Rock Paper Shotgun has released its seventh Christmas Cracker for 2025, a collaborative year-end missive produced by eight RPS scribes. The piece leans into the holiday form with brisk humor and self-deprecating reflections on a year spent grafting for the site, establishing a warm, unpretentious tone that sits comfortably beside the site's sharper game coverage.
Presented as a communal act rather than a single voice, the cracker closes a year with a forward-looking wink and a nod to readers. It hints that January is already leading and proceeding, and it reinforces the site's relationship with its audience by inviting supporters to subscribe to Supporters posts: Why not subscribe to Supporters posts? The eight scribes sign off with a cheerful sense of fatigue from twelve months of graft, promising to reconnect after the roast.
At the heart of the piece is a seasonal joke that epitomizes its tone: Q: Where do zombies go on their summer holidays? A: Dying Light: The Beach.
Beyond the joke, the cracker stands as a compact cultural artifact, illustrating how RPS frames year-end content: eight voices, playful wordplay, and a shared sense of community. The tone blends affectionate nostalgia with professional polish, a reminder that humor can coexist with craft in gaming journalism. An accompanying image is credited to Rock Paper Shotgun.
From a cultural perspective, the piece reinforces a tradition of festive collaboration in gaming media, turning a seasonal gag into a reflection on the site's operations and audience relationship. It functions as both entertainment and ritual, offering readers a sense of closure as the year ends.
In sum, the seventh Christmas Cracker demonstrates the enduring value of collaborative, festive culture in gaming journalism, offering a warm, witty close to a demanding year.