Last night, the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles was filled with gaming industry notables eager to be blasted with trailers for four hours straight. We weren't at The Game Awards 2025, but half the team stayed up to be bombarded with real-time announcements via the live stream while the other half came under fire this morning.
After getting some sleep, we decided to collect our thoughts about Geoff-fest 2025 and not use it at all as a way to determine who looks the most tired.
Julian: What the hell, Mark! You look incredibly refreshed and rested. I didn't dare go to the mirror, but judging by the lack of sleep after last night's Game Awards coverage, I'm guessing that the face looking back will look like a semblance of a human face made of white plasticine.
As for the beginning, I would like to know when you got up this morning and read our *plugin* Everything announced at The Game Awards 2025 message *plug*, what did you watch first? What struck you about the series?
Mark: Hi Julian, you are looking amazing on this lovely Friday. When I woke up this morning and went straight to the RPS home page to scroll through all the announced RPS articles, the first thing that struck me was that Larian's Divinity was actually just called Divinity.. Even though the trademarks suggest the name would be a single word, I couldn't imagine not adding an extra word or two at the end. Magic beans, or maybe evil nonsense, judging by the trailer.
The Star Wars racing game was a game I was immediately eager to play.as I still can't deviate from the stereotype I've set for my tastes, although I couldn't help but notice that towards the end of the show it felt rather lonely in terms of big reveals. Was there one last thing that you as live watchers felt when you were reacting in real time that the Jeffs may have felt a little overwhelmed this year?
Julian: This is weird. When you're broadcasting live, the pace is fairly constant because even when there are breaks in the announcements, you'll still be recording what was just shown.
However, after Highguard announcement trailer I was still waiting for the big final reveal. After all, throughout the show, the camera caught famous developers like Hideo Kojima and Todd Howard in the audience. Although big Todd presented the award for best game director, I wouldn't be surprised if he was there too, bragging about the news Elder Scrolls 6say.
I understand that this may not be fair to Highgard. Amidst a sea of cinematic trailers in which the developers showed nothing tangible about their games, Wildlight unveiled its hero shooter with a video that gave a good idea of what it will look like when we play it in late January. What can't be said about Warlock or even, unfortunately, Larian, Divinity.
Speaking of that feeling of absence, were there any games that you felt were missing? I know there is one person who I was sure would be part of the presentation but didn't show up…
Mark: In previous years, there was usually a game that I prepared a shell for purely because of the vibes, and then stayed in the system like a snowman in the spring. There was one summer presentation where I did what VG247 Sheriff called a “non-committal shell of Kojima” only because Jeff had previously invited him to announce the podcast, so I was confident he would present somehow. He didn't.
Nothing like that this year, mainly because I had less time to prepare. The Elder Scrolls 6 may be a game I'd be very interested in seeing, but I've kind of given up on trying to predict anything about when we'll see it at the moment, which I can't imagine I'm alone in doing. Even a few new computer gubbins to replace those mountains everyone has seen 20 million times would do. On top of this, CD Projekt has ruled out releasing The Witcher a few weeks in advance, which would have immediately grabbed my attention, just like last year.
As for what really showed up and didn't immediately blow me away, but it's entirely possible that I'll actually fall in love once I play it, Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic looks like it might fit that bill. As a young Treehouse lover, I didn't try the first two KOTORs despite their legendary status, which meant the wave of nostalgia didn't immediately hit me when Casey Hudson showed up.
What did you expect but didn't show? After all, Miss Piggy, Batman and Lenny Kravitz all made cameos – who else do you need?
Julian: Obviously I was glad when I was able to cross their from my bingo card. You all said that I was stupid to assume that both Kravitz and Miss Piggy would come, but then again, I've been doing this for a long time and my contact book is extensive. No, I was sure that there would be on the show Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake. Not only is this one of Ubisoft's worst kept secrets (from a company notorious for leaking information), but it's also there was even a leak earlier this week which for me puts it firmly in Game Awards announcement territory.
It's great to see Hudson working on Star Wars again. I have fond memories of spending Easter weekend playing Knights of the Old Republic and eating chocolate eggs, so I'll try my best to recreate that experience in Fate of the Old Republic. However, the trailer didn't even hint at a release date, and Arcanaut Studios only formed this year, so I wouldn't be surprised if we're looking at a 2028 or 2029 release. With Cadbury's cocoa content rapidly declining these days, Hudson better hurry if I want to have any hope of completing the Fate of the Old Republic egg walkthrough.
In terms of releases in the near future, I was able to add a couple of games to my mental list of games I'm looking forward to in 2026. There's Ace Combat 8 and The Free Shepherd. I love arcade dogfights, and Ace Combat games wrap their silly action in a simulation-like veneer, so I come away thinking that, yes, this is the moment, if necessary, perform the Cobra maneuver on a stalled SU-27. And The Free Shepherd lets you play as a shepherd herding sheep in a sci-fi world. I am easily happy.
I really hope Total War: Warhammer 40,000 will be released before next Christmas because it looks like the game will be different from all the other games in the series. What with the abundance of equipment, ranged units and, well, orbital strikes, but considering the official position of Creative Assembly “We're not sharing a release date at this time, but we'll have more to talk about later in 2026,” I'm guessing they're aiming for 2027.
I'm guessing if you were to catch up with the show, would you get any sense that The Game Awards is reflective of what's going on in the industry this year?
Mark: There were usually several sections among the advertisements that talked about encouraging young women to pursue development by devoting time to the advertisement, which was better than nothing. I wouldn't say that I'm all that convinced that the Jeffies will ever find a way to truly embrace the often ugly reality of the industry in a way that doesn't feel somehow forced or annoying. Just as corporate monoliths have learned to write resignation letters that say people have lost their jobs, the goal of every Keighleyfest is to create a trailer and applause-filled bubble in which the products enjoy living.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't look for other places and ways to confront the truth and fight for those who have suffered, such as mass layoffs at billion-dollar corporations or a shrinking job market to the point where it becomes increasingly difficult to dance from concert to concert without stopping the music. If Keoff and company have seemingly abandoned initiatives like Future Class (at least for now), I don't think it is their responsibility to do everything possible in this regard, such trade unions and protest groups are already showing that they will insist on pick up the slack.
It's not an ideal state of play, but I think it's the best we can hope for at the moment. Unless someone manages to radicalize Miss Piggy by replacing the newspaper in her and Kermit's closet with a copy of the Morning Star.
On the other hand, I thought the awards show itself, despite only being a small part of the show as usual, was well done. I didn't play Chiaroscuro because I'm saving all the Final Fantasies and FF related RPGs to play in the later years of my life so that their nomenclature seems as appropriate and clear as possible, but it was nice to see Sandfall take center stage.
Julian: There is a certain tension within this exhibition, as it simultaneously strives to become a prestigious awards show, wrapped in the language of passion of this creative industry, as well as a serious source of income for its organizers. As we learned this week, showing a three-minute trailer at The Game Awards can cost up to $1 million.. This is not a charity event, it is a marketing tool. Something Alice wrote much better than I did after the 2023 presentation.
This isn't unique to The Game Awards, and we can always hope things get better. I think the segment where Felicia Day brought in the Girls Make Games representatives was a step in the right direction. In previous years, these moments felt rushed and sandwiched between other trailers and awards, whereas this year it felt like they were actually given space. But you could just as easily have watched yesterday's presentation and had no idea what outside was a group of developers protesting mass layoffs in the industry..
There is also a limit to how much we should expect this from an awards ceremony, and instead we will need to find ways in which we can help the voices we don't hear.
Let's see what we can do by next year.
