The Besties - Our Big Predictions for Video Games in 2025

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

Frushtick and Plante’s annual predictions episode returns. They revisit their predictions from January 2024, crown a winner, and draft new predictions for the year to come. Here’s your chance to know the future! Get the full list of games (and other stuff) discussed at www.besties.fan. Want more episodes? Join us at patreon.com/thebesties for three bonus episodes each month!

So for Christmas, I got the hot new video game handheld console. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I got the vanilla where go. Have you heard about this one? It's pretty no. Yeah, the vanilla where go. So the basic idea is it's this like amazing, beautiful handheld that it only plays all of vanilla wares games, except only the most recent one. So sure. So it's only for adults It's what you're saying. Yeah, you shouldn't play it in public. Yeah, I should mention that But yeah, Muramasa the Demon Blade

Odin spear and grimoire, you know, these like kind of iconic universally beloved games So universally beloved that you've long had physical copies of all 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. It goes on. I mean I think there's maybe one more. Yeah. And it's just so so great for the dozens of us out here. The weird thing about it, though, is it does play dynamite Dika, a diehard arcade and explicitly. Yeah, and effectively,

like every other video game released before the PlayStation three. That does seem weird. I don't know why they branded it like this. Right. It does seem weird to brand it specifically like vanilla where. Yeah. And the weird thing is it came in a box that I had a wrapped in paper myself and scrawled vanilla where go. Yeah. But then when you tore off that it said retro pocket five underneath it. And that looked like it was like, somebody had actually like put some real work into it. So there was a busty lady on the box. Well, I had drawn that. I'd also drive because I want to be fair here. Many busty men of just absolutely shredded beef cakes. Yeah,

I'm starting to think that I might've 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 ware games. I think that, yeah. 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 and dried milk. Oh good, I'm glad it was cookie dust. Yeah, yeah, and um 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 the week. My name is Russ Freshly and 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 Freshdick and I.

You might have noticed by now there are two Macroys who are not here. Yeah they both died. They both needed a holiday break, which is understandable. Is that what it is? 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 Resties 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 a, I guess, another almost Patreon bonus,

although there will be also a Patreon Resties 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 Vanilla Ware 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 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 how about we just go through the predictions top item real quick?

Okay, we'll go well, we'll go back and forth between mine and yours. Okay Okay, my first one we haven't even heard the name of 2024 is 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. Next one I have is Bobby Kotick has a new executive job before the end of the year.

Next one I have is a handheld not made by Valve will launch with native SteamOS 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 we were talking about that. Or are you gonna make this harder? Yeah, no, I'm not gonna,

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 Wake thing that they did.

Okay. Next up, I've got, one of the five major Japanese publishers will be acquired. Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Bandai 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 to room to room you have to survive against waves all of the empire survivors are like traditional board modes yeah and my last one is how to night 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. rideable hornet, not like a rideable hornet, cannot be near the other player for a 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 something didn't come out. So some things you should know as 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, we so we let each other draft which

was to create a sense of fairness where like neither of us was able to less kind of set up easy ones for ourselves. But we do push on these to be like challenging. We don't okay. I don't think we like we could pretty easily pick 10 prediction. Oh, yeah, sure. That is true You want it to be a bit of an X factor? Yes. Yes, and it can't be stuff. We already know etc, etc Yeah, 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 how it's rushed to adapt video games and The other one that I got right was fortnight will drop one more standalone mode akin to Lego rocket racing

Fortnight festival by the end of the year developed by epic. It's that reserve Okay, so tell me about the borderlands one first what I obviously it's rotten on rotten. Yes No, do we need to check the score? I haven't seen it in a little bit. We don't need to check the score. I'm going to check it. OK, 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. Tears 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 TechRadar, 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. Ballistic is... Oh, okay, yeah. What did you think I was gonna say? I had no idea.

This was when I was like, what are you talking about? I was too busy thinking about IP. I was thinking like, no Disney thing came out, no big IP thing came out. But you're right, tell the listeners what Ballistic is for people to find out. 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 award 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 ResetError, 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 a dramatically more picks than any other game in the list. Yeah, I wanted to favor was the leader by a mile. It had a 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 gotta do what I can. No, I appreciate it. I would have pushed back if you said Bellagio. 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 Square Enix, Konami, Bandai, Nemco, Sega. Then I said, this is tricky because some of these have huge parent companies. 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 Bandai Namco but it is owned by a company that is bigger than Van Dyne Namco. And that's where I feel when I think it's like, if we're going by the sanctity of the 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 Dyne Amco. 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 language. Let's look at the language. It looks like one of the five major Japanese publishers will be acquired. No, okay. You know just as well as I do that intention of acquisition.

If you want to... There's just no scenario where I'm giving you credit for someone buying Bandai Namco because another company mentioned that they're intending to acquire From Software and they and Sony like considering the acquisition. Those are like a mile between those two. I think we should put it up to the listeners. We can put it up to the listeners, that's fine. I'm prepared to lose at the hands of the listeners. I'm fine, I was a pesky mofo last year

with the Zelda thing and the Yoshi thing. Do I expect to lose? Yes. Yeah. But do I think I am still, you know, in 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 wrong, 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 would acquire it. Is that right? Yeah, I don't think they've Officially said that they're gonna 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 20th November, yeah, it's intent. You can put your evidence in the thing. Okay, 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. Yeah, yeah, it's the- 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 I will lose. So if I lose, what am I going to get? What did we agree on for the win? Well, we did the art last year. I thought that was a nice thing. What did you think? You the win? Well, we did the art last year. I thought that was a nice thing. What did you think? You remember what we got 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. You did. Which is surprisingly difficult. Was it surprising? No, it wasn't surprising. You know what, I'm just going to say a lost.

Because I, I don't want to tie. That doesn't sound good. And also you're right, by the letter of the, this is a good lesson for me about how I come up with my, my answers moving forward. I feel like that's true. Language is very important. Language. 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 I do like to think that we are better at this in 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 weeks I'm gonna maybe I have to do it that quickly. We'll see we'll see that'd be exciting. Okay, I feel good about this I 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 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 kind of 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 Yeah, some other stuff that we had from last year that we didn't end 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 ever wild contraband

Perfect arc avowed south of midnight if either of us had taken that they would have gotten it Yeah, Silent Hill will be relevant again 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, or Microsoft will acquire Remedy. They actually went the other direction. Right. 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 I either of us had done this.

And then return to 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 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 gonna 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. Wow. Really? I would not be surprised at all. Yeah, these sound like good predictions. And also stuff like Pac-Man and Dig Dug. I mean, I just feel like old IPs are coming back in a big way. Is Sony gonna 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. Um, it's going to be great. Okay. This is good.

You want to go to the meat and talk about our predictions for 2025? Let's do it. Cool. 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. 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 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 wanna 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, 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 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 going to make sure this game is fucking great. And I think a game this complex has a tendency to get bumped. Uh, so I think for sure, I mean, I agree with this premise, but, uh, I guess we'll,

we'll get to the drafting part, uh, later, but I think we're both on the same page in terms of the actual letter of the law. Next up, um... Do you want me to do this one? Should we 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, remastered, whatever it's going to be.

There's been rum wings 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. in the same year. Pretty straightforward. Yeah, it feels to me like the the cadence for announced 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 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 like every game they would play 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 and it comes out in August or September. But I could be wrong. I, but I, 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. Uh, 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.

Um, but yeah, good prediction. Okay. Next up I have Death Strandinging 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. Um... I think from a... I mean, 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. 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 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 gonna 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 some random writer. Well, and 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 the profile Kojima's great 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 the by the time that that game comes out, the writing the game's writing at New York Times is getting better. Like it's just getting better and better. So I mean, it doesn't know 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 at a trip. I 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 think they're legit or not because it's gonna impact our drafting Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. I will say like a lot of these came from you We 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 it breaks 75 on Metacritic releases a new battlefield and it breaks 75 on Metacritic. I had a bonus here worth no points. A major outlet or youtuber describes it as a combat for the series which I think is 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 recall, I think it was in

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.

Yeah. 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 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 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, 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, we'll 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. I think that's right. And if, 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- You get 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 wanna be super clear. That could be a portable, but it could be a Steam Deck that goes under your TV. So it would be called like, whatever. It would use the 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 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 need to be something. I mean, they're not putting out a fucking, they're not doing that. Yes. I mean, the steam machine is coming back, baby.

Yeah. Okay. 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. The language. Valve releases two new pieces of hardware. I'm just gonna 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 controller, whatever. Oh, okay, sure. 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 gonna 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. Good, good, good. Can't include two SKUs of the same product. Next up. Uh, 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 is any that like we don't need any more added to that. Well, I guess the question I have is so there's two near games right now, right? Okay, so there more more we should actually adjust this a new entry in near is finally announced for major consoles for home consoles oh because there's been like mobile shit there's a mobile shit yeah yeah yeah okay yes that that that sounds and it can't be a real HD re-release and I mean yeah just just clarifying yeah you know it's worth doing near on a mana could And it can't be an HD re-release. And, I mean, yeah. Just clarifying.

Yeah, no, it's worth doing. Nier Automata 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 agree. 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... I guess it gets tricky, a fable, a new... Okay, but 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 like 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 tear down tear Down? Tear Away. Tear Away. Sure. Um, 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,

um, of what falls into that category? Okay, I don't know for sure that about is more. 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. 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's... It feels safe to say that Assassin's Creed Shadows is make or break for this publisher, and I would not 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 publishers future writing on. Certainly not when it gets delayed like a week before release. Yeah. Pushed to February.

Yeah, yikes. Yeah. Okay. Uh, okay. Uh, 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. about AI. Okay, so again, there's two parts here. There's two parts here. I mean, I would... 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 new RTX label. So this is the, they only do these every few years where it's the major step ups, but we can just remove it. I think- Yeah, I would just lose that part for simplicity 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 like 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 of 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 established. It can't be like a random, it can't be a medium post. Yeah, the trick is always like what is major, but I think like the type of publications that you brought. Established. Three of them are established, yes. 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 gonna add the second part

that you had last year to this? I mean, at this point, I can't even rely on anything about SookSong. 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 to analog sticks and either marketing materials or an official press release an Interview doesn't count. I feel like I remember this one from last year this one was carried forward and I loved it so much last year because I sure it's such a 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 yeah, that's Okay, what do we got after this? 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. Oh, S support. It needs to be new hard, new hardware, and it can't just be retroactively added to existing hardware. So I think what you mean by that is the, um, vanilla where go or the retro pocket five, 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- Right, 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, when I say it can't include an existing piece of hardware, I'm talking about 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 SteamOS. 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.

Just a side note, on last year, in week one, I thought I got last year's right, which was really just something launching with Steam, because, and I forget the hardware company, I think it might have been Ioneo, announced that they were releasing a SteamOS handheld, and I was like so thrilled, there was like all these new stories about it,

and then Valve forced them to retract it and say, actually, we're doing a side-off shoot, a third-party version of SteamOS, which didn't count, unfortunately, but it was a 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. Mmm.

I like that one. Yeah, that's fun. And, oh, I guess, OK, question on the open world structure of Bowser's Fury. It can be multiple open worlds, but... Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask. But 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 gonna 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. Sure, sure.

So like if she's reading like a diary that's written by Samus 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're ready to draft. Each of us are gonna 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 that's usually how it is.

I'll let you go first. Go for it. 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 Rem. I think the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remake will be announced and released in 2025.

Okay. Um, I will take... Ooh, buh buh buh buh buh buh buh. This is tough. I will take Death Stranding Breaks 85 on Metacritic, the one 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 diehard Death Stranding people, which we should just and I'm going to add a two to that. That's good. 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 gonna 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 are the besties, but it will be 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 or acquisition. Okay. Poor Eve. He's gonna have his golden parachute and everything. What do you got next? I'm gonna do the Samus one.

Oh, okay. I feel, I like that. 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'd 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 gonna do this stupid one.

Oh boy. Silk Song comes out, baby. Yeah! I'm gonna take the bait this year. I love it. I think it's gonna happen. Do you? I've been saying for a while that I think when they announce all the third party support for switch 2

It's gonna 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 it what else you got? Man, let's see. I wanna do... I wanna do the durability one. I wanna run it back.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Nintendo will make some public reference to the durability of the Switch 2 Analog 6 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? or an official press release, an interview doesn't count. Tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch tch Okay, I'm gonna say in video, 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. It better be good because I can see you thinking people, 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 show up. 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 gotta put my money where my mouth is. We're gonna go Mafia is coming out this year in 2025 and I got to put my money where my mouth is we're gonna 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 Kart. 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 going to 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, just adjust the second half part. Okay. For clarity's sake. Oh, yeah, so it'll come out after June 15th.

Okay. Yeah. Um, okay, let's do that. Nintendo Switch isn't released until after June 15th and launches with either a new Mario or Mario Kart. 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, 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, cuz I know for sure that they're working on bringing

Steam os to other devices But there's a far cry so long they've been saying for a while. I think it is close I think it's gonna 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, but I'm fine. 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 SteamOS natively on it will sell a fuckload of Steam games.

That's true. That's true. That's true. They want people in their games. That's true. That's true. That's true. They want people in their ecosystem like that's true. And that's why all these hardman manufacturers haven't done it necessarily because they want people seeing that control. Yeah. Right. Um, yeah, the, 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 this shot, but I'm worried that Nvidia, especially with the upcoming Trump administration, you can't really predict anything sure of like what's going to go on. Well, 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, a year is a long time with that. And also there is the fact that like Congress 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 shit storm around TikTok, but not around like 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 a conversation is kind of happening, but not nearly at the level that you think it would.

Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting. Okay, that's it. We did it. We did it. I feel good about this. How are you feeling? I feel pretty good. Yeah, I don't think there's guaranteed home runs anywhere, but I feel pretty good that, certainly I think either of us is gonna 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 in the next two weeks.

You know what? That's your prize. You win for enjoying such a fantastic show. You're right. That is. I tried to get out of it I tried Okay, okay. Okay. Um I will say this though Shogun has like made me kind of want to go back and play like ghosts of Tsushima Wow, 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 but both of those games do focus pretty heavily on 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, 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. How 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, I think it takes place probably a hundred years after. Probably Nagasaki I think was Western style. Shogun? Yes, but it is, it's, I think it 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.

I think that's right. I think I did play it on Vita. Yeah, and yeah, I'm really a version of it. I think that's right. I think I did play it on Vito. 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 Retro 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 in burst

Really matches the kind of tone and speed of the game. Yeah, that's it Cool. Thank you got some patrons. We do we have some patrons from the patreon if you will We have virum we have Connor we have Logan and we have Damo Danko 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 determined 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. It was a route. with the final five. How we got there, interesting. But 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 talk 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 of 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 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 Froshtick. This is not how you do Besties. 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. No. Best games pick the world. Wait. Yeah, I got it. You got it right. Because shouldn't the world's best friends

pick the world's best friends pick the world's best games? Besties!