2025 Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees: Quake and GoldenEye

Alright, so picture this: four game legends just strutted right into the World Video Game Hall of Fame, like they owned the place or something. The honchos over at the Strong National Museum of Play—yeah, they’re the ones behind this—made the big reveal on Thursday. So, who are these game icons, you ask? Get ready: it’s Defender from Williams Electronics, GoldenEye 007 by Rare, Quake from those cool cats at id Software, and, believe it or not, Bandai’s quirky little gadget, Tamagotchi.

Now, what’s funny is, these games were duking it out with a slew of others that didn’t make the cut. Imagine a list with names like Age of Empires (oh, the strategy!), Angry Birds (who hasn’t launched a bird at a green pig?), and even the nostalgia-packed Frogger. And then you’ve got modern giants like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in the mix too. It’s like throwing a huge game retrospective party, and only a few get to take home the trophy.

Apparently, these fab four didn’t just win because they’re fun to play. Nope, the museum says they shook up the popular scene and left their mark on the gaming world. I mean, they went on about stuff like icon status, longevity, reach, and influence—seriously, though, isn’t that just a fancy way of saying “everyone loves them, and they really changed things up”?

Oh! And here’s a fun tidbit: Quake isn’t the first rodeo for id Software in this hall of fame. Doom, yes the one that had us all on the edge of our seats back in the day, joined this VIP list back in 2015. Classic stuff, right?

So, in the words of those museum folks, Defender, GoldenEye 007, Quake, and Tamagotchi waltzed in because they’ve got that secret sauce—a game-changing vibe or whatnot. They’ve been doing this Hall of Fame gig since 2015, and hey, last year Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, Ultima, and SimCity got their golden tickets. What a lineup, am I right?