Here we are again. Another year, and someone this one was filled with more angst than the last for a lot of people… Except me, kinda? Don’t get me wrong, I’m still hyper anxious about everything, especially on the USA side of things, but part of me is less worried this time around since I’ve made some pretty big strides in myself this year to still make the overall 2024 experience feel like a win all around.
I broke out of my shell last month and made plenty of IRL friends, I got another of my dream interviews knocked out of the way, continued plans on the Site Rebrand that got delayed due to the queue, and knocked out so much of the queue that only two non Morgana Switch games remain, meaning that PS4 queue is coming in hot any week now, and I celebrated the ten year anniversary of SFG as a whole. Wild! We also hit a smash record for SFG site stats as a whole, take a look!
But this piece is mainly to reflect on the future, which I sorta kinda also did in part 1. Oops.
Still, this article is more of a relaxing and easier one for me to write than my GOTY list, which my fingers are still reeling from typing out, and the big gimmick of this article will continue to be my random gaming-ish predictions for 2025. Will they pan out? Hopefully the good ones! For now, let’s look at some plans I have ahead…
Ko-Fi Push, Patreon Archival!
I’ve refrained from plugging my Ko-Fi in recent articles lately, mainly since I feel it’d be best for after I finish the certain piece of writing my ko-fi funder (aka, the IRL relative pal who pushed me to just give in and make one after years of me stubbornly not wanting to) paid upright to hit the goal of. But it will be a thing I push a little more in 2025! I should still be financially stable even if tariffs or big price hikes hit, but any little bit to help the site would be a nice bonus, and I may introduce small $20 goals to have me review stuff I’ve been on the fence with covering, such as certain Evercade carts ahead of time, or miscellaneous gaming accessories I may want to look at, probably for the Switch 2 considering the floodgates on accessories for the thing will be wide open.
But that still leaves something I feel is unfinished business, and that’s my Patreon. Meant for the video production side of things, my retirement from that basically means the Patreon is just gathering dust with no content, despite one of my content focuses being to write down behind the scenes posts on my Eternal Memories webseries. I fell behind for the last few episodes I did before retiring, and then I was planning to do a big BTS piece on the Tomie interview that got me on the map in some PMD circles, but that slipped through the cracks too.
Well, worry no more! With the switch queue slimming and me needing filler content to put out, I will be finishing those behind the scenes posts for the Patreon… and finding a way to retool it to be an optional Site thing. I don’t expect to put anything exclusive on it, as I really don’t like locking content behind a paywall unless it’s a WIP or something textual like the behind the scenes. A lot of the perks won’t work anymore if there aren’t videos being made, but I do want to make videos at some point in the future, just years off from now. I am already dipping my toes into the Twitch game after all, but still, I generally prefer the SFG Ko-Fi be the main focus for site stuff, since it isn’t subscription based.
So yeah, in 2025, I aim to retool the patreon, especially since monthly payments will be mandatory again. I don’t like not being able to not charge people when I’m not making the relevant content, but if I can retool the tiers, add a few that provide access to my back catalog of BTS writings, (and perhaps make a few now and then if I get any more big interviews done?) and make it suitable for monthly donations without plugging it much at all, maybe SFG diehards will sub to me? (Note, please do not be a Seafoam Gaming diehard, your brain will soon demand nothing but PC Engine CD games for your diet)
Still, being able to catch up and finish overdue content is well, a thing I’ve been hoping to finally do for a long time, so this would just be another step on that ladder to climb. Ko-Fi will be the focus for helping the site out! But Patreon is well, a thing that exists for the long-term purposes, at least until they do something dumb which would make me shut the page down to avoid buying into whatever they try (hopefully not AI nonsense…)
The Site Rebrand is still coming, I promise
So uh, take what I rambled upon last year (new site logo, picking the right theme, customizing stuff just right to be nice and fancy), and move it to next. I’m still working with a close artist friend of mine to make a new logo for the site, and turns out even sketching crude WIP logos can be very tough, since I really do struggle on what the bird-less logo could even be. I’m kinda surprised getting a logo for my retired Youtube series was easier, since at least I was able to take inspiration from two IP I love and have them be the focus of a retrospective series.
But when your site’s general concept is obscure gaming, that becomes a lot harder to convey in a logo. A lot harder, especially with the bajillions of websites out there about the gaming industry. I’m debating maybe just sketching my favorites over and over again, and then holding a poll for people to nudge me in the right direction on the hand to commission my art pal to finish into a finalized form. No ETAs as of now so I don’t overpromise, but I really do want to make my site look less basic than it currently is, without overcomplicating things for the worse.
Prediction before the Prediction
One prediction I’m not gonna come back to next year for a lot of reasons, but one I wanted to write here for mostly those who felt to be in a similar mental health spot than I was last month.
I will not let myself be defeated. I will continue to be vocal for causes I support and stand by my furry/LGBT besties who have helped me through hard times, and will likewise try my best to help them as much as I can in the next few years. Considering the state of social media as a whole it can feel incredibly demoralizing and tempting to just back down and disengage, but even if you need the social media breaks like I do, building a local community of likeminded people is vital, or even a (safe, well moderated) discord group to frequently chill with online friends.
Do not give into doomposting losers. Do not let dumb pundits dictate your life and make you give up. No matter what, we all have to band together to stick up for our communities, and that is why my first prediction is no matter what happens, I will not die. I will try like I always do, to avoid the fear of death that has plagued me for nearly twenty years since my near death encounter, and will not give into such doomy temptations.
Having a real scare last month (the first of mine since 2011) really kicked me into overdrive with trying to meet local, and basically this mini ramble is for me to just tell you that no matter what, I aim to be back here doing the same end of year roundup in 2025, unless something literally prevents me from doing that. I will not give into my demons, and you shouldn’t either.
Assorted Predictions for 2025
Alrighty! Now that we have the more serious one out of the way, here’s a bunch of random, mostly gaming-ish predictions that I’ll look back on at the end of 2025, as I just did with the 2024 ones a few days ago. So let’s see what my random assumptions take a guess at this time!
The Switch 2 will be mentioned in January, you’ll see what it looks like, but you won’t hear anything else for months. I don’t expect it to hit Q1 2025 or else Nintendo’s financials would have said so. Anyone hyping up a March release is a tabloid addict lying to you. April/May seem equally unlikely to me and I’m learning more toward September for this one.
The Switch is performing fine as is, and as much as I crave a power boost, I think Nintendo is gonna be real careful with this one to ensure it’s approachable and fit with software rather than a thing that may fail to impress people and just send them back to Switch 1. Thus, I think if they do reveal it soon to fit their Q1 timeline, they’ll do so more as a means to get third parties ready to prep stuff for it and even announce multiplat games as heading to the things. Prepare to see tons of bigger games hitting the thing, but don’t expect them to blow your mind or perform above how a Steam Deck would run most of that stuff.
Tariffs might attempt to hit the gaming industry, but gaming lobbyists/the companies will fight back. To not dip too much into non-gaming stuff, there’s a bunch of worries a lot of tariffs will be kicking in sometime next year. I can’t predict the future, but it sure looks like they’ll try that stuff before the inevitable backlash, and I feel what may be successful for some of that would be in the form of the usual gaming lobbyists who sent in similar requests the last time such a thing was attempted. You know, the console manufacturers, the ESA, etc. I expect if something does go through that might seriously hurt that business, they will do their best to get an exemption.
The last thing these companies want is something out of their control that could seriously harm sales, though part of me does wonder if it’ll give Nintendo the excuse to make their first party games $70 by default for the next generation…
M2 will put out cool stuff in 2025, but most of it will be Japan Only. Considering how much M2 usually works on, it was a little surprising to see them light on content even for the Japanese market. We got the outstanding Castlevania Dominus Collection this year, which made it comfortably on the SFG GOTY list, and that included a phenomenal new remake of Haunted Castle. Besides that and a Genesis online update though, they really haven’t done much in 2024. No new Toaplan collection, no Boogie Wings, no Aleste update…
But that may soon change! Naoki’s recent end of year message indicates they have a bunch of stuff planned for 2025, and I’d at least have to assume one thing may make it to the west in some form. Unfortunately, a bunch of their really cool stuff doesn’t tend to leave Japan due to fitting a specific niche, so I’d expect it to only be a western focused thing if it was a major IP like yet another Konami one. Still, I love these guys, and really do hope they have a good 2025 and continue to bring fans of obscurities like me some goodies. Then again, D4 Enterprise and Hamster are both steep competition…
The Limited Print Companies will struggle with Switch 2. I feel all of the limited print companies, even the ones who produce mostly safe software, will struggle with the Switch 2 the same way the PS5 hasn’t exactly sold software hotcakes for them. It’ll be similar to the Switch 1 enough that it uses cartridges, so even those who try to make a big deal out of signing the first hit Switch 2 indie won’t get much fanfare.
The age of physical, while strong enough in Japan, isn’t really being helped in the west by these limprint companies, but instead harmed due to the oversaturation of SKUs and a bajillion games getting pressed onto the nearest Switch cart they can buy. At this point, I’d argue the appeal for Switch collectors is getting old, and redoing it all with a shiny new coat of paint won’t help revive the limited print collecting scene. I seriously do not believe a single person on planet earth is seriously trying to get a full Switch physical set anymore, and if one exists, they are out of their mind. So for Switch 2, my advice is just to pick up your favorites, and buy anything else digitally. It’s usually way easier at this point anyhow and SD cards are cheaper than ever.
The Switch 2’s killer app will be Mario Kart, and nothing but Mario Kart. I expect the Switch 2 to have a good amount of fun exclusives to play on the thing when it finally does arrive, but my hunch for what they’ll either launch the system with or deliver for the holidays is a new Mario Kart. Mario Kart 10 or X or whatever, will be the game that sells the system. Without it, I don’t think it’ll have a high attach rate until such a game launches for it, as a lot of people will be more than happy with their perfectly working Switches and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Sure, a 3D Mario is a good guess too, and maybe we will get a fun one, but there’s a reason 8 Deluxe will not stop selling on Switch 1, and will no doubt get a boost when Switch 2 launches as well. But really, the only thing I could see enticing people to drop everything and get the newest, hottest Switch would be a Mario Kart like no other. And it’ll probably be one I’m more than content to skip out on in favor of catching up on older Switch titles I skipped with that sweet power boost.
Evercade will get a license that’s big enough to get them mainstream attention– Mainstream in the gaming press that is. The closest 2024 had to offer in this aspect, was the Legacy of Kain Collection, which was the first time I realized that IP had a fanbase. (Who were mostly mad the Evercade version wasn’t the rumored HD remaster that did end up launching this month)
Thankfully, being in the middle of playing it for review, the fans were right about them being pretty fun games, but I feel Evercade could get something even bigger; something semi-obscure in that it already isn’t done to death via Arcade1up/MyArcade, but something known to the point a wider audience would check the platform out.
Perhaps the first Midway compilation since the early Arcade1Up days/The Lego Dimensions set would do? Hey, I’d love to play a cart with KLAX on it, so sign me up if that happens! Or maybe a Konami set with say, Crisis Force? (I’ll never stop hoping for a Crisis Force port and it better not be in the carbon engine) Nevertheless, the system of fun retro collections continues to be one I enjoy covering for SFG, and will continue to do so in 2025.
Gaming Influencers will become even more insufferable with cross promotional stuff. I’m not talking about people like me who cover content for review while also paying for stuff outta my pocket to review, I’m talking about the social media kind of influencers. You know, the famous ones that show off stuff and don’t really focus on the finer details, and get endless sponsorships from the shadiest and worst mobile games you’ve ever heard of.
They’re already at a pretty big point in the industry, with more of them being featured in games themselves as cameos than ever, and some cross promo stuff going on pretty often. But I expect in 2025 as youtube channels dedicated to actual reviews and journalism start to get shoved aside by some PR firms for the influencer type, that this will just amplify to absurd degrees. I fully expect more of the awful kind of collab to pop up, the ones where even good games will be insufferable to see pop up via an abrupt, sudden sponsorship in a random video about something completely unrelated.
Somehow, Raid Shadow Legends still is the most constant one of these I encounter, and I’ll never sell my soul to that game especially if I end up taking sponsorships for something in the future. (but I will not do casino stuff, so Casino mobile game press people who keep asking me to do guest sponsorship posts about that, STOP.) Still, as the gaming press continues to face challenges from bad management decisions at outlets, which in turn also impacts their video content I don’t expect this to get any better, and will likely lead to more leans on influencers than there already has been.
And lastly, The Switch 2 will disappoint people in a big way. Obviously, a lot of people will still have fun with their systems, but I’m expecting in part the giant tech speculation circlejerk that lead to diehards outright digging into random shipment information between Nintendo and Nvidia (yes, people really are that insane) to end up with the final product being nothing like what a majority expected.
Maybe the BC won’t do anything but a resolution bump and an visual upscale, and Nintendo will be petty enough to make back compat a perfect Switch 1 emulator that will run Pokemon Violet at 1:1 the same awful way it does currently whether you like it or not.
Maybe the “advanced specs” ends up being fine enough in the same way a Steam Deck is and will run tons of third party games fine, but not the 4K60 DLSS thingamibob a lot of people are convinced it will be. Basically, don’t expect the rumored specs to match the output on the device, and go in with some open expectations that things can change during the making of a device. I don’t believe at all the Switch 2 got “internally delayed” out of 2024, and it was probably in the works for 2025 as such for a long while. Let’s hope when it does finally come out, it does things right enough to still be a fun system with great games.
Conclusion
It feels weird writing this. I’m putting the finishing touches a mere hour before it turns 2025 here, and to say I’m hyper anxious as I always am about what happens next is an understatement. I’m pretty darn scared to say the least, not just due to world stuff, but my general extreme anxiety and death phobia I’ve had and dealt with for nearly 2 decades now.
Come to think about it, this is in fact the 20th anniversary year of the incident which gave me that. With a lot more scary stuff in the world now that I’m not a kid in a basement playing Pokemon Emerald and nothing else, I’m just hoping no matter what, all my readers, friends, family and their friends and family stay safe and do whatever you can to enjoy life.
Mask up with a N95 in crowded public spaces, stay at home and quarantine if the need to do so arises again, stand up for LGBT/human rights in general, and be sure to push for the right thing no matter what. If you have a local community group to join, even to just meet friends, I absolutely recommend it. And of course, finding good people in fanbases you like is a great thing as well! I feel like some downsides will happen in 2025, but I feel even in the midst of some chaos to come, people can band together to stick in it together.
Until next year, where I aim to be alive for the next year’s roundup unless I get hit by debris or a car, take care and be safe, my dear readers.