Nintendo Switch 2 And Anticipated Sequels What To Look Forward To In Gaming In 2025

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Bookended by the release of Donkey Kong Country Returns HD in January and Grand Theft Auto 6, at the end of the year (it's already winning wards in anticipation) 2025 looks set to be exciting for gamers. There's also set to be a big leap forward in console design with the launch of Nintendo Switch 2 , an overhaul of the popular 2017 model, which was previewed in a glossy video trailer last week.

From new consoles to big budget and indie games, here's what to look forward to in the coming months.

The original Nintendo Switch injected much excitement and competition into the handheld console space in 2017 – at a point when the future of the game console was cast in doubt. You could see this in Microsoft's Xbox strategy at the time which was preparing for a future without consoles, where games could be played on any screens with the help of streaming of subscription services – like what happened in TV and music.

Eight years after its release, Switch sales have slowly plateaued. Nintendo have attributed this to the console's age and a lack of big releases of compatible games in 2024 like we say in 2023 with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

But the news that Nintendo plans an update has generated considerable excitement in the gaming world – much like the original did eight years ago.

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As confirmed by“unofficial” hardware leaks revealed and Nintendo's recently released trailer as well as mock-ups displayed at the recent CES trade show, the Switch 2 will boast a larger screen. It will also have redesigned hardware, with rounder edges, and will play both physical and digital games.

There are several other interesting iterations of handhelds scheduled for release later this year, including The Lenovo Legion Go S (a lighter version of its forebear); the improved MSI Claw 9 AI+ and the comically oversized Nitro Blaze 11 from Acer, which boasts an 11-inch screen.

If the“most anticipated game” category at The Game Awards 2024 is anything to go by, 2025 is going to be a big year for AAA games (those with large budgets and high production values).

It will come as little surprise that the most anticipated game of the year is the sixth instalment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, which has been going since 1997.

Since a development leak in 2022 , the hype around Grand Theft Auto 6 has been intense. Fans have had to wait more than a decade since Grand Theft Auto V (2013) - a game that has sold more than 200-million copies and which, through its online offering, has made more than £6.9 billion .

Grand Theft Auto 6 returns to Vice City (previously the setting of 2002's game), a fictionalised Miami, with a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired storyline featuring couple Jason and Lucia, the franchise's first playable female character.

But this is just one in a trend of anticipated sequels in 2025.

There is real excitement about Death Stranding 2: On the Beach , the star-studded sequel to Hideo Kojima's 2019 open world horror/science fiction open world hiking simulator. Little is known as yet about the game beyond the cast. Norman Redis will continue to play the game's protagonist, Sam Porter Bridges, Léa Seydoux and Troy Baker will also return. There will be the addition of Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna to the cast.

Another game to look out for is Ghosts of Yōtei, a sequel to the mesmerising Ghost of Tsushima. The sequel is set in Hokkaido, Japan, 329 years after the events of the first game, which took place during the Kamakura era and the Mongol Empire's invasion of Japan.

Ahead of the release of the new Switch console, Nintendo is bringing the latest instalment of the Metroid series, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond , to fans. The Metroid Prime games have long been considered a jewel in Nintendo's crown, since their release on the Gamecube in 2002, because of their excellent world-building with pioneering 3D game play.

For PC gamers there's the long-awaited Sid Meier's Civilization VII , the historical turn-based strategy empire simulator that tasks players with building a civilisation through the ages. For the first time, the franchise offers the ability to choose a leader who is separate from your civilisation. This should mix things up a bit.

Where sequels define the most-anticipated AAA games of 2025, the indie space is defined by simulation games – a genre that mimics real world activities (farming or running a business, for example). Wanderstop looks like an interesting take on the cosy farming simulator, in which you manage a tea shop in a magic forest. Paralives , meanwhile, with its focus on home design and everyday life, recalls early entries in the life sim genre (like Second Life and The Sims).

Beyond simulation games, Usual June promises a witty take on the third-person action game that leads its main character down a conspiracy hole. Hyper Light Breaker and Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector , meanwhile, build on cult franchises with long-awaited sequels.

Finally, skating meets the dark fantasy of Dark Souls with the kinetic dreaminess of Sayonara Wild Hearts in Skate Story , in which you play a demon equipped with only a skateboard and given the task (by the devil) with skating to the moon so he can swallow it.

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