🔗 Share this article

The challenge of uncovering new titles remains the video game industry's most significant fundamental issue. Despite worrisome age of company mergers, growing financial demands, workforce challenges, broad adoption of artificial intelligence, digital marketplace changes, shifting generational tastes, salvation often revolves to the mysterious power of "breaking through."

This explains why I'm more invested in "awards" like never before.

With only some weeks remaining in 2025, we're firmly in annual gaming awards time, a time when the small percentage of players who aren't experiencing similar multiple F2P competitive titles weekly tackle their backlogs, argue about development quality, and recognize that they too won't experience everything. We'll see exhaustive top game rankings, and there will be "you overlooked!" reactions to these rankings. A player general agreement selected by media, influencers, and followers will be revealed at The Game Awards. (Developers participate in 2026 at the interactive achievements ceremony and GDC Awards.)

This entire sanctification is in enjoyment — there are no right or wrong selections when it comes to the greatest games of 2025 — but the significance appear greater. Every selection selected for a "game of the year", whether for the prestigious GOTY prize or "Best Puzzle Game" in forum-voted honors, opens a door for wider discovery. A mid-sized game that received little attention at launch may surprisingly gain popularity by rubbing shoulders with more recognizable (meaning well-promoted) major titles. When 2024's Neva popped up in nominations for an honor, I'm aware without doubt that tons of gamers immediately desired to read analysis of Neva.

Conventionally, award shows has made little room for the variety of titles published every year. The hurdle to clear to review all seems like climbing Everest; about 19,000 releases launched on PC storefront in the previous year, while only 74 releases — including latest titles and live service titles to smartphone and virtual reality platform-specific titles — appeared across the ceremony nominees. When commercial success, conversation, and storefront visibility determine what gamers experience every year, it's completely not feasible for the framework of awards to adequately recognize a year's worth of releases. Nevertheless, there's room for enhancement, provided we accept it matters.

The Predictability of Game Awards

Earlier this month, the Golden Joystick Awards, including interactive entertainment's most established awards ceremonies, revealed its finalists. While the decision for top honor main category occurs soon, one can observe the trend: This year's list made room for rightful contenders — massive titles that received praise for refinement and scale, popular smaller titles received with AAA-scale excitement — but across multiple of award types, there's a noticeable concentration of repeat names. In the enormous variety of art and gameplay approaches, top artistic recognition makes room for multiple sandbox experiences taking place in historical Japan: Ghost of Yōtei and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

"Were I constructing a next year's Game of the Year in a lab," an observer commented in online commentary that I am enjoying, "it must feature a Sony sandbox adventure with mixed gameplay mechanics, companion relationships, and randomized replayable systems that embraces gambling mechanics and has modest management construction mechanics."

GOTY voting, throughout its formal and unofficial iterations, has turned expected. Years of candidates and winners has created a formula for the sort of refined 30-plus-hour experience can achieve GOTY recognition. We see experiences that never break into GOTY or including "major" crafts categories like Game Direction or Narrative, thanks often to innovative design and unique gameplay. Many releases published in a year are expected to be ghettoized into specialized awards.

Case Studies

Hypothetical: Will Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, an experience with review aggregate marginally less than Death Stranding 2 and Ghosts of Yōtei, crack main selection of annual GOTY selection? Or maybe one for best soundtrack (as the music absolutely rips and warrants honor)? Probably not. Best Racing Game? Certainly.

How good should Street Fighter 6 require being to earn Game of the Year consideration? Might selectors look at unique performances in Baby Steps, The Alters, or The Drifter and recognize the greatest voice work of this year without AAA production values? Can Despelote's short play time have "adequate" narrative to warrant a (justified) Top Story honor? (Furthermore, should annual event benefit from a Best Documentary classification?)

Overlap in choices throughout recent cycles — among journalists, on the fan level — demonstrates a system progressively biased toward a certain extended experience, or independent games that landed with sufficient attention to meet criteria. Concerning for a field where discovery is crucial.

{