Game Awards 2025: Clair Obscur leads nominations

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 leads the pack at this yr’s Game Awards with 12 nominations.

The critically acclaimed role-playing sport (RPG) is up for Game of the Year, in addition to three entries in the perfect efficiency class.

Other contenders for the highest sport prize this yr are Death Stranding 2, Nintendo platformer Donkey Kong Bananza, indie video games Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2, and medieval journey Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

They will all compete on the occasion – the world’s most-watched ceremony celebrating video video games – on 11 December in Los Angeles, California.

Organisers say there have been 154 million livestreams in 2024, when platformer Astro Bot was named Game of the Year.

Often known as the “Oscars of gaming”, the Game Awards, hosted by founder Geoff Keighley, will hand out prizes in 29 classes this yr.

Despite the nickname, the roughly three-hour present is a mix of conventional ceremony, together with musical performances and celeb appearances, in addition to promoting.

One of the primary causes viewers tune in is to see trailers for upcoming and unannounced video games.

Last yr, audiences bought their first glimpses of The Witcher 4, Elden Ring Nightreign and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, from Last of Us studio Naughty Dog.

This yr’s most-nominated sport, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, was made by a core team of about 30 people at developer Sandfall Interactive’s places of work in Montpellier, France.

Inspired by old-school, turn-based RPGs, it shocked critics and was praised for its storyline, battles and performances.

Three actors who seem within the sport – Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English – are nominated for finest efficiency, and the sport can be up for the perfect narrative prize.

It can be nominated for finest unbiased sport – a range that will show controversial because the venture was labored on by international assist studios and had the backing of writer Kepler Interactive.

Sony, which historically does effectively on the Game Awards, has two unique titles with eight nominations every.

As effectively as Game of the Year, Death Stranding 2, directed by celebrated online game developer Hideo Kojima, is up for finest narrative.

But none of its well-known solid, together with Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, is in line for an performing prize.

Samurai-themed journey Ghost of Yōtei – one other PS5-only launch – is nominated in the identical variety of classes, with star Erika Ishii up for a efficiency award.

Going up in opposition to the blockbusters are Game of the Year nominees Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2 – each sequels to large hits made by small groups.

Silksong, described because the “GTA 6 of indie games” attributable to its lengthy growth and fevered fan anticipation, crashed various online stores when it was released.

Rounding out the highest class are Donkey Kong Bananza – one of many first huge releases on Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console – and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Split Fiction, from Hazelight Studio, led by flamboyant former film director Josef Fares, was a follow-up to earlier Game of the Year winner It Takes Two, however missed out on a nomination itself.

And thriller sport Blue Prince, which acquired a few of the yr’s finest evaluate scores, was solely nominated in the perfect unbiased sport class.

The Game Awards has been criticised previously for prioritising promoting over awards, with successful speeches being reduce brief and on-stage shows being absent in some classes.

There was reward of 2024’s present for going some approach to handle criticisms, however builders have continued to name on organiser Geoff Keighley to higher acknowledge issues within the trade, such because the excessive variety of job losses in recent times.

This yr, there have been complaints in regards to the awards abandoning its Future Class scheme – an initiative based in 2020 to focus on “rising stars” in video video games.

It was final run in 2023, when present and former members of the group signed an open letter urging the awards to handle the Israel-Gaza conflict.

In the run-up to this yr’s nominations, after it was confirmed Future Class wouldn’t return, alumni accused the scheme of tokenism and never doing sufficient to assist them construct contacts.

Last yr, the ceremony gave out a brand new sport changer award to Amir Satvat, for his work to assist laid-off builders discover jobs.

BBC Newsbeat has approached organisers for remark.

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