually win Game of the Year, despite it being like...

The new Monster Hunter being out, right?

These are all going to be very popular, very beloved games.

They will make it into the final Game of the Wards category, Game of the Year category.

But whatever wins is going to come out after June 1st.

It will be something that is closer to the awards.

It will be something maybe that we haven't even heard of yet.

It could be, you know, a new Mario on Switch.

Or it could be something like

Mafia, right?

I mean, I don't think it will be Mafia, but it could be.

But it will be something in the back half of the year.

It definitely, from a historical standpoint, you're favored,

the first half is favored by the release calendar, because historically, big games release towards the end of the year, you know, September, October.

But the X factor here is the Switch 2.

And when the Switch 2 comes out will determine so much of this, because you have to assume at least one of those games, probably, unless it's like a total fucking disaster, will appear on the game of the year list.

Yes.

And it's right.

You know, you're a little bit screwed if the Switch 2 comes out after the second half of the year if you pick this, but good insight.

That's

a good chance for you to split your bet, too, if you do this and then you pick the Switch 2 option.

That's true.

Hedge it.

Yeah.

Okay, after that one, I have

Valve releases two new pieces of hardware, including a new member of the Steam Deck line.

Now,

when I say new member of the Steam Deck line, I want to be super clear.

That could be a portable, but it could be a Steam Deck

that goes under your TV.

Okay.

It would be called like

whatever.

It would use a Steam OS.

It would work like a Steam Deck does.

I don't know if they would call it the Steam Deck, but it would be like in that same category.

I think it would need to be called something Steam Deck related for it to be in the Steam Deck line.

Okay.

I think that's fine.

I think still keep it.

So.

And then the other hardware could be anything from a VR thing to,

I think, an original new controller.

Okay.

Let's see.

A non-Steam Deck labeled PC.

But there would be something.

I mean, they're not putting out a fucking...

They're not doing that.

Yes.

I mean, the Steam machine's come back, baby.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

That's an interesting one.

Oh, the next one, I'm glad that you're saying this one because this is something you really care about.

Wait, wait, wait.

Actually, let's go back to the last one.

Okay.

Language.

Valve releases two new pieces of hardware.

I'm just going to like throw this out there.

If Valve puts out a new original controller with two different SKUs, like one of them has fucking back buttons or whatever, I don't think that counts.

Well, it wouldn't count because it wouldn't be a Steam Deck.

Line.

Well, no, they could very easily call it a Steam Deck control, whatever.

Oh, okay.

Sure.

Yeah.

No, yeah, we won't count that if they do.

And Ditto for like if they put out a Steam, I don't think they're going to do this, but if they put out a Steam Deck and one has like 512 megs and one has, you know, different SKUs don't count.

Okay.

That's okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Good, good, good, good.

Can't include two SKUs of the same product.

Next up.

This is one that's near and dear to my heart.

A new entry in the in near is finally announced.

Fantastic.

Love that pick.

Love it.

No notes.

I don't think there's any that, like, we don't need any more added to that.

Well, I guess the question I have is, so there's two Nier games right now, right?

Okay.

So are there more?

We should actually adjust this.

A new entry in Nier is finally announced for

major consoles for home consoles.

Oh, because there's been like mobile shit?

There's mobile shit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Yes.

That sounds.

And it can't be an HD re-release.

And I mean,

yeah.

Just clarifying.

Yeah, no, it's worth doing.

Near Atomata could get something like that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Next up, a AAA,

which I'm going to say is a budget bigger than Astrobot game will win Game of the Year at the Game Awards.

Do we know for sure the budget of Astrobot, or are we just kind of gut checking?

I think we can explain.

We certainly know.

Here's what I would say by this, because we can kind of use some examples in the past to set the ground here.

Astrobot would not count.

Baldur's Gate 3 would not count.

We are talking about something like

A Last of Us, a Spider-Man 2,

a

Fable.

Okay, well, let's give an example.

Super Mario, whatever.

If there's a new Super Mario on Switch 2, that's a bigger budget than Astrobot.

It's got to be, right?

Yes.

And I think we can also just say that that represents AAA and it is like the peak of whatever that company has to offer.

Right.

Yeah.

When I think budgets smaller than Astrobot that are still like big publisher budgets, I'm thinking of games like

Tear.

What was that game?

Teardown?

Tearaway.

Tearaway.

Sure.

Or those sorts of things.

Yes.

The question for you is, Avowed would still count as AAA, do we think?

I think avowed would be AAA and more expensive than Astrobot.

Okay.

Okay.

I think that's good.

That's a good boundary.

I think avowed is a good line

of what falls into that category.

Okay.

I don't know for sure that avowed is more expensive, but my gut says that it is.

And I think we can gut check it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Next up.

Ubisoft or a hostile takeover company will announce its intention for a sale slash acquisition or merger.

Oh, I wrote this one before we recorded the episode and already more careful with the language.

This one seems pretty likely.

Is there breaking news?

No,

but

I think

it feels safe to say that Assassin's Creed Shadows is make or break for this publisher.

And I would not say that is the game I want to have a giant publisher's

future writing on.

Certainly not when it gets delayed like a week before release.

Yeah.

February.

Yeah.

Yikes.

Yeah.

Okay.

Next up.

Following a successful announcement of NVIDIA's new GPU earlier in the year, a major government official, and this can be a member of Congress, the Senate, or presidential administration, demands NVIDIA participate in a government hearing about AI.

Okay, so again.

There's two parts here.

There's two parts here.

I mean, I would

is that they've announced the new GPU, right?

They haven't announced it, but we could take this away because they will announce it.

Has there been a year in recent memory where they haven't put out a new GPU?

Well, no, this is the first time that they, sorry, it's the new RTX label.

So this is the, they only do these every few years, where it's the major step-ups.

But we can, we can just remove it.

I think.

Yeah, I would just lose that part for simplicity's sake.

This is a major government official demands NVIDIA participate in a government hearing about AI.

So, to clarify, NVIDIA does not need to participate.

We're just, there's just a public statement made by a government official that's saying NVIDIA needs to come and do it.

Yes, but NVIDIA,

you can't say no.

Sure.

You know, I mean,

I will also say NVIDIA,

a member of NVIDIA, appears before,

appears before a public or behind closed doors console.

Yeah.

Next.

Okay, what do we have next?

I think this is you.

You want to read it?

A major developer sparks a controversy over listing a job opening for AI prompt experts.

Yeah, I think that pretty much speaks for itself.

Pretty straightforward.

Well, we should define sparks a controversy.

I think we need, certainly news coverage needs to happen.

It can't just be like Reddit posts.

At least three different

publications cover it.

I guess major publications?

Again.

Yeah, the trick is always like, what is major?

But I think like the type of publications that

you bought.

It can't be like random.

It can't be a medium post.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

We're getting into a handful that I added here.

We'll start with a simple one.

Silk song comes out, baby.

Great.

Great.

You are not going to add the second part that you had last year to this?

I mean, at this point, I can't even rely on anything about Silk Song.

I don't even want to, like, put caveats on it because it's been such a fucking running joke.

Yeah, that's...

I think we should just leave it.

Sure.

I think that's fair.

Next up, I got Nintendo will make some public reference to the durability of the Switch 2 analog sticks in either marketing materials or an official press release.

An interview doesn't count.

I feel like I remember this one from last year.

Yeah, this one was carried forward, and I loved it so much last year because

it's such an anti-Nintendo thing, but uh, you know, it's just a question of whether they're gonna have to like publicly acknowledge stick drift, which they really haven't done intentionally because they don't want to get a class action lawsuit against them.

But uh, yeah, that's

okay.

What do we got after this?

Uh, after this, we have either Xbox or Sony will formally formally announce their handheld plans and show a clear look at the hardware.

I think you added that last part, which is probably a good ad.

Yes, yeah.

I think that there is very much a chance that Phil Spencer is like, yeah, we're making one and never gets around to showing it.

Okay, I like that.

Do you want me to include this one?

You skipped a handheld not made by Valve launches with native Steam OS support.

It needs to be

new hardware, and it can't just be retroactively added to existing hardware.

So I think what you mean by that is the vanillaware go or the retroid Pocket 5, whatever you prefer to call it.

Somebody could add Steam OS to it.

That doesn't mean it has

a new handheld that is launching intentionally with Steam OS support.

You're talking about

you need to open the box, turn it on, and it needs to be Steam OS.

And the first OS it launches with is Steam OS.

Yes.

Got it.

Because I think there is a scenario where things dual boot, but it's not the first OS.

Now, yeah.

And again, like when I say it can't include an existing piece of hardware, I'm talking about like the Rog Ally.

If

Valve announces support for Steam OS on the Rog Ally, that does not count unless you buy a Rog Ally and you boot it up and it starts in Steam OS.

Got it.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

It's a slight modification of what we did last year, but I think it's a good one.

and just a side note on last year

in week one i thought i got last year's right uh which was really just something launching with steam because uh and i forget the hardware company i think it might have been ioneo announced that they were releasing a steam os handheld and i was like so thrilled there was like all these news stories about it and then valve forced them to retract it and say, actually, we're doing a side offshoot

third-party version of Steam OS, which didn't count, unfortunately, but it was a funny, funny brief celebration that I had there.

It was a great moment.

A new 3D Mario comes out and follows the open world structure of Bowser's Fury.

Hmm.

I like that one.

Yeah, that's fun.

And

oh, I guess, okay, question on the open world structure of Bowser's Fury.

It can be multiple open worlds, but...

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask.

So if they have to be as big as Bowser's Fury and not like Mario Odyssey.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

The last prediction and then we're going to do our draft.

Okay.

Samus will have less speaking time in Metroid Prime 4 than she did in Metroid Dread.

Wow.

She speaks for about 15 seconds in dread.

Now,

I am not including like text.

stuff.

So like if she's reading like a diary that's written by Samus, doesn't doesn't count unless she's vocally reading it.

You're talking about VO, recorded VO.

Recorded VO.

Okay, okay.

I like that.

That feels.

I like these because they feel both obvious and high risk somehow at the same time.

Like in hindsight, if they happen, we'll be like, oh, obviously.

And yet, I don't know if I would put my money on it.

I mean, there's been games, there's been Metro games where she speaks for like an hour.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So it's an interesting one.

Okay, so you rate a draft.

Each of us are going to take five each.

So some of these will not get picked.

Oh, man.

Who gets to go first?

I think,

do I, is it loser goes first in a draft?

Is that how it works?

I think

I'll let you go first.

Wait, actually, I think I went first last year.

Oh, I don't remember.

I think so.

How about you go first?

Okay, I'm going to take as my first draft the Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remake.

I think the Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remake will be announced and released in 2025.

Okay.

I will take...

This is tough.

I will take Death Stranding Breaks 85 on Metacritic, going where my heart is.

I would love to see it.

I think there's a pretty good chance of that happening.

I think it has a shot.

I mean, it's so rare that I feel like game sequels very rarely go down in Metacritic.

And I think the people that will be reviewing it will be die-hard death stranding people, which we should just, I'm going to add a two to that.

Yeah,

the other hook here is, will it actually come out this year?

Right, which is certainly up in the air.

Okay, so my next one, I'm going to take the

AAA game, a budget bigger than Astrobot, will win Game of the Year at the Game Awards.

Cool.

I like this one because I think it speaks to just next year being a banger year for big budget games it is it really is yeah i mean i like small you know we all love small games of the besties but uh it will be yeah one of those years i'm maybe one of the last years honestly it does feel like that um

i'm going to go with ubisoft or hostile takeover company will announce its intention for sale acquisition.

Okay.

Poor Eve.

He's going to have his golden parachute and everything.

What do you got next?

I'm going to do the Samus one.

Oh, okay.

I feel

I'm a big Metroid fan, and I'm always fascinated by how much they do with Samus or how little they do with Samus.

And it's definitely a big X factor.

So I think that'll be a fun one to do.

So this was, just to clarify, Samus will have less speaking time in Metroid Prime 4 than she did in Metroid Dread.

She speaks about 15 seconds in Metroid Dread.

It needs to be recorded VO.

It can't just be text.

I can't believe I'm going to do this stupid one.

Oh boy.

Silk Song comes out, baby.

Yeah.

I'm going to take the bait this year.

I love it.

I think it's going to happen.

I've been saying for a while that I think when they announce all the third-party support for Switch 2, it's going to be in there.

And that's why it keeps getting delayed.

That's been my head cannon guess of what's going on with this game.

I like that.

I don't know if it's right, but.

I don't know if it's right, but it would be cool.

Okay,

what else you got?

Man, let's see.

I want to do...

I want to do the durability one.

I want to run it back.

Okay, okay, okay.

Nintendo will make some public reference to the durability of the Switch 2 analog sticks in either marketing materials or an official press release.

An interview doesn't count.

Okay, what am I gonna do here?

What am I gonna do?

Do I go with my heart?

Is this your last one or two?

No, I have two more.

You have two more to go.

Okay.

Um,

damn.

Okay,

I'm gonna say

NVIDIA.

I'm gonna say a major government official demands NVIDIA participate in a government hearing about AI.

Okay.

Okay.

So this is your last one.

Oh, this is my last one.

Oh boy.

Okay.

You better be good because I can see you thinking, the listener can't see this, but you are thinking so hard that ripples are going across your forehead.

Energy, pure energy is radiating out of your ears.

I'm leaning towards one of the two valve ones, but valve is such an enigma.

It's so tough, right?

And what they tell you is never what they tell you, right?

They'll be like, we're not making another Steam Deck, and then it'll just.

They don't know.

I feel like they don't know until like a week before it happens that it's for sure happening.

Like, Gabe will show up with some knives and be like, fuck this shit.

I'm making more knives.

And also, here's Half-Life.

And also, here's Half-Life.

I think for my last one, I've been saying there's no way GTA 6 is coming out this year in 2025.

And I got to put my money where my mouth is.

We're going to go.

Mafia is coming out this year, and GTA 6 gets bumped to 2026.

Okay.

I like that.

Okay.

Can I walk you through a challenge I'm having here?

Okay.

Nintendo Switch 2 isn't released until the second half of 2025 and it launches with either a new Mario or Mario card.

I would do this if it was after June 1

because I think there's a real chance that it comes out in June.

But I'm a little worried about saying it's going to be like July through.

here's what I'm gonna give you

needs to come out

before June 15th

okay

I think that's a generous option I think it's I like that and it's so good because there's a real chance that it would be like June 7th

um

okay

yeah I just adjust the second half part

okay for clarity's sake oh yeah.

So it'll come out after June 15th.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Let's do that.

Nintendo Switch isn't released until after June 15th and launches with either a new Mario or Mario card.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

We did it.

That's five each.

Oh, man.

Is there any that you left on the table that you're like, ugh, maybe I should have taken that?

I want to do the Valve one about the handheld not made by Valve launches with native Steam OS support.

Yeah.

Because I know for sure that they're working on bringing Steam OS to other devices, but there's a far cry from.

They've been saying it for a while.

I think it is close.

I think it's going to happen this year.

But there's a far cry from that actually happening to a device launching natively with it.

Yes.

But I think, I feel like it might happen.

I also just wonder how interested they are in that now that Steam Deck is such a success.

I think they're super interested in it because any handheld that comes out that has Steam OS natively on it will sell a fuckload of Steam games.

That's true.

That's true.

That's true.

They want people in their ecosystem.

That's true.

And that's why a lot of these hardware manufacturers haven't done it necessarily because they want people.

Seeing that control, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

The only one that I,

there's like a bit of pride going into it for me is the NVIDIA in a government hearing.

Mostly, like, I want to be able to call the shot, but I'm worried that

NVIDIA, especially with the upcoming Trump administration, you can't really predict anything of like what's going to go on.

Well, here's, here's what it relies on is, is Elon Musk and Trump, are they still going to be friends?

And how does Elon Musk feel about NVIDIA?

Yeah.

No, that's true.

I mean, it's a year is a long time with that.

And also, there is the fact that like Congress could could require the hearing too.

I just think, I feel like there has to be some sort of hearing.

It's so weird that we are having this giant

shitstorm around TikTok, but not around

AI companies.

The thing that will really impact us.

Yeah, and like how these pieces of hardware are being sold in China.

Like, it feels like it.

The conversation is kind of happening, but not nearly at the level that you think it would.

Yeah, it'll be interesting.

Okay.

That's it.

We did it.

We did it.

I feel good about this.

How are you good?

Yeah, I'm not, I don't think there's guaranteed home runs anywhere, but I feel pretty good that certainly I think either of us is going to get at least one, if not multiples.

You got any

stuff you recommend that you've been playing or watching separate from all this?

Well, here's the thing.

I'm finally on the Shogun train.

And as a father of a toddler, I realize that I'm late to all forms of media that aren't video games because I have to play video games

because of this job.

And now that I'm watching Shogun, I am absorbing the fact that it's one of the best television shows I've ever seen in my life.

Wow.

And no one wants to talk to me about it because this happened like months ago.

Honestly, this should be your prize for winning the award is I will watch all of Shogun.

It's not.

You know what?

That's your prize.

You win enjoying such a fantastic show.

You're right.

That is.

I tried to get out of it.

I tried.

Okay, okay, okay.

I will say this, though.

Shogun has like made me kind of want to go back and play like Ghost of Tsushima.

Ow.

And I'm kind of pumped about the sequel because I think they take place in similar.

I have to check the years, but it is both of those games do focus pretty heavily on the like the West interceding within Japan.

Do you remember that game that we played at the beginning of this year?

The open world?

Oh, the Sony-produced,

Sony-published game.

Oh, my gosh.

It was.

I really enjoyed that.

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Well, I think that you might dig going back to that because it has a lot to do with.

Oh, does it?

Yeah, like there's, I think it's Yokohama that's in it, where it's like kind of built up in Western style.

Oh, sure.

I think it takes place probably 100 years ago.

Nagasaki, I think, was

Western style.

Yes, but it is,

That game was pretty cool and just kind of lost a time.

Yeah, I've been playing Muramasa the Demon Blade, and let me tell you, that game works so well as a handheld game.

It is just a delight.

And I think it came out on Vita.

I think there was a version of it on Vita.

I think that's right.

I think I did play it on Vita.

Yeah, and yeah, I'm really, really enjoying it.

Even with it on Vita, the kind of stop-and-go nature of it on the Retroid Pocket 5, being able to just save wherever you want is really great because while the game is awesome, the art is incredible, it is a bit repetitive.

And being able to just play a little bit and burst really matches the kind of tone and speed of the game.

That's it.

Who are we to thank?

We got some Patreons.

We do.

We have some patrons from the Patreon, if you will.

We have Virum, we have Connor, we have Logan, and we have Damodanko.

Thank you for being patrons of the Besties.

We really appreciate you.

Thank you to everyone else who listens to the show, shares the show, spreads the word.

We hope you've enjoyed this brief glimpse behind the paywall into what's going on with the Resties, as well as last week's Bracket Battles episode.

We've got a new Bracket Battles episode that is coming out this Tuesday.

We determine the best open world world.

So all the open world worlds that have happened over the years, we've picked the very best one, and that'll be available to subscribers on Tuesday.

I'm very happy with the final five.

How we got there?

Interesting.

Either out.

Yeah, I'm very happy with where we landed with the final five on that one.

Cool.

Well, that is it.

I should mention next week we are doing the most anticipated games of 2025 with the whole gang.

So, that'll be really fun.

There's a ton of games that we either think are coming out or we know are coming out.

Some of them were mentioned in this episode.

So we'll be pumped to go through those next week.

And we will be talking about Indiana Jones by the end of the month.

We will be talking about

before the end of January.

We will do an episode on Indiana Jones.

I still have not had time to play it because

breaks are not breaks for me.

But once school reopens, I'll be hanging with Harrison and all his friends.

I'm very excited to hear what you think.

I also know that we have, we won't spoil it, but we have a special guest episode coming out.

Oh, yeah, coming in a couple weeks.

I'm very excited for that as well.

I think the audience is going to be super pumped for that.

Okay, that's it.

We did it.

Thank you for listening, everybody.

If you really enjoyed this, like we said, you can go get a lot more Resties episodes over on the Patreon.

And you can always just hang out right here because we are here for you with the besties

every Friday.

That's it for the besties.

I'm Christopher Thomas Plant.

I'm Russ Frushtick.

We don't normally do this at the end of the besties.

This is another episode of the Besties because shouldn't the world's best friends

games pick the world's best?

Wait,

you got it?

You got it right.

Because

shouldn't the world's best friends pick the world's best games?

Besties