Tag: Game of the Year

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has Another Big Night and Wins “Game of the Year” at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Ghost of Yotei were nominated for eight awards ahead of the 2025-2026 DICE Awards ceremony. However, when it came time to hand out the statuettes, Sandfall Interactive’s RPG continued its awards season dominance in Las Vegas.

As it did at The Game Awards, Clair Obscur was named “Game of the Year” by DICE’s voting body of more than 30,000 industry professionals. The game’s developers also collected four additional awards, including “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction”, “Outstanding Achievement in Story”, “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction”, and “Role-Playing Game of the Year”.

But don’t worry, Sucker Punch didn’t go home empty-handed. Ghost of Yotei earned three awards at this year’s DICE Awards, including “Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition”, “Adventure Game of the Year”, and “Outstanding Achievement in Character” for Atsu.

Other big winners at the ceremony included Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (“Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design” and “Outstanding Technical Achievement”) and Tonda Ros’s Blue Prince (“Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game” and “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design”).

The DICE Awards honored quite a few other games this year with their genre awards, including Hades II (“Action Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection (“Fighting Game of the Year”), Mario Kart World (“Racing Game of the Year”), and more.

A complete list of all the nominees and winners at the 2025-2026 DICE Awards can be found after the break. And you can also catch a replay of this year’s ceremony, which was once again hosted by Greg Miller and Stella Chung.

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2025 GOTY Scoreboard: In Progress

The New York Game Awards were held this weekend and that officially marks the start of the second half of the 2025-2026 awards season for video games.

We kicked things off with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 winning “Game of the Year” at The Game Awards and the Golden Joystick Awards… and that’s more or less where things have stood ever since. Sandfall Interactive’s turn-based RPG has continued to dominate the conversation ever since, winning “Game of the Year” honors from more than a dozen publications.

Though like most years, a handful of other games were able to collect at least one “Game of the Year” statuette of their own, including Blue Prince, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Despelote, Dispatch, Donkey Kong Bananza, Ghost of Yotei, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Silent Hill F.

Links to these lists can be found below, and I will continue to add more in the weeks ahead, as well as monitor the results of the three remaining major ceremonies.

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The Game Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today

The Game Awards have been produced and hosted since 2014 by journalist Geoff Keighley. The annual ceremony is held each December and recognizes games released during the previous 12 months.

The nominees are selected by an international panel made up of more than 150 media outlets and influencers. This same jury, along with the aggregated results of an online fan vote, also determines the winners each year. The final ballot is weighted with 90% of the vote coming from the panel and the remaining 10% coming from the general public. Contrary to popular belief, Geoff Keighley has no say in selecting the nominees or the winners.

The Game Awards are a direct continuation of the Spike Video Game Awards, which Keighley produced for Spike TV from 2003 until 2013. After the cable channel declined to sponsor the show in 2014, he chose to move forward with The Game Awards as an independent production.

All the “Game of the Year” winners from The Game Awards and the Spike Video Game Awards can be found here…

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Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Racks Up Nine Wins, Including “Game of the Year”, at the 2025 Game Awards

Geoff Keighley’s Trailer-Palooza, also known as The Game Awards, was shaping up to be a tad more anti-climactic in 2025 than ever before. Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 went into the ceremony with 13 nominations, the most of any game in Game Awards history. With most critics and commentators treating its victory as inevitable, we were probably going to have to look elsewhere for surprises. But then…

…the thing that everyone expected to happen actually happened.

Yes, the critics and commentators (the people who actually vote on the winners) turned out to be right. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won “Game of the Year” at the 2025 Game Awards. The throwback RPG also collected an additional eight trophies, including “Best Game Direction”, “Best Narrative”, “Best Art Direction”, “Best Score and Music”, “Best Role Playing Game”, and “Best Performance” for Jennifer English. And not to add more fuel to the fire over what qualifies as an independent game, but Clair Obscur also won both “Best Independent Game” and “Best Debut Indie Game”.

While the night definitely belonged to Clair Obscur and the team from Sandfall Interactive, a handful of other games also took home some Game Awards hardware, though each was limited to a single category. Battlefield 6 (“Best Audio Design”), ARC Raiders (“Best Multiplayer”), South of Midnight (“Games For Impact”), Doom: The Dark Ages (“Innovation in Accessibility”), Umamusume: Pretty Derby (“Best Mobile Game”), and The Midnight Walk (“Best VR/AR Game”) each scooped up a statuette.

Meanwhile, Hades II (“Best Action Game”), Hollow Knight: Silksong (“Best Action/Adventure Game”), Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves (“Best Fighting Game”), Donkey Kong Bananza (“Best Family Game”), Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles (“Best Sim/Strategy Game”), and Mario Kart World (“Best Sports/Racing Game”) were victorious in the genre-specific categories.

And that pretty much does it for the 2025 Game Awards. I’m struggling to think of anything that didn’t go according to plan, and all I can come up with was that extra-weird trailer for the upcoming Street Fighter film adaptation and the reveal that Capcom dropped the numerals from the upcoming Mega Man 12 in favor of a subtitle.

A replay of the 2025 Game Awards ceremony can be found after the break, as well as a list of all the nominees and winners.

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GOTY Flashback: 2015-2016 DICE Awards

Because everyone loves round numbers, let’s take a look back at the 2015-2016 DICE Awards, which celebrated games that were released exactly ten years ago.

Operating on a slightly different wavelength than 2015’s The Game Awards, the voting panel from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences chose to award Crystal Dynamics’s Rise of the Tomb Raider with the most nominations… though the second entry in Lara Croft’s rebooted series of adventures only managed to score a single win (“Outstanding Achievement in Character”).

Instead, Bethesda’s Fallout 4 was the most-awarded game of the night as it took home the “Game of the Year” statuette, as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction” and “Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year”. However, it also had to share the stage with a trio of other games that won a trio of awards.

The unique audio/visual experience of Moon Studios’s Ori and the Blind Forest contributed to its victories in the “Animation”, “Art Direction”, and “Original Music Composition” categories.

Psyonix’s vehicular soccer game, Rocket League, embraced its status as a crowd-pleaser by winning the “DICE Sprite Award” (the previous name of the “Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game” award), as well as “Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay” and “Sports Game of the Year”.

Finally, Geralt of Rivia (or rather, the development team from CD Projekt Red) stomped on stage to collect three statuettes for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The expansive RPG was the recipient of Outstanding Achievement awards in “Game Design” and “Story”, as well as “Outstanding Technical Achievement” for its depiction of The Continent.

A handful of other games were winners at the 2015-2016 DICE Awards, including Star Wars: Battlefront (“Action Game of the Year” and “Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design”), Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (“Adventure Game of the Year”), Super Mario Maker (“Family Game of the Year”), Mortal Kombat X (“Fighting Game of the Year”), and more.

Speaking of Hideo Kojima, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences inducted the always colorful developer into their Hall of Fame, and Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award for his work leading Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015.

A complete list of all the winners and nominees from the 2015-2016 DICE Awards, as well as a replay of the ceremony, can be found after the break.

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2024 GOTY Scoreboard: Astro Bot, Balatro, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, More

People who focus on the business side of games predicted that 2024 would see fewer AAA releases than 2023 and more layoffs throughout the industry. Sadly, they were right on both counts. It’s rough out there for people who make games.

But the dour cloud that’s currently hanging over the industry is all the more reason to celebrate the developers that did great work last year.

The year’s biggest success story might be the most surprising, as Team Asobi’s Astro Bot collected the most “Game of the Year” hardware from journalists and players, as well as three of the four major awards (The Game Awards, the DICE Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards). But there was plenty to celebrate from 2024, with a dozen other games earning at least one “Game of the Year” accolade and dozens more appearing further down the lists.

That cohort includes LocalThunk’s Balatro (which won “Game of the Year” at the GDC Awards), Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Atlus’s Metaphor: ReFantazio, and MachineGames’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The latest adventure starring everyone’s favorite archeologist is an interesting case, as it released so late in the year that many outlets (including The Game Awards) were unable to properly evaluate it. Will its recent launch on the PS5 give a boost to its 2025 GOTY Scoreboard crusade? I wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s possible that Nintendo’s shiny new Switch 2 will steal this year’s spotlight.

But that’s a conversation that won’t begin until December. For now, you should definitely check out more of 2024’s most-acclaimed games after the break.

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BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has presented the BAFTA Games Awards almost every year since 2003 (they skipped 2005 for some reason). “The BAFTAs” are one of the game industry’s most prestigious awards, and they’re awarded each Spring, honoring games released during the previous calendar year.

Since 2016, the BAFTA Games Awards ceremony has coincided with the London Games Festival.

A secret ballot cast by the British Academy’s membership, which includes “experienced games industry practitioners from a range of backgrounds in game development and production,” chooses the nominees and winners each year. A variety of sponsored awards are also offered by the BAFTAs, and the winners are typically decided by a public vote.

All the “Best Game” winners from the BAFTA Games Awards can be found here…

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The 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards Goes With the Flow as Astro Bot is Named “Best Game”

The voting body behind the BAFTA Games Awards has gained something of a reputation as a group that is always interested in the road not taken. Just look at these examples…

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is a certifiable phenomenon at this point, but the BAFTA Game Awards chose to honor Portal 2 as the “Best Game” from 2011. And while we all got swept up in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2017, the “Best Game” statuette at the BAFTAs went to What Remains of Edith Finch. Even two years ago, while everyone else was gushing over Elden Ring, it was Vampire Survivors that won “Best Game” at the BAFTA Games Awards.

But what happened at the 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards? This year, the folks who make up the British Academy chose to join the crowd and give the “Best Game” statuette to Team Asobi’s Astro Bot. Sony’s robotic mascot took home four additional awards last night, including “Animation”, “Audio Achievement”, “Family”, and “Game Design”.

Did any other games win some awards last night? You bet!

The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes the Deep led the rest of the pack with wins in three categories (“New Intellectual Property”, “Performer in a Leading Role” for Alec Newman, and “Performer in a Supporting Role” for Karen Dunbar). Arrowhead’s Helldivers II also picked up a pair of awards (“Multiplayer” and “Music”) during the show.

And then there was Balatro.

The game’s pseudonymous developer, LocalThunk, was a no-show at the BAFTA Games Awards, but he sent actor Ben Starr (dressed as Balatro‘s Jimbo the Joker) to the show in his stead. So it was Starr who accepted the “Best Debut” statuette for Balatro on LocalThunk’s behalf and delivered an acceptance speech for the ages:

“I can say having met him personally, LocalThunk is really rich now. He has shoes made of gold and he thanks you for making him that way. He says here at the bottom, he wishes he could thank more people, but if he’s being honest, it was just him who made it. Everyone else is a freeloader, especially you, PlayStack.”

It was all fun and games until the end, when Starr closed by saying, “Play more independent games like Animal Well. They are the lifeblood of this industry and they deserve your respect.”

The 2024-2025 BAFTA Games Awards marks the end of awards season, and you can find a replay of the ceremony, as well as the rest of the winners and all the nominees, after the break. The extended Longlist, which includes more than 60 titles, is also available on BAFTA’s website.

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GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today

Chris Crawford opened the doors to the very first Computer Game Developers Conference after welcoming two dozen other developers into his living room in 1988. The annual gathering has grown considerably in the years since (including being rechristened the Game Developers Conference in 1999), though Crawford bowed out of organizing the event in 1994.

UBM TechWeb, a company that specialized in trade shows and conferences, took over organizing the Game Developers Conference in the 1990s and they launched the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDC Awards) in 2001. Informa Tech, a British publishing company, took over as the organizer of the Game Developers Conference in 2020.

The GDC Awards are awarded every Spring at the Game Developers Conference, and both the nominees and the winners are selected by a group of “leading game creators from all parts of the industry.” Membership in this panel, which is known as the International Choice Awards Network, is available by invitation-only.

Before the creation of the GDC Awards, the Game Developers Conference hosted the Spotlight Awards from 1997 through 1999.

All the “Game of the Year” winners from the GDC Awards and the Spotlight Awards can be found here…

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Balatro Draws “Game of the Year” Honors at the 2024-2025 GDC Awards

It was a tale of two games last night in San Francisco at the 2024-2025 Game Developers Choice Awards. As they’ve done throughout awards season, Team Asobi’s Astro Bot was competing head-to-head with Localthunk’s Balatro in most categories, including “Game of the Year”.

Astro Bot was victorious at The Game Awards and the DICE Awards, but the little automaton couldn’t go three-for-three as Balatro won “Game of the Year” at this year’s GDC Awards. The poker roguelike also went all in to collect the “Innovation Award”, “Best Design”, and “Best Debut”.

But don’t worry, Team Asobi didn’t go home empty handed last night. Astro Bot was the only other game to win multiple awards as it took home two statuettes for “Best Technology” and “Best Audio”.

The rest of the ceremony spread a handful of awards among some of 2024’s most acclaimed titles including Black Myth: Wukong (“Best Visual Art”), Metaphor: ReFantazio (“Best Narrative”), Life Is Strange: Double Exposure (“Social Impact Award”), and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (“Audience Award”).

Balatro has reshuffled awards season with the BAFTAs still ahead of us, and it’ll be interesting to see if it and Astro Bot can continue their winning ways in London.

A complete list of all the nominees and winners from the 2024-2025 GDC Awards, as well as a short video montage of the winners, can be found after the break.

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