Topic: The Game Awards 2025

whispers half of them didn't play a 2nd racing game this year

As always, this has nothing to do with Mario Kart World, it could be the best or worst game in the series, this would still be true.

Show actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, there weren't as many ads and there were some good game showings, though a good portion of them were for 2027 or even later...

Though one thing that really annoyed me was the fact that they skimmed through so many awards and didn't even give the devs a chance to show appreciation, let alone accept the award but they would give 5+ minutes to some random ad or insert of the most uninspired game.

While there can only be one "Game of the Year," this truly felt like the "Year of the Games." All the nominees were fantastic, and while I'm sad my personally GotY didn't win, that just goes to show the quality of games on offer this year.

Yep, that's the Game Awards alright.

I've just been going through the announcements, I can't sit through the show itself. Not much interesting announced this year other than Jonathan Blow's new game which had some really annoying voiceover work I hope is not there in the final release...

Then Johnny B. could write a spicy article: "How IGN Censored My Game Reviews And Changed My Ratings"

That would be quite the interesting thing to read about. If that is the standard in the industry...where are all those expose articles?

IGN? Corrupt!
GameSpot? Corrupt!
etc.

And as for The Game Awards specifically, you're asserting that all the gaming journalists, when voting in the different categories, first think to themself "Hmm...I loved Game A, but I really should vote for Game B that would help my company's relationship with the big developer..."

But if that is true, then you must think that this year, on losing Game of the Year to Clair Obscur, Sony will demand that Geoff Keighley sends them them full list of voting results, who voted for what, so they can see which outlets did not vote for Death Stranding 2, and then...punish them somehow?

If you're not saying that happens, then it is a free vote among the game journalists...so I don't understand that particular conspiracy theory either.

Yeah, I hope as the years go by, they start putting more focus on the awards, the handing out, the speeches.

But if you're going to show wall-to-wall trailers, doing it in a year where 1 game wins NINE awards is a good time to do it.

Congratulations to Wuthering Waves on winning the "Chinese Players' Voice" award!

When I heard the winner, I went to MetaCritic, saw it was average to below average.

Next immediate thought: "...it must be Chinese."

And so it was. The Chinese support Chinese businesses like a sacred duty (if not government demanded duty). And their billion votes put Wuthering Waves over the line, just like Black Myth: Wukong last year.

"Chinese platforms such as Bilibili, Weibo, Douyin are actively promoting The Game Awards, showcasing vote counts for each nominee."

That's like if YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit and TikTok all had pop ups when you open them that said:
"Don't forget to vote for our American made games at The Game Awards from these approved American video game companies! America first! God Bless America!"

@MontyCircus I'm not sure if national backing is needed.... millions of players world wide who want free in-game currency if their addictive mobile game wins is probably good enough. Google Play (not sure about the apple store) was also actively promoting the mobile games which were in player's voice.

I'd think it mostly just a sign of a changing market. There are ten times as many mobile gamers around the world as console ones and the standard of what you can play on them has vastly improved.

So, yes, you will get a Chinese gacha game with a hundred million players and, for a good chunk of them, that's the only game that they'll have played all year; there's enough content for them to sink thousands of hours in and they'll get a new update dropping every month or so with more, to keep them engaged.

You don't need to bribe or coerce those players into voting for it. Just telling them that there's an award is probably going to be enough.

As much as console gamers dont want to admit it mobile gaming is as viable as console gaming. Yeah isn't something I would play probably but they are video games. And since everyone has a smartphone even people who wouldn't normally buy say an Xbox or Playstation or Nintendo console still have access to thousands of games and sooner or later they will play something and eventually become a fan of it.