2025 has been another big year for gaming, and while the past 12 months have been headlined by huge releases and major updates to existing titles, there’s also been a slew of weird moments.
Take a trip down memory lane with Insider Gaming to take a look at the weirdest gaming moments from 2025, and don’t forget to share yours!
2025’s Weirdest Gaming Moments
Assassin’s Creed’s Attack On Titan Crossover
Bringing the world of Attack On Titan into the Assassin’s Creed universe was always going to be a weird choice, and it became even weirder when players actually got their hands on the new content in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Some of the screenshots shared on social media following the release of the limited-time quest were harrowing, and there were plenty of annoyances around both the disappointing content introduced and the fact that it was only available to complete for an extremely small period of time.
Fortnite’s Darth Vader AI
Back in May, coinciding with the annual Star Wars day, the huge Disney franchise once again launched a collab with Fortnite, bringing new content, characters, skins, and more into the Epic Games title during a dedicated mini-season, which also featured Darth Vader as a recruitable ally, with AI interaction using the actual voice of James Earl Jones.
It doesn’t take a genius to predict where an AI-voice for an iconic character would go wrong, and it wasn’t too long until players found ways to avoid Epic Games’ restrictions entirely, leading to viral slips where Vader engaged in inflammatory language and controversial situations.
Epic Games hasn’t brought back a similar AI character since, and it’s clear that major improvements are needed if the idea is to be revisited.
Mindseye’s Messy Release
Gamers were hoping that Mindseye would present a Grand Theft Auto alternative, particularly following the latest delay in GTA 6, and Mindseye, on paper at least, looked like it could potentially fill that void for a bit. However, not only did Mindseye fall way short of that mark, but it ended up being one of 2025’s worst games.
Criticism was directed at all areas of the game, with game-breaking bugs present, a sub-par storyline, unjoyable characters, and more all receiving the brunt of those criticisms, and things took an even weirder turn when Build A Rocket Boy co-CEO Mark Gerhard claimed on Discord that the negative reception was part of a third-party campaign to make a “concerted effort to trash the game and the studio.”
GTA 5 Becomes Too Realistic
One player enjoying the world of Grand Theft Auto 5 had a much more realistic experience than they could have ever anticipated, after a car evading police crashed into a woman’s house while she herself was trying to escape the cops in the game.
Emma Graves detailed the terrifying experience to the Yorkshire Evening Post, saying the incident was “just so ironic” and she “literally couldn’t” make it up. While it wasn’t funny at the time, as the crash occurred inches away from where she was playing, she’s found the humorous side since.
Make FPS Great Again
At Summer Games Fest, 1047 co-founder Ian Proulx took to the stage to promote Splitgate 2 bizarrely, wearing a cap that read “Make FPS Great Again” and calling out Call of Duty directly with his comments. Both incidents sparked controversy and stirred up quite an aftermath, though Proulx insisted the cap, which mimicked Donald Trump’s infamous presidential election catchphrase, was not a political statement.
The irony is that Splitgate 2 far from achieved any goal of making the FPS genre “great again,” with Metacritic reviews narrowly seeing the title edge out the much-maligned Black Ops 7, and being way adrift of Battlefield 6. If any title made FPS’ great again, it was undoubtedly Battlefield.
Miss Piggy & Geoff Keighley Flirting
At The Game Awards, the on-stage flirting between Geoff Keighley and Miss Piggy was a fever dream, particularly for those in areas of the world in time zones that saw the event take place in the middle of the night, and it’s fair to say that Kermit the Frog would not approve of the incidents.
Seeing an iconic Muppets character engaging in the flirting was weird enough, but seeing Keighley reciprocate made for uncomfortable viewing.
Duck Extraction Shooter Becomes A Quacker
Escape From Duckov may sound like the sort of weird advertisement for a mobile game you’d find appearing mid-video on YouTube, but not only was it a major launch, it actually became one of the most successful titles of the year, adding a further feather in the cap of the extraction shooter genre.
Millions of players across the world splashed out to purchase Escape From Duckov, with the game also boasting a strong audience in China, and it sits with overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam.
A Literal Peanut Shining on The Streaming Stage
The world of streaming has often been weird and wonderful, though things took an even stranger turn in 2025 with the emergence and huge reach of TheBurntPeanut, who boasts over 1 million followers on Twitch and is closing in on that mark on YouTube, too.
TheBurntPeanut was also an award winner in 2025, taking home the prize for the Best VTuber at the Streamer Awards, sparking some controversy in the VTuber community. Overall, it showed the weird and wonderful world of streaming, providing evidence that even a humble snack can rise to the top.
GameStop’s Staplegate
GameStop can’t escape the headlines and controversy, regularly causing a stir in 2025, but by far the biggest blowup was Staplegate after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, with GameStop stapling receipts to the console’s box, in some cases causing damage to the screen.
One of the Staplegate copies of the Switch 2 console sold for six figures on eBay, because of course it did, and the whole incident really puts the claims that there is no such thing as bad press to the test.
What is the weirdest moment in gaming you can remember in 2025? Share your memories in the Insider Gaming Discord.
