WTF Happened May 2025
Welcome to the fifth edition of WTF Happened 2025! I did this thing in 2024 where I recapped what happened in each month after the month was over. I got a ton of traffic on a few of those posts and thought maybe it was going well and should keep it going! I really like making these posts, so I'm continuing the project indefinitely and just hoping that someday, someone will find this information source invaluable. Without further ado...
Business, World & Health News
Stipend For Leaving U.S.
On May 6th, NYTimes reported that the Trump administration was giving out stipends and travel assistance to immigrants who want to go home. Further research led me to other articles (NBC) about an app called CBP Home that immigrants could use to self-deport themselves to receive a $1,000 stipend to help them relocate out of the country. On May 5th, the app was said to have been used successfully by at least 5,000 immigrants, and the app had been downloaded an average of 1,500 times per day since the start of 2025.
My take on all this is that it's a massive waste of taxes and introduces an element of uncertainty amongst immigrants who legally came to the States. They're deporting people using taxpayers' funds under the guise that it saves them money later on, but there's no science to this. The app took $200 million to build and market (NBC). Not sure why it cost them so much money honestly. It's not like the app is Netflix. Give me $200 million dollars instead. I would burn through the money in way more fun ways!
How would you spend $200 million?
I.C.E. forcibly removed people from restaurants
On May 30th, I.C.E. agents stormed restaurants at South Park in San Diego, California in an effort to abduct some illegal immigrants working in the kitchen (CBS8). Their info was based on a 5-year-old tip, but turns out that old info was still somewhat accurate, because they successfully apprehended several suspects. Unfortunately, they spent taxpayer money on this and in the process, put legal citizens in harm's way. I.C.E. should be totally defunded as soon as possible, but I fear no amount of protests will get rid of these assholes until we have a new U.S. administration.
If you think the U.S. government has overstepped - and you should think this - remember you can request deregulation here. If enough people complain about something, eventually that something will change, even if it takes several years or decades. Everything takes work, so work toward a better future sooner rather than later.
Russia lost large portion of air force to Ukraine
Russia took very substantial losses this month to Ukraine in their ongoing war. Ukraine was given the go-ahead to bomb Russia anywhere they wanted and used the opportunity to strategically take out 34% of Russia's air force. Even before this win, Forbes stated that it would take Russia centuries and tens of millions of casualties to fully capture Ukraine (Forbes). Take Forbes' opinion pieces with a grain of salt, of course. Russia is committed to their war efforts, but if Ukraine consistently gets win after win, maybe Russia will be subdued enough to call uncle? I sure hope so.
Volvo's Novo Energy cut half of workforce
There were a lot of jobs cut this month, but Volvo's battery company Novo Energy cut half their workforce. (Reuters) This came as a bit of a shock to me, because they already cut 30% of the workforce back in January. Their ultimate goal was to outsource batteries from another supplier, though, so minimizing their own investment into battery production just makes sense. This is noteworthy because it shows an industry trend toward reducing their capacity and relying on other businesses for things they used to do themselves regardless of what happens to their employees. I hope said employees land on their feet, but most of them were in Sweden, so I'm not really worried for them. They have a great unemployment safety net over there.
Roche adding $700 million factory in U.S.
Amidst the uncertain tariffs, Roche, a major pharma company, announced a $700 miillion project to boost their U.S. factory supply with a new factory in Holly Springs, North Carolina, where they will focus on production of obesity medication. (Reuters)
Unlikely partnerships formed between countries to spite U.S.
Way back at the start of February, I started to see ideas forming of Canada joining the E.U. (CBC) and it is seeming more possible as time goes on. "When Canada and the European Union build together, our futures are stronger," Mark Carney said on BSky on May 4th. Jumping forward a few days into June, we're seeing a lot of talk about the G7 summit event (GlobalNews) and visiting royalty. I would love for Canada to build a greater economy and become a world superpower with or without foreign support. They already seem to be headed in that direction, and with so much bad happening elsewhere in the world, Canada might be able to bring hope to immigrants who would have preferred the States at one point. They might even take in more people from their Southern border as permanent residents. Way back in 2022, Ottawa announced plans to welcome 500k immigrants with the goal of building Canada's workforce population. The country has been steadily growing its population year over year and has a population of over 40 million since first quarter, 2024 (Statistics Canada). Canada's population growth is steadily speeding up, so they could theoretically grow to be a rival to U.S. within a decade, especially if the U.S. population shrinks due to cost of living increases and natural and political disasters.
Hamas freed last living U.S. hostage in Gaza
Edan Alexander was freed from Hamas prison May 12th after over 19 months in captivity (WashPost). Keep in mind that Edan was not an innocent civilian as some news articles and images may imply. I don't take sides on things I know little about, including the Palestinian-Isreali war, but based on what I've read about the situation, he was a low value military hostage and was released basically as one of many good faith gestures. Edan volunteered for the Israeli Defense Force in late 2022, probably due to family ties in Israel, and was captured during a military-focused attack on October 7th, 2023. He was then a prisoner of war for 19 months. (USA Today) Hamas is a scary organization with goals I don't agree with and methods I don't condone, but they aren't totally unjustified in what they're doing and Israel is far from benevolent. Mediators for their peace talks are absolutely necessary.
India-Pakistan bomb retaliations followed with 3 days of war
India started running mandatory drills for bombings after Islamabad retaliated after Operation Sindoor, an operation to bomb their enemies in a disputed territory, . India has confirmed missile strikes on nine sites in Pakistan. (The Times) The resulting war lasted 3 days, from May 7th to May 10th, and was said to be a retaliation to the April 27th terrorist strike which reportedly killed 26 civilians. What makes this mini-war noteworthy to me is this was their first use of drones! (BBC) A ceasefire was agreed upon, but that's only a temporary peace, and I still consider India and Pakistan unstable. They've been in conflict since basically the 1947 Indian Independence Movement, when the territories of India and Pakistan were first split up. If you're interested in the history of this conflict, you can get a pretty good recount of the events and politics leading up to the mid-2000s on Britannica.
Celebrity News
Walton Goggins hosted SNL
Walton Goggins appeared on Satire Night Live - I mean, Saturday Night Live - and had a really funny skit based on the recently popularized opinion that moms find him attractive. This episode of SNL had a lot of other great skits and memorable moments, but one thing to note above all else is that this was Walton's first time hosting SNL and he spent part of his monologue time dancing with his actual mother. Happy Mothers Day!
Jimmy Kimmel supported women's rights
Jimmy Kimmel's really stepped up to bat lately. Several months before the 2024 U.S. election, he spoke down to Trump and publicly called him an idiot on many, many occasions. On May 1st, 2025, Jimmy Kimmel's BSky post advertised him wearing a shirt from Cyndi Lauper's fund and saying "I’m proud to join the great Cyndi Lauper in the fight for women’s rights & healthcare."
Good for you, Jimmy. 
Unfortunately, we're out of time for you! 
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck met the Cookie Monster
Matt Damon's feud with Jimmy Kimmel always cracked me up, so I wanted to post a bunch of Matt Damon stuff for this month to shadow over Jimmy, but honestly, there wasn't a lot to note, so click here to watch the YouTube video where Matt Damon and Ben Affleck team up to pretend they're I.C.E. agents (kidding) but run into the Cookie Monster as an advertising skit for Netflix's Tudum event for 2025. This technically was posted at the start of June, but I'll allow it.
Matt Damon and Ben Affleck star in an upcoming movie together titled The Rip, and it seems promising based on the premise and the all-star casting, but there's no trailer for the movie yet, and it's a straight-to-Netflix production.
Web & Streaming News
Twitch Used AI Cover Images
Twitch got into trouble again by using AI art for some revamped cover images for various categories on their website. User semispri posted a lot of information on the matter, including links to where the AI-generated stock images were purchasable. It's disgraceful that Twitch doesn't have an on-staff artist making these images from scratch considering how huge the company is. It's not that hard to avoid AI stock images if you just try. Hell, if they want to hire me on to make the cover images, I'll do it!
Bluesky livestreaming platform integrations!
May 19th, Bluesky announced they were testing new integrations for livestreaming platforms to allow you to not only add links to your bio to those platforms but to automate the process of letting others on BSky know you're live. (Bluesky)
GiantBomb now employee-owned!
On May 10th, the official GiantBomb social media account on BSky confirmed that the company and site has been sold to a group of employees and is now an independent business. This is great news if you at all care about games journalism. GiantBomb is a great gaming news website and is set to improve drastically with its new leadership.
New & Returning TV Shows
Apple TV got Murderbot's first two episodes on May 16th, which seems to be at least inspired by Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries. I still haven't seen either of these, so I'll reserve judgement for later, but the new show looks very promising.
New shows also included Another Simple Favor (Amazon), Motorheads (Amazon), The Four Seasons (Netflix), Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols (Nat Geo, Netflix, Disney), Miss Austen (PBS), Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (Disney), Britain and the Blitz (Netflix), Forever (Netflix), Long Way Home (Apple), Real Men (Netflix), The Motherhood (Hallmark), Kun by Agüero (Hulu), and David Spade: Dandelion (Amazon). Of all these new shows, the one most promising to my family is definitely Miss Austen, because it's a very short show, 4 episodes in total, with some historical context but isn't a full-on documentary. Nothing wrong with documentaries, though!
Returning shows included Nine Perfect Strangers season 2, Conan O’Brien Must Go season 2, Criminal Minds season 18, Poker Face season 2, "And Just Like That..." season 3, and Rick and Morty season 8.
Surprisingly, Pawn Stars season 23 ended in April. I'm mentioning it now because season 22 didn't hit Hulu until May and I was writing that season 22 hit this month and found out season 22 is actually almost a year old. I had no idea it was old until I researched the show. Hulu needs to start communicating air dates on their platform and prevent such confusion. I'm going to go back to the April recap and add Pawn Stars to the shows info, which was admittedly lacking last month. Regardless, I'm going to do a better job going forward covering new seasons of shows in these monthly recaps. Obviously, I won't cover everything that happens, and I'll miss a lot of stuff, but I'll at least attempt to cover a lot of content each month. At least, you can read this section and see if you missed some noteworthy shows.
Upcoming Shows
Netflix's Tudum event started at the end of May with a section on the site reserved for Stranger Things, possibly their biggest original IP, and included an article promising a 5th season. On June 3, the 5th season release date was announced. That date was November 26, 2025! (Netflix) So close! I'm literally drooling over this as I type about it. I fucking love that series.
Unfortunately, it appears the 5th season will be split into 2 volumes and only the first half of the season will be released on that announced release date. Most of the second half of the season, another 3 episodes, will be released on Christmas with a finale released soon after on New Year's Eve. I like the episodes being spread out, because it gives people time to talk and speculate, but having such a huge time gap between the first 4 episodes and the later half is painful. I will be watching that first half as slowly as possible to make it last.
Peachmaker season 2 got its first teaser trailer on May 9th with a release date announced mid-trailer, slating season 2 for an August 21 release. The year was not explicitly defined in the trailer, but this will likely be a 2025 release considering the timing between the end of the last season and the airing of this trailer. Season 2 will air on the HBO Max streaming platform. I've been following Peacemaker production since the first season won me over. Looks like they're using season 2 to tie Peacemaker to the new DCU.
Gaming News
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Sold 3.3 Million Units in 33 Days
Within its first 33 days of being released, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 sold 3.3 million units. "That's a lot of threes!" (IGN)
Second GTA6 Trailer & Screenshots
GTA6 got a new trailer this month which impressed the world with its photorealistic characters and environments and lifelike Florida-esque scenery. The release date for GTA6 was delayed to be May 26, 2026. (Rockstar) This delay is welcomed, because I honestly don't think enough people have the hardware to run this game yet, and I would rather they spend as much time as they need to make the single player campaign as grand as possible.
One thing I'm curious about is the multiplayer. I wonder if it'll be as big of a role-playing king as GTA5 was. I imagine it will be, but GTA5 really didn't have half the features that players wanted, and the only reason it became popular was thanks to mods and custom servers. GTA6 is going to be a powerhouse at release and obviously break records and make a lot of money, but its staying power relies a lot on being replayable for years and maybe even decades and provides some form of extra monetization while they work on their next big title.
New video game releases
Every month, hundreds of games come out, so mentioning them all is not something I can realistically expect to do. Instead, I'll just mention the most noteworthy releases and a few standout titles I personally care about. VR games get their own section, too, so if that's what you're after, scroll further down.
This month, we saw the release of Doom: The Dark Ages, Drop Duchy, Dune: Awakening, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Game Of Thrones: Kingsroad, Hordes Of Hunger, Revenge of the Savage Planet, Roadcraft, Sonic Rumble, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown, Splitgate 2, and "to a T". Metal Eden was rumored to be a May release but only a demo released and the release date changed to Q3 2025.
Splitgate 2 got its full release May 22 to mixed reviews. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its legacy and dug itself deeper into monetization trends with a bunch of expensive item shop items and an emphasis on a new battle royale mode that wasn't even hinted at in the beta. I'm a big fan of the original Splitgate, so I'll still give this sequel a try... eventually. I got way too many games coming out to keep up with them all.
The most interesting release this month in my opinion was Revenge of the Savage Planet, the sequel to 2020's Journey to the Savage Planet. I bought the launch bundle that allowed me to grab both the original game and the sequel at a discount with the plan to play at least the sequel with my wife after Summer vacation. Because I wasn't going to play these games alone, I had to dig into my backlog this month.
I finally started playing Hollow Knight.
Hollow Knight's been sitting in my Steam library since its launch. It always looked fun to me, but it came out when I was heavily invested in VR and Overwatch. It was hard for me to get invested in much else at the time, and it became even more difficult to go back into the backlog years later... but I finally got into Hollow Knight at the end of May. I'm still in the middle of it, and yes, it's difficult and confusing... but I love it, anyway. In retrospect, I should have played this way sooner, but better late than never.
Virtual Reality News
New SteamVR Releases!
Here are some image links to some promising new releases on SteamVR:
Surviving Mars: Pioneer released May 8th for Meta Quest 3 and May 9th for SteamVR in Early Access. (TheSpaceshipper) Not sure if I care for it at $20 as it seems too simple for modern VR titles and is probably overpriced, but I really hope I'm wrong. I'll probably buy it on sale someday or once it exits Early Access.
Unfortunately, Into The Darkness is an early access release that looks like it wasn't developed much since its demo 3 years ago, but I will still give it a go once it's out of early access. The demo was very impressive.
Pixel Dungeon looks great for what it is: a coop action adventure. They reference Battle Talent in the Steam description, a game that's been on my wishlist for years now, but they are not the same developer and the combat in Pixel Dungeon looks a lot less interesting. I would consider playing Pixel Dungeon if I was given a key or had friends wanting to coop it, and don't get me wrong, it looks promising, just not for the reasons they state. The visuals have a charm to them, like an anime MMO but pixelated or more accurately, voxelized.
Pixel Dungeon's dev also released Horror Simulator VR this month, which should be a red flag. No small studio should have 2 great multiplayer games released on the same day, let alone 2 multiplayer VR games. The chances of tech issues are huge, and the chances of blatant asset flips is even bigger. Hey, Suplife, if you feel confident about your games, send me 2+ keys for each one and I'll at least give them a try. Otherwise, I'm waiting for the inevitable deep discount or bundle deal.
Placid Plastic Duck VR looks like a promising toy game but I wonder how well it'll entertain as you wait for ducks to appear. I got really bored of the non-VR version within a few seconds, but the VR version will let you pick the ducks up and move them around, so I'm hopeful for this one.
Wall Town Wonders was released last year for Meta. It's only getting its SteamVR release on May 7, and I imagine its mixed reality features will be missing. I think I'll grab the Meta version. Game looks good, but I wonder how the SteamVR version will make things interesting without the mixed reality mechanics.
Final Fury was released into Steam Early Access May 8, and I technically had access to it a month earlier as a reviewer, but I didn't really pay it any mind, because it was a VR fighting game without any known IP tied to it and it just didn't seem interesting. After its initial release trailer, I think it looks kind of fun but again, I see really dumb floating hands everywhere and some rather boring and dumb character designs which don't at all interest me. That said, it could be good, and since I already own the game, I'll give it a try eventually. I'm disappointed they didn't capitalize on the 80s-tastic title, but maybe they do? I'm judging it based on one trailer video and some screenshots, so I could be way off base.
Racket Pinball, released May 12th, looks really fun and is an interesting take on VR pinball by the creator of Show Must Go On and Duo.
Interestingly, I nearly missed a demo for a new VR skateboarding game titled Virtual Skate. I'll check out the demo as soon as I can. I'm always disappointed with floating limbs in VR games, but I try to overlook that flaw because sometimes, the games are still enjoyable despite the floaty limbs and doing full body IK can result in very bizarre visuals anyway.
New Meta releases including Merlin's Chess!
Here are some image links to some Meta new releases for May 2025:
Merlin's Chess came out May 22 as an early access Quest exclusive for $12.99. (UploadVR) Click here to view its store page.
Ghost Town looks amazing for a standalone title, and I can't wait for the eventual later PCVR release!
Oh, and Vivarium got its Meta release May 22. I'm a big fan of games which give you a kind of augmented reality to just chill in.
Upcoming VR games
Remember that walk-around-in-your-room-endlessly game, Unseen Diplomacy? You'd be forgiven for not really knowing about it if you weren't really into the HTC Vive in its glory days. Unseen Diplomacy 2's first trailer dropped this month alongside tons of info about the art direction, which seems very different from its predecessor. Hop over to this UploadVR article to learn more.
Zombie Army VR is coming to Meta and SteamVR for $29.99 on June 12th and looks really fun. The Both versions get a launch discount at $26.99. I recommend jumping on this hyped title as it will be multiplayer coop and more will play this at release than later.
World War Z VR also got its release date this month, a release date of August 12. (UploadVR)
A new free-to-play game called Exer Gale comes to Meta June 9th. It looks kind of fun but also wholly unoriginal. If you're in the market for a themed low poly glinding game for your Quest 2 or higher, this may be worth a look.
A dev I used to follow on the site formerly known as Twitter was working on a game titled Neolithic Dawn, which had a lot of depth to it that impressed me. This has always appeared to be a passion project to me, and I'd love to try it out when it comes out in June. An exact release date is unknown, and the price is still a mystery. I'm also unsure if it'll come out on all platforms at the same time or what hardware will be fully supported, so we wait impatiently to know more.
A Quest developer figured out a way to constantly run room calibration
This was a fun little hack. Julian Triveri's colocated multiplayer mixed reality Quest 3 game Lasertag needed a way to let players interact with their real environment while playing without the calibration becoming inaccurate, so he figured out how to make calibration constantly happen similarly to how Apple Vision Pro does depth mapping. (UploadVR) The result is an amazing experience where you can run these headsets in a bunch of rooms with doors which open and shut and the game objects will bounce off the closed doors but go through the open doorways!
Tech News
Everyone's going all in on AI smartglasses
There was a tsunami of AI-fueled tech this month, from Reebok's AI-enabled fitness eyeglasses to Google's AndroidXR conference. Meta introduced their second wave of smartglasses, which finally have displays included. On May 20th, at the Google I/O event, the first wave of Google's new smartglasses OS, AndroidXR, was announced, and they showed off a very impressive display UI. AndroidXR looked very promising, and I have high hopes for it. I will likely move to AndroidXR glasses once they've been on the market for a year or two.
Game Dev & Art News
May was a busy month for asset collectors! Fab.com had some really good freebies for the month, and Unity had some really great deals as usual.
Fab's freebies for May 20th to June 3rd were Downtown Alley, Sci-Fi Bio Laboratory, and Little Dragons Tiger at any license tier. Additionally, Fab offered Polar Facility at the personal license tier.
Leartes Studios Nova Bundles
There were dozens of interesting bundle deals which appeared to all have a similar title structure across UAS, Fab, and Gumroad. These bundles popped up at different times in different places pretty often throughout April and May and all had the word 'nova' in their title and were all seemingly set up by Leartes Studios, a huge company that came outta nowhere last year and started churning out amazing environment assets and pretty good character assets to pair with some of the environments.
At launch, most of these nova bundles were listed on Unity for half off, so the Supernova bundle was $30, not $60, and was even more of a deal. If you missed the launch price, have no fear, there's still time to get most of these assets in an even better deal on the Humble Bundle Big Bang Unreal & Unity Asset Packs Bundle for $20 for 75 products, making up most of the nova bundle content. You can also just get the $10 tier for 30 items. On top of that, this Humble Bundle offering has an obvious end date of June 23, so it's easy to plan out the purchase if you have a tight indie budget.
Some example screenshots of the nova bundles are below for posterity.
Closing article...
Happy 26th birthday to Islands Of Adventure at Universal! This attraction location turned 26 on May 28, 2025. (Shoutout to Blake_Universal) I have never been there, but it looks like a fantastic theme park!
Praise the sun! 
Summer is here! Time for waterparks and beaches and sun burns! 
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