New Games 2025: December Week 4 Spotlight

Welcome back to our weekly gaming roundup as we close out December with a focused trio of PC releases. This week's new games 2025 lineup leans heavily into strategy and cooperative experiences, offering everything from competitive deck-building to monster-hunting action and expansive settlement management. Before we explore what dropped this week, check out our esports predictions and analysis for the latest tournament coverage. We're also tracking some significant industry developments that deserve your attention, including a major loss for the FPS community and corporate moves that could reshape gaming's future.

Game Releases

HEART of CROWN Online

Platforms: PC

Release Date: December 18, 2025

The beloved Japanese deck-building card game makes its digital debut with HEART of CROWN Online, bringing competitive succession warfare to PC players worldwide. Based on the 2022 relaunch of the second edition physical game, this adaptation captures the strategic depth that made the original a hit in Japanese board gaming circles.

The premise centers on empire-building through calculated resource management and political maneuvering. With the emperor dead without male heirs, seven princesses vie for the throne, including two of direct royal descent. This four-player contest rewards timing and strategic thinking as players spend their early turns developing economic engines through land acquisition and action card purchases, gradually building toward the resources needed to recruit a princess.

Each princess brings unique abilities that can dramatically shift gameplay dynamics, making recruitment timing critical. Rush too early and you might snag a powerful princess but lack the infrastructure to leverage her abilities. Wait too long and the best options vanish while opponents establish insurmountable leads. The game rewards players who can read the table and adapt their strategy accordingly.

Victory requires accumulating 20 succession points through careful cultivation of influential supporters like senators and dukes. The political maneuvering feels genuinely strategic rather than luck-dependent, with experienced players able to execute sophisticated combo chains that newer players might miss entirely.

Cross-play support ensures a healthy player pool for ranked matches, while the included scenario mode provides substantial single-player content for those who prefer solo campaigns. The digital adaptation preserves the physical game's mechanical complexity while streamlining bookkeeping and rule enforcement, making it more accessible to players unfamiliar with the tabletop original.

Hunters Inc

Platforms: PC

Release Date: December 19, 2025

Hunters Inc delivers cooperative monster-hunting mayhem with an Orc twist, supporting one to four players in procedurally generated environments packed with deadly flora, dangerous fauna, and genuinely massive beasts to track and kill. This melee-focused FPS puts you in the boots of Orc hunters working together as a warband, combining first-person combat with Monster Hunter-style progression systems.

The core loop revolves around tracking giant monsters capable of destroying their surroundings, then coordinating with your team to bring them down while managing environmental hazards and aggressive wildlife. Each hunt presents distinct challenges based on monster behavior patterns and attack styles, requiring tactical adaptation rather than repetitive button-mashing.

Four playable classes ensure varied group dynamics. The Berserker excels at cutting through enemy hordes with raw damage output. The Tracker scouts ahead to locate targets and identify optimal approach routes. The Blacksmith harvests natural resources and constructs war machines to support team tactics. The Shaman provides protective totems and spell support, keeping the warband alive during intense encounters.

Monster carving and crafting form the backbone of progression. Defeated beasts drop unique materials used to upgrade gear with monster-specific characteristics and attributes, creating tangible combat improvements that reflect your hunting accomplishments. Additional gold and experience unlock new weapons and equipment tiers, maintaining motivation across extended play sessions.

The procedurally generated world ensures mission variety, with each location presenting fresh resource distribution and creature spawns. This approach prevents the gameplay staleness that often plagues cooperative titles after extended play, though it remains to be seen whether the generation algorithms provide sufficient variety for dedicated players.

Pioneers of Pagonia

Platforms: PC

Release Date: December 11, 2025

Pioneers of Pagonia represents an ambitious fusion of settlement simulation and narrative-driven exploration, offering both a substantial story campaign and extensive sandbox possibilities. Players guide their people through a fog-consumed world fractured into countless islands, rebuilding civilization one settlement at a time while uncovering the catastrophe that shattered their world.

The campaign casts you as a navigator searching for the Tower of Visions, the symbolic heart of a fragmented civilization. Each island presents scattered tribes with individual needs, dangerous enemies, and environmental challenges hidden within the fog. Your mission extends beyond simple survival to encompass reunification of these peoples through diplomacy, trade, and fulfilling quests to form alliances. You'll also confront the Hollowed, powerful boss enemies that appear born from the fog itself.

Economic complexity forms the game's foundation, with over 60 building types and more than 100 commodities creating intricate production chains. Every manufacturing step receives visual representation, from initial resource gathering through final product assembly. Watch foresters harvest timber that travels to sawmills, then on to carpenters and eventually weaponsmiths, with thousands of Pagonians simultaneously working, trading, and living throughout your settlements.

The simulation runs deep, with dynamic logistics systems managing roads, transport routes, and inevitable bottlenecks. This comprehensive economic modeling rewards players who understand supply chain management and can identify optimization opportunities, though it might overwhelm those seeking simpler city-building experiences.

Combat adopts a tactical approach rather than real-time action. Your strength comes from strategic preparation and economic stability rather than military prowess. Troops require proper equipment and support infrastructure, making warfare an extension of economic management rather than a separate gameplay mode. Bandits, ruthless Scavs, and mythical beings threaten your settlements, demanding defensive planning alongside expansion ambitions. Discovering and decrypting ancient artifacts grants you power to influence the fog itself, shifting the balance in your favor.

The game supports up to four players in shared cooperative mode, allowing friends to build and manage settlements collaboratively. Everyone can simultaneously construct buildings, manage resources, and execute trades, creating opportunities for creative teamwork or amusing chaos depending on coordination quality.

The integrated Pagonia Editor enables community content creation, letting players design custom islands, adventures, and challenges. This modding support could significantly extend the game's longevity if the community embraces the tools and produces quality content.

Happenings in the Gaming World

Naughty Dog Mandates Overtime for Intergalactic Demo

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The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog has been requiring mandatory overtime from staff to complete a demo of upcoming title Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, according to December 18 reporting from Bloomberg.

Anonymous sources revealed the studio has pushed employees to work additional hours for the past seven weeks, mandating a minimum eight extra hours weekly while capping total work time at 60 hours per week. These overtime requirements, tracked via internal spreadsheet beginning late October, stemmed from an upcoming Sony review of the Intergalactic demo after production missed multiple deadlines.

Staff also received instructions to work in-office five days weekly, increased from the previous three-day requirement. This marks the first mandatory overtime period at Naughty Dog in recent years, though the overtime reportedly ended the week of December 15. Staff have returned to three in-office days weekly through January 2026 according to management communications.

With Intergalactic reportedly targeting mid-2027 release, additional crunch periods remain likely for developers on the project. Naughty Dog previously faced criticism for demanding crunch during The Last of Us Part II development, where 2020 reporting revealed developers frequently worked nights, weekends, and 12-hour days during demanding production phases.

Call of Duty Co-Creator Vince Zampella Dies in Car Crash

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Vince Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty and head of Electronic Arts' Respawn Entertainment and Ripple Effect Studios, died following a single-car crash in Southern California on December 21, 2025. Coverage from Eurogamer and local NBC4 reporting confirmed details of the accident.

The crash occurred at 12:45 PM local time on Angeles Crest Highway in the San Gabriel Mountains. California Highway Patrol reported the vehicle veered off-road after exiting a tunnel, striking a concrete barrier and ejecting a passenger. Zampella, driving the vehicle, died at the scene after becoming trapped in the ensuing fire. The passenger died after hospital transport. Zampella was 55 years old.

His industry career began in the late 1990s before joining developer 2015 Inc, where he served as lead designer on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, the seminal first-person shooter featuring Steven Spielberg's involvement. He co-founded Infinity Ward in 2002 with colleagues Jason West and Grant Collier, creating the Call of Duty franchise that became one of gaming's best-selling series with continuing annual releases and over 20 sequels.

Following wrongful termination disputes and successful lawsuit against Activision, Zampella and West founded Respawn Entertainment in 2010, creating Titanfall, Apex Legends, and Star Wars Jedi titles. Electronic Arts acquired Respawn in 2017. Zampella later became studio lead for DICE's Los Angeles branch, rebranded Ripple Effect Studios, and headed EA's Battlefield franchise from 2021.

The recent Battlefield 6 launch under his leadership marked the biggest in series history, selling seven million copies in three days after several years without new entries.

Electronic Arts provided this statement to Kotaku: "This is an unimaginable loss, and our hearts are with Vince's family, his loved ones, and all those touched by his work. Vince's influence on the video game industry was profound and far-reaching. A friend, colleague, leader and visionary creator, his work helped shape modern interactive entertainment and inspired millions of players and developers around the world."

EA Shareholders Approve Saudi-Backed Acquisition

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Electronic Arts shareholders have approved the $55 billion buyout by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, moving forward with the acquisition first announced September 29, 2025. The deal involves previously mentioned investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners, taking the company private with EA adopting $20 billion in debt to finance the transaction.

Monday reporting from Bloomberg confirmed shareholders voted to approve the sale on December 22, valuing each EA share at $210. Early December Wall Street Journal reporting indicated Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would own 93.4% of EA following acquisition completion.

EA CEO Andrew Wilson previously assured staff the company would "remain unchanged" after the buyout, claiming the investment consortium "believe in our people, our leadership, and the long-term vision we are now building together." These assurances have done little to quiet criticism from various quarters.

United Videogame Workers-CWA members issued an October statement protesting the acquisition, arguing it would "further concentrate power and wealth into the hands of a few gatekeepers while doing nothing to address the concerns of players and workers." US senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal wrote to Wilson and treasury secretary Scott Bessent warning against the acquisition, questioning how "EA plans to continue to operate free of influence from an authoritarian government that has a history of using technology to retaliate against critics, engage in covert influence campaigns, and censor free expression."

That wraps up this week's spotlight. What caught your attention from this batch? If you're looking for competitive gaming content beyond single-player releases, we cover tournaments for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2. Check out our tournament predictions for detailed analysis, or try our Pick'ems system where you can predict match outcomes and win expensive items and skins from the Steam marketplace.