Happy New Year!
Once more around the Sun we go, starting a fresh circuit from this fairly arbitrary starting line. Itās a time that many of us pick to be a symbolic fresh start, to tackle the upcoming twelve months with a renewed vim, vigour and determination that itās going to be āmy yearā. Will it be? I certainly hope so!
Looking back on the video games of 2025, and had a pretty great year of play, didnāt we? There were plenty of pleasant surprises in the first half of the year, from the brilliant and unique puzzling of Blue Prince to the incredibleĀ Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which easily stood shoulder to shoulder with much bigger budget games and immediately became a Game of the Year contender.
But then there was all the build up to the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo had remained rather tight-lipped over the successor to the sensationally popular Nintendo Switch, finally revealing the Switch 2 in January to be aā¦.. well, another Switch-style console. By the time they revealed the launch line up and pricing, the general sentiment was muted at best. Could a new Mario Kart, some upgraded Zelda games and the Joy-Con now having a mouse mode really propel this to success? Turns out, yes, it really could! The Switch 2 has become the fastest-selling console in history through its opening months, Mario Kart World has been hugely popular, and thereās been enough upgrades and fresh ports of games (once again getting a surprising amount of performance from modest specs) to keep us interested.
With GTA 6 facing a delay to next year (twice!), the back half of 2025 opened up to the battle of the first person shooters. Within quick succession, Battlefield 6 arrived to grab the attention of long-suffering Battlefield fans and disaffected Call of Duty players alike ā which was only strengthened when Black Ops 7 did arrive to prove everyoneās fears about the campaign true. Sandwiched in the middle was ARC Raiders, arriving with a wave of interest in the best-looking example of the extraction shooter yet.
But there was still plenty of space forĀ quirky indie titles, like the thoroughly silly Megabonk, long-awaited indie sequels getting surprise releases in Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
While these were all highlights, 2025 still felt like a real struggle for many. As featured in our yearly Biggest Disappointment award, the wash of redundancies, game cancellations and studio closures continued, and while thankfully not to quite the same extent as in 2024, it still saw Warner Bros. gutting a bunch of their studios (itās got to the point that Netflix considers them worthless in their company takeover bid), and Microsoft closing down The Initiative and cancelling Perfect Dark, Everwild and ending support of Forza Motorsport.
On to 2026 andā¦ well, it could be a great year for games. Will we actually see GTA 6 released this year? Who knows, but Iād put money on Insomniac meeting their launch target for Wolverine, thereās firmer release dates for Resident Evil Requiem, Nioh 3, 007: First Light, and plenty more besides. Weāll be featuring all of these and more in our Most Wanted list.
You donāt have to dig too deeply to find spreading diseases lurking behind the surface. Generative AI has helped to feed the fire of some of the layoffs in the last couple of years, and thereās the looming buyout of EA by the Saudi PIF which is banking on this to enable a restructuring plan.Ā The obsession with generative AI is also now sucking up all the worldās RAM supplies which is already hitting the wider tech industry, both for PCs and broader integrated electronics, and GPU makers are shifting focus to meet that currently oh-so-lucrative bubble.
Still, we can try to remain hopeful and optimistic, support the developers and ventures that we like as we go, and enjoy the gaming highlights as they come.
And with that, itās just left to me to wish you once again a very Happy New Year from the entire TSA team, to thank you for visiting our humble gaming site through the year, and to say we hope youāll continue to join us for all your gaming news and reviews in 2026!
