Game Awards 2025: Clair Obscur leads nominations

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 continues to lead this year’s Game Awards with 12 nominations.

The critically acclaimed role-playing game (RPG) is up for the Game of the Year award as well as three nominations in the best performance category.

Other contenders for this year’s best game award include Death Stranding 2, Nintendo platformer Donkey Kong Bananza, indie games Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2, and medieval adventure Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

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

Organizers say there were 154 million live streams in 2024, when platform game Astro Bot was named Game of the Year.

The Game Awards, often referred to as the “Game Oscars” and hosted by founder Geoff Keighley, will hand out awards in 29 categories this year.

Despite its nickname, the nearly three-hour show is a mix of the traditional ceremony, featuring commercials as well as musical performances and celebrity appearances.

One of the main reasons why viewers tune in is to see trailers for upcoming and unannounced games.

Last year, audiences had the first chance to see The Witcher 4, Elden Ring Nightreign, and Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet from Last of Us studio Naughty Dog.

This year’s most nominated game is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Made by a core team of approximately 30 peoplee at developer Sandfall Interactive’s offices in Montpelier, France.

Inspired by old-school, turn-based RPGs, the game stunned critics and received praise for its story, combat, and performances.

Three actors in the play – Ben Starr, Charlie Cox and Jennifer English – were nominated for best performance, and the play was also nominated for best narrative.

It was also nominated for the best indie game award; this choice may be controversial due to the fact that the project is being worked on by global support studios and has the backing of publisher Kepler Interactive.

Sony, which has traditionally done well at The Game Awards, has two exclusive games with eight nominations each.

Death Stranding 2, directed by famous video game developer Hideo Kojima, is a candidate for the best narrative award as well as the Game of the Year.

However, none of the famous cast members, including Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, are nominated for an acting award.

Samurai-themed adventure Ghost of Yōtei, a PS5-only release, was nominated in the same number of categories, with star Erika Ishii taking home the performance award.

Competing the blockbuster games are Game of the Year candidates Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades 2; Both are continuations of great successes made by smaller teams.

Silksong has been described as the “GTA 6 of indie games” due to its long development and fervent expectation from fans. Several online stores crashed upon launch.

Rounding out the top category are Donkey Kong Bananza, one of the first big games on Nintendo’s new Switch 2 console, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2.

Split Fiction by Hazelight Studio directed by flamboyant former film director Josef FaresIt was a sequel to previous Game of the Year winner It Takes Two, but missed out on a nomination.

And Blue Prince, the mysterious game that received some of the best review scores of the year, was only nominated in the best indie game category.

The Game Awards have been criticized in the past for prioritizing advertising over awards, cutting winner speeches short and not having stage presentations in some categories.

The 2024 show has been praised for going some way to addressing criticism, but developers have continued to call on organizer Geoff Keighley to better acknowledge problems in the industry, such as the high number of job losses in recent years.

There have been complaints this year about the awards ditching their Future Class programme, an initiative founded in 2020 to highlight “rising stars” in video games.

It was last held in 2023, when current and former members of the group signed an open letter calling for the awards to address the Israel-Gaza war.

Ahead of this year’s nominations, after it was confirmed that Future Class would not return, alumni accused the plan of being tokenistic and not doing enough to help them connect.

At last year’s ceremony, a new game-changing award was given to Amir Satvat for his work helping laid-off developers find work.

BBC Newsbeat has approached the organizers for comment.

Listen to Newsbeat live weekdays at 12:45 and 17:45 – or listen again Here.