The Switch 2, Microsoft’s platform ambitions, and GTA 6: The stories that will shape gaming in 2025
It's set to be a bigger year than 2024, that's for sure.
We’re just a few weeks into 2025 and its already shaping up to be significantly more eventful than the past year. We’re set to see a brand new console launch, a major games developer aim to steer itself out of hot water, and a console-maker realise its goal to become hub for cloud gaming. It will also be interesting to see how many of last year’s predictions pan out. AI-powered non-playable characters in games appear to already be on the cards.
It’s now harder than ever before to peer too far into the future with the gaming industry. Gone are the day of giving the market months and months of notice with a launch date. Date-less teasers are now the norm, release dates for titles any anything launching beyond March are scarce.
But, with so many moving parts and emerging stories, this first piece for the year essentially sets the scene for the year ahead.
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The long march to the Switch 2 launch
Nintendo finally emerged from its information hiatus last week, launching its new Switch 2 console. We don't know a lot about the device from the funky two-minute trailer with regard to its specs, but we do know it features a larger screen and controllers that magnetically clip to the console. We also know that a new Mario Kart — that can feature up to 24 players on one track at once — is also coming.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is how long this launch will actually take. Nintendo slated its next video — possibly to stop everyone from pestering them about it — for April 2. There's then a roadshow of demos for the console happening throughout April and May, with one in Melbourne in early May.
That puts its launch date — at best guess — around June, in time for the Northern Hemisphere summer holidays, and with plenty of time to boot to launch new software that will help sell the device over Christmas in 2025.
It's perhaps the nicest window to alleviate any supply chain concerns: fans will snag the console at launch mid-year for the holidays, and families will likely aim to grab one at Christmas. That said, a Christmas 2025 launch is not entirely off the table here. As I’ve written before, there’s no rhyme or reason to Nintendo’s console launches.
We'll hear more about this device over the coming months. And we won't have to wait till April either. Nintendo's investor day — ahead of its financial year ending in March — will likely yield some more information about the financial risks inherent in the launch to satisfy its investors. International Pokémon Day in February is another flashpoint worth paying attention to, as that series is well overdue for a new title, likely on the new device.
If the goal is to capture gamers' attention in the six months up until launch, Nintendo is off to a good start.
Microsoft's gaming platform vision will come to life
Late last year Microsoft released an ad campaign claiming that most devices are an Xbox in disguise, due to the proliferation of their cloud gaming service. I'd expect to see the expansion of this vision this year, hopefully the marketing claim actually fits reality.
Yes, a lot of devices can support the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. However, not a lot of them do so natively or easily. And others — such as its access via Samsung TVs — are still in Beta several years after launch.
The Steam Deck, for instance, can access the Xbox Game Pass via a web browser, but not as a native app. There's a convoluted process involved with porting it onto the device, part of which involves opening up its Linux DOS-equivalent. Surely this isn't what the ad campaign was getting at.
Let's not forget however, that it was this time last year that Phil Spencer had to walk the tightrope of explaining to the Xbox faithful that the company isn't outright snubbing them with this approach. Microsoft has been seemingly going slow on this strategy to allow the dust to settle, but we may see more moves from them this year.
The fate of Ubisoft Australia, and Ubisoft in general
With Star Wars: Outlaws disappointing release and the cancellation of live service game X-Defiant, Ubisoft is trying to make up ground with its next game, Assassin's Creed: Shadows. It needs a significant win to stave off investor concerns, which they've currently band-aided by cutting jobs. However, the game's launch has been delayed twice — now launching in March — raising eyebrows and further fuelling rumours of a possible takeover bid with Chinese WeChat owner Tencent.
Its Australian office — a significant player in Australia's game development industry — is not immune from all of this, also seeing its fair share of layoffs last year. While it's not great news for the sector, there's a risk it could become further collateral damage as the company continues to tighten its books.
Will the games jobs market stabilise?
The global games industry shed 14,600 jobs last year — up from 10,500 in 2023. More redundancies are inevitable as is the nature of the industry. But there's hope that figure will drop in 2025 rather than continue to climb.
As for Australia: A survey released by the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association days before Christmas revealed that 61% of developers in Australia intend to hire this year and 81% expect stability in 2025. It may be wishful thinking given the broader trend here, but let's hope those figures hold true.
We may finally play GTA 6 and (maybe) Hollow Knight: Silksong
Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6 is set for release this year. If Grand Theft Auto 5's launch was any indication, this next title will reshape the gaming landscape. Some have gone as far as to opine whether any other game has a chance for Game of the Year if it comes out.
So what's the hype all about? Beyond its notoriety as a sandbox crime simulator, these games also push the boundaries of gaming mechanics. The last title GTA 5, allowed you to seamlessly change between three characters, across a vast open-world map. The size of the game and its attention to detail wowed players back in 2013.
Aside from development leaks — that could easily have been changed for the final product by now — not much is known about the new game. GTA 6 has hinted that it will feature a female playable character, a first for the series. It also has teased a social media system within the game that mimics social media in real life, likely in a satirical way. The series is known for its humour.
Meanwhile, the long-teased and sought after game Hollow Knight: Silksong must be getting close to release. But who knows? Given the utter and total radio silence from Adelaide-based studio Team Cherry it's the one Australian game that keeps the global games press guessing.
Will Australian game developers get more global recognition?
As pointed out by Aftermath late last year, Australia's indie scene punches above its weight in terms of its ability to produce quality titles. It's even more remarkable when you consider that according to the IGEA, there are only 2,465 full-time employees working in its game development industry, about 0.024% of the country's total full-time working population. (This doesn't account for the many workers on casual, part-time or contract roles, which given the turbulent nature of the industry are perhaps more common than full-time work).
Will this be the year the country turns more heads abroad? And should we — Australia — be doing more to promote our gaming industry as an export market? Maybe this will be the year everyone in Australia actually realises that Hollow Knight is an Australian game!
What do you think? Have I missed anything? Are there any big stories you are keeping an eye on this year? Let me know in the comments below.
What I'm playing: Black Myth: Wukong
"What took you so long? Constipation?" says your crass boar-like companion Zhu Bajie as you release him from his prison inside two golden cymbals, achieved by ramming a defeated courtier-turned-thunder dragon into it. That one sentence just about sums up Black Myth: Wukong. It's a game that's mechanically impressive with incredibly unique set pieces to boot. But also narratively difficult, localised unusually and hard to follow as a result.
You play as the Destined One, a monkey on a mission to revive Sun Wukong — a monkey god — by completing a pilgrimage that essentially mirrors the deity's own journey, recorded in the famous 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West. It paints a picture of a unique world that grapples with issues around greed, atonement, rivalry, and mortality.
Mechanically, the game plays somewhat akin to a souls-like. Enemies hit hard, bosses hit harder and you need to get good at dodging, learning their movements and pressing your advantage in order to progress through the game. Healing is limited, and area enemies regenerate when you rest at a shrine. Despite the frequent comparisons, that's perhaps where the similarities end. Black Myth: Wukong is more on rails than modern FromSoft titles and is arguably more like the recent entries in the God of War series.
Like many modern games in this action adventure genre, it offers a diverse skill upgrade tree for the Destined One. You can change the way you play with customisable spells and new equipment. Despite the Destined One only really having one set of combat moves, the game threads the needle of offering enough character customisation to keep your play-through unique and interesting.
Boss encounters are frequent and challenging. Some can feel like a game of four-dimensional chess, as they cleverly recognise when you are abusing one of their weaknesses and swap up their tactics as a result. There's an iconic scene with one of the final bosses where he abuses your efforts to heal and restores his own health instead. I won't spoil it any further, but it's a masterstroke moment and further evidence of fantastic fight design.
On that, you could go as far as calling Black Myth: Wukong a boss rush game, where it's really just a slideshow of tough encounters. It's curious that some of the game's most challenging fights are actually towards the start of the game, right when you are getting the hang of the mechanics. It's perhaps part of the reason I bounced off this game when it first came out.
Black Myth: Wukong isn't open world, but exploration of each of its six large main areas is encouraged and rewarded. While it wasn't in the base version of the game, later patches introduced both an area map and a smarter fast travel system that greatly aid in seeking out every nook and cranny of the world, and ensuring you aren't accidentally retracing old ground. You can also unlock a village that clusters together all the zodiac animals that upgrade your character and help you on your quest about halfway through the game. It's questionable whether this should have been made accessible a bit earlier — perhaps as early as first chapter — to make the title a little easier to navigate.
This is all to say that at its core, this is mechanically a very good game, and well worth the hype it generated, including its Game of the Year nomination. Let's dig into my sticking point with it: Localisation.
Comparisons to Elden Ring — whose groundbreaking DLC was released a month before Black Myth: Wukong last year — has somewhat given this game a free pass when it comes to storytelling. It's normal for an FromSoft game to be very cryptic with its narrative. There are whole YouTube channels dedicated to piecing together its story from in-game item descriptions.
Black Myth: Wukong however, is designed to be a story-led game. Each area features plenty of cutscenes and voice-acting. Each chapter ends with a beautiful and unique animation, aimed at highlighting a key theme of the overall plot. It's an incredible tale, and pays so much homage to its source material. Which is why the occasional unusual snippet of dialogue — perhaps directly translated rather than rewritten — feels so odd.
Bosses bark unusual comments mid-combat, sometimes contradicting something they said earlier. Purposefully cryptic or foreshadowing lines come off as just plain weird. There are references to Buddhism and reincarnation that aren't really explained — or are assuming knowledge. You can tell a lot of metaphor and analogy was written into the original game that seemingly didn't land in the English localisation. It's reminiscent of 90s Japanese Role-Playing Games that were translated into English as an afterthought, but — to be clear — not nearly as poor.
While I am no expert in localisation, there's a world in which we just don't have the words in English to articulate what's being said in Chinese. Maybe this game wasn't even intended for global consumption, but changed its approach in its final phases due to its quality. Proper localisation may have required a full script rework and perhaps that was just impossible. Perhaps this is how French, Spanish and German players feel when English games release in their language? Who knows?
The only issue with this is that this game is inadvertently a fantastic ambassador for Chinese culture and mythology. The smallest amount of extra localisation polish would take it to the next level. Either way, Black Myth: Wukong has surely put China's game development scene on the map, establishing it as being more than just a maker of catchy pay-as-you-go mobile games. I'd love to learn more about Chinese mythology, I'm hopeful that future games will give me that chance.
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5 Pro
Worth trying if you like: Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows
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Australian VR legend, Jason Morris, a longtime US resident and founder of StonePunk Studios will shortly release Primordian. The concept-test was released on Steam in 2018, and after seven years of painstaking development, StonePunk will release Part 1 of Primordian by the end of January. The dev team has focused on intricate characters and gameplay that includes ‘organic’ weaponry, ultra-lush landscapes, a sci-fi soundtrack and deadly up close combat. I’ll send you some release collateral when it’s available.