About this episode
This year has been a banner year for video games, with an abundance of surprise releases and unexpected hits.
On this week’s Sunday Special, Gilbert Cruz talks with two fellow gamers — Zachary Small, a culture reporter, and Jason Bailey, an editor on The Times’s culture desk — about the state of the industry, the biggest releases and the games they loved playing in 2025. They also share their predictions for Game of the Year.
On Today’s Episode
Zachary Small is a culture reporter for The Times.
Jason M. Bailey is an editor on the culture desk, and oversees The Times’s video game coverage.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Get every episode summarized
Each time The Daily publishes, we email you a written briefing from the transcript — the topics, who appeared, and any specific claims, with the ad reads skipped.
Email me new episodesFree for 3 shows. No card needed.
Hosts & guests
No transcript yet
This episode has not been transcribed. Request it and it moves to the front of the queue.
More episodes
More from The Daily
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor Say the End of the World is Now on the Table
The Daily
The Lives That 9/11 Keeps Taking
The Daily
A Couple Breaks Up. Who Gets Custody of Their Embryos?
The Daily
Trump’s War on Mail-In Voting
The Daily