We won’t have to wait too much longer to find out which game will follow the wonderful Astro Bot’s triumph at last year’s edition of The Game Awards. The 2025 ceremony takes place on December 11 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. In between a cavalcade of video game trailers and announcements, the show will squeeze in some actual awards. We now know what the contenders for The Game Awards 2025 are after Monday’s announcement of the nominees.
Those vying for the top prize of game of the year are:
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – Sandfall Interactive/Kepler Interactive
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Donkey Kong Bananza – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Hades II – Supergiant Games
Hollow Knight: Silksong – Team Cherry
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver
Half of those are also up for game of the year at the Indie Game Awards. Those three games (Clair Obscur, Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong) are up for the best independent game award at this ceremony as well, alongside Absolum, Ball x Pit and Blue Prince.
With 12 nods in total — including three in the best performance category — Clair Obscur isn’t just the most-nominated game this year. It’s the most-nominated game in the 12-year history of the ceremony. Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yōtei have eight nods each, Hades II has seven and Silksong has five. Sony Interactive Entertainment leads the way among publishers with 19 nominations.
A whole bunch of high-profile games missed out on nominations for the main award. However, the likes of Arc Raiders, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Mario Kart World, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Battlefield 6, Split Fiction, Monster Hunter Wilds and Silent Hill f have picked up nods in other categories. It’s neat to see games like Consume Me, Despelote, Rematch and Dispatch pick up nominations this year too. Meanwhile, Marvel’s Deadpool VR, a game that isn’t even out until tomorrow, picked up a nod.
Fan voting for this year’s edition of The Game Awards starts today on the TGA website and social platforms. Public ballots account for 10 percent of the final vote, with a jury comprising dozens of media outlets accounting for the remaining 90 percent. The nominees for the players’ voice award — the only one determined entirely by fans — will be announced on December 1.
The Game Awards (which is under fire over its handling of the discontinued Future Class program) will be streaming across a wide variety of platforms, including Prime Video for the first time. As ever, we’ll be on top of all of the big news from the event, so stay tuned to Engadget for all the juicy details. Place your bets now on what will be announced. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a glimpse of Half-Life 3?
