When I look at the nominations for this year's The Game Awards, I don't see too many surprises. A few surprises, most notably “Shadow of the Erdtree,” which actually made it to GOTY, but nothing unusual. This is good for the health of the show. It's also a sign that the year 2024 was rather unimportant for video games.
Whenever you say a year hasn't gone particularly well for games, people are quick to comment on individual games that were good. Yes, I liked Astro Bot too. I'm very happy that Balatro is there for GOTY. I wish Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth and 1000xResist were included too. I understand it. There were actually some good games released this year. But all in all, in 2024 there is not the necessary bench to last this distance.
2024 was weaker than 2023 and 2025 will be better
We might consider 2023 a somewhat unusual year, caused by the bottleneck in console launches and a pandemic that resulted in a double-filled cookie of a release calendar. But if we look back to the last year before the pandemic, 2020, we see again that 2024 doesn't have quite the same star power.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, Half-Life: Alyx, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order all missed out on a GOTY nomination in 2020 because The competition (The Last of Us Part 2, Hades, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Doom Eternal, Ghost of Tsushima) was also tough. 2024 cannot keep up.
Things will look similar in 2025, as the industry sheds its live service obsession and some big hits return. The nominees for “Most Anticipated” paint this picture: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, Ghost of Yotei, Grand Theft Auto 6, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Monster Hunter Wilds. And they still leave out Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, Fable, Civ 7, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Doom: The Dark Ages, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and everything that the Switch 2 will offer us.
Of course, there are some caveats here. These games may not all be released in 2025 (Hades 2 was nominated last year and is still in Early Access), and they may not all be as good. Last year, only a single GOTY nominee was up for the joke of an “award” – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, which won. Star Wars Outlaws, a fellow nominee, was a major disappointment, while GOTY front-runner Astro Bot hadn't even been announced yet. The year 2025 will be very interesting.
The Game Awards are going to be interesting
However, the Game Awards 2025 are not. If GTA 6 actually comes out and is at a similar level to other GTA games, it will win most categories. Maybe she deserves it – that’s not really my problem. Baldur's Gate 3 was my GOTY and I felt like it deserved most, if not all, of the praise TGA gave it. This meant that the lead-up (and the actual ceremony) was still pretty boring.
It seems like I'm ruining 2024, but there's no shame in being an average year. They can't all be great, otherwise “great” loses all meaning. And that means this is one of the most exciting years for the Game Awards ever. While I have concerns about how Keighley and the series deal with the growing discontent, this is the most interesting take on the series yet. I love award shows and the Game Awards are finally joining the party.
Most people actually don't like the Game Awards. They like it when games they like win, but if they don't the show is bad, corporate and meaningless. And guess what? You're right! At the end of the day, award shows are very unimportant, but I still love them. I love the whole race of predicting the winner, betting on an underdog and seeing a string of awards. I love it with the Oscars, the Grammys. God help me, I even follow the SAG Awards. And the Game Awards have lacked that feeling in the past.
Every race is too close to calls
We are already seeing evidence of this. GOTY only has one nominee for Best Performance as the jury takes a broader look at 2024. Since there is no truly outstanding film on the level of Baldur's Gate 3, everyone has a chance. Fate has also changed at Games For Impact. The company feels more legitimate with a wider range of games nominated elsewhere and hasn't been left out by the Titans.
There are of course still some changes I would personally make to each category. This is one of the core elements of the following award ceremonies. I look forward to doing it again when I Saw The TV Glow and The Substance are banned from the Oscars. I'd have Infinite Wealth in GOTY, I'd have 1000xResist… well, everywhere, but especially narrative, directing and indie. I would find a place for “Thank Goodness You’re Here.”
But still, the Game Awards are the thing I've been looking forward to the most in years. I don't have many horses in many races, but it's the thrill of the chase that counts. It’s not about whether “my” game wins or loses. I have no idea which game will take home the awards. This is rare and special at the Game Awards. That could only happen in a bad year like 2024.
