This year’s Game Awards hinted at upcoming games and celebrated studios that won big
By NATALIE SALTER—arts@theaggie.org
On Dec. 11, 2025, The Game Awards began at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, for both a live audience and an estimated 171 million livestream viewers. Hosted by Geoff Keighley, the awards served as both an opportunity to crown the best video games of the year and to tease what new games are yet to come.
The ceremony’s biggest victor of the night was Sandfall Interactive’s “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33,” which won nine awards — creating a historic Game Awards record. It most significantly won the illustrious “Game of the Year” title, but also placed for categories such as “Best Game Direction” and “Best Narrative.” Voice actor Jennifer English also won “Best Performance” for her work in the game.
The record-setting sweep that “Expedition 33” experienced put it in the spotlight for the whole night. For some viewers, seeing a game be so highly awarded made them more curious to pick it up themselves.
“I take awards seriously, and if a game wins that many awards, it must have been made with passion and love,” Riley Martin, a third-year English major, said. “Seeing ‘Expedition 33’ made me interested in playing the game myself.”
For others, like Dorian Simpson, a fourth-year food science major, the award sweep was welcome, but seemed to leave other titles unappreciated.
“I think the actual awards were almost funny, since ‘Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’ had the craziest award sweep I’ve ever seen, which was actually deserved,” Simpson said. “My only wish is that ‘Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter’ got some kind of spotlight because it seemed like an amazing game.”
One prominent aspect of The Game Awards is its musical performances. This year’s show featured a surprise appearance by the band Evanescence, who showed-off their recent single, “Afterlife.” Additionally, in the show’s tradition, a live orchestra performed pieces from each of the Game of the Year nominees’ soundtracks before the winner was announced.
Though The Game Awards are primarily an awards show, new game announcements and trailers that debuted during the ceremony are half of the excitement for viewers. Fans can tune in not only to find out what games are the best of the year, but also to anticipate what’s yet to come from their favorite studios and franchises.
Larian Studios, whose game “Baldur’s Gate 3” won “Game of the Year” at the 2023 show, used the night to debut the trailer for their newest game, “Divinity.” The announcement featured live actors in fantasy costumes who were lifted into the air in front of the audience, adding extra spectacle to the trailer.
Other announcements for upcoming games included “Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic,” a new action-adventure game set in the famous sci-fi universe, and “Control: Resonant,” the sequel to the mind-bending 2019 game “Control.”
The show also marked the return of highly successful franchises. One huge announcement was for an upcoming remake of the 1996 “Tomb Raider,” bringing the iconic adventurer Lara Croft back to the spotlight, along with a new entry in the series, “Catalyst.”
“This past game awards was definitely one of the most exciting in recent years in my opinion,” Simpson said. “There were so many amazing game reveals, like ‘Divinity’, ‘Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic,’ ‘Gang of Dragon,’ ‘Control: Resonant’ and of course the two ‘Tomb Raider’ games. I also loved seeing updates for some of the previously announced games like ‘Resident Evil: Requiem’ and ‘Pragmata.’”
Perhaps the biggest franchise announcement of the night came from Capcom, the developer of the wildly popular “Resident Evil” horror games. The studio released a new trailer for the series’ ninth and latest entry, “Requiem,” which comes out Feb. 27, 2026. The trailer revealed that the fan-favorite legacy character Leon Kennedy would be returning to the series.
With around 171 million viewers, the most in the show’s history thus far, 2025’s Game Awards were the biggest yet — and, with so many trailers and global game announcements, it promised much more excitement to come. Fans of video games can certainly anticipate the next show at the end of this year, where more records may be broken and new games will certainly be revealed.
Written by: Natalie Salter—arts@theaggie.org
