Video Game Industry April Fools’ Day 2025 Roundup

April Fools’ Day is when marketing departments around the world either scramble to create last-minute jokes or unveil carefully planned pranks. As usual, the results vary. While we do our best to catch all fake news stories posted today, keep an eye out throughout the week — some pranks tend to surface late. Always double-check the publication date.

One of the first April Fools’ jokes this year belongs to Insider Gaming outlet, with the report claiming that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released on Xbox 360 (and perhaps PS3) in the form of a Throwback Edition. 

The other distinguished prank came from Housefire developer on the X account of their upcoming title Eclipsium, announcing that the title is no longer “The Hand Game,” backing the statement with a video featuring a human’s foot as the main in-game instrument.

The other joke from X (formerly Twitter) featured a poster of Brütal Legend: Remastered coming to Xbox Series X|S, PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Game Pass this fall starring Jack Black, Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford and Lita Ford. It’s safe to say none of this is happening.

Nintendo Life outlet, in its turn, revealed PLAYi, a whole new way to play. The way of living through every second with an option of plugging dongles into consoles was even presented in more detail in the  PLAYi’s announcement video.

Continuing last year’s joke, Palworld developer Pocketpair teased a (hopefully) fake dating sim called Palworld: More Than Just Pals, but this time, they doubled down, revealing a Steam page for the project.

Level-5’s April Fools’ prank this year features a trailer that will likely strike a chord if you spent a lot of time with a particular Nintendo game during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s designed to hype up the upcoming release of the RPG sequel Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.

Krafton, in its turn, is celebrating April Fools’ Day with a launch of dating sim Winner Winner Romantic Dinner on the PUBG: Battlegrounds website along with the ingame event in-game event called Land, Love, Survive.

War Thunder this year is trying to fool everybody with the announcement of the ground troops being on their way to vehicular combat. Quite a handful of players were intrigued.

Sonic’s fan community has shadow-dropped a demo crossword game called Sonic Racing CrossWords ahead of the upcoming launch of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. 

Party Animals announced in its Patch Notes 1.11.0.0 a new board game mode with a gun being added in which you must take turns saying ridiculous things with a poker face, hoping that your friends will fall for them.

My Time at Sandrock plays with big stakes and offers to sign an extensive and a hundred percent legally binding marriage contract if you intend to marry one of the game’s NPCs.

Mintrocket announced Dave the Diver: Remastered version with a realistic trailer.

THQ Nordic revealed ArcAInia – The Fall of Sans Serif, claiming that the game about the standoff of different fonts is coming in the most beautiful box in the world.

Although it seems that popular mobile jiggle RPG Goddess of Victory: Nikke is set to receive a feature film adaptation, promising epic mecha battles.

The Talos Principle Reawakened, in its turn, got so many updates, fixes, patch notes and tweaks that thinking is no longer required to enjoy the game.

Valorant devs, in their turn, decided to praise the most hated skin in the game, Smite, announcing a free Smite Knife Gun Buddy for everyone who will simply log in to Valorant till April 14, 2025.

Selaco shooter revealed a major content update, Burger Flipper, that will bring to the game burger flipping mini-game, Battle Pass, microtransactions and lootboxes.

Besides that Anime News And Facts X account tried to fool everyone that Faker from League of Legends is getting an anime adaptation.

Square Enix also remembered the core idea of the first April and announced Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis Academy, a school-set visual novel starring Cloud, Barret Tifa, and others.

Although everything mentioned is just a marketing tactic aimed at attracting attention to certain projects, there have been cases where a successful joke has led to the creation of a full-fledged project.

In April 2019, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio posted an April Fools’ joke video showing Yakuza: Like a Dragon (then unannounced) as a turn-based JRPG instead of the series’ traditional beat-’em-up style. The video featured Ichiban Kasuga and party members battling enemies in a classic JRPG interface, complete with menu commands and flashy skills.

Series fans thought it was just a gag, had fun and forgot about the concept. But later that same year, Sega officially announced Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7 in Japan), and it was indeed a full-on turn-based RPG.

According to the devs, the team had been experimenting with the concept internally, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the April Fools video helped them double down on the idea.