There was a time when I was excited for The Game Awards and seeing what it had to offer. During an episode of the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, we’ve discussed some of those moments, including ones that resonate to this day, such as Joker from Persona 5 being revealed as the first DLC character for Super Smash Bros Ultimate on the very night that the game was released. As time has gone on, though, I’ve seen the cracks beneath the surface, and it saddened me when certain things that host Geoff Keighley allowed, or straight-up ignored, continued on from year to year.
The Game Awards hosted its 2025 show just a few days ago, and I’m still very bitter about some of what we saw/heard from Geoff, the presenters, and more attached to the show. If this sounds familiar, I’ve written opinions on this topic before. Twice, in fact. Here, for “round three,” I’ll break down five topics that point to why The Game Awards still needs to “find itself” before it becomes even more of a parody of an actual game awards show.
#1 – Respecting The “Game of the Year” Nominees
I’m going to go right for the jugular with this first topic, because it’s something that needs to be said aloud, even if you don’t fully agree with what I have to say.
Going into 2025, there were many “expectations” for what could be “Game of the Year.” Then, one by one, many of those games “fell” and surprises took their place. That’s actually really exciting, and by the time The Game Awards unveiled their six picks, you could see how far we’d come. There wasn’t as much controversy as last year’s show (thank goodness) with the picks, but as the show began, and then continued, it was clear that Geoff Keighley and the rest of the judges wanted to “make a statement” with one game…even if it sacrificed giving praise and respect to the other five nominees.
Yes, I’m talking about the “sweep” that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had.
Regardless of whether you felt the game deserved GOTY or not, from the MOMENT the opening of the show started…it was clear what the show was going to focus on:
Yes, they started the show with one of the songs of Expedition 33, played in full, and in full French. Did any of the other contenders have their music played in full via the orchestra? Nope. Yes, we did get the “clips” at the end, but that’s part of the problem.
The orchestra is arguably one of the best parts of the whole show, and all the GOTY contenders had great music. So…why did only Clair Obscur get its full melody played? That goes double when you realize that Donkey Kong Bananza, which was a GOTY frontrunner for many, had arguably the best song of the entire YEAR with “Breaking Through (Heart of Gold).” While I was happy that Jenny Kidd was on stage to sing the chorus at the end…she should’ve been able to do the whole song…because it was really good!!!
Adding to that issue is that Bananza only had ONE other nomination THE ENTIRE NIGHT, and that was for “Best Family Game.” Say what, now? A title that epic, that beloved by fans and critics, and it only got one other nomination? That makes no sense, especially when that “victory” was done on the pre-show!
Stepping away from Nintendo (to prove I’m not being biased), how much other praise did the other GOTY nominees get during The Game Awards? Can you honestly say? I’ll help out. Of the six nominees, only FOUR got awards on the night, and the only awards Expedition 33 DID NOT GET were “Best Audio Design” and “Player’s Choice”, which was controversial in its own right due to who won.
A key element of that statement for the other contenders is that when Hollow Knight: Silksong won for “Best Action/Adventure Game,” Geoff Keighley all but screamed, “See? You guys did win one!” before he quickly moved on to the next category. This is one of the most successful indie games ever, and it got an award at lightspeed before basically never being mentioned in another meaningful way again.
How’s that right? If The Game Awards are truly trying to showcase that “these are the best of the best,” then ALL OF THEM need to be respected outside of 30-second orchestra playing and SOME of them getting “lesser awards.” Plus, as I teased, neither Death Stranding 2: On The Beach nor Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 won anything at all. The only “acknowledgement” they got was when they had nomination videos that actually showed some of their game’s cutscenes or gameplay.
I’m not saying that every GOTY candidate NEEDS to win, but for all the buzz about “this award meaning something,” Geoff Keighley and his team made it clear that ONLY Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was going to win, and that everything else was “a few steps below,” and that’s not right.
#2 – Respecting The Developers
Across my first two opinion pieces about The Game Awards, I made it clear that the developers were often getting the shaft by Geoff Keighley and others behind the scenes…unless you were willing to pay for attention. I’ll get to the payment aspect later, but in terms of “respecting devs,” outside of Sandfall Interactive, you could argue there was a lot to be desired.
Let’s start with Keighley’s opening monologue for the show, where he talked about “the power of games” and how they can make people feel something. Objectively, that’s true, and it’s why I love video games. Furthermore, other presenters, such as legendary Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser, noted the same thing about the power of games.
…but…neither Houser, nor Keighley, nor many others really talked about the developers themselves, and the struggles they have gone through recently to try and make games that they desire. Make no mistake, 2025 was NOT a great year for gaming behind the scenes. There were massive layoffs at Microsoft, leaving many to wonder if the Xbox line will soon fade out. EA sold out to Saudi Arabia, raising questions about what will happen next with them. Ubisoft may or may not be dying due to all of its bad decisions, and the list goes on from there. Plus, RIGHT NOW, there’s a potential union-busting battle going on at Rockstar Games!
Did any of this get mentioned by Geoff Keighley? Of course not! He maintained his “everything is fine unless I say otherwise!” mentality that has been persistent for years and instead enforced the “Just be glad we have great games” tagline.
Arguably, the worst of all was the constant teasing of the new Tomb Raider games. Yes, Lara Croft is an icon, and any new game with her is special. HOWEVER, the team that made the upcoming two titles, Crystal Dynamics, had not one, but THREE sets of layoffs throughout 2025! That’s a big deal, and makes you question just how good the games can be when people keep getting let go.
Yet, Keighley didn’t mention any of that…because he got his “prized” World Premiere trailers. A line in the sand has to be drawn between loving the games that come out and respecting those who made them. It’s easy to love Sandfall Interactive for what they did, but not everyone has that option, and many are suffering in the gaming space right now due to those at the top of the pyramid. If Geoff won’t take a stand, then he REALLY needs to tone down his praise of the game industry, when those who actually read articles about it know that it’s anything but rosy.
#3 – Cringe Presenters and Moments
…I really don’t want to talk about this…but I must.
Like anyone in charge of a show or production, Geoff Keighley will always put what he thinks is “best for things” on the docket, even if they come off as cringeworthy. Last year, I blasted the use of The Muppets to “disguise” the faults of The Game Awards, and this year…Keighley doubled down on them. Seriously, what the heck, Geoff?
It started off cringe, with Mrs. Piggy flirting with Geoff (*shivers in horror*), and it only grew weirder from there. And by the time they started singing “The Game Awards will never…let you…down!” song, I was ready to click off for the rest of the night.
Why? Because, while it was absolutely fun to hear Rolf sing about all the great games you should play (he really crushed it), Keighley once again used the song to mask his (and the show’s) many faults. Like how “Geoff Keighley is a bore,” and how the voting “is rigged,” and Rolf even noted “The Game Awards will always let you down.”
He wasn’t cracking a joke; he was stating what a LOT of people say and continue to say, and Keighley poked fun at it because, in the end, the show will continue, whether we like it or not.
Sadly, the cringe doesn’t end there. Like many years before, there were presenters who took WAY too long, and did the most cringe things ever, while the people who ACTUALLY WON THE AWARDS got sometimes only 30 seconds to talk about things. Seriously, just watch the FIRST award on the main show where Jeffrey Wright and his son talked for two minutes, and then the winners got on stage and talked for 30 seconds before blitzing off.
And then…there was the Street Fighter cast. Gods above…
I won’t speak on the trailer, as that’s divisive enough, but then they decided to bring pretty much the ENTIRE main cast on stage, give most of them microphones, and then simply hoped that things would go well…it did not.
The worst of the lot was the VERY controversial comedian Andrew Schultz, who decided to make a crack at Mortal Kombat 2 and the cast being “only concerned with money,” and I was hoping someone would yank that fool violently off stage. Keighley should’ve seen that coming, but he probably couldn’t resist getting them all on stage…or getting paid to allow them all on stage to promote the movie… (that’ll probably bomb hugely for all the right reasons…)
Oh, and let’s not forget the clear bias that led to more cringe moments, like how Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (one of the highest-grossing video game adaptations EVER) was left off the “Best Adaptation” nominee list, only for Devil May Cry to be on there (which is incredibly controversial) and then the winner to be The Last of Us Season 2…even though EVERYONE agrees it’s not even close to the quality of Season 1. But hey, Naughty Dog was in the house, so you had to give it to them, right, Geoff?
After YEARS of having to deal with these terrible moments, you’d think that The Game Awards would learn. Instead, they just learn new ways to make their show look stupid.
So yeah, The Game Awards will ALWAYS let you down…which leads me to…
#4 – Ads…So Many Ads
Make…it…STOP!!!
This is one thing I really don’t understand about The Game Awards. It’s not a traditional “awards show” because it’s not on TV (at least, not anymore), and thus, they can do the whole thing online via the power of the internet. Yet, throughout the show, there are SO MANY ADS!!!!
While some you may say are “fine,” like ads about games, you have to wonder why some ads are on there at all. And yes, I’ll include certain ads from Nintendo, which I was surprised was “as involved” as the show was.
Then, there were the ads that made no sense being there at all, such as the “Survival Training” ad that was another level of cringe (regardless of the famous streamers within it) or the Xbox Game Pass ad with the janitors. If this were early in the Game Pass era, I could understand it. But now? The thing is stagnating hard, and this felt like an “out of touch” ad from both the visual sense and even the musical sense!
All of this ad time could’ve been cut out, and we’d be down at LEAST an hour, if not more! Just as important, you could’ve used this “extra time” to promote…you know…THE GAMES THAT WERE NOMINATED!!!!
When you make the same mistake repeatedly, you look like a fool, and if you ask just about anyone who watched the show what the worst elements of it were, the ads will continually pop up in the top slots.
#5 – Once Again Teasing Games What Won’t Arrive For Years
Instead, they do a whole bunch of “World Premieres,” and they don’t seem to mind when things are “far off into the distance.” A great example of this is the new title featuring Mega Man. Yes, we’re all excited that it got announced. I’m a Mega Man fan myself, and am happy a new mainline entry is coming…in 2027. We don’t even know WHEN in 2027, and we only got the smallest of glimpses into it.
Then, there was the Divinity trailer, which didn’t even have a release date, but had the grossest, weirdest, most disturbing game trailer I’ve ever seen. And this is from the Baldur’s Gate 3 people! We won’t probably won’t hear about that game for a long time…and yet not only did it get a VERY long trailer…it had that weird “live-action setup” that was…wait for it…cringe.
Yet, the biggest and best example of all is the new Star Wars game that got announced. No, not the racing one. The other one!
“Fate of the Old Republic” was announced and was stated to be headed up by Casey Hudson, who directed a certain Star Wars classic game back in the day. The problem? We got the briefest of glimpses, and rumors immediately started to swirl that the game wouldn’t be out until 2030!!!
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic may not release until at least 2030
"Last night's biggest surprise was Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, led by Casey Hudson, who directed KOTOR (and Anthem). Exciting news for lots of people… but Lucasfilm says the studio was founded… pic.twitter.com/wdwxYBeU2A
— Wario64 (@Wario64) December 12, 2025
Yes, that was slightly debunked by Casey himself, but as many people found out, the studio behind the game was JUST MADE THIS YEAR! And since it’ll be a “massive single-player adventure,” there’s no way it’s coming out until 2028 at the EARLIEST! So, again, why show it now? Plus, remember Star Wars Eclipse? No, you don’t, because it was shown at The Game Awards ONCE and then never really heard from again.
This KEEPS HAPPENING at The Game Awards, and many people are sick of it.
game awards in a nutshell (minus like 3 exceptions). https://t.co/vcDLyXat73
— SXR123 (Dave) (@SXR123) December 12, 2025
Now, yes, there were SOME titles that had a nice 2026 release date announcement, or better looks into things we’ll play next year, but you can also think of multiple big-name titles that no-showed in one form or another.
Oh, and how about the D&D titles that were announced back-to-back, with just one cutscene (starring Tricia Helfer), and then it just so HAPPENED to reveal that the first title will have a “gameplay reveal next Summer.” Gee, what person has a gaming event in the Summer…? I wonder…? Oh, and the other one? It’s coming in 2027. Shock.
Sadly, I fully expect this kind of thing to keep happening until the “bubble bursts.” When will that be? Your guess is as good as mine.
So, as I wrap up talking about The Game Awards, where does that leave us? Do I feel the 2025 show was better than the 2024 one? Not really. It was about the same. There were some cool announcements, yes, but there were also plenty of moments to bring it down, and Geoff Keighley clearly still hasn’t learned what to do to make the show “truly better.”
As many have cited, this isn’t really an “awards show,” as the awards come second to basically everything else shown. The celebrities, the live performances, The Muppets (stop ruining them, Geoff Keighley!!!!), and, of course, The World Premieres.
Until these issues are fixed, I’m not going to look forward to watching this event each year. It is merely something I do for work, not for fun…and that’s a crime in and of itself.
