Geoff Keighley and company are back again, revealing the nominees for the 2025 edition of The Game Awards, which will stream live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 11, 2025. This year the one to beat is Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which has received 12 nominations, and the most in the show’s history.
Those 12 nominations nearly double the next nearest nominee in Kojima Productions’ Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Yōtei with seven. Supergiant Games’ Hades II has six nominations, while Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight: Silksong has five.
Making things interesting is that Clair Obscur, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong are all up for Game of the Year, alongside Warhorse Studios’ Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Bananza.
Meanwhile, horror fans have a few nominees to cheer for this year, with Konami’s Silent Hill f receiving four nominations (which is sadly less than what Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 received last year), id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages garnering three, and Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight getting two nominations.
From Software’s Elden Ring Nightreign received its lone nomination in Best Multiplayer Game, while Survios’ Alien: Rogue Incursion has a nomination in Best VR Game alongside Twisted Pixel Games’ Marvel’s Deadpool VR and MoonHood’s The Midnight Walk.
Capcom’s Resident Evil Requiem and CD Projekt Red’s The Wticher IV also received nods in the Most Anticipated Game.
Fans can vote now in all categories via the official website.
I’m waiting for the montage clip of Geoff just saying “Clair Obscure expedition 33” & “Death Stranding 2 On the Beach” over and over and over.
Those two freaking dominated.
Then the inevitable yotube mashup with Geoff proudly proclaiming GOTY to Clair Beach 33: Expedition Death!
I doubt the legitimacy of a game awards where Silent Hil F got four nominations.
I can’t tell if this is a comment for or against Silent Hill f.
I haven’t seen a single positive review of the game.
Where were you looking then?
Not at any of the 159 positive reviews opencritic has aggregated? Not at any of the >5000 positive Steam user reviews just in the first week, either? Neither any of the ~60 positive reviews on GOG, either?
Where exactly did you look?
Whatever shows up in the feeds is what I saw and everything about that game was negative.
I’m sorry to hear your international franchise Triple A title only got 159 positive reviews, skill issue
¯\(ツ)/¯ I liked it.
The backslash is the markdown escape character so you have yo double it.
First \ to cancel formatting on the second \.
Noted, thanks.
You’ve successfully un-escaped the underlines
I agree. As a Silent Hill fan, Silent Hill f was just a random action horror game skinwalking with the Silent Hill name. It was mid at best and had a lot of moments where I didn’t feel like I was playing a Silent Hill game at all. Which is extremely disappointing considering f was the one Silent Hill project I was actually excited about when Konami showed their other offerings (like Silent Hill Ascension, lol what a disaster that was).
Except the music. It was really cool music, so I can see it being nominated for that. I mean, it wasn’t really a Silent Hill OST, but the quality of the music was still good. Akira Yamaoka always makes bangers. At least it wasn’t Korn this time.
I saw one person claiming it had a different title during early development but Konami decided to just slap the Silent Hill branding over it to push sales up.
I don’t know if that is true, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
To me, it had the same feeling as Star Fox Adventures (which was actually Dinosaur Planet before it got the Star Fox branding). To me, The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild also had the same feeling, as if it was deigned as a new game but Nintendo felt it would sell badly / was too close to Zelda so slapped the Zelda name on it.
Its not a bad game on its own if you ignore the title. But without the title, I would never be able to say it is a Silent Hill game.
Damn if that’s true about Zelda BOW, that had to have been like pre production then.
Even when it was announced it was called Legend of Zelda: Unbound King (Unbound hinting about the open world structure)
I am only saying I got the same feeling when I played it as SF Adventures, which did turn out to be a different game originally. I can’t say for certain it is true about BotW, only that the feeling I had while playing the game was the same to me.
How on Earth did Death Stranding get 7 nominations? Crazy
It’s a good, weird, game.
I’d say it’s a “good weird-game” instead of a “good, weird, game”. Which granted it shares with the first game.
Kojima
Through brand recognition.
Honestly didn’t think it was as good as the first one.
The truck is a hammer and every single problem is a nail.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 completely dominated the spring and summer. Nobody would shut up about it. This year’s Baldur’s Gate.
Feels like it’s going to sweep most awards here just for that, and they’ve listed the other games just to be polite and pretend it’s a contest.
I should get around to playing it at some point.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 completely dominated the spring and summer. Nobody would shut up about it. This year’s Baldur’s Gate.
First time I’ve heard of this game. Wild to see the deluxe edition cost less than the base game Itself though.
Welp, made the purchase, now I know what I’m doing after work.
Don’t look up spoilers! The game is known for its story and yes it absolutely rewards exploration so look around every nook, and nothing is so hidden you will need a guide.
Last tip: Don’t kill the White freaks - you’ll know what I mean later. Though you will be fine if you do.
Enjoy!
It’s an excellent game, enjoy!
Never actually heard of it.
You should look it up. It’s a fantastic story with incredible art and design. Reasonably priced with a ton of content.
This is a very good trend.
Have tissues ready, and I’m not talking about wanking. Well, maybe that too, but mostly because they’re really good at hitting emotional beats. It’s one of two games this year that had me in tears.
The other is Goodnight Universe, which is very new and also very good, and it has a neat face tracking gimmick where some things require you to close your eyes or emote. It also works without and is still good (and you can obviously do the accompanied actions even without a cam to observe it).
Year of the indie games!
I tried the expedition 33 game but couldnt get into it quick enough so I just refunded it and scooped a bunch of better priced steam sale games. Any one here stick around with the game long enough to convince me why I made an ill-guided choice?
Its an incredible game but not for everyone. I’ve been saying for a while that a game for everyone is a game for no one. These guys picked a specific genre and set out to tell an interesting/artistic story with a very specific vision and IMO they hit a grand slam/it is executed very well. If you bounced off it thats completely fine, not everyone is looking for what this game has to offer. It just happened to really click with me.
a game for everyone is a game for no one
Not true. Pong is AMAZING!
See, there’s this square dot, and these two paddles…oh, I won’t spoil the plot! Just play it!
I picked it up in a sale recently, it’s not normally my type of game but I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m only a couple of hours in and loving it so far.
The story is sucking me in and I’m starting to appreciate the combat, things seem to be unlocking at about the pace I can understand. I’m a little worried it’ll be repetitive but it looks like there’s plenty of opportunity to be creative to keep it interesting.
Definitely my solo game for the longer nights ahead.
The game wants you to break it. Some of the late game bosses are so over the top you need the broken maelle build just to have a chance. Thats what is fun about it too, you can make the game as hard or easy as you want depending on your strategy and mods.
The game wants you to break it. Some of the late game bosses are so over the top you need the broken maelle build just to have a chance.
Simon? I mean, you could one-shot him in both phases, but I doubt he was designed with that in mind. There are videos on YouTube where people beat him legitimately (as in, don’t skip the entire fight by not letting him do a single turn), after all.
Myself, I resorted to doing the entire third act, side-activities included, the easy way, but that’s because I’m bad at dodging and parrying and not patient enough to retry the same fights over and over again.
It depends on how much you like QTE gameplay and turn based JRPGs. If neither appeals to you, then the refund was a great idea. If one or the other appeals to you, then I think it’s worth sitting through because both gameplay mechanics are executed well enough and the narrative is good. If both appeal to you then you’ve missed out in getting a refund.
I really enjoyed this game. The gameplay is intuitive, but challenging; the narrative is engaging; the soundtrack is incredible.
The gameplay itself is just “okay”. Turn based JRPG combat with some QTE not much different from Super Mario RPG on the SNES.
I think the attention it has received is based on how well they tie together the quality of storytelling, dialogue, art direction, music, and the universal theme that resonates with everyone:
It’s an interactive cinematic experience that had me in emotional shambles multiple times throughout the playthrough.
If you’re dead inside like me and desperate to feel anything, it’ll do it for you :>
You’re not alone. The visuals are nice, the voice acting is good, and the music is gorgeous, but the gameplay is very repetitive JRPG combat with a minor twist.
As art, I could see it winning awards. As a game, I think others are more deserving.
I don’t blame you at all. It’s styled after the old final fantasy games, meaning very fiddly with a lot of different abilities, and with the added twist of having to dodge stuff fairly precisely which involves a lot of learning. There is a “story” difficulty which makes the game much less punishing, but I still didn’t feel like playing it.
I did watch my girlfriend play though, and soon I was the one telling her to play so I could watch because the story and soundtrack are that fucking amazing. Just watch a playthrough of at least all the major fights and cutscenes and you’ll understand.
It’s a quite enjoyable game, though some elements grew old towards the end. The visual design and music is also amazing. Unfortunately they dropped the ball on the ending a little, and it is very likely that this is the result of a flubbed rewrite, as there are certain hints within the game that imply very strongly that at least at some point things were clearly meant to be more complicated. The version of the ending we got has a very clear message as to what the writers intended to be the right choice.
Like you I could not get into it, but I gave it the old college try. Got about eight hours in and can’t get a refund now.
Nah, if it didnt hook you in the beginning nothing would happen later to change that. Good story, acting, visuals, but combat gets repetitive and needed something more to shake it up.
Assuming you play on PC I’d near-universally recommend it. This is because if the dodging/parrying mechanics do annoy you, your only option is to change to Easy, which also reduces enemy damage by a ton and makes the game boringly simply. Mods allow you to have the slightly more lenient timings of Easy but the HP/damage numbers of Normal, which for me personally was a nice combination as I got frustrated parrying the later bosses.
You didn’t really offer any insight as to why you moved on…
I had a similar experience. I’d honestly prefer boring turn based combat to the ridiculous QTEs in the game.
The story was extremely well-told. Great voice acting and production value. But the actual plot didn’t hook me. It just seemed so arbitrary. I don’t know if there’s some big reveal or anything that makes it make sense.
I only played it on Game Pass, so luckily I’m not out any money. I would have given it another chance eventually, but the Game Pass price hike made me cancel.
I don’t know if there’s some big reveal or anything that makes it make sense.
Ummm… I can’t give any spoilers here but…
For me, I found it to be a beautiful work of art and a heartbreaking story about family.
It’s not a mass appeal title that absolutely everyone will love though. The game is not particularly easy and it takes time to develop the story.
Every time you get to the end of an act in Expedition 33 there is so much emotion. If you aren’t following the story, don’t get emotionally attached to the games you play and the stories of the characters, and aren’t patient enough to enjoy it then obviously it won’t be for you. That’s ok. It’s all art. They all mean different things to each one of us.
I’m confident we’ll get another hades, another silksong, another death stranding. I’m sure they’re all the very best representation of their iterative releases and worthy of the highest of praises too. I don’t even know how donkey kong got in the list though, maybe they are being manipulated to include a nintendo title in some way.
I don’t know if i’ll ever be as impressed by another title as I did by expedition 33. Baldur’s Gate 3 amazed me in other ways a couple years ago and it’s a huge feat. Before that for me it was Elden Ring, amazing for other reasons.
I haven’t started kingdom come deliverance 2 yet, and I never played the first one, so I don’t want to say too much. All of the impressions i’ve heard sound like it is very deserving though. My assumption is that this and Exp33 have been the two GOTY contenders, but we’ll see.
I don’t even know how donkey kong got in the list though, maybe they are being manipulated to include a nintendo title in some way.
It’s one of the best reviewed games this year, it’s in a classic but underrepresented genre, and it’s the flagship title of the fastest selling console of all time. Maybe you’re just a little disconnected on this one?
Ah cool, so it’s better than say either of the Zelda games? since multiple releases this year seem to be on that tier.
I know it has high reviews but I am always doubtful it’s more of a hype review especially when people are desperate to justify their $500 hardware+game bundle purchase on top of their $70 20-hour game
I don’t understand why you’re mentioning Zelda? There was one Zelda game this year, released a couple weeks ago, but it’s actually a Warriors game.
I’m sure Bananza is getting a boost from the Switch 2 hype, just like E33 is getting a boost because of its indie roots. None of this happens in a vacuum. But the hype wouldn’t do anything if either of these were bad games.
I’m saying Zelda Breath of the Wild and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. I figured it was implied. Those are both goty tier flagship titles for the old switch.
I’m asking if you think donkey kong bananza lives up to those or surpasses those. DKB is a 18 hour game according to how long to beat. Everything else in the running costs less and/or has way more play hours.
I like Bananza more than BotW, but I didn’t think BotW was that good. I didn’t play TotK for that same reason.
I don’t think Bananza’s length is a mark against it. It has more than 18 hours of content, so the time to beat it is irrelevant. Cost is also irrelevant to the quality of the game.
Look at it this way: remember when large portions of the internet community were all up in arms about the cost of games and predicted that the Switch 2 was definitely going to fail?
If your perspective on games this year aligns with those communities, then you only need to look at the runaway success of the Switch 2 for proof that you’re missing a big part of the picture.
It’s a good game. People like it. I don’t even like it that much, but I can still see why it’s a successful and popular game.
Sad to see Nubby’s Number Factory get nubbed from a nubination :(
Donkey Kong is such an outlier as GOTY. They frequently need a nintendo game there to please the basement dwellers but still, Hades, HKSs and mainly ClairObscure are so far above DK it’s almost insulting seeing them together in the same category.
I feel like Nintendo gets a consolation slot with whatever the best game was in their closed ecosystem, but it’s not going to be competitive with the other candidates.
I also think they’ll give GOTY to an indie given what an unbelievable year it was for indie titles. Probably COE33, just based on the quality and production value they accomplished with a relatively small team and budget. But Silksong and Hades are also outstanding.
Silent Hill fuck?
the nominations for most things this year was fairly disappointing. I hadent heard of any of the events, and the content creator one I didn’t watch and only knew of one by name,
I pegged myself as a fairly casual gamer and I do a lot of stream watching but, a good chunk of the games nominated I had never seen or never saw anyone streaming, many I had never heard of. It was surprising since most of my entertainment is via watching people play games or by gaming myself.
Especially if you watch people game there’s 0 chance you missed the big ones this year looking at the awards, those being CO:E33, Hades 2, Silksong, DS2, Split Fiction and MKW. They were all streamers and youtubers were doing (and kinda still are with Silksong) for months.
I saw a lot of Silksong and peak; BF6, blue prince, nightrein and there was a passing glance at split fiction I also had 1 creator I follow play death stranding 2 and KD2 one just started e33 last week so I been watching that. The rest fell out of my circle of 40 or 50 streamers.
Note: I technically saw at least 4 people playing silent hill F but didn’t count it as I never saw anyone stream it that wasn’t sponsored so I didn’t feel it was a good representation if it
I decided to go through and mark what I didn’t see
- Dk bomanza (surprisingly as many were Nintendo fans)
- .Indiana jones
- ghost of yotai (surprising because I watch a few souls streamers)
- hades 2
- ninja gaiden 4
- sinobi art of vengence
- Lego voyagers
- sonic racing
- all the fighter category
- all the vr category
- abaolum
- all the mobile games (makes sense)
- ff14 dawntrail
- avowed
- f1 25
- tempest rising
- ff tactics (probally cause port)
- two point museum
- all the impact category
So looking back, I guess I did see a few of them more than I thought I had, but there was still a good chunk that just never appeared on the creators I followed.
So glad I don’t play new video games anymore.
I also don’t play them, but I’m still curious and I get myself informed by watching them and see what devs got year per year.
They did an amazing job on some games, although most of the new games lately are just an abomination, like ark riders, atrocious.
Mind elaborating? Are they actually atrocious, or is it just a genre you dont yourself enjoy?
They are atrocious, I played lots of shooters, and watching stuff like Ark Riders being a game developed with a chatgpt prompt really is atrocious.
The game is basically fortnite with a realistic skin, very slow, lots of useless effects, no skill involved at all, and mainly based on randomness.
I mean, it wasn’t though…
It’s clear you haven’t actually watched any of arc gameplay though, because it’s so far from what you’ve said it’s kinda laughable
Sorry I didn’t understand I was talking to a clanker who has no kind of expertise on gameplay design and shooters, my bad :)
I wonder, have you ever made a game yourself? I have
Oh sorry u made a game! Then I’m obviously wrong, dang you got me, your argument is stunning.
