Game Awards 2025, Overview and Highlights
6 minute read
Table of Contents
Getting this out of the way at the start, lets run down a quick list of all the winners for anyone who’s just looking into that.
Winners
- Best family game: Donkey Kong Bananza
- Innovation in accessibility: Doom: The Dark Ages
- Best esports game: Counter-Strike 2
- Best esports athlete: Chovy
- Best esports team: Team Vitality
- Best mobile game: Umamasume: Pretty Derby
- Best indie game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best adaptation: The Last of Us season 2
- Best action game: Hades II
- Best performance: Jennifer English, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Games for impact: South of Midnight
- Best ongoing game: No Man’s Sky
- Best audio design: Battlefield 6
- Content creator of the year: MoistCr1TiKaL
- Best fighting game: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
- Most anticipated game: Grand Theft Auto VI
- Best action/adventure game: Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Best art direction: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best sim/strategy game: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles
- Best debut indie game: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best score and music: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best sports/racing game: Mario Kart World
- Best community support: Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best VR/AR game: The Midnight Walk
- Best RPG: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Players’ voice: Wuthering Waves
- Best narrative: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Best multiplayer game: Arc Raiders
- Best game direction: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Game of the year: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
With the obvious of the way, lets go over the announcements and trailers that the game awards had, beginning with some of the bigger highlights!
Tomb Raider: Catalyst
The first new game in the Tomb Raider series in years, Catalyst is slated for 2027, and will come hot off the heels of a remake of the very first game in the series in 2026. Gameplay details are nonexistant, but it seems unlikely it will be anything other than an action adventure starring Lara Croft given the series and its status as a mainline entry.
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
Following in the footsteps of Knights of the Old Republic (1 and 2) as well as Star Wars: The Old republic (an MMO by Bioware), this new star wars game is yet another adventure set several thousand years before the movies, at the height of the republics power and influence. Though the exact timeline is unknown, leaving it up in the air whether or not it will be a prequel, sequel, or new storyline in the general time rather than a connected title.
Divinity
For another title in an already revered setting, Larian Studios has announced their new Divinity game. The trailer was entirely a cinematic story trailer, with no revealed gameplay, but many elements contained within are common to the games. This is certainly one of the more exciting new announcements of the night, coming from such a storied studio and with the success of Baldurs Gate 3 still fresh in peoples memory.
Warlock
A new D&D game set around … a Warlock, this is yet another title with scarce gameplay details. Story wise however, the character class alone suggests the protaganist will be in service to some sort of greater power, or eldritch entity as the source of their power, something that could be fairly dynamic and interesting if done well…
Gang of Dragons
Coming from a new studio headed by Toshihiro Nagoshi, who directed multiple of the more recent games in the Yakuza series, this new game seems to be in much the same vein as a Yakuza-like title centered around someone involved with organized crime in Japan. Much like many other trailers, gameplay details aren’t available, but it did include several action sequences in the cutscenes, suggesting a violent, action packed adventure of some kind when it releases. With a dash of tragedy, of course. No one said a life like that would be easy I suppose.
Total War: Warhammer 40k
Coming from the recently beleaguered Creative Assembly, a studio facing its fair share of criticisms for its handling of Warhammer Fantasy, and the quality control of their total war games in general… Total War: Warhammer 40k presents a fresh entry into the series, and their first foray into a scifi setting, with previous entries being more grounded and historical, with the age of gunpowder and their fantasy games being the most fantastical or advanced…
With the gameplay appearing to be a fairly substantial jump out of their comfort zone, especially when it comes to the overworld map taking flight into the stars, it might be interesting to see how this game shapes up!
Control: Resonant
Starring the previous protaganists Sibling, this sequel to 2019’s Control seems to possess all the usual mindbending cinematics one might expect from yet another entry into the same universe as the Alan Wake games, as well as the original Control.
Unlike most other trails of the night, the reveal trailer also included snippets of live action combat, showing off the gameplay with some snappy melee sequences.
Mega Man: Dual Override
Coming 7 years after the release of the last new entry in the series, Mega Man: Dual Override appears to be a continuation of classic Mega Man gameplay. A 2d platformer with a snappy cosmetic upgrade for the modern day. Fans of the series are likely pretty happy, and I for one am looking forward to seeing what Capcom pulls off with this.
Other announcements
Listing off a few more, there was:
No Law: A first person shooter in a cyberpunk setting coming from Neon Giant
Ontos: A sci-fi horror title from Frictional Games, the creators of Soma.
Order of the Sinking Star: A story driven puzzle game from Jonathan Blow.
Bradley the Badger: A 3D platformer that takes the player on an irreverant adventure through several worlds.
Stupid Never Dies: A zombie action adventure game produced by several well known Capcom veterans.
The Free Shepherd: The very first announcement of the night, it looks to be a cozy sheepherding game where you play as a dog.
Coven of the Chicken foot: A 3D, puzzle and exploration game from the new studio Wildflower, headed by Bruce Straley (Formerly of Naughty Dog)
Decripit: An action soulslike with a twist: It’s first person.
Audiomech: A music based action game.
Orbitals: A nintendo switch 2 exclusive set in a sci fi world, with 3d platforming gameplay.
Overall it was a fairly exciting night, with quite a few promising upcoming titles. The winners for some of the awards were a bit predictable, but there were shakeups here and there suggesting stiff competition overall. Ideally there will be more information on the actual gameplay for quite a few of the new announcements, but given the games are likely still in early to middling stages, it isn’t entirely surprising they don’t want to show that off yet.
The clear winner overall was Expedition 33 with a staggering 9 wins including Game of the Year. Speaking of which, go play that if you haven’t! They just released a new update with new content released for free as a thank you, so there’s even more content there to enjoy, and I’m all out of news for now.
