Let’s get this out of the way early: Gaelic football is bananas. It’s part soccer, part rugby, part aerial ballet performed by lads with day jobs. It’s thrilling, it’s tribal, and—until recently—it’s been digitally represented with all the finesse of a drunken giraffe playing Pong.
Yes, I’m talking about Gaelic Games: Football, the 2005 catastrophe that many Irish gamers fondly remember as the game that made them appreciate turning the console off. It was the PS2 disc you loaned a cousin and prayed they’d forget to return. But here we are, nearly 20 years later, and another brave—or perhaps foolhardy—developer is taking the pitch.
Enter Buck Eejit Games with Gaelic Football '25. The title alone sounds like it should be followed by a knowing smirk and a shot of Jameson. The studio’s name doesn’t scream "cutting-edge developer" so much as "group of lads who once programmed a football manager sim using Microsoft Paint." But maybe, just maybe, that’s what Gaelic football needs—a game with heart instead of Hollywood polish.
Déjà Vu with a Brogue
The road to Gaelic Football '25 has been long, winding, and pockmarked with the debris of crushed pixelated dreams. The original Gaelic Games: Football was, to put it gently, a steaming pile of sports-based heartbreak. Created by an Australian studio that had never seen a match and used Aussie Rules as its template—because sure, what’s a few minor differences like entirely different rules and cultural context—the game was destined to fail harder than a missed free kick in Croke Park.
But despite—or because of—its flaws, it became a cult phenomenon. Sort of like The Room, but with sliotars and shoulder charges. Matt Murphy, a.k.a. YouTuber PKMX, owns 18 copies of the original trilogy. That’s not a collector; that’s a cry for help. And maybe a side hustle in coasters.
But now? There’s hope. A scrappy Belfast studio is picking up the cursed sliotar and saying, “Sure, let’s give this another lash.”
The Peadar Redemption Arc
Our protagonist in this tale of grit, Guinness, and gamedev is Peadar McMahon, who, back in 2005, played the original game with friends and thought, “You know what? I could do better than this.” And, like many men with a dream and a degree in computer science, he went off to work in financial software for 20 years.
But the dream never died. Peadar founded Buck Eejit Games with the sort of Kickstarter campaign usually reserved for niche board games and regrettable indie films. £30,000 and four years later, he and his dozen-person team are eyeball-deep in crunch trying to make Gaelic Football '25 the Elden Ring of GAA. Or at least the Pro Evo 2008.
And here’s the twist: the Buck Eejit devs actually understand Gaelic games. Shocking, right? You mean having a childhood that involves watching your uncle scream at a ref in the rain might help you make a better GAA game? WHO KNEW?
No Licenses? No Online? No Problem?
Now, don’t go expecting FIFA-level features here. Or FIFA-level anything, really. For starters, there are no official licenses, so your All-Ireland dreams will have to involve "County Neth" vs. "Dublinia FC" unless you dive into the game’s extensive editing tools, lovingly dubbed "please do it yourself mode."
Also missing: online multiplayer. In 2025. That’s like making a car and forgetting the steering wheel. But sure, you can always invite your mate over and pass a single controller back and forth like it’s 2002 again. It’s retro, it’s nostalgic, it’s... cheap.
But the Buck Eejit lads aren’t pretending to be EA. They’re not trying to create a slick corporate package with microtransactions and Ultimate Team gambling for toddlers. They’re building a game for the fans, by the fans, with rule tweaks that prioritize fun over fidelity—like six steps instead of four because, as Peadar says, it just plays better.
And you know what? He’s not wrong. Realism is great until it makes the game feel like running through porridge.
Irish Heart, Indie Budget
Gaelic Football '25 might not have 4K sweat particles or a €100 million development budget, but it has something EA Sports never will: an understanding of the game’s soul.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh, Irish games producer and GAA aficionado, nailed it: the original game flopped because it didn’t feel like GAA. The tribalism, the electricity, the moment your nan screams "hit him!" at the telly—it was all missing. Buck Eejit Games, by contrast, lives that energy. Or at least they did before their 16-hour workdays stole their souls.
But even indie passion projects need a little help. If this game is going to survive outside Irish living rooms and a few smoky pubs in Tipperary, it needs influencers. It needs TikTok. It needs Ryan Tubridy to shout “unreal craic!” while doing a live stream.
What’s Actually in the Game?
So what’s under the hood? Here’s a quick lowdown of the current build:
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Playable counties: Yes, but with fake names. (You can fix that.)
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No online multiplayer: You’ve got mates, right? Good. Bring them over.
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No GAA licenses: Say hello to “Mick O’Somebody” and “Big Lad #9.”
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Rule tweaks: Sacrificing authenticity for smooth gameplay.
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Customization options: All the Pro Evo vibes, baby.
Will it be perfect? Absolutely not. Will it be better than the 2005 disaster? God yes. Will people in Mayo still blame the digital version for not winning an All-Ireland? You bet your cursed jersey they will.
The High-Stakes Comeback of a Sport with No Comeback Mechanic
Here’s the thing: Gaelic football doesn’t have the global pull of FIFA. It doesn’t have Madden’s marketing machine. It has lads in shorts running for their parish, and that’s its charm.
Making a game about it is a massive gamble. But it’s also a love letter to a sport that rarely gets the spotlight outside RTE or awkward bar conversations with confused tourists.
And unlike IR Gurus, the Aussie devs who once thought GAA was just rugby with smaller shorts, Buck Eejit Games gets it. They live it. Even if half the dev team had to be educated about the sport along the way.
Their goal? Just make it fun. If people like it, they’ll patch it, improve it, maybe even give it the sequel it deserves. If not? Well, there’s always hurling. And if that fails, they can always make an RPG about navigating the Luas.
Will It Be a Hit?
Here’s the snarky truth: It depends. The Irish market will buy it no matter what—mostly out of duty, curiosity, and a vague desire to make their cousin shut up. But if the game’s actually good?
Boom. Viral moment.
Irish influencers start posting. The diaspora downloads it for nostalgia. Some poor American stumbles across it and becomes obsessed. GAA finally goes global in the most Irish way possible: through underdog charm, low-res graphics, and hilarious commentary from a lad in Offaly named Seán who does voiceovers for free.
Gaelic Football '25 could be a fluke hit, a glorious mess, or a sleeper success that carves out a niche. All we know for sure is this: Buck Eejit Games has done something no one else dared to in two decades—they’ve tried. With actual care. With actual knowledge. And with actual craic.
So when the game launches this summer, give it a go. You might just find that this time, Irish digital sport has more to offer than a three-out-of-ten rating and a trip to the CEX bargain bin.
And hey—if nothing else, it’ll make a great drinking game.
Sláinte.