The Game Awards 2025 Livestream
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N. I want to feel Good shot, kid. There you go. In order not to spend the first third of this entire video going on about a bunch of terrible illustrations that nobody remembers, we only really care about GTA’s 3D and HD universes. That is to say, every protagonist from GTA 3 onwards, as you can pretty much bundle up all the ones from the 2D era into one big ball of nothing. That’s right, purists, you heard me. Look, no disrespect to Bubba and Rodney and I don’t know, Terry. Was Terry one of them? But they are a collection of character portraits and little else. Character portraits that don’t even alter the in-game PC beyond a simple pallet swap. One thing you can say about this roster though is that all the way back in 1997, the Grand Theft Auto franchise allowed you to play as not one, not two, but four women in the form of Divine, Katy, Mika, and Alria Cara. And given that it would take almost 30 years for the series to let a woman back into the driving seat, it’s worth pointing out the sequel though shelled the idea of a character select screen altogether and kicked off the more established tradition of a fixed protagonist in the city. Okay, we’re still in the 2D universe, but GTA 2’s Claude Speed is actually a fairly fleshed out character compared to his predecessors. And by that I mean he was the first GTA protagonist to have more than one facial expression in the liveaction movie that precedes the game in which he’s played by a male model who looks like he sells vape liquid from a folding table. Quite how this obviously contemporary set short film relates to the dystopian future world of GTA 2 has always been subject to fan speculation, but it’s generally accepted that some sort of cryogenic freezing is involved, making GTA 2 a secret homage to Demolition Man, one of the ’90s greatest action movies. And I would rather watch that every night until I’m dead than play the PS1 GTA games ever again. I’m going to love running this place. Look, sometimes things were great back in the day, but then they’re best left in the past. This Carl, this is my new man. Now, there is a widely held belief among fan circles that GTA 2’s Claude Speed is the very same Claude you encounter in San Andreas, who, as you all know, goes on to be the protagonist of GTA 3. Also known simply as GTA 3 guy, also known affectionately as Pho. He’s an escaped felon left for dead by his girlfriend Catalina in a bank job gone arry, which as it is much later implied in San Andreas, was the grand finale to a long Bonnie and Clyde streak that takes place across most of the 1990s. What we actually know about Claude amounts to very little, and most of it doesn’t even come from the game he’s the star of. Having been conceived as a blank slate for players to project themselves onto, a mere puppet avatar in what was at the time an absurdly detailed urban crime simulation, Claude doesn’t even get his name until we overhear it in an obscene phone call made to Carl Johnson. Hello, Claude. Baby, I thought I called to say how much I love you and how well endowed you are. N Catalina, it’s Carl. He does get brownie points for giving good heads, but he’s by far the least interesting main guy since the series fully embraced a third dimension. And that’s mostly because he’s just you. Boring old you. You watching this and already thinking up the comment you’re going to write if I don’t put Tommy Versetti high enough. Mr. Versetti, Colonel, thank you for coming. Please sit. Let’s be blunt here, right? Tommy Versetti is a wanker. No, really, he is. I know he fronts one of the best games in the series and he’s played so memorably by the late Raotta and he wears a cool shirt, but the elephant in the room here is that he’s more or less a legally distinct Tony Montana from Scarface. He’s in the same business. He has the same temper. He even lives in the same gaff. The main difference is that Tommy Versetti isn’t shown to be addicted to his own product, but despite this is just as quick to anger and just as extreme in his outlook, which means he’s just a wanker in it. And if you’re no a cokehead and you’re acting like a wanker, you’re just a wanker, right? It’s basically just maths. After all, you’re a conniving backstabbing two-bit thief and I’m a convicted psychotic killer and drug dealer. This is Pop’s cappo, Tony Cypriyani. Yeah, I’m Tony Cypriyani. Tony Cypriani and Victor Vance both appear as minor characters in mainline GTA games and were later given center stage in handheld spin-offs. Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories look to give players a proper home console GTA experience on Sony’s impressive PSP handheld, which was roughly equivalent to a PS2 that you could stuff in your pocket alongside your wallet chain and I don’t know, your T-Mobile Sidekick or whatever the we were carrying around back then. The point is, mates, that these weren’t compromised versions of GTA. They were full fat renditions of GTA’s Liberty City and Vice City that you could play on the bus. But aside from that, they weren’t all that memorable, and their stories centered around Bit Park characters who bore little resemblance to how they were portrayed in earlier games that they served as prequels for. Both Vance and Cypriani undergo some fairly drastic personality transplants in order to work as protagonists. To compound this, their voice actors change, meaning Tony Cypriani is no longer played by Michael Madson, which is frankly the entire appeal of the character. And while he looks convincingly like a younger version of the GTA 3 quest giver, we have to accept that he’s done a lot of aging in the supposed three years between the games. Like, I know he’s meant to have eaten a lot of pasta, but come on, man. Meanwhile, Victor Vance doesn’t even look like the same guy and has the polar opposite attitude to being involved in the drug trade that he’s depicted to just two in-game years later. These things can be handwaved away given how little screen time the original character has. But that just raises the question of why? Why are these games centered around a quest dispenser and someone whose function in the original game is to get unceremoniously assassinated in order to provide character motivation for their brother. We don’t need to know what these guys were up to before they did their bit and pissed off. I’d have rather had an entire game as Ken Rosenberg, Tommy Versetti’s cokehead lawyer, who’s originally from Liberty City and could have headed up several handheld games in a sort of Ace Attorney style spin-off series. And frankly, I think it’s very rude of Rockstar to stop taking my calls about it. GTA 4’s acclaimed singleplayer story expansions, remember those, center on characters whose lives are entangled with the main story. often allowing you to see certain events from alternate perspectives, which is pretty cool. What isn’t cool is that Johnny Clebbitz is a biker and therefore you spend the vast majority of Lost and Damned, as good as it is, locked into riding a motorbike, which are abominable things in any universe, but particularly in the GTA one where driving is all about just haphazardly plowing other vehicles out of the way with abandon, unless you’re only on two wheels, in which case it’s all about trying and failing to avoid getting flung off the thing. The bike mechanics were tweaked to account for this somewhat, but it was still a pain in the saddle to have to learn how to get good on them. That’s not really a criticism of Johnny Clever as a character, but because he’s a biker, he’s also a smelly bastard who doesn’t wash. And that’s not conjecture. His personal hygiene issues are portrayed in the game. I’m not being funny, guys, but I just can’t sign off on that. Have a bath, man. You wear leather all day. Huh? Oh. Hey, stick to the plan. What? Stick to the plan. As the de facto leader of the trio that front GTA 5’s single player story, Michael may be one of the most relatable characters in the entire series in the sense that he’s middle-aged, a bit past it, and depressed. And you know what? He’s a likable guy. He’s funny. And in his own way, he’s a good dad. So much so that even his awful and grateful airheaded Californian Waynees can’t sustain their built-in malevolence toward him for the entire story, which nowadays would make him a sort of millennial icon. Unlike most millennials, though, he’s loaded and has his own swimming pool, a yacht, and several luxury cars and apparently enough money to pay for a therapist who operates from one of those Lego houses on the beachfront in Santa Monica, making him unfortunately part of the boogeoisi and therefore despicable. The last but most handheldy of handheld spin-offs, GTA Chinatown Wars was set in the same Liberty City as GTA 4. Seen as something of a throwback to the earlier games, it featured a top- down perspective, much simplified graphics, and a story told in a visual novel style through character artwork, a stylistic choice made to accommodate the limitations of its original host platform, the familyfriendly Nintendo DS. Yeah, we all did a double take about that at the time as well. The later PSP version looked and played a lot better, but that really shone a light on how peruncter the story was. It’s a fairly forgettable collection of cutscenes about Hang Le’s rise from small-time drug dealer to triad golden boy. He’s avenging his father. Someone’s nicked a sword. It’s a bunch of tropes in a blender. But to his credit, Huang Lee is fairly unique among GT protagonists in his fierce loyalty to just one faction as opposed to just being a sort of freelancer/serial murderer/1man gorilla war against the entire police department sort of guy. Hey, what’s your name, son? It’s Luis, man. Louie. Oh, no. You take me where I got to go, which is back to Liberty City again. this time in its final expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony, which is perhaps most wellknown for the titular character being a blatant homage to fast love era George Michael, God rest him. It ties together GTA 4’s so-called impossible trinity of main characters whose orbits collide during the infamous diamond deal that is attended by Nico Bellic, guarded by Johnny Clevitz, and ambushed by Arl Louie. GTA 4’s intricate trilogy comes to a head with Gay Tony. And you can see the protogenesis here of what was to come in GTA 5. A game whose trinity of main characters play out their stories simultaneously in real time. Three characters who all feel markedly different to inhabit with different motivations and attitudes to crime. Louisie is a smartly drawn, conflicted character who feels uneasy about his criminality and has ambitions of legitimacy. Also, his campaign displays a perceptible shift from the grimy pseudo realism of Nicole’s world to something more resembling the Hollywood spectacle of GTA 5. Another way in which this trilogy foreshadows the delights to come. And he’s also not a smelly bastard biker, so you know, you’re still banned. What about these two? Whoever wins gets banned. Trevor Phillips. GTA V’s Trevor isn’t a biker either, but he probably smells even worse. And speaking of bikers, he infamously arrives on the scene and immediately murders a fan favorite one, none other than Johnny Cleitz. It’s a brutal and unsettling scene in which a new GTA protagonist beats a previous one to death. Groundbreaking in that sense. San Andreas had a historic first when a former and current protagonist buted heads on the racetrack over a love interest. This encounter makes that rivalry look like a pleasant afternoon tea. And again, it’s an argument started over a love interest. I use the word love interest in the loosest sense. Johnny’s murder is the catalytic event that kicks off the first act of Trevor’s story, a breakneck rampage against remnants of the Lost Biker gang and Trevor’s hostile takeover of every criminal enterprise in Hicksville. And it’s at this point we all fell in love with him. An irresistible combination of Charles Bronson and Begby from Train Spotting. Hilariously depraved and more or less a self-insert for every GTA player rampaging through the world in the exact same way as you have always done. Even when it made little sense in context of the story as Victor Vance, as Louis Lopez, as Nico Bellic, Trevor is a middle finger to the common criticism that GTA can’t have compelling characters without massive luda narrative dissonance. He’s awful but lovable. He’s a deranged substance abuser that lives in a rusty trailer, but he’s clever, cunning, and quick-witted. We love him because he’s extreme to the point of absurdity, but ultimately we love Trevor because he is us. And the implications of that are probably a whole video essay on its own, which I’m not going to make, by the way. I can’t be bothered. Oh, honey, y’all telling me. Oh, he here. We living on top of each other and it ain’t right. GTA V’s Franklin is a class act. As a professional car thief, he’s probably the most run seal of Grand Theft Auto frontmen. And as a young, polite, generally unassuming guy from a humble background who’s just trying to get on in life against the backdrop of endless financial crisis and an America in a permanent phase of decline. He’s actually quite relatable, probably the most relatable of them all. In fact, that he’s named after America’s two most diametrically opposed statesmen is probably not a coincidence. Benjamin Franklin may be most famous as a mere euphemism for cash money, but he’s one of the USA’s most revered founding fathers, a scientist, a diplomat, a staunch public servant, even an early advocate of vaccines. By contrast, Bill Clinton is a guy from Arkansas who’s mostly remembered for playing the saxophone and getting blown by an intern, possibly at the same time. These are the two Americas and a chart of its downfall. Franklin represents a generation just trying to make ends meet within the death throws of an empire. But at his core, he’s just a petrol headman and canonically such a good driver that his special skill is the ability to slow down time while behind the wheel. A feature I’m pretty sure most GTA V players forget about around 5 minutes after it’s first introduced. But it’s cool as hell and makes him an excellent getaway driver, which aptly represents what he is as a character. a smart, capable guy who’s pulled into the schemes of a pair of middle-aged repbates in search of a better life for himself. As GTA’s sole representative of the millennial generation, it’s hard not to like him, unless you think millennials are a bunch of sering avocado toast eating participation trophy bed wetters. In which case, you probably think he should be way further up the list. But I’m writing this in your nose, so deal with it. A here we go again. It was 199. For my money, San Andreas is the absolute best game in the 3D universe. And that is in no small part down to Carl Johnson. CJ, the wisecracking Californian, hailing from the heyday of gangster rap, represents, much like Franklin, a generation of African-Americans who came of age during a period of social unrest and biting economic hardship, which doesn’t seem to have ever ended. Weird, that still as CG, you get to ride bicycles along the sun-kissed Santa Monica beachfront, do dance competitions in modified low riders, and something that no GTA before it had ever managed to pull off, road trips. Honest to goodness, vast stretches of highway linking three enormous GTA cities. Well, they felt enormous at the time. Also unique to this incarnation of GTA is character customization. CJ is a fixed character, but through various mini games and activities, players can change his vital statistics and level up his strength, his size, his athleticism, you can by investing considerable time and effort be the CJ you want to be. And in a rare show of body positivity for the series, all shapes and sizes are valid. In fact, there are even situations where being a big huge fat guy is preferable. In the dating simulator, for example, or when voicing a ranked list of GTA protagonists. Oh, wait. Hang on. I might have confused myself there. Oh yeah, there she is. Liberty City. Yeah. You ever been? No. Crazy place, Nico. You knew this was coming and you might think it’s the su’s choice, but Nico Bellic is without a doubt Grand Theft Auto’s most compelling, most quintessential protagonist. A perfect blend of anonymous player insert and narrative nexus with an established personality. He has all the things that a GTA protagonist should do. He’s funny. He’s ambitious. He’s a reluctant scumbag. And at the start of the game, he like the player is a new arrival to Liberty City, an illegal alien in every sense of the term, apart from, you know, spaceships and anal probing and all that. Nicole finds America as bewildering and baffling as we all do, even most Americans, I think, but brings a stoic Eastern European detachment to proceedings that spotlights the absurdity of these brash, loud personalities that become Nikico Bellik’s friends, allies, and enemies over the course of the game. In a series that is explicitly a satire of American excess, Nico is the perfect sendup of the American dream. arriving into New York on a boat, ready for a new life in the capital of Western civilization. And it kind of sucks. And the problems he left back in his homeland don’t disappear. In fact, they follow him to Liberty City and collide spectacularly with the various conflicts that are already happening there. I mean, that’s not a metaphor. That’s a Ken Burns documentary. GTA 4 remains the smartest, most ambitious, and adjusting for the passage of time, most technically impressive GTA ever made. And it’s Nico Bellic that pulls us through it that gives us all the proper context and imbuss it with a much more profound sense of satire than could be achieved if he were simply yet another American going about his American business in America. He’s the best protagonist. Not just because he’s the best written, not just because he has the most interesting backstory, and not just because his character model is subject to the forces of the most complex physics simulation that the series has ever had and sadly abandoned by the next game. He’s the best protagonist because he’s an outsider looking in. He is Grand Theft Auto personified, the perfect avatar through which to explore this exciting, enormous, absolutely deranged, and impossibly intricately detailed European view of what America is like. Well, Scottish, which still counts as European, despite all that business a while back. And so concludes our definitive ranking of GTA protagonists, apart from Mike from GTA Advance, cuz he’s in a 2D game set in the 3D universe, which makes him frankly too much of an anomaly to think about. It’s not like any of you noticed. The 12 people who played this would rather forget. So yeah, definitive. Pop over to Eurogamer and subscribe for more IGN affiliated content like this. Over the past decade, the battle royale genre has exploded, making it one of, if not the most popular genre of video games on the planet. Of course, one of their marquee features generally involves tossing dozens of players into a map to scavenge for resources, weapons, and gear while trying to outlast the rest and become the last one standing. While this gameplay is still at the core of most battle royale, many have added additional features to spice things up. and the best of the best have earned their spot on this list. To lay down some ground rules, we’re only looking at modern battle royally still available to play. So, while they were good during their time, we won’t be featuring things like H1Z1, Spellbreak, or Ring of Allesium. We’re also not including any games that feature a smaller battle royale mode as a side dish to its main offerings, like Fallout 76’s nuclear winter mode or Civilization 6’s Red Death mode. So, without further ado, let’s commence the battle royale of battle royale in our ranking of the top 10 battle royale. What began as a parody of PUBG has actually evolved into a fun battle royale in its own right. Made by the same team behind Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, Totally Accurate Battlegrounds is a silly physics-based death match for up to 60 players. As you wobble around through its uniquely low poly map, you’ll discover 90 different weapons, ranging from stacks of cash to make it rain on enemies to a water gun to a literal hand cannon. Add that to the amusing ragd doll physics and deceptively good gameplay, and you’ve got an experience that smartly toes the line of parody and genuine fun. Battlegrounds goofy, nonsensical humor may not be totally accurate to the other battle royale with battlegrounds in its names, but that’s obviously the point. Before Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 arrived, a spin-off to the long in development RPG sequel was released in the form of a bloodthirsty battle royale, Blood Hunt. Set in the beautiful European city of Prague, Blood Hunt lets you dart across its moonlit rooftops and battle through its cobbled streets in order to become the last blood sucker standing. A fun combination of both melee and ranged weapons, plus a host of vampiric abilities to wield gives Blood Hunt a distinct fill when compared to the other games in the genre, along with its PvPVE wrinkle as an AI controlled vampire hunter roams the map as well as your opponents. This also adds an interesting layer of stealth to the mix as you attempt to mask your true identity from the humans. Your time to jump in is limited though with Vampire the Masquerade Blood Hunts server shutting down for good in April 2026. So, sorry if you’re reading or watching this after that date. Tetris 99 finds new life in the perennial puzzle hit by pitting 99 players against each other in a race to clear lines. Tetris 999 can be stressful enough, but your playfield is surrounded by 98 other players so that you can keep track of every Tetris game simultaneously. The anxietyinducing nature of it all aside, Tetris 999 smartly lets you impact other players games with your own tetramino prowess, sending screen filled junk blocks to the other players games to hopefully knock them out and seek a win. And despite initially launching as a limited game for the Nintendo Switch online players, Tetris 999 has become a permanent staple, receiving a continuous stream of themed events and DLC to ensure that this new T-pin on an old classic stays fresh. Guns, guns, guns. So many battle royed around the idea of firearms. So, while the idea of another battle royale was an initially tiresome thought, Nuraka Blade Point ended up being the refreshing take on the genre thanks to its sharp melee action. Mastering the intricacies of its combat and movement systems is a challenge by itself. But throw up another 59 players in its evershrinking map, and the skill ceiling gets raised as the circle gets smaller. With over 20 characters loaded up with skills, vast arsenals, and tide turning ultimate abilities, Nuraka Bladeoint can take a little time to get your head around, but master its melee based combat and pixel perfect parry maneuvers, and the satisfaction will soon follow. If you fancy a challenging battle royale free of build wars and machine guns, Nuraka Bladeoint provides a genuinely clever spin on the genre’s familiar formula. Okay, who says battle royale can’t be hilarious? Fall Guys draws inspiration from shows like Teeshi’s Castle and Wipeout as 60 players or 60 amusingly costumed beans go head-to-head in an assortment of game showesque minames. Each round sees a number of players eliminated until only one player is left standing or falling and crowned the champion. Mediatonic’s take on the genre was a massive hit out of the gate, but the developers haven’t rested on their laurels. Each subsequent season of play brings with it new mini games, new twists on existing ones, and a host of cosmetics to unlock. Fall Guys is utter organized chaos in the best way. And whether you’ve nabbed your crowns or been consistently knocked off a slime climb run, it’s a consistently delightful experience unlike any other battle royale. In theory, the large-scale warfare of the Battlefield series is a perfect match for the battle royale genre. Each aspect of the long-running EA shooter from its verticality, vehicles, and pinchant for environmental destruction, is suited for an evershrinking map, begging to be navigated and broken apart, as is your want. But 2019’s short-lived Firestorm mode, which launched exclusively to owners of Battlefield 5, proved this theory wrong, as it struggled to hold a captive player base with its servers eventually shuttering. But Redemption for Battlefield Studios comes in the form of RedSe, the fresh new swing at a battle royale that writes all the wrongs of its first draft. Fort Lynon is a map brimming with possibilities and a welcome variety of missions to complete within it. each smartly converting the long-loved battlefield formula of squad-based objectives and sharp shooting into something that works here. The traditional last team standing offering is also joined by the excellent gauntlet mode, which transplants the game showike thrills of FallGuys into the much less colorful militaristic surroundings of Battlefield 6. It’s surprising tweaks to the established rules of the battle royale like this that give Battlefield Redseack a chance to stand out from the rest, especially to the much compared Call of Duty War Zone and gives it a chance to finally prove the theory of being at home in the genre. PUBG is the granddaddy of battle royale and arguably one of the most influential as it effectively established the genre as we know it in 2017, spawning dozens of copycats over the past few years. Created by Brendan Player Unknown Green as a refined version of his Day Z Battle Royale mod in Arma 2 and later Arma 3, PUBG reached mainstream success and introduced players to many of the staple concepts of the genre. It’s more realistic than many battle roy, requiring players to carefully manage their inventory and apply weapon mods and attachments manually while scouring the map for resources. While it held a reputation for being notoriously clunky and unpolished over the years, we wouldn’t be here without the likes of PUBG. Given the genre’s boom and attention, it’s no surprise that one of the biggest shooter franchises around wanted in on the action. But Call of Duty’s War Zone is not just a quick cashin. It’s one of the best battle roy. War Zone builds on the foundation of Call of Duty Blackout, supporting a staggering 150 players while exploring unique and interesting gameplay changes with each new season, including a clever integration of the popular zombies mode. War Zone is also a bit more forgiving when compared to other battle royally sent back to the lobby upon death. Instead, players are sent to the Goolog, a grimy prison area where they face off against other dead players in one-on-one combat for a chance to return to the match. Another feature unique to War Zone is the ability to purchase and use a custom loadout, allowing players to regularly access and utilize their preferred guns and perks as they fight for supremacy in Verdans and its other maps, which, let’s face it, we just don’t love as much. Add all this to the plenty of vertical combat thanks to the massive skyscrapers and vehicular combat, and War Zone delivers one of the most varied battle royale out there. Created as a spin-off of Fortnite’s cooperative PvE survival mode, Save the World, Fortnite Battle Royale burst into the scene in 2018 and catapulted the genre into a phenomenon. Not only is Fortnite responsible for creating the battle pass system that so many games, battle royale or not, have implemented since, but it’s also paved the way for true crossplay and cross progression between consoles, PC, and mobile. It’s hosted massive in-game virtual concerts for Travis Scott, Marshmallows, Steveoke, and more, becoming as much of a social experience as a competitive one. But Fortnite’s biggest victory royale has become its unique storytelling approach. It’s established a narrative for its island that quickly resulted in each new season being a moment. Points of interest appeared and disappeared as events demanded it. With many seasons culminating in massive events that eventually led to the entire in-game island being sucked into a black hole, putting the game on pause for a few realworld days. Now in its second chapter, Fortnite has established itself as a consistently unexpected but thrilling hallmark of the genre that is still a blast to play and one that features the biggest pop culture. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. Hi. The Game Awards. Coming up is IGN’s pre-show previewing everything we know about the event before it kicks off. The biggest surprises are still to come. Game of the Year. Stick around for our recap show with our team of industry experts. Lots of big announcements to get. I am so excited. This is going to make PCs cry. Plus, exclusive looks at new games we can’t even show you yet. The Game Awards coverage starts right. two. Hello and welcome to IGN’s The Game Awards Countdown Show. I’m your host Damon Hatfield along with co-hosts Alak and Nick Leone. What is up everybody? Hello. I’m so excited to be here. Same. It’s a great day to be at IGN. Damon, this is uh becoming a holiday tradition for us. We get together in December, watch the Game Awards, and watch a lot of uh big exciting game announcements, stuff that we’re going to be talking about, looking forward to over the next year, couple years, even maybe even more than that. Uh, lots to look forward to coming up tonight. A lot of games have already been confirmed to be part of the show. Some games have leaked. Uh, we know Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight. Uh, huge reveal from Gamescom early this year. That’s going to be on the show. We know uh Sorrowos, which is the next game from Housemark, follow up to Returnal is coming up in just a few minutes. We are going to check out these Game Awards. Jeff Killy’s big event that not only looks back at some of the best games of the year, but also always manages to pack a ton of new surprise trailers, game reveals, celebrity cameos, and more. Luckily for you, we already know about a few games of the show. Plus, there’s a bunch of things we suspect will also be there. So, before we get started, if you want to bring home some awesome stuff celebrating several of the Game Awards nominees like Expedition 33, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, and more, head to store.igen.com and get yourself a t-shirt, a collectible, or one of the amazing Yoshiaka Amano art prints for your walls. Go ahead. You deserve it. You know, you’ve been very good this year. All right, let’s talk about what we know, what we think we know will be at the Game Awards tonight. One game we know is going to be there is Phantom Blade Zero. A game that Nick has played. Yes. Give us a crash course on Phantom Blade Zero. Uh Phantom Blade Zero. People going to think, “Oh, is that a Soulsorn?” Not quite. It’s more of an action RPG in the vein of something like Devil May Cry. But the TLDDR is you play as an assassin who gets poisoned and he’s fighting for a cure to save his life. And there’s multiple weapon sets you can swap between. Uh I know that the game is very inspired by Wooa uh kung fu style combat. So, it’s just very fluid, very elegant. This is going to be from Chinese developer uh S Game, I believe. And every time I see this game, I just cannot believe that it exists. I think for the longest time, I thought every single bit of footage we’ve seen from this game was all bullshots. But I can confirm the game does look as good as it feels to play, and it feels real good to play. I hope we get a release date. This game has been a long time in the oven cooking and uh it’s safe to say they’ve been cooking. The game looks beautiful and you know I I know I talked a little bit about it not being a Soulslike. I do think it feels more evocative of something like Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry in terms of its combat style and difficulty. I remember our previewer recently talked about how if you were to uh skip a boss by navigating through the environment, it would only make a later boss fight even more difficult by that boss that you skipped joining in on the fight. So, you would have to deal with like a healer while you’re also dealing with the fight. So, I just love games that want to challenge the player and this looks to be right up my alley. So, I I really hope we get a release date for this. Uh this looks nuts. So, like more Devil May Cry than like Black Myth. Yeah, I Well, I I think I I think those are all pretty apt comparisons. I would liken all of those to a very traditional almost PS2 style. Um uh we’ve we’ve had uh the fine folks over at Sgame in our studio uh over the past couple years and they talked directly about we want our game to feel like a PS2 game in terms in terms of its action roots. And when you say stuff like that, the niclone brain starts clicking and I’m like papa wants some. Give it to me right now. Alex, is this the sort of game you could get into? Yeah, so I’m mainly a first-p person shooter. I love really good story games and I love horror games, but I did play Elden Ring when it first came out and I think that that was my first time diving into mele like games and the the blades in that in that game are absolutely incredible. So when I saw Phantom Blade Zero, I was like, hold up a minute. I think this could be something that could challenge because I mean, if you love Elden Ring, you love challenging games and this looks like a really challenging game. So yes, this would be a game that I would definitely pick up. Yeah, I I dabble in these games like uh I play a little bit of Black Myth, uh Stelllade, this sort of thing. I think is it Wo Long uh Fallen that that one’s on PlayStation Plus this month. So just seems to be we’re seeing more and more of these types of games sprouting up here and there. I mean it’s beautiful. It’s a what is it? A rising tide raises all ships kind of thing. Like the beauty of something like Elder Ring hitting the mainstream is that it’s kind of become like people are fine with games being difficult and challenging and I love that. that that that’s so exciting from a person who wants to play games that are challenging and uh you know just difficult. I think like the low point for me was the Wii era where I was like oh these games are so easy. They’re all baby baby mode but now it’s just the the public wants more. They want a challenge and this is the kind of stuff that is going to meet them on the level that they expect and I cannot wait for it. Yeah, this has been a long time coming. It’s Phantom Blade Zero. We had it on IGN Live 2024. Yes. a year and a half ago now. So, hopefully we do get finally a release date for this one. Packed room at IGM Live, by the way. It was nuts. Nice. Okay, another another confirmation of tonight that we’re going to see is something new Divinity. Some new Divinity game there. Jeff Keley tweeted out there was some sort of a statue or a sculpture out in the wilderness somewhere. It has since been confirmed thanks to some copyrights that’s going to be a Divinity something. Yes, that’s that’s Laren Studios who just did uh Balders Gate 3 a couple years ago. Uh huge D and D RPG hit. But before that, they were doing Divinity games, original sin 1 and 2, and then I think there like four other Divinity games. There’s other Divinity games. There’s like an RTS one, there’s one called Divine Divinity. So, this is a storyried franchise. And I do think that I remember seeing I think it was on Twitter, one of the developers over at Larry responded to saying, “Okay guys, we’re not working on Divinity Original Sin 3.” Which only makes my brain go, “So, you’re working on Divinity 3 or Divine Divinity 3, some sort of CRPG.” Um, we do know that they are no long they they licensed the Dungeons and Dragons uh IP from Wizards of the Coast for Balders’s Gate 3. They are, you know, that was just a oneanddone thing. So, we know that they are working on something that’s their own and what better thing to work on. like taking all the learnings that they got from Balders’s Gate 3 in terms of the cinematic presentation and how the player choice really affects the overall uh arc of the game and applying that to their own original universe in Divine Divinity or Divinity Original Sin. And uh I think it’s a match made in heaven. I’m currently in the middle of another Balders’s Gate 3 playthrough right now. So when I saw all this news, I was like, “Oh, please put it in my veins right now. I need it.” And again, Divinity Original Sin 2 is outstanding. Um, I do know that I think we saw another like Wario 64 trademark thing or something hit ESRB of Divinity Original Sin 2 Definitive Edition for PS5. So, I feel like that’s going to be a onetwo punch announcement of here’s this game for more people to experience, get familiar with this own custom fantasy universe, and then here’s the new one. Alec, I think there are very few uh types of games that Nick Leone does not want injected into his brains because he’s like, you know, give me character action games, hardcore CRPG games. If they had a brand new JRPG game, he’s probably want that in there, too. So, he’s he’s very well-rounded gamer. Uh, but what about you? I know you said you you dabbled a little bit in Balders Gate 3. Yeah. Uh, and you don’t you haven’t played Divinity, so No, I have not. I didn’t realize it existed until the hype started showing up online. I was like, “What’s this Divinity game?” So I asked Nick obviously he was very excited about it and then he told me about the D and D connections and I love playing D and D so I should probably finish Balders’sGate first and then should I do Divinity first? Clear clear at least 100 hours for Balders’s Gate. Yeah, I’m like I’m at 50 hours in on my current playthrough. Well, one thing that’s great though, and Damon, you brought this up earlier, is um Larry does such a good job of doing co-op campaigns where you can uh play a game with your buddies. And it is online or online or locally, I believe. And uh it it is just like playing Dungeons and Dragons with a very experienced and like critically acclaimed dungeon master. So, great stream game. Uh I think it would do very uh it’s just I’m just very excited for this level of CRPG to be back. you know, Plscape Tournament and Fallout 1 and two are some of my favorite games of all time, and I feel like those were relics of the past. They didn’t really fit into modern sensibilities. And I think again, like the Elder Ring comparison from earlier, Larry, I I would argue they they single-handedly brought back the CRPG and made it mainstream for people because like Elden Ring, people know Balders’s Gate 3, which is wild. So, I I’m just very stoked for more people to get to enjoy something that is truly one of a kind. Okay, another game confirmed we will be seeing tonight is Exodus. And you may have forgotten about this one. This is a game that was revealed at the Game Awards 2023. So, it’s been a couple years. It’s a sci-fi RPG made from a team of ex Boware developers. So, if you look at it and you get um Mass Effect vibes, there’s a good reason for that. Uh it stars Matthew McConna and it’s all about time dilation. So you you make choices and then you see the impact of your choices over the course of not just days or weeks but years, decades, maybe even centuries. So this definitely looks cool. I we were talking a little bit about this before. There’s some, you know, big uh boware Mass Effect fans here on this panel. I think this is like sort of fulfilling a a niche that no one else is really serving right now. Right now I’m playing Outer Worlds 2, a sci-fi RPG, but very different from Mass Effect, much less serious. I feel like we’re we’re missing that sort of like uh sci-fi uh RPG opera that has a lot of weight and gravity to it. What do you think? Yeah. No, I I I completely agree. I think the one thing that has me the most interested about that game is the kind of like interstellar like planet time dilation stuff of like a choice that you make on a given planet uh by just virtue of space travel being uh taking a very long time. Uh these things are going to warp and evolve over time. So, what you do in one year will uh ripple, you know, butterfly effect hundreds of years later. Um, it does look a lot more Mass Effect 1 to me, which is very exciting for me because I kind of and and I’m not trying to be a hipster here, but I do prefer the Mass Effect one gameplay style of like, you know, it’s very Knights of the Old Republic where you you kind of send out your squadmates. It feels very XCOM tactical and you the radio menus pop up, you choose abilities, and then you unleash them all at the same time. Uh, I really like the slow and methodical pace of the original Mass Effect. So, I’m hoping this does uh a little bit more of that along with again, it seems like they’re bringing the performances uh to match the caliber of uh development talent behind this. Matthew Matthew McConna. All right. All right. All right. I mean, he was there at the Game Awards 2023. I don’t know if he’s going to come back. He’s going to come back. We’ll announce it. His viral Tik Tok, what is it? Tuna casserole recipe or something like that. I don’t know, man. I’m a huge fan of actors in games. Like that combination and just raising the performance of what you can see in a story campaign in any video game. I want to see more actors in video games and I want them to help make video games. You know, like guys, this is top tier entertainment trust. How do you feel about musicians in video games? Cuz we we heard about Go. Did you hear Wait, did you hear about this one? This is the leak for 007 First Light. Oh, wait. Am I going to tell you this right now? Am I Am I breaking this? Yes. What is it? Okay, this leaks today. Uhhuh. So, sorry. Sorry if you don’t want any spoilers about 007. We got to talk about the leaks. Uh, they they leaked who the villain is for 007 First Light. Should I just wait for the game awards? They Okay, so this is a main character in the villain. This is the villain. You will never guess it. I mean, never guess. Uhoh. It’s great. I think it’s great. All right. I think it’s great. Everyone want to know? Does the world want to know? Should we? Okay. They all said yes. Yes. It’s Lenny Kravitz. That you’re right. I never would have guessed it. I But I think it’s great. I think it’s great. I could You know what? I I do think he fits in into the overall James Bond aesthetic. I can see him being a Bond villain. That makes sense to me. Is he going to sing? Cuz I think they’re I want to get away. I mean, great song. Great song. But I think Lana Del Re is doing the theme for it. So Oh, that I mean that’s very exciting. Uh again, she that’s a perfect match. her voice feels right for an opening Bond theme. A very Adele like, you know, I mean, she’s her own thing entirely, but you know what I mean. I’m really excited for this game. I I It’s one of the most most anticipated games for me. I just I I love the Bond movies, and I even went back and played the Nintendo 64 Golden Eye 007, and I just loved immersing myself in the world, and I think it’s time for a 007 a Golden Eye game to be back, you know, in 2026. And this is the perfect way to do it. Yeah. I mean the caliber of the studio IOI like they know what they’re doing. I love me Hitman world of assassination. Um uh one thing you know Hitman games are very distinct in that you are essentially the wrench that gets thrown into the level of the cog of the machine and the fun is watching it all unfold. But I always found myself wondering like what if Agent 47 was a little more agile or flexible like what if there’s some more fun uh it’s usually fail state or I restart you know that kind of thing. So having that flexibility of James Bond to be able to improvise combat on the fly which uh based on that PlayStation was it a PlayStation direct where they showed like an extended gameplay. Yeah. Uh that that looked outstanding and uh it just everything I was hoping the game would be uh and the the person that they cast for the new Bond uh the young Bond uh seems like a good choice. Very charming young man from Dexter Original Sin actor. Yeah. Okay. We’re about 15 minutes away from handing you over to Jeff Kilis Game Awards. Make sure to stick around after the Game Awards to see some exclusive looks at even more games, brand new trailers, plus deep dives at some titles you’ll see at the show tonight. Now, another game we know we we know we’re going to see more of this year is Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight. We got its initial reveal at Gamescom a couple months ago, 2025. Before we talk more about that, let’s take another look at that reveal trailer. I need to become more than a man. I need to become a symbol. But what did you have in mind? Who are you? I’m Batman. Why so serious? You want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts. I’m allergic to nuts. Who’s the man behind the mask? I got you. Oh, you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by Ah, who put that there? I could have really hurt myself. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. And we’re back counting down the moments until we hand you over to the 2025 Game Awards. We’re just talking about the big leak of 007 First Light today. There’s another big league that happened today that we’ll get to in just a bit. But, uh, Nick, I think there’s some official news. Yeah, we got that was just announced. Official news over on the Compulsion Games Twitter account where it looks like South of Midnight, a Microsoft exclusive, is uh, yet another in the line of games getting ported over to PlayStation 5. South of Midnight is coming to PlayStation 5 in spring of next year. So, I I suspect that this is just yet another, you know, uh, I I would assume we’re going to see a lot more Xbox games coming to PlayStation 5. we’ve already had. Yeah, but what’s left? Yeah, I mean, you’re not wrong there. Um, but just interesting news to see on the cusp of the Game Awards, you know. Uh, but interesting. I mean, it’s a beautiful looking game and I’m very excited for more people uh to get a chance to play it. Yeah, I thought it looked really cool. I didn’t play it when it came out early this year. Not any particular reason. I just never got to it. So, maybe I will on PlayStation. Solid narrative action game. Uh, just beautiful art with a very cool Yeah, very cool Spiderverse style. Yeah. Okay. Another big leak we So, uh, the Game Awards announced they were going to be revealing the future of Tomb Raider. Now, they didn’t they didn’t say it’s like the next game, just the future of Tomb Raider, which is a little nebulous. We know that Crystal Dynamics has been working on a new Tomb Raider uh in Unreal Unreal Engine 5. We also know there’s this live action series coming from Amazon, so it could be like multiple announcements, but there’s a big leak on Tomb Raider today. Uh, it’s going to be uh Crystal Dynamics is doing a remake of the original Tomb Raider with a Lara Croft that sort of looks like they’re splitting the difference between Old School Lara and the 2013 reboot trilogy. Uh, and I think it works. You know, it could work out remake of the original that just comes after the 2013 reboot trilogy, right? That was like her origin story anyway. She survives like what the the Mayan apocalypse or something at the end of the third. like Shadow, but the end of that is a little bit I don’t what what did she just become a goddess for like a moment and now she’s normal again? It it’s interesting because I believe that like there’s like four five PlayStation one era Tomb Raider games, something like that. And they they just got a port, I believe, on Nintendo Switch where you can just play all of them. Uh, you know, that’s exciting. I do think that the 2013 reboot was a great game. Uh, granted, I kind of fell off on the sequels just because I was like, “Yeah, I think I got what I needed from from this franchise.” But, uh, I’m excited for a remake of the original as long as I get to lock the butler in the freezer in Unreal Engine 5. Highfidelity locking him in the freezer is what I need. Yeah, I’m excited for the remake of the original because I never had a chance to play the original and the original, you know, it’s a little clunky. The jumping is very tough. So, I get to see, you know, OG Laroft mixed with the modern one. And I did get to play the, you know, the the sequels. So, uh, we need we need that female protagonist back. Like, she’s like one of the icons of female video game. She’s the OG. She’s the OG. She’s the most famous one. Maybe Samus. I don’t know. Well, if you beat the game fast enough, right? Um, in Crystal Dynamics, I don’t think they’ve shipped a new game since Marvel’s Avengers. Oh, wow. The square the Square Enix one, right? That was back when they were a part of Square Enix, I believe. And now they’re racer. Wow. So yeah, curious to see what they’re up to. But yeah, no, I’m more people should experience Tomb Raider. Yeah. Yes, I’m I’m all for that. And then another leak, I think this was from uh earlier this week, you know, Resident Evil Reququum is coming in February. Uhhuh. Uh and we know that it was going to be at the Game Awards. This leak is, you know, just spoil the the worst kept secret in the industry, right? He’s not in the game. He’s not in the game. How many times do we have to tell you he’s not in the game? I have refused. Plot twist. He’s in the game. I have refused to look at Twitter all day today because I just don’t want to see anything coming from, you know, I just don’t want I just want the league. I want to see it at the Game Awards, but I’m sure I’m sure we can we can we can talk about it. Well, I mean, so even if we don’t say it, surely you know what what they’re talking about. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. We don’t even need to say the name though. And everyone knows. I mean, he’s he’s it’s not like correlation leads a causation, but he is in all the best Resident Evil games. RE2, RE4, and he’s the best part of RE6. So that that mean I I think that just bodess well for Reququum, right? It’s got a great track record so far. I love There’s some people out there surely who haven’t been following this and they’re trying Who is it? Who are they talking about? Just tell me. It’s Mr. X. He’s back. Mr. X. Yeah. Oh, he’s one of my favorite characters from Resident Evil. If if this is true, which is probably true because everybody’s saying it is. Um, I just love the connection of this character to like bringing back uh, you know, one of the original characters with a new character, uh, Alyssa Alyssa Ashcrooft and her story. It’s almost feels like it’s blending the new Resident Evil era with the old Resident Evil era. And I think that’s the opportunity this game has. Yeah, I’m I’m excited to see our friend, our familiar face in action because I really like what what Capcom’s been doing with modern Resident Evils. I loved um, Seven and Village. I’ve been having a hard time getting excited for Reququum just because like this I don’t know these characters. I don’t know. I never played the game that they’re from and it’s just kind of like a semi the back to Raccoon City setting. So, I just haven’t seen like a hook. Yeah. I mean, they’ve been playing it very close to the chest, not really showing much footage outside of what I would assume is the beginning of the game with um this Ashcraftoft character um where it feels more survival horror as opposed to the action horror that we’re used to, which is totally great. Uh, the one thing that did get me hyped was I believe uh Japan News had like they just pointed a camera at footage we’ve never seen of Resident Evil before and there was like a footage of a villain attacking Ashccraftoft in third person. I was like, “Yeah, this looks fantastic.” And it’s just shaky over the shoulder offscreen footage and it looked great. So, yeah. I mean, Capcom hasn’t missed in a while. They haven’t. They uh So, honestly, I’m excited. I feel like even though we didn’t know the characters on my end, just seeing it was such a great start to a game, like the extreme circumstances that this character goes through outside of just, you know, the zombie apocalypse starting, if we call them zombies in this game. Um, I thought they were great and I think it’s a great start to a horror game. I just love when you start strong like this and you just get attached to the character and you just want to see, okay, what’s going to happen now? I don’t know. Yeah, you guys should see this trailer if you haven’t. And you know the one thing that Capcom has already talked about is that this game is a reququum for everything that’s come before. It feels like they are trying to do some sort of soft reset for Resident Evil with this game. I’m paying homage to the past. So I expect to see a lot of familiar faces uh you know with our guest appearance. That only begs the question of when we will see his are we going to see Ada in this game? Yeah, we’re probably going to see Ada. I hope my boy Wesker’s in there with his sunglasses. How’s he looking in 2025 or whenever this I think it’s set in like 2027. So, uh I’m excited for this. This Capcom released a really cool art with all of the RE protagonists on it and they’re just it feels like they’re really celebrating RE. Which is Ada in any other game except four. She’s in two, four, six. Yeah, she’s Okay. And I never played six. Yeah. Yeah. You It’s all right. You don’t need to. No, I don’t I wasn’t planning on playing six. Um Okay. Excited to see more about Resident Evil Reququum. Uh, another game that they’re going to follow up with is Sorrowos, the next game from Housemark, follow up to Returnal. I think maybe this was at the Game Awards last year or maybe is that something? It was earlier earlier this year. They had like a whole PlayStation Direct as well. Well, it’s the follow-up to Returnal and I will now read the official description for Sorrowos. Fight your way through mysterious dreamlike landscapes littered with ancient ruins and alien technology. You’ll need to master electrifying bullet ballet combat as you overcome ferocious enemies and spectacular boss fights. Could just be Returnal. Yeah, that description could just be Returnal. Yeah, and it looks like Returnal at a glance. Uh just more yellow instead of blue. This isn’t confirmed, but you think maybe it’s same universe? Yeah, I think it’s the same universe. And again, uh Returnal was very much channeling its uh cosmic horror combined with just bullet hell action arcade video game. And this looks very much in the same vein. Returnal was HP Lovecraft and this is Robert Chambers uh The King in Yellow and I I I love me some cosmic horror and I love me some shoot them ups and bullet hells. Yeah, same. I liked Eternal a lot. Uh man, that game felt good. Yes, felt good to play and really fun interesting storytelling that makes that that really takes advantage of the medium of video games. It’s it makes it makes the rogike genre more accessible like Hades did something similar, right? is you make replaying it over and over again uh a way to experience the story in a really small way. You get to learn something new. Yeah, exactly. Um Alak, I know you like first person shooters. I do. Do you play any Returnal? Would you looking forward to SARS? I I’m looking forward to it. I didn’t get a chance to play Returnal for some reason, but I watched a lot of it because it looked incredibly addictive. Everything that you have to do in this game, it it appears to be so unique and so different to other shooters. Just the movement and the way you have to, you know, shoot your gun. And it almost feels like an arcade sometimes, like the way you’re just dodging dodging bullets and it just looks really cool in the boss fights. So, this is a game that I should have played when it came out and somehow missed it. But now seeing this one again, I got to catch up, dude. When I see that shield, I’m like, dude, that’s Ecoa right there. Like just like you put a shield that absorbs bullets like give it to me now. Come on. It’s also wild to just think of uh Housemark’s history with Super Stardust HD which are great great games. Fantastic. so much smaller in scope, more arcade-like, and now they’re doing this, you know, uh, huge 3D games with absolutely gorgeous graphics. I mean, this, for me, is my reason to own a PS5. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, we’re just a few minutes away from handing you over. That’s all I think that’s everything that’s been officially announced and has leaked for the Game Awards. If we were to think about what other surprises we might have in store, maybe we put on our what typically what types of games and developers tend to show up at the game awards and there’s always the the the Kajjima of it all. Yes, for sure. Cojima is going to be I mean we have to see a little more of OD. Uh I don’t think we’re going to see Fizzant sadly. Uh, I want I really want to see Fizzant, but I think we’re gonna see for sure something from uh OD, especially given the unfortunate recent passing of Udoir, one of the stars in the game. That was um they showed a little gameplay demo of that at TGS. Yes. And it was it looked gorgeous. It’s very scary. Yeah. Yeah. This something you’re looking forward to, right? Yeah. I am I love horror games and I saw the trailer for what they showed for OD and it just looked like the old PT demo and I just I just need a game to terrify me. I need somebody sitting next to me as I go through it. And this is the type of game that just uses it seems to be using just audio visuals. It’s just the way they craft this this whole game. The way it looked in the trailer, it just looked like the perfect game to just, you know, not be able to go to sleep afterwards. So, I really need OD to show up for the Game Awards. Th this is one of those things that is pure like speculation, but I of course was delving into the OD subreddit because I was curious what other people were talking about. And the ongoing theory is that the premise of the game given, you know, Cojima has kind of been made famous for scanning real people into the game. I think a lot of people’s idea, this is again speculation, the the concept of the game is that he scanned a apartment building that was haunted and you are now experiencing a haunted video game. uh all at once, which I’m like, it’s it’s like evoking the ring, and I’m like, this is the coolest setup for a video game. I don’t know if that’s what the game’s about, but if not, now it has to be. That’s a very sexy idea for a video game. Yeah, that sounds good. I’d love to see more of OD. And then also sticking with Kajjima, Death Stranding to PC. Yeah, I I think we’re going to see a PC port. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we also got a multiplat uh coming to Xbox as well because years after its launch, Death Stranding one director’s cut did get a port over to Xbox. And I imagine that that exclusivity window has shrunk given it seems like he’s ready to already do a PC port. So I I suppose we’ll see. Okay, one minute to the Game Awards. Um Key also has a history of bringing on FromSoft games, and we know that FromSoft has Dusk Bloods, which is a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive. That’d be a big get. That’s one thing that I woke up in the middle of in the middle of the night. I was like, the dusk bloods. I mean, they’ve already proven that they can do this PVE like extraction style action game. Yeah. Elder Ring Night and Rain Rules. Give me Dust Bloods now, please. Yeah. Next year. Yeah, coming next year. They also have I mean, Elder Ring is still coming to Switch to as well. There’s one game we haven’t mentioned. Well, you have you can we have 10 seconds. Okay. We haven’t said Halfife 3 and it’s the game awards. Yeah. I don’t think it’s going to happen. I want it to happen. Well, the 2025 Game Awards are about to begin. You can watch them right here without doing a thing. Just stay where you are. Then stick around afterwards for our recap post show featuring expert breakdowns of everything we saw. Brand new trailers from some of the biggest games heading your way. Here come the Game Awards. We’ll see you on the other side. Welcome to the 2025 Game Awards opening act. I’m Sydney Goodman here to start us off on gaming’s biggest night streaming all around the world. We are coming to you live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the year in games with special performances including from the Game Awards Orchestra and Evan Essence surprise guests and world premiieres like Resident Evil Reququum, Phantom Blade Zero, Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight, and many more. Plus over 20 brand new games you haven’t heard about yet. It will make you believe the universe is conspiring for you. And you know what? I don’t think I can wait any longer. Let’s just get started right now. Tonight is a very special game awards because three of our game of the year nominees are from Indie Studios. So, we’re going to start things off with the announcement of a beautiful new game from the Burlington, Vermont-based Frame Interactive Studios. This is the Free Shepherd. What do you think? Okay, I’ll say it. The protagonist is not only powerful, but I’m proud to also confirm it is adorable. And now it’s time to give out our very first game award. Here are the nominees for best family game. Donkey Kong Bonanza, Lego Party, Lego Voyagers, Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, and Split Fiction. And the game award goes to Donkey Kong Bonanza. on on behalf of all of us at Nintendo and especially the Donkey Kong Bonanza development team. Thank you. With this game, the team had an objective of creating a thrilling game where players could feel the strength of Donkey Kong as he smashed through obstacles and discovered how music would shape his overall journey. As a lifetime fan of Donkey Kong, I think they delivered on that and so much more. We’re grateful to the fans and to the uh Game Awards for this honor. Looks like smashing things is kind of fun. Thank you very much. Congratulations. And now we have two more world premiieres ready to go. Up first is another independent game that hails from a solo developer in Sweden who’s a hardcore Souls fan. He’s built a brutal melee combat experience set against a gothic backdrop. Spooky. This is decrepit. under crimson skies. is cloaked in your eyes. I see through your eyes the fragments of the past. I think we’re getting closer to the middle of the zone. despite my heart is frozen. I hear a signal in the noise. A signal in the noise. That was Audiomemech, the new game from Dylan Fitter, the creator of Audio Surf. And starting tomorrow, you can play an AudioM demo available on Steam. If you want to check out that demo, other game awards demos, and wishlist games showcase tonight, we made it easy for you. Check out the Game Awards page on Steam. We’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that tonight’s Game Awards broadcast is available on YouTube with dedicated ASL and descriptive audio feeds. And in that spirit, it’s now time for our next award, innovation in accessibility. This year’s nominees have all demonstrated their commitment to making games that are as playable as possible by as many players as possible. And they are Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Adamfall, Doom: The Dark Ages, EA Sports FC 26, and South of Midnight. And the game award goes to Doom: The Dark Ages. Thank you so much. This is such a such an honor. You know, Hugo set the vision uh for this with uh the idea of creating Doom for all slayers. A Doom for all slayers and we couldn’t be more proud of the team for executing on that. It takes such commitment. Thank you also to Xbox for their commitment to accessibility and the support of the game and as well as our partners at Zenamax. Um, user research, QA, our dev team, our accessibility consultants. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you so much. Congratulations, Doom of the Dark Ages. Still to come, more brand new game announcements, awards, and at the top of the hour, maybe Jeff will finally reveal what that statue in the desert is all about. I’m thinking it’s probably not related to Miss Piggy, who will also be here later. We’ll be right back. The best time for you to play Guild Wars 2 is now. Immerse yourself in a realm of magic, mystery, and boundless adventure. Heed the Clarion call as you join a community of millions. Dive deep and explore a wealth of lore. Celebrate the release of Guild Wars 2’s newest expansion, Visions of Eternity. Download and play now. Welcome back to the Game Awards opening act. We are counting down to the big show, so I signed an NDA, but I’m going to risk it all just for you. So, here’s a hint about what’s coming up. There will be lots of new game announcements including Lara Cross return in the next Tomb Raider, a deeper look at Resident Evil Reququum, the announcement of the release date for Phantom Blade Zero, and the Game Awards orchestra conducted by Lauren Balf will pay tribute to our six game of the year nominees. And rest easy. I’m able to confirm Flute Guy will be back. But for now, it’s time for our three esports awards. The first up is best esports game presented by Game. And the nominees are Counterstrike 2, Dota 2, League of Legends, Mobile Legends Bang Bang, and Valerant. And the game award goes to Counterstrike 2. The nominees for best esports athlete are Brock, Chovi, Forsaken, Kakaroo, Mena RD, and Zyu. And the game award goes to Chovi. The nominees for best esports team are Gen G, Energy, Team Falcons, Team Liquid PH, and Team Vitality. And the game award goes to team vitality. Congratulations to all our winners. Okay, I want to take a minute to remind everyone that we are streaming live around the world on more than 30 platforms, including for the first time on Prime Video. While you’re watching, you can head on over to Tik Tok to share your favorite moments using #thegameawwards. We can’t wait to see your videos. And now I have yet another world premiere and new look for all you real ones. Here’s some important news about Capcom’s Pragmata. You’ve been to the sea before on Earth. Of course I have. Got a house with a view and everything. You’re just going to stay here when this is all done. What do you want? Man, need this again. I can’t do anything. Hello unregistered guests. Your presence here is a violation of cradle security protocol. Stunning. I have the same beach in my research station back home. And surprise, you can play a demo of Pragmata on Steam right now. See, we’re giving you lots of goodies tonight. And trust me, there’s more to come. And now I have another award. These nominees are games that never leave you because they’re on your phone. Here are the nominees for best mobile game. Destiny Rising, Persona 5: The Phantom X, Sonic Rumble, Umamasu Pretty Derby, and Wthering Waves. And the game award goes to Um, Pretty Derby. Uh it is a tremendous honor to receive this amazing award. This was only possible with the support of a fans. I deeply appreciate all the um metas out there. To the people who are not familiar with sings, we are dedicated to being the best entertainment. We will promise you more wild contents coming. So stay tuned. Thank you so much. Thank you. Congratulations. All right, I think I have to take a quick break and play Uma Sum. It’s not my ADHD. It’s professional development and my ADHD. But there is so much more to come, including two brand new game announcements from two brand new game studios right after this. My dear children, I write this letter to you as testimony of my undying love. The Orcus, my beloved, you will honor our goddess more than I ever could. Rickard, my cherished, find your father’s steel and face the challenges ahead. What happened? She knew Marke was coming for her. Never forget the bonds that tie the six of you will be your strength. Lies. You should have saved her. She deserves the piece of death. What an interesting family you must have. Is that fear I sense guard? Stay in the light. Never give into darkness. Your loving mother, Marin. I know we’ve never quite seen eye to eye. Believe it or not, Whitaker, we want the same thing. It’s all out there in the zone. You never know what you might find. Welcome back. We are oh so close to the top of the hour. Everybody go tell your friends to tune in and get ready for a night of awards, world premiieres, musical performances, and lots of surprise guests we haven’t told you about because then they wouldn’t be surprises. But now it’s time to honor another game studio with an award. And it’s one of my favorite categories, best independent game. This year, there have been so many incredible independent titles from studios around the world, and our global jury of media selected these six as the best. Absolum Ball Pit Blue Prince Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Hades 2, and Hollow Night Silk Song. And the game award goes to Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Thank you. I I remember Sunfall beginnings in early 21. Just four of us painting the walls of the small office we had just rented. We wanted to make a small game then, but with big ambition and creative independence. It was challenging every day. For most of our team present here tonight, Expedition 33 is the first game we’ve ever shipped. We couldn’t be prouder of what this team has achieved and we dedicate this award to all the indie teams around the world. To those who put creativity first, to those who push forward with limited resources, also to those who never make it to the release, and also to those who bring extraordinary games to life every year. You make our art form richer and you continue to inspire generations of creators and players. Thank you. Congratulations. Speaking of independent teams, this next game is a special one from a brand new independent studio. It comes from Day for Night, a new studio from the lead designer of Red Dead Redemption and the creative director of Mario Plus Rabbits. We’re excited to share this global announcement with you for this action adventure game that blends exploration with mindbending free form puzzles. I love the new game. Okay, sunshine. Check back check. Time for a new platforming advance. village. What? My village was gone. All I wanted was to go back home. Badger born. Tried exploring. Did some jumping around. You know, the classics. It’s what I do. Quick decision. Everywhere I went looked strange and weirdly unfinished. And that’s when I found it. And everything changed, literally. Oh yeah. Make your own platform game, baby. Now we’re talking. I had a new grasp on things. I learned tricks. It blew my mind. I really transformed myself. This thing is amazing. Made a bunch of new friends. Picked up new wheels. Figured out how to think big and small. I had it all. And then the cold broke down. And that’s when I found you. Okay. So, I always expected it to be the AI chat bots that achieved sentience first, but I’m down for an animated Badger singularity. And yes, that is actor Evan Peters playing the role of Bradley the Badger. I have one more world premiere for you. It comes from an incredible brand new studio in Osaka, Japan. This is a wholly original New World coming in 2026. and we’re excited to share the announcement and the first look at gameplay with you in lovely blaze my heart and cold the place that’s on your face I fell in Love don’t even know I got your name girl. I’ll take away the wall. I will stand with you in my heart. I will never fall. I will take out consume and blow stupid. Heat. I don’t eat humans. Okay, if that doesn’t get you hyped for the main show, then maybe you’re the problem. That was stupid never dies from GP track 50, a studio made up of action game lovers who have worked on titles such as Devil May Cry, Dragon’s Dogma, and Resident Evil, creating action games for action game fans. Okay, we’re minutes away from the main event. We have one more award for you. A category that celebrates other media that took video game IP and made movie and TV magic. Here are the nominees for best adaptation. A Minecraft movie, Devil May Cry, Splinter Cell Death Watch, The Last of Us Season 2, and Until Dawn. And the game award goes to The Last of Us season two. Thank you very much, Gabe. Uh, I I want to thank all the original devs that worked on The Last of Us Part Two, all my homies back at Naughlly Dog, our outsource partners, our fans of video game fans. This opportunity wouldn’t exist without you. Um, thanks to all the support we got from PlayStation Productions, Sony Pictures, HBO, we need to thank Netflix or Paramount or whoever our streaming overlord is now. Um, but most of all, I want to I really want to give a big shout out to our crew, our incredible cast led by Pedro, Bella, Isabella, Gabe. Um, they really threw themselves at this and did their best to bring our world to life in live action and we’re super proud of what they’ve done. Thank you to the Game Awards. Thank you very much. Congratulations, The Last of Us. Okay, my guys, we have reached the end of the opening act, which means it’s time for a new beginning. The Game Awards main event is imminent with big awards, even more world premiieres, and amazing performances, surprise guests that even I don’t know about because if you guys remember, I violated my NDA earlier, and they decided I couldn’t be trusted. But you know, you can trust me to be absolutely losing my mind when we get to Lara Cross’s long awaited return. The announcement of the next Tomb Raider, which is just minutes away, and that’s just one of the announcements we’ve told you about. There are a lot of other ones that are so secret, all I get to see are a long list of code names. I’m being completely serious. Anyway, thank you for going on this journey with me and congratulations again to all the winners so far. Trust me, the fun is just beginning, so buckle up. The 2025 Game Awards starts now. I do to you Oh, w you It was holy your father. Don’t for Glorious for you. Oh. Oh. Oh. Living things can’t help but change. You see, they can’t stay the same forever. That’s what living is. to change and to embrace change. Sometimes we paint the bars of our own prison. You chose a hard road for yourself. Seven people change the world. Say the thing you’re afraid to say. We can work with this to new beginnings. Ring the bell. Shots. You want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts. You know me, head mistress. I know enough to get me into trouble. Is this what my tomorrow will be for those who come after? Welcome to the Game Awards 2025. Now, here’s your host, the creator of the Game Awards, Jeff Keley. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Game Awards, a night to celebrate the best and discover what’s next in video games. Tonight, we are connected through our love of games. Thousands of us here at Peacock Theater and millions more watching around the world in places like China, India, Brazil, in the middle of the night in Europe. I know it’s late. I see you guys. Thank you for showing up for this show. And first of all, thank you to Alis Deor Persier, Laurian Testard and the music of Claire Obscure. Expedition 33 kicked off the show in amazing performance and of course that is the most nominated game in the history of the game awards and many members of the team from Sandfall Interactive are here with us tonight. I think you can identify them based on their uh attire tonight. Welcome guys. It’s great to have you here. You know, every year this show reminds us why video games matter. They are worlds we share, stories we live, communities we build, and experiences that challenge, inspire, and connect us like nothing else. Especially when life gets hard. I don’t usually open up about personal things on stage, but 2025 tested me in ways I didn’t expect. In January, my home burned down to nothing but ashes here in the Los Angeles fires. And just a few months ago, I lost my dad, who quietly sat in this audience every single year, proud, supportive, always cheering us on. My mom’s here tonight, and we’ve left an empty seat beside her in his honor. Miss you, Dad. But in the middle of all that loss and rebuilding, this show and all of you became a source of strength for me. I think about this night, this moment, and this community, and it gave me something to look forward to. It reminded me how important it is to celebrate games. Games have this incredible ability to hold us when we’re hurting, to lift us up when we feel small, to give us somewhere to go when the real world feels unsteady. I know I’m not alone in knowing that. All of you watching tonight, you’ve felt that power, too. And that’s why we’re all connected in this moment. We’re here to celebrate the artists, technicians, and storytellers who helped this medium soar to new heights. Tonight, we’re going to honor over 100 nominees and celebrate a record setting three independent titles up for game of the year. That’s right. And we are going to have some fun of course too with a whole slate of brand new game announcements that will hopefully get you excited about the limitless future ahead. So let’s get going to present our first award. A father and son, two remarkable actors. He is one of the finest performers working today from Isaac and the Last of Us to Chase and Dispatch. And his son brings young Chase to life in Dispatch as well. Please welcome to the Game Awards Jeffrey and Elijah Wright. Wow. Uh this is incredible. Uh, I’m I’m so excited to be here tonight in the company of uh so many incredible artists uh and gaming fans. Yeah. Um particularly as games increasingly explore new frontiers of storytelling. But the reason I’m here really is standing next to me uh my son Elijah. It was Elijah who brought me into the world of modern games, emphatically encouraging me to join the cast of The Last of Us Part Two. And and now he’s joined me in voicing Chase and Track Star in Dispatch. Some Dispatch fans out there, I think. Yeah. Cool. If it weren’t for Elijah, I’d still be playing Pong on an Atari. That’s right. Keep up. I can’t believe I’m standing on this stage today. As an artist, I’m thrilled. I grew up with video games and and getting to work in the world of gaming has been a dream of mine. I mean, I guess it’s nice that you’re here, too, Dad. Thank you. Thank you, Elijah. Got you. I got you. The next award honors games that are high octane, high action, and combat heavy. Here are the nominees for the best action game. Best action game. And the winner is Hades 2. Uh, thank you. Um, the seven of us who worked on our first action game, Bastion, all still work together at Super Giant Games. Um, we’ve been joined by so many people who helped make Hades 2 and the original Hades what it is. On behalf of the entire group of us who worked on the game, we just want to express our gratitude to the other teams who make such incredible work in this industry and inspire us. And we want to say thank you to our players who literally help make this game what it is uh through its early access. Thank you so much. Congratulations, Amir, Greg, and the whole Super Giant team. That’s amazing. All right, now we move into one of my favorite, and yes, sometimes very dangerous parts of the evening. The moment where we look ahead at what’s coming next from some of the world’s most talented game creators. All year long, there’s speculation online about what may or may not appear on that screen tonight. And as always, my only advice is enjoy the journey. Maybe you’ll witness the birth of a brand new universe or the long- awaited return of a legend. That’s the magic of this show. Anything can happen. So, let’s get started. It’s time for our very first world premiere. something truly special that we’re honored to debut here at the Game Awards. Heat. Heat. Boom. Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic is a brand new singleplayer action role- playinging game set in the Old Republic era, of course, and directed by Casey Hudson, who’s joining us here tonight. Casey was of course the director on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic and the Mass Effect series and we are so excited that Casey and Star Wars are back together again. All right, we have many more game announcements to come. Going to be hard to top that one, but right now we have a very special guest I’d like to bring out. Please welcome Miss Piggy. Thank you. Thank you. Hello to all of you gaming fans out there and hello to you my little Jeffy Poo Piggy. It is so great to have you here at the Game Awards and thank you for accepting our invitation. I really appreciate you know I would never turn down an invitation from you. Not after Bora Bora, which by the way was certainly not a Bor Abora. Piggy, come on. This is a public event. Oh, someone’s being shy. Miss Piggy, I see the open. My My mom is right there. I mean, more importantly, let’s move on to what you’re going to do something later. You got a really special moment later in the show. You’re going to be doing something, right? Yes, that’s right. Especially poor Vu and Vu. Jeffy Poo. Okay. Well, I can’t wait, Miss Piggy. We’ll see you later. I’m so excited. Yes. Got to run. Want to make sure this performance is just perfect. Kissy kissy, everybody. Miss Piggy, everybody. We’ll see her a little bit later. And you guys are going to love it. All right, we have so much game awards ahead. The surprises do keep coming. I promise you. More awards. Later, Evan Essence rocks the stage. Here for survival training. Of course you are. Pathetic. Now we’ve compiled some valuable training materials. So you can stand a chance against the hungry undead. Um, we can just run around those, right? Silence both of you out there. You’ll need more than your foolish instincts to escape the monster’s claws or to pick a fight with a martial arts master. I do love a good fight. But do you like winning them? You’ll face samurai and demons and viruses. Uh, I’d like to talk more about the samurai and demons. Well, this is survival training, not survival talking. And lucky for all you helpless halfwits, we’ve cut the price on some top-notch materials. So study up, fools. Let’s jump. This isn’t conquest. It’s red sack. It’s a lot of fun. Dad, it’s free. Free red sex. Do you think anyone here said sex? He said sex. You said free. Redacted sector? Really? Is that the name? It is. We got to jump. Am I supposed to have a big gun? No. You’re going to find big guns down there. And we might even get a tank. Noob. Oh, a tank. We’re not getting a tank if we don’t jump. Oh, we need to jump. Yes. Go, go, go. Red sack. It’s red sack. Find me. Fall. Betray me again. I’ve got bad news for you. Yeah, of course you do. Zombies are real. I need new pants. Famous last words in a zombie apocalypse. They can’t hurt us if they can’t catch us. We got to get out of here right now. Commando. Zombie is redundant. I prefer Homo Mortis. We’re going to have to tone this down for the movie. more It’s a zombie apocalypse. that. All right, now it’s time to put an end to gaming’s most controversial mystery. Heat. Heat. Hey, what? What the What’s wrong? Keep up. What a moment. That statue and monument that has fascinated the internet now has a name, the Hellstone. And yes, Laren, winners of game of the year in 2023 for Balders’s Gate 3 are hard at work on their next role playing game. A continuation of the Divinity Saga. Divinity is their biggest game ever. That’s right, even larger than Balders’s Gate 3, promising more breadth and depth than ever before. and we cannot wait to tell you more in the future. To present our next award, please welcome two previous winners of best performance here at the Game Awards, Maggie Robertson and Neil Nubon. For the record, Neil said that he was wearing the dress this year, so I wash my hands of this. Anyway, I just don’t know why they keep pairing us up. All right. Right. Acting. They say acting is the art of pretending. Uh, well, actually, Mags, I personally think it’s the highly disciplined craft of being dramatically truthful on purpose, convincing strangers you’re someone else and then winning awards for lying. Oh. Uh, listen, I actually based my entire career on this. We really need to have a chat. You know, it’s called comedy lock in. Okay. Uh so we’re here today to recognize the amazing performers uh who convinced us through their lies and deceit really that they were warriors on a quest for vengeance and feudal Japan. Dashing archaeologists with a penchant for fedoras and whips. Pseudo French revolutionaries holding baguettes for some reason. And teenage girls forced to survive extraordinary psychological and physical terror. The point is acting is serious business and we are serious actors here to talk about acting seriously. Really? Let’s do a thing. Okay. Here are the nominees for best liar. I mean actor. Best performance. I didn’t make the rules between you two. We’ll break the cycle so she can’t steal anyone else’s future. I will find every member of the Yote 6. I swear it. I thought I was used to losing people. These relics hold a force that could change the course of history. And the game award goes to Jennifer English. are so sweet. Um, thank you to everyone who voted. Wow, this is loud. Um, this is not just my award. This takes a village. And oh my god, I love my passionate, beautiful sold, artistic, clever, beretwearing village. Every single one of you, Gon Jen. Special shout out to Charlotte and Adelene. And of course, my wonderful Ben, who has been my ride or die throughout all of this, my big brother. Thank you. Thank you to my beautiful girlfriend. And I just want to say um to every neurode divergent person watching this in this room because I know there’s probably quite a lot of you and at home to all of you that feel like life is stuck on hard mode. This one is for you. And thank you so much to the games community and industry for giving us so many of us a home for those who come after. Thank you. Incredible. Congratulations, Jennifer. from Bad Robot Games. Please welcome JJ Abrams and the creator of Left for Dead, Mike Booth. We’ve been so lucky at Bad Robot to get to work with some incredible artists to tell stories on stage, TV, and film. And it’s been an absolute thrill and honor to have spent the last few years working with a brilliant Mike Booth on an original universe that brings our passion for great storytelling to the PlayStation and PC. Thank you, JJ. At our Bad Robot Game Studio, working with our friends at PlayStation, we’ve been creating a new kind of co-op game that builds upon what I learned making Left for Dead. The result is something entirely different. An unpredictable, challenging combat sandbox where you succeed through cooperation and improvisation. And now I am excited to share a glimpse into what we’ve been working on. In fact, we’re also inviting all of you to sign up for early play testing and check it out for yourselves. But first, welcome to Forloop. Welcome back team. Now, I need you to brace yourselves. Earth was invaded. Lost in less than a minute. All of this was our fault. We’re the only ones left who can fix it. And you must use our machine. The same machine that broke the world to unbreak it. Now, I know what you’re thinking. This bloke’s gone insane. This plan sounds impossible and we’re probably going to die. But that’s where you’re wrong. You’re definitely going to die. Reprinting. It’s all part of my new plan. Every time you fail, I will use our machine to bring you back. Reprinting. If you can relentlessly experiment. Test strategies. Learn from your failures. You will become the world’s saving team humanity needs you to be. Trust me. The voice in my head hasn’t been wrong yet. From now on, nothing is impossible. Now get out there and fail to save the world. Up next, we have a new game announcement from some of the developers who helped put The Last of Us and Uncharted into our hands. This new small independent studio is charting its own course focused on crafting uniquely styled, artful games that are pushing the evolution of companion characters. Enjoy. Come on. Woo! Woo! of heat. Please over here. Come talk to me first. I can explain what’s going on. What is existence really? Surely a question without an answer. Your father thought he knew that it inspired him to grant wishes. He’s a nightmare. That’s why all of us are here. You want to understand, to know, then you have to step beyond the walls around you. Play your father’s game. Push the very limits. until the react itself breaks. That was ontos from Fractional Games, a sci-fi mystery and spiritual successor to Soma set on a repurposed hotel on the moon. And yes, the unmistakable Stellin Scarsgard will star in the game. All right, there’s more game awards ahead, but right now it’s time to reveal a new forceful void hunter in Hoyver’s hit urban fantasy ARPG, Zenless Zone Zero. Meet Yay Schwang Guan, the first ever dual form agent. Every chosen heir of the Ching sword is expected to become a hero. Tread carefully. One step further and you may shed your mortal sins. But the gate to the final domain does not open without refinement. The strongest bond between people is always value, isn’t it? I give you you want and you give me what I want. It was all a lie from the start. We never had a choice. I’m not fighting alone. From within this board, many others are fighting beside me. The more noble the excuse, the uglier the truth behind it. One instant, a thousand visions. Night. Let’s finish this. Welcome to 2X KO. Let’s go. Sheriff Kerman sighting target. For a limited time only, Prime members can go to amazon.com/thegameawwards to save up to 25% on select nominees, including Split Fiction, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, and Final Fantasy Tactics from the award-winning games Journey and Sky: Children of the Light. Please welcome that game company’s CEO and creative director, Gova Chen. At Dename company, our mission has always been about creating the experiences that will inspire human connection. And tonight’s game for impact nominees embody that spirit through stories of nostalgic childhood memories, diverse culture and identity, and grief and healings. These games reminds us how interactive art bring us closer together. Here are the nominees. Games for impact. Julian, I’ve never had any friends like you. We forgot for a reason. It’s not safe out there, Hazel. If I was the one missing, she wouldn’t stop looking. And the game goes for Sales of Midnight. Thank you so much to all the nominees. I would like to share this award with all of you and of course to our incredible team back home and every single players who’s been part of this journey with us. And um from the start we listened to stories passed down porch to porch, kitchen to kitchen to build a world that would feel as warm and as rich as the south. A world that would be filled with compassion, kindness, and courage. So, we’re incredibly excited to launch this spring south of midnight on PlayStation 5 and Switch 2. Thank you so much. Have a great night, Mercy. Tonight, one of the most iconic survival horror franchises returns to the Game Awards stage. For nearly three decades, Resident Evil has defined what it means to face the unknown, to survive against impossible odds. This next installment, Resident Evil Reququum, is a nominee for most anticipated game. And tonight, we’re excited to dive deeper into the game and some of the surprises that await Hello. It hasn’t been easy, but after much effort, here we finally are. Who are you? I know now that you’re the one that I’ve been searching for. The special one. The chosen one. It’s Ashcraft. Talk to me. Is this one like the others? And it’s not postmortem leidity. Hey, I I just got a report of a missing police officer. It might be unrelated, but he disappeared near where the fifth body was found. Through you, Elus can finally be set free. The team has settled on a person of interest. Someone with ties to Umbrella. Victor Gideon. Great. Victor purchased a building after Umbrella went under. I’ll send you the address. Welcome. Dr. Gideon has been expecting you. You there, Leon? Yeah. Hey, over here. FBI, what are you doing here? Would you like to see what’s hidden under the hood? Don’t do anything stupid. Me? Never. Didn’t want a second. Yes, the internet was right. Leon Kennedy, one of gaming’s most iconic characters, is back for Resident Evil Reququum. The story in Reququum will intertwine the fate of two playable characters. Grace’s storyline takes players through a unique survival horror experience while Leyon delivers explosive action to the game. Uh, it’s going to be exciting. It’s coming out in February. All right. This year has been an incredible one for independent games as we’ve been talking about all night. Bold original titles create created outside the traditional big publisher system. So, we felt it was important to spotlight those visionary projects tonight right alongside the big franchises. This next game is a good example. It comes from a legendary name in the independent scene, someone I first met back in 2007. It’s a project that has been 10 years in the making. Let us begin. Template for combiner. North, a world of heroes. Can you charm that goblin? It’s too far. I’ll swap him out. East, the mirror is. Will the mirrors repair my soul? Will I pass the test? West, endless caverns, beams of light. Nobody else could get this old mine suit working. So, all the rewards go to me. Skipping stones to lonely homes. I’m close to the treasure. Just a few more minutes. If you don’t get back before that storm hits, we’re both dead. Fuse and grow. We will it. Hello. Who are you? And what are these beams? They’re very useful. Watch this. Can you push a stone back across the water? That’s water. When the portal appeared and I stepped into this overworld, I had never imagined such a device that could fuse realities. Not just mashing together terrains, it weaves the very laws of nature into a composite hole. The result surprises me constantly. But who has done all this? And what do they want with me? Border of the Sinking Star is an amazing puzzle adventure with over 1,400 puzzles and a big story wrapped all around it. We’re very excited to play it. All right, next up we’re traveling 40,000 years into the future for a brand new look at Exodus, the upcoming sci-fi action RPG from Wizards of the Coast and Archetype Entertainment. For decades, Wizards has built worlds where players define their own legacies. Exodus carries that tradition into the stars. It’s time to step forward. Who are you? I’m a friend. Celestials are the enemy of humanity. A relentless threat to our very survival. I can’t do this anymore. Salvaging scraps just to get by. Child of Orion, fulfill the purpose for which you were crafted and seize your destiny. Our world is dying. You are the only one who can wield celestial tech and find a cure. Well, that’s terrifying. But with the right ship and the right crew, you could save all of us. I was on an alien world. Felt like I was finally doing what I was made for. Thank you, Jew. We are the defenders of Leiden’s future and we will fight to protect it. The fight for survival has consequences. How far are you willing to venture? How much are you willing to sacrifice to save your world? Damn, kid. No pressure there. Exodus is coming in early 2027 and I’m very excited to play it. But that’s not all from Wizards of the Coast tonight. Now to share something brand new, please welcome Trisha Heler. Hello everyone and thank you Jeff. It’s great to be here celebrating gaming’s biggest night with everyone. I’ve been working with the team at Invoke Studios, a new Wizards of the Coast studio, where I play the main character that’s unlike anything I’ve done before. Tonight, we’re giving you a first tease of what we’ve been working on. Let’s take a look. All of this magic is packed. We have forged What is the cost? in my shadow. I want to feel the chambers coming down. Come on. Give it. Do what it takes to step through. more on Warlock coming in summer 2026. All right, still to come tonight, the return of Tomb Raider, Phantom Blade Zero, and a performance by Evan Essence, who are also releasing a new version of their hit song Afterlife today on Spotify alongside new video game inspired singles from Labyrinth with Sonic the Hedgehog and Bill Murray. Not that Bill Murray, a different one, with Cyberpunk Edge Runners. Here’s your first listen. really want to show your house and I hope it all works out. An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day. Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way. And all at once a mighty herd of redeyed cows he saw plowing through the ragged skies and up. Their brands were still on fire and their hoods were made of steel. Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel. A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky. For he saw the riders coming hard. And he heard their mournful cry. The I the brighter than the hi Susan. FB I He’s here. It’s him. It’s Gabrielle. We need cars. Behold the echo. We have touched your anger, tasted your fury. It has sharpened you. Oh, it is your greatest weapon. A screamer tournament is about to be announced, held by a Mr. A. Consider this your personal invitation. Burn alive, you piece of Welcome back to the Game Awards. And now it’s time for a game announcement from a studio that continually pushes the limits of storytelling. They captivate us with worlds that bend reality and stories that blur the line between ordinary and the impossible. They’re one of the most distinct voices in our industry. And whenever they show up, you know you’re about to see something unlike anything else. Do you feel it? Something is coming. An intrusive pattern. of staggering power, reshaping reality as we know it. Everything we tried to keep inside eventually worms its way out. You must have had good reasons, but we were not prepared. for what would follow. Let us go. launch. Pace yourself. It’s going to get weirder. That is a good one. Control Resonant is coming in 2026 from the Masters at Remedy Entertainment in Finland, whose last game, Alan Wake 2, won multiple awards here at the Game Awards in 2023, including best game direction. It is always exciting to have past TGA winners return to our show to showcase their upcoming projects. Still to come tonight, we’ll have a performance from Evan Essence, plus awards including best score in music, best narrative, best game direction, and game of the year. Plus, we’ll introduce you to this year’s TGA Game Changer recipient. And of course, there are more new game announcements ahead as well from studios big and small, including an extended new look at Phantom Blade Zero and Laura Cross Return in Tomb Raider. But right now, we’ve got a brand new original game to share with you. This global announcement comes all the way from Tokyo, Japan, and a legendary game developer. He’s working on an ambitious new project and we are honored he chose TGA as the place to share the first details and in engine footage with the world. What the song? Yeah, time to settle up. Hey, Dyiky. When’d you make it back? Excuse me, sir. Shut your mouth. All right, talk soon. On your feet now. Son of a it. Just kill him. Gang of Dragon is deep into development. Noshi Son, thank you for that announcement. All right, next up is something very cool and very unexpected. Get your quarters ready because one of the most iconic game series of all time is coming to the big screen. We’re taking it back to the ‘9s when the ultimate rivalries were settled in the arcade. Right now, we have a special sneak peek of Street Fighter. Let’s take a look. Round one, fight. I’m going to have to eat youacts the globe. The fiercest fighters have gathered to stake their claim. Now it’s time to meet some of the warriors stepping into the ring. Please welcome to the arena Noah Cessaneo as Ken Andrew Koji as Ryu. Kina Leier as John Lee. Joe Roman Reigns Anai as Akuma. Perfect. David Desolin as Mison. Cody Rhodess as Kyle White. Andrew Scholes as Dan Haviki. Big Jall as Dine. You win. Oral Peek as Vega. Olivier Richtors at Zan Geek. Rain Landingham at Uli. Fight. Mel Johnson as Cammy and Jason Maloa as Blanca. Ladies and gentlemen, the task of Street Fighter. What a game award. Now, I know our movie comes out like a year from now, but there was no way we were showing up without a sneak peek. We just wrapped a few weeks ago, and fortunately for me, I had the distinct pleasure of kicking half these guys in the face. legally on camera. I kind of miss that, guys. We miss it, too. As a lifelong Street Fighter fan, like legitimately obsessed, it’s the only time in my career where I threatened to kill Kale if he didn’t hire me to play Blanca. True story. Words matter. believe it. Tell them, Rayu. It’s Ryu. It’s Ryu. Not Rayu. Ryu. Rayu. Okay. We are also here tonight to present the award for best ongoing game. The games in this category are the ones that never quit delivering all year long. They keep us looking forward to what’s next. I love you, Cody. I told you the the dedication, the passion, the resilience. We need more presenters. This ain’t enough. You know what I’m saying? David. David. Guys, guys, it’s so important that we appreciate you all here for being great patrons of Street Fighter. Okay, if you played the game, make some noise in your life. Come on. This movie is not possible without you guys. We are so grateful. And we’re not the only game that appreciates your patronage. There’s another game out there. They also flew from around the world to be here because they appreciate you. So, give it up for the whole cast of Mortal Kombat 2. Come on. Yes. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. They didn’t come. They don’t care about you. They only care about money. Okay. We care about money and you Street Fighter forever. Schultz cannot be forever, baby. Forever. He’s joking. He’s joking. All right. Okay. So, these are the nominees for best ongoing game. Best ongoing game. I’ll protect my people’s happiness to the last. How embarrassing. Oh, the mic’s not coming out of the floor. I was coming out. I thought it was coming out the And the game award goes to No man. Okay. Well, this is wild. Um, I guess don’t thank you. Um, I would say a massive thank you on behalf of the whole team at Hello Games, uh, who have poured so much into No Man’s Sky. Um, and I also want to especially say a thank you from Sean, who for family reasons wasn’t able to be here tonight. Um, but I know he’s probably watching this in whatever time zone it is where he is. Um, I’m slightly jet-lagged myself. And like just he’d be very sorry he isn’t here. And um, I’m also slightly sorry he’s not here because this is way more nerve-wracking than he makes it look when he gets up. Um but you know just that that our tiny massive impossible space game uh still means something to so many people. Um that we get to keep on making a game that we love. That is a real privilege. You know that we are able to be here on a stage surrounded by so many incredible games. Like that is really special and you know the whole team is so grateful. It means the world to our team. So, thank you so much A lot of handshakes. Congratulations, No Man’s Sky. And how about the Street Fighter cast? That was absolutely wild. All right, there’s lots more Game Awards ahead, including a very special announcement. Wow. Okay. Uh well, we’ll pick it up, I guess. Uh hello. Hello. Oh. Uh live from the Batcave all the way from Gotham City. Batman. Uh welcome to the show. How you doing, buddy? It’s great to see you tonight. You having a good time, Commissioner Keely? Sorry I couldn’t make it in person. I’ve been trying to decide what bat suit to wear. Abs or no abs. Anyway, great show so far, but it’s about to get even better because it’s time for a new look at my upcoming game, Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight. Batman out. Make sure he stays secured at all times. You want to see a magic trick? The city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice. It must be destroyed. Let’s get to work. Who are you? I think we can help each other. This town deserves a better class of criminal. Good evening, Gotham. Join us in a celebration of absolute chaos. Someone’s got to step up. Let’s get to the root of the problem. We don’t do that. Sorry. Tonight’s forecast, a freeze is coming. This is my favorite part. Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight launches on May 29th, 2026. Now, it is time to recognize a number of teams across the industry with the announcement of the winners in a few categories. Here are the nominees for best audio design. Battlefield 6, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Ghost of Yotay, and Silent Hill F. This year, the game award goes to Battlefield 6. Congratulations. Here are the nominees for content creator of the year. Hedrol, Kai Sonat, Moist Critical, Sakuro, Miko, and the Burnt Peanut. And the game award goes to Moist Critical. Congratulations. All right, here are the nominees for best fighting game, 2X KO, Capcom Fighting Collection 2, Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection, and Virtual Fighter 5 Rebo World Stage. The game award goes to Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. Now, the nominees for most anticipated game, 0007 First Light, Grand Theft Auto 6, Marvel’s Wolverine, Resident Evil Reququum, and The Witcher 4. The game award goes to Grand Theft Auto 6. Stick around for more of the game awards. Some of tonight’s biggest surprises are still ahead. And of course later, the Game Awards Orchestra and Lauren Bealf pay tribute to our game of the year nominees. Ready for action. Seahawk. Now that’s power. Come on. We cannot be stopped. Feel true power. This is why we came. Nothing beats a boat holiday. And now you can play Rust Mobile for free. 100 scraps off to the oil rig. Take it. Don’t look back. I just felt like enough move. Here’s my loot. Wait, wait, wait. Anyone got a power bank? Rust Mobile first global test begins now. Join the test. Unlock the TGA Limited skin. I wonder what the real one feels like. Please welcome actress, writer, and gaming creator Felicia Day. Hi friends. I am thrilled to be here tonight to present the TGA gamecher award. An award that recognizes an individual or organization that has demonstrated positive social progress in the gaming industry. And I’m even more thrilled that tonight’s honore is one of the most impactful organizations uplifting girls today and one that I’m honored to represent as an ambassador. Girls make games. Over the past 12 years, Girls Make Games has empowered over 8,000 girls aged 8 to 18 from all around the world to create and share their own video games through summer camps, workshops, and game jams. In 2022, GMG established a college scholarship to bridge the gap for young women as they entered college and careers in the games industry. True to their mission statement, the founders of this incredible organization chose two inspiring members of their community to accept the award on behalf of Girls Make Games. And I’d like to invite them to the stage and hear how GMG truly has been a gamecher in their lives. Please welcome Ellie Freeman and Monica Pedes. Hey you guys. Hi. So Ellie, you’ve been going to GMG summer camps for several years now. And this past summer, you and three friends created a game that won the grand prize. Is that right? Yeah. Our game is called Paper Trail. And the premise is you’re a kid who’s stuck in the hospital with a broken arm. You draw when you’re bored and your drawings that you’ve made have now come to life and started attacking you. You have to go from room to room solving puzzles in order to escape. And we wanted this game to be creepy but not too scary so that everyone can play. I love it. And what is next for Paper Trail? Soon we’re going to start working with professionals to fully publish our game on Steam and PlayStation. Very important. I’m personally super excited to see the prototype we made at camp turn into a full-fledged game. I mean, it sounds amazing. I can’t wait to play it. I mean, hopefully with my daughter because she is actually the brave scary girl games girl, not me. Um, I like to play cozy games and grow virtual turnups. Do you have turnups in your game? Okay, you can work on that. Um, so Monica, your journey is a little bit different with GMG. um you never went to the camp, but you actually were one of the first recipients of the college scholarship um back in 2022. Is that right? Yeah. So, I grew up loving video games. Love all that you do. Um and then my my high school robotics teacher actually encouraged me to apply for the scholarship. He knew I was interested in game development. Then I got it. Now I’m attending USC and I’ve been doing some game development. And now I’ve actually had some game development experience with our club there, Open Alpha, at USC. Yeah, it’s amazing. It sounds like it’s really helped you set you up for success. Um, is there any message that you’d like to give girls out there who might dream of making their own video games one day? Yeah, I think if you’re someone out there with an interest in making give you a video game, explore it, give it a shot. You never know where that interest could take you. And there’s a ton of amazing programs like Girls Make Games who want to see you succeed. Yeah. Well, obviously I I really wish that there had been an organization like this when I was a kid, but I’m very excited that starting next year, my 8-year-old daughter can go to GMG and express her love of gaming. You guys are very inspirational. Thank you. And now, oh my god, she’s thick. Okay. Um, it is my honor to present the TGA Game Changer Award to Girls Make Games. Congratulations and a huge thanks to Monica Pedes and Ellie Freeman for accepting on behalf of GMG. Thank you so much, Felicia. And congratulations to Girls Make Games. It’s an incredible program. I’ve had the chance to visit their summer camps in the past and it is truly inspiring. See the passion and the creativity that these young developers bring to the medium. Initiatives like that don’t just open doors, they shape the future of our industry in a positive way. I have no doubt that some of the girls in that program today will be on this stage and the years ahead accepting awards for the games they help create. Now, it’s time to move on to our next announcement here at Game Awards. The entire world knows your legend. You survived the dragon’s triangle. Cross the threshold to Atlantis. I’ve heard a dozen told tales that say you’re unstoppable. But I say all legends must come to an end. That’s where you’re wrong. I’m just getting started. As I looked out at an ancient world reawakening, my mind traveled back to where this story began and everything changed. It’s been years, but the events are still etched in my memory. Lost worlds, frozen in time. New discoveries waiting behind every door, across every chasm. I didn’t know then the path this adventure would send me on. But it lit a fire that still burns. I need to see more. I need to go further to uncover the secrets of Atlantis. Some legends are destined to be retold. There you have it. Not one but two Tomb Raider games. Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis, a reimagining of Lara’s iconic debut from 1996 for the 30th anniversary in 2026 next year. And Tomb Raider Catalyst, a brand new game and Lara’s biggest adventure yet in 2027. And now for something completely unexpected. Hi, I’m Robert Kirkman, co-creator of Invincible, and I’m here to introduce a brand new character to K Game Awards. Sorry, Robbie K. I got this. I see you, Key. Love what you’ve done with the place, Rex. I was just here to introduce a world premiere. Look, I am the world premiere. Cue the lights. Cue the orchestra. Cue the seething jealousy. And meet the second best character in our 3v3 fighter, Invincible Versus. Roll it, Kirky. What the? I said roll it, Kirkman. Roll it. You don’t know my name now, but you will once this is over. I never been to jail. Tell me that I’m in your jail. Uh, who is she? She may be some minor earth hero. My name is Elementals. You seem pretty cool. But that won’t stop me from kicking your ass. Call this minor’s all away. Let me show you what the elements can do. You won’t escape. All right. Next, we’re excited to share the global announcement of an upcoming game coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo Switch. Doesn’t that look fun? A two-player co-op game starring Maki and Omura with a retro anime universe aesthetic. Orbitals is coming in 2026. Now it’s time to present some other Jeff. Jeff. Yes, Piggy. Jeff. Ralph isn’t here yet. Ralph the Dodd. Yes. My accompanist, my my compan the piano player. Yeah, I I thought you guys were rehearsing for later. You know, we’re actually live in the middle of the show. He’s not here yet. We’re not rehearsed. He doesn’t know the song. What What am I going to do? Piggy. Piggy, we have awards. We have announcements. You know what? Go with this guy. He’s going to help you. Get you ready for later in the show. Okay. Help me. Yeah. Right there. Right there. And scene. All right. Well, I’m sure that’s gonna work out. Ralph’s probably just stuck in traffic. It’s okay, Piggy. It’s okay. All right, more of that later. Now, we’re here to honor another group of nominees and winners. First up, here are the nominees for best action adventure game. Death Stranding 2 on the Beach, Ghost of Yote, Hollow Night, Silk Song, Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, and Split Fiction. And the game award goes to Hollow Knight Silk Song. See, you guys won. All right, here are the nominees for best art direction. Claire Obscure, Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, On the Beach, Ghost of Yotay, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight Silksaw. And the game award goes to Clare Obscure Expedition 33. Now, another genre. The nominees for best sim strategy game. Those are Final Fantasy Tactics: The Evil Chronicles, Jurassic World Evolution 3, Sid Meyer Civilization 7, Tempest Rising, The Altars, and Twooint Museum. This year, the game award goes to Final Fantasy Tactics: The Evil Chronicles. Congratulations, Square. Now, the nominees for best debut indie game. Blueprints, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Despalote and Dispatch. And the game award goes to Clare Obscure Expedition 33. Congratulations to all the winners. We’ll have much more game awards ahead, but right now, here’s a first official reveal of Wthering Waves 3.0 coming on Christmas Day and a nominee tonight for both Players Voice and Best Mobile Game. All I did was add a turbocharger, tweak the suspension, and upgrade the brakes. Hardly a violation, wouldn’t you say? So, this trip’s theme is back to school, huh? Welcome to Torch Academy. We did promise to witness it together, didn’t we? I I want you there to witness it. The rise of the new sun. Initiating criticality protocol. Don’t blink. You’ll miss the best part. The way to Hyroy is open. It’s time for you to return. Journey back, I’ve been waiting for this. 3. There it is. The Google Play. The most valuable jewel in the game. Earn them by playing the stuff you love. Then trade them in for the sweetest in-game items. Score the latest IRL swag or up your game with limited edition merch. Victory is yours and so are rewards with Google Play points. Go reward yourself. Go play. I walk highions. There’s a fire. I feel my way. Even when I find the sky fight and Enough. With every celebration of hubris, your hatred grows. Look around. Would be heroes, influencers, executives. You, how far would you go for that trophy? Death, decapitation. And you streamers are no better. Reiker Shroud, you’ve corrupted more minds than even I can imagine. Ah, if it isn’t Jeff Keley, creator of this crucible of jealousy. Impressive. As for the rest of you, who of you is worthy of facing me? For I am the Fisto, lord of hatred, and you are nothing. The path to domination is paved with the souls of the willing. Soon all of sanctuary will be bathed in hatred and none shall escape the flood. Meisto, you shall darken the world no longer. There will be those who believe that they alone can stand against the inevitable. And I invite them to try. Diablo players, your wait is over. Get in the fight and play as Paladin today and get ready for Lord of Hatred coming in April. It is great to have Blizzard here at the Game Awards. Want to know who else is here? Well, it’s time for an update from Marvel Rivals, a nominee tonight for best ongoing game about the latest Marvel hero set to join the game in 2026. What’s up, Game Awards? It’s about I made Marvel Rivals the most hero packaged shooter ever. But first, some hot redhead is trying to blast my ass a few new holes. Have I got a surprise for her? Boy, this is going to be fun. Easy now, fellas. I’m the one who set you free. Hey, this was not the plan. All right, you rejects. Get Tyrannosaurus run. Come on. I’m not even a What’s this game’s tagline? Ignite the battle. Woohoo. And that’s why I have dream movies, baby. Yeah. Now, why’ I do this again? Uh-oh. Oh, right. She’s my rival. Please welcome actress, producer and activist Gemma Chan. Hello game awards. I have the pleasure of playing Dr. Selena Tan, head of the tactical simulations for QAB in 007 verse light. James Bond has long had the fortuitous, some might say daring, habit of crossing paths with rather dashing antagonists. And this one is undoubtedly unforgettable. Take a look. So this is a left. You’re in the lion’s den, Bond. Try not to draw attention to yourself. me never. I am sometimes asked, “Bothma, how is it that you hear every whisper in every corner of Alf?” And I answer, “I built ALF with my will, my blood, my whole self. This city is an extension of my being. My body today it became infected. Easy girls. Plenty of meat for everyone. Girls, of course. Please welcome Bama himself, fourtime Grammy winner, Lenny Kravitz. Good evening. Was a great honor to be asked to join 007 first light from my first voyage into the world of video games. When I invited me to play Bumma, a wild, unpredictable pirate ruler of Africa’s biggest black market hub, I knew I was stepping into something special. Where others see chaos, Bubma sees freedom. He rose from nothing, broke free, and built his own kingdom of Alf. And his story is just beginning. Every world we build needs the power of rhythm through music. These musicians can turn violence into beauty and silence into tension. Here are the nominees for best score and music. Best score in music leveled up by Spotify. What is your dream? And the game award goes to Lauria Tesar. Thank you so much. We we’re so happy to be here tonight. It was incredible to play in Viet in live with you. It’s incredible. Thank you so much. Um I I have a letter I would love to to read. Um sorry. Um I would really love to to start by thinking all the musician who work on the soundtrack with us who give their soul and their end and their voice to the sound of the music. Um I also want to thank you Alis to standing by my side. Say it’s an immense gift to share this journey with you. Thank you for carrying each not through with within you and for letting Alicia’s loses resonate in the world of clouds. Thank you Giam for lingering on one of my song on that night. when story is line and thank you to all my loved one to for their love and their support during all this years and to all the players. Thank you for letting CL obscure and music find a place inside you. You are the lumier that make us want to keep painting, keep loving and keep dreaming. Thank you for reaching out your hands to us. We don’t know the colors of tomorrow, but we are ready to pen them with you. Thank you to the untreated tomorrow. I would like to say something too. We are so grateful to receive this award tonight. It’s a wonderful reconation of our work over the past five years. A hug thank you to Laurian who made this world adventure possible and a big thank you to Senful Studio for their trust and unwavering support. Thank you everyone. Tomorrow comes For a limited time only, Prime members can go to amazon.com/thegameawwards to save up to 25% on select gaming hardware and accessories from brand Turtle Beach, Lenovo, Samsung, and more. Please welcome from Warframe community director Megan Everett and creative director Rebecca Ford. Hello Game Awards. Hello Rev. How many registered users is Warframe at? No, that’s an inside joke for Warframe Twitch chat Megan. All right. Hi Twitch chat. Hi Game Awards. We’re here for Warframe. We launched our biggest update of the year. the old piece just yesterday. And all things considered, the update went smooth. So, we’re not here to finally announce that we’re coming out of open beta 12 years later. No, we’re still in beta 12 years. And you know, in those 12 years, all we have learned is that Ben Star will do anything for money. But in all seriousness, we have an amazing community of Tenno and Warframe and now envoys with Soulframe and we truly wouldn’t be here without them. So Reb, why are we actually here? We are here to outsource the question of what is Warframe? We have completely given up answering it ourselves. Warframe was once ninjas in space, which it still is, and we clung to the tagline ninjas play free. But it’s time to let a legend tell you what is Warframe. What is Warframe? Cursed to walk through this senseless universe in living metal, haunted by dreams. Excalibur Mag Vault. Names that echo an ancient purpose now lost to them. The war they were created to fight is long forgotten. And yet they wake. They stir. What drives him? We have residual instinct or some separate conscious force. We may not know, but there is one who does. They hear her voice, a blanket against the horror. They insist blindly upon humanity and its worth, even in the face of ultimate indifference. But with so little understanding of what they have taken, what they still owe to me. Wake up, Tenno. After a thousand-year long epic battle ended, the world finally regained peace. However, the book of stars disrupted the flow of time and a new darkness awakens. Now, a new destiny calls to us. for the new tale we are about to create. Together we run bound by destiny. A co-op openw world RPG for everyone. The seven deadly sins origin. This is why we’re gay. That’s right. Hogwarts Legacy is free on the Epic Game Store right now. And there’s even more Harry Potter fun coming later this month to Fortnite with customizable Hogwarts house outfits. Play Hogwarts Legacy on EGS before December 18th and unlock a Harry Potter chocolate frog back bling in Fortnite. It’s the world we live in, guys. All right, back in 2023, Lawrence of the Fallen surprised and impressed players with its brutal combat, dark fantasy world building, and stunning dual realm design. Tonight, we have your first ever look at the game play of the sequel, Lamp Bearer. One must travel many paths on the roads to salvation. Paths through light, paths through shadow. I will walk them with you wherever they may lead. No matter the cost, it’s a place I’ve ever Father, forgive me. Wish list now. Lords of the Fallen version 2.5 with new veteran mode out today. This net’s next set of awards recognizes diverse set of games across a variety of genres. Here are the nominees for best sports racing game. EA Sports FC 26, F1 25, Mario Kart World Rematch, and Sonic Racing Crossworlds. And the game award goes to Mario Kart World. Congratulations, Nintendo. Here are the nominees for best community support. Balders’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy 14, Fortnite, Hell Divers 2, and No Man’s Sky. This year, the game award goes to Balders’s Gate 3. Think I won that last year. All right, here are the nominees for best VR AR game, Alien Rogue Incursion, Arkan Age, Ghost Town, Marvel’s Deadpool VR, and The Midnight Walk. The game award goes to The Midnight Walk. Congratulations, Now, the nominees for best roleplaying game. Avowed, Clare obscure expedition 33, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, and The Outer Worlds 2. This year, the game award for RPG goes to Clare Obscure: Expedition 33. And finally, here are the final five nominees for Players Voice, a 100% fan voted award. Claire Obscure Expedition 33, Dispatch, Genchin Impact, Hollow Knight, Silk Song, and Worthering Waves. This year, the fans selected Worthering Waves as the winner. Congratulations. All right, and now we’ve got something great for you. Please welcome actor Rahul Kohley. Good evening. Uh I play Arjent Devraj in the upcoming Saros from the amazing teams at Housemark and PlayStation. For the last 30 years, the Housemark name has been synonymous with thrilling action, satisfying gameplay, and of course, bullet hell. It’s been an honor working with them, not just as an actor, but as a fan of Stardust, Returnal, and literally everything in between. We cannot wait for you all to play when Saros lands next year. And here’s the debut of our new story trailer. The sun is forever. We promised we’d never be aart. It blazes. It was promised. I need to know that I just made the right decision. It’s me, boss. Wait, how how long? Since the last time the son died, mate, you’ve left us here. We’ve lost people. There’s There’s no way to get home. And you This is what it does. It gets in our heads and it twists and it turns. I won’t break our promise. I will make everything perfect again. I know you’re here and I will find you. SOS looks great. It’s coming next April and I’m very excited that Rahul is starring in it. To present our next award, I am honored to welcome a previous TGA winner. He’s the writer and director of some of the biggest and most critically acclaimed video games of all time. Grand Theft Auto 3, four, five, Vice City, San Andreas, Red Dead Redemption 1 and two, and Bully. He’s the co-founder of Rockstar Games, and now the founder of a new studio, Absurd Ventures, where he is busy writing and creating novels, comic books, animated series, and yes, two big upcoming unannounced openw world games. It is my honor to welcome to the TGA stage for the first time an industry icon, Dan Howser. Thank you. Good evening. It’s a real pleasure to be here. In the 29 years I’ve been doing this, we’ve seen games emerge as the premier premier art form of the 21st century. More than any other medium, video games have the power to take the audience on a journey both physically and emotionally. Games don’t just tell us a story, they let us live it. The story becomes the experience driven and shared by the players choices. It’s a level of shared authorship that’s unique to video games. And when that all comes together, it’s almost magical. And so here are the nominees for best narrative. Best narrative. One stroke and everyone of that age vanishes into nothingness. This thing between us. It was a mistake. I will find every last member of the Yot 6 and I will bring you peace. I always dreamt of leaving this place, becoming more than a peasant. I hate it all. I’ll destroy it all. And the game award goes to Claire Obscure, Expedition 33. God is uh wow there are a lot of people here. Hi. Um there are so many people to thank. Um but uh first and forever is my husband. Um he is my light in the darkness. Uh thank you to our beautiful player community. Um thank you for welcoming our characters into your hearts. In games, a story is a shared creation. It starts with words on a page, but the player experiences it through the work of each of our teams. Character and environmental design, quests, combat, UI, cinematics, acting, music, VFX, and through localization into other languages. All of that is supported by our producing and our technical teams. The last ingredient is our players who interpret the story in the context of their own lives. and who keep our story alive through their own creative expression and discussions. The marvelous thing about games is that we create that experience together, our team with our players. Thank you so much. For a limited time only, Prime members can go to amazon.com/thegameawwards to save 20% on the new active play system, Next Playground, bundled with a 12-month play pass and travel case. Next, I have the honor of announcing a world premiere. The next game from a small studio in Upsala, Sweden. Neon Giant known for The Ascent. This is No Law Port Desire, a city that don’t belong to anyone, but everyone wants a peace. No laws, no oversight, just the jungle creeping back in. Both the vines and the people. The mayor stepped in where the government couldn’t. Said the city needed order and they’d be the ones to bring it. Keeping the peace on their terms. I walked away from it all. Kept my hands in dirt instead of blood. But desire is a fickle mistress. The city won’t let me go. It won’t forget my name. I asked for nothing and they still came and took everything. The mayors and anyone that stands in my way, every last one of them, they’re going to learn something real simple. You reap what you sow. We’ll all be looking forward to that. And good morning to everyone in uh Sweden and Europe. I know it’s a late night. And we got a lot more show for you, but coming up, we’ve got more awards like best game direction. Todd Howard is here to present that from Bethesda and more announcements, including one I promise you that nobody could have anticipated. But right now, Game Awards, get ready to get on your feet. Earlier this year, Netflix’s Devil May Cry brought Capcom’s iconic game franchise to life as an exceptional animated series, nominated tonight for best adaptation. The show also featured a number one single from our next performers who just announced their 2026 world tour. Here to perform Afterlife, please welcome Eanessence. And we just like you can’t find you in the from this fry. I think you’re finally broken. If you don’t always be haunted, I feel the watching tonight. I’m holding on to what I’ll see you in the light. Save me from this pain. Wonder why all the world out of tears cry today. No one hears me for my revenge. It’s going to play these sand in the fire. We all die in the end. My judge me. Save me from this pain. You wonder why I’m fall. out of tears to pray. You’re free today. So good. Talk about a performance. Devil May Cry season 2 will premiere on May 12th, 2026 only on Netflix. Give it up one more time for Amy and Evan Essence. That was incredible. All right, there is more game awards ahead, including more new game announcements and of course game of the year presented by last year’s winner. Which game will take home the trophy this year? Stick around to find out. Lauren Balf and the Game Awards Orchestra are tuning up If you give a gamer a game, they’re going to want to play it. If they play it, they might love it. If they love it, they’ll want to play other games they love, too. So, you’ll build them a place to discover more cool games, more than that. Perfect. But then they’ll want to play those games anywhere and everywhere, like here, here, here, or even on this beast. And if they can play everywhere, they’re going to want to keep tabs on those games and everything else they love in one place. So, you’ll give them a UTAP, a home base that tracks all their play, no matter how they play, with one souped-up profile to rule them all. Whoa. So, if you give a gamer all the games the freedom to play anywhere and everywhere and a UTAP to keep it all in one place, they’re definitely going to want to go play. 47. An urgent threat has emerged in Dartmore. One that can have catastrophic consequences on a global scale. Careful, one touch can be deadly. Please welcome the actress behind Hitman’s Next Elusive Target, Ma Yovich. Hi, Los Angeles. And hello to gaming fans around the world. I’m thrilled to be making my debut in a video game as the next elusive target in Hitman: World of Assassination. The hunt begins February 2026. Now, I’m happy to present the game award for best multiplayer. Modern multiplayer represents a monstrous challenge in game design. I mean, imagine having to develop games that account for the absolute unpredictability of thousands of live opponents or even worse, the persistent dumbness of a human teammates. It’s no easy task. And tonight’s nominees all pull it off in their own inspiring way. Here they are. Best multiplayer game. They said the world above had ended, so you learned to listen. Oh Tragedy must be averted. I need your help. You have to do a sprint jump. Careful. Be careful. We sure cause a lot of explosions. Wow. I see people have a lot of favorites on here. Who do you want? All right. All right. All right. All right. I got it right here. And the game award goes to our greatest Woo! Congratulations. Wow, incredible with this list of nominees. Who would have thought? Um, first of all, thank you all. And on behalf of the Arc Raiders team, this incredible team, we’d like to thank our loved ones for supporting us and cheering us on along the way. Embark Studios as a whole because as we all know it takes a village for the fearless leadership of our dear Patrick Southerntherland. The um partners in Nexon whose unwavering u trust in us took us all the way here and made it all possible. And of course the players whose love and engagement just means the world to us. Thank you all. Congratulations, Arc Raiders. You know him from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Stranger Things. Please welcome to the Game Awards, David Harbor. For 25 years, Creative Assembly has entertained millions of people all around the world with the Total War franchise. Guys, today I’m here to help announce where Total War is going next. And it’ll be in a universe that is so close to my heart. I’m excited to reveal that Total War is headed to the grim, dark future. with Total War. Warhammer 40k. Some of you may know this, but uh you some of you may not know this, but I am a huge fan of tabletop gaming. I’ve painted endless miniatures, spent a crazy amount of time dropping dice under a table. Of course, as you might expect, I’ll be in the game. It connects to some of some of my favorite aspects of the universe. But more details on that later. Let’s take a first look at Total War Warhammer 40k. In the grim darkness of the far future, every soul’s survival hangs by a thread. Mankind is beset by endless tides of aliens, traitors, and demons. Across countless worlds, battles rage. Lead your armies. Conquer worlds. Fight on as the galaxy burns. For there is no peace amongst the stars. There is only war. 30 seconds to target. Respond. Bandits inbound. Take a look. What a sight to behold. It’s all over. The last lands of the FCU, the Federation of Central Asia. First of all, thank you for joining us on this ship. Hello there, my dear newcomer. You are very lucky, you know. Yes, we are critically under manned on this ship. Don’t worry at all. The man in front is Jan Rexco, the wings of thieve. You’re riding shotgun with the legendary Ace of Aces. He’s a mass delusion fabricated by the rumor mill of social media. Radar contact. We think it’s the shadows. Our low target is wings. I’ll draw fire. Time to pull out 22. Roger that. God damn it. Start swimming, soldier. Make it home alive. Let’s keep at it, Rex. Ray, heads up. On your orders, Rex. To keep up alive, wings of thieve must stay on the mission. Must fly on. I can make up your kill count to be whatever. All right. From now on, you’ll be the greatest ace pilot this war will ever know. Yes, that’s right. Ace Combat is back in 2026. Thanks to Bandai Namco for that. Over the past few weeks, fans have been visiting the Game Awards vote in Fortnite to help us select the best creator made island of the year, and Genesis Squid Game came out on top. Congrats to that team, and head over to the Game Awards Island now live in Fortnite to play all the nominees with the island code that you’re seeing below. All right, next from the creative minds at Fuse Games, some of the key folks behind Burnout and Need for Speed comes an allnew racing experience. I want it back the way it was before the Empire shut it down. Massive engines, lightning fast, lives on the line. The pilots were incredible. Best of the best. United by one beautiful dream. The galaxy needs racing. Heat. Heat. You you what were your names again? Well, I can’t call you and whom can I shall give you names. Namy name or namey. Yes, Naomi and you. Bad boy. Yes, children. I have a feeling. It’s a feeling of destiny. Follow me, Naomi and Bad Boy. Destiny awaits. Such a beautiful game that was out of words a uh stop motion co-op game being developed uh over in uh Denmark and it’s a great game coming next year. And now I’d like to welcome back an icon, a legend who pushes entertainment forward with each of their new projects, someone I consider a dear friend and a friend of the show. Please welcome Miss Piggy. I am so sorry. I am so sorry everyone, but I will not be performing a song this evening. No, no, no. So sorry. It’s it’s all because of my accompanyth. I’m my accompanistas that this dog was late as usual. Hey, sorry I lost track of time. I was out taking myself for a walk. Oh, same old excuses and jokes. Hey, they liked it. Let’s go. It’s time for you to sing, pig. Sing. Sing what? We haven’t rehearsed anything. And And where is the grand piano? Huh? Yeah. wouldn’t fit in my hatchback. Listen, uh what are you worried about? You know, we’ll just uh we’ll wing it. Wing it? Sure. Who knows? Maybe it’ll all work out. How about uh something like this? In a world where gaming games are so exciting, uh waiting all year long until the time will come. Your turn. What? I can’t just make up any words without some meaning. Pretty good. This is stupid. This whole thing is really dumb. Hey, you got it. So, if you’re looking for some friends, just stick around. Oh, yes. The Game Awards will never let you down. Good luck. Excuse me. As we all now come together across the Great Divide. Oh, from Tokyo to London, we’re all watching side by side. So, if you’re looking for some fun, the time is now. Here we go. Oh, yes. The Game Awards will never let you down. Yeah, we’ll see what go ahead. Uh, it’s a night of magic and online chats galore. Exactly. It’s a shame that host Jeff Keelley is such a boore. Hey, kidding. All the trailers and celebs and big awards. Really rigged. Don’t forget about all our friends on Discord. Oh boy, I’m getting so excited about this wonderful world of gaming. Well, here’s some awesome titles you simply can’t ignore. You mean the names of all the games that I’ll be playing? Yeah. Now, let’s get ready. Let’s get set. You guys keep score. What am I having? Oh, there’s Mario, Minecraft, Legend of Zelda, nominee, Donkey Kong, Bonanza, Kingdom Hearts Peak, Shovel Knight, Fortnite, Overcook, Tomb Raider, and Madachi Life, Indiana Jones, Barbara Robles, and Shenmue, Fall Guys, Come Under Tail, It Takes Two, and I know you’ve all been waiting so long for the delayed release of Hollow Night Souk song. Glad I didn’t have to do that. A two three. So, when I’m Princess Peach wearing my Supra proud. Oh, yes. The Game Awards will always let you down. Stop it. Your turn. Oh, I can’t think of anything now. I need it now. Oh, the game awards will never let you down. But the pig just did. You’ll have a place to wear your sparkly gown, everyone. Oh, yes. The game awards will never let you down. The game awards. Gotta love them. The Muppets, everybody. Thanks, Miss Piggy and Ralph the dog. It all worked out in the end for them. All right, the Gamer Wars will be right back after this new look at Do Night Abyss. This is why we came. Switch the light, crack the door, started wishing, found a mission. Break a glass, ring the bell. Super that I can’t see with my humanity in the mirror just a little clearer. So the warning signs I see the good eye as nearer. I won’t shed a tear. I look for gold then it turn it turn to rust. I’ll look for faith. If it leads, it leads to us. Give me something to grow. Somewhere that I know I’m chasing the counties. Tell me lies. Make it up. Take a picture. Take me with you. I don’t care what you say. I’m making a different day. It’s a new world. It’s a new world. I don’t care where this goes. I’m making it highs and lows. It’s a new world. It’s a new world. Give me something. I know. I’m chasing the mess. That was the announcement of One Republic’s partnership and a new song with Ark Knight Enfield, which arrives January 22nd, 2026 on PlayStation 5, PC, and mobile. You can pre-register now and be the first to join the Frontier. Okay, here’s another world premiere only for you here at the Game Awards. No one goes near that place. At least not anymore. But you I knew it. You’d never break so easily. But why did you come back? The order’s blades are coming. They failed once. They won’t fail again. Please take it. Save our people. The girl’s nothing but a shower now. She’ll never be the same. You broke my blade, but we broke your spirit. Phantom is movement. Striking from where none expect. Blade is breath. We channel it into steel. Turning any blade into a divine weapon. When Phantom and Blade unite, no enemy stands. Who are you? Phantom Blade Zero looks incredible and I cannot wait to play that on PlayStation and PC when it comes out next September. Now to present our next award. Few creators have changed the landscape of games the way this man has. From The Elder Scrolls to Fallout, his games have helped define our industry and shape the way we explore digital worlds. Please welcome the studio head and creative director at Bethesda Game Studios, Todd Howard. Game development is the ultimate team sport. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a team of 10 or a team of hundreds. Art, design, audio, engineering, and more have to come together as one. Game direction is that glue. and the games that have had them all come together. Well, they touch us. They become a part of us. And that’s why we’re here tonight to honor them. Here are the nominees for best game direction. Best game direction. Everyone vanishes into nothingness. I couldn’t protect you. I found something new to live for. Time itself is against us. Holy crap. And the game award goes to Expedition 33. King. Wow. Hello. Yeah, this is uh quite intimidating. Wow. Uh yeah. Well, let’s get to it. Um, yeah. So, back in Brussels in 2020, I received the mail just anonymously. Uh, just, yeah, make a game, they said. It would be fun, they said. Yeah. What’s the worst that could happen, right? Yeah. Well, well, fast forward for a few years. Uh, and still to this day, we still look at each other of how crazy this timeline is, for sure. still don’t really understand, but you know, uh it’s a timeline, however, where we’re eternally grateful for the support and love we’ve received as well. Um all the ones with us tonight and the ones abroad, friends and family who believed in us and made this dream come true. And yep, I love to thank my wife as well. She couldn’t make it here tonight, but she I think she’s watching it. in she’s in Brazil so time uh the time difference is quite quite huge but yeah anyway thank you all so much have a lovely evening yeah congratulations sandfall a big night for Independent games all right we’ve come to a very special point in tonight’s show, especially for those of us who have been playing games for decades. Over the years, there have been many games, characters, and franchises we’ve all wish would return, and certainly many I’d hope that we’ll be ready to announce at an event like this one one day. Tonight, I’m excited to share this piece of news with all of you. The world needs you again. An ally Finally. I’ve been asking Capcom for years. This was the year in 2027. Cannot come soon enough. And even got a very early glimpse at first gameplay. The team really wanted to share that with you tonight to show the classic 2D style that they’re returning to. Coming up, game of the year. But first, an exclusive new look at the Super Mario Galaxy movie coming to theaters next April. I’m Bowser Jr. and I’m going to be taking my father now. Uh, hi. I’m Luigi. I trust you’ll be able to rid us of this crucible. The light who traverses time. None shall interfere with my course. Become the spirit stone. This war has an inevitable conclusion. One that is only a matter of time and the culmination of my journey. Arise. Join me in shadow. I am the monarch of shadows. Solo leveling arise. Overdrive available now. You know, sometimes our last reveal at the Game Awards is a teaser for something years and years away. Not tonight. Our final world premiere comes from 61 members of the team that built Apex Legends in Titanfall. Four years ago, the principles founded a new independent studio with the hopes of pushing the shooter genre forward with a new original game. They’ve done it in complete secrecy, which is even more amazing because the game is very deep into development. The power of independent self-published studios to push this medium forward is a growing and I think positive theme in our industry. And so tonight, you’re not only going to get the announcement of the game, but also your first look at the game play. I’ve played it and after after you see this trailer, I think you’re gonna want to as well. Welcome to Highguard. Into lands uncharted and dangers untold. I venture without fear and ride without rest. For coin or for cause, I fight to the end. Here we go. Bringing the heat. Your light belongs to me. Moving in for the attack. Shield breaker forming. Strike fast. Case tower coming in. 30 seconds. The enemy is our gate. I’m coming for you. baddies from above. It’s my turn. I am the coming storm. I am a warden and this is my oath. Pretty crazy. That’s right. HighG Guard launches in just 7 weeks on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. It is insanely fun to see, fun to play, as you saw in that trailer. And now it’s time for our final award. Last year, Astrobot took home game of the year. And so the tradition goes. This year we’re lucky to have that game’s director present game of the year this year. From Team Asobi, please welcome Nico Day. Good evening or good day wherever you are. Um this is it right. So last year we were blessed with a huge honor on this very stage. Um so it is with a great joy that we’re back today uh to pass this incredible award onto another team. Congratulations to all nominees tonight with your games. You made us travel, dream, sweat, laugh, and sometimes al very often cry actually. From kids to hardcore gamers, there was truly something for everyone this year. And have you noticed the games nominated this year were created by teams from all over the world. This is a testament that our industry feeds from various world cultures. And in this day and age, this is something we should really really appreciate and celebrate. And also each of these games had amazing music. So without further ado, please enjoy the nominations for game of the year courtesy of the game awards orchestra. Maestro, take it away. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Number three. Heat. Heat. We’re breaking through down to the car. No stopping us. Not anymore. Inside the storm. I found the key. Now my voice recording me in harmony will strangle boys. And the game of the year is My voice is so holy Heat. Heat. What a weird timeline for us. This was supposed to be a joke. the bar not in your eye have no idea what’s happening. Uh well I want to thank first the incredible team at Sunfall Interactive. Uh they are not watching from home as we brought literally everybody here to celebrate with us. So I love you guys. I also want to thank Kepler Interactive, our publisher, but also our localization teams, our play testers, our wonderful cast for both motion capture and voice, and all the people who worked on this game to make it happen. It’s really a team work. So just thank you to everybody who contributed and also I want to extend a thank to the unsung heroes of this industry the people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game because we had no idea how to make a game before. So thank you and I’ll extend a personal thank you to an important man in my my life Mr. Honibu Sakaguchi who made me fall in love with games and inspired me to become a game dev. So, thank you, Mr. And finally, just a massive thank you to the players for all your covers, your fan art, your endless arguing about which ending is a good one. That’s wonderful to read. Thank you so much. And I think that actions are worth more than words. So, if you remember, we promised some content a few months ago. So, I’m very happy to say that it’s releasing now and you can just go and play. It’s free. New weapons, new quest, new boss, just the cool stuff. So, just thank you so much. Uh you changed our lives. You changed the studio’s life and it’s really wonderful. So, thank you. And for those who come after Congratulations to Sandfall, an amazing game of the year winner. And that is going to do it for the Game Awards 2025. Thank you all for watching, voting, and being a part of this community. And congratulations to all the nominees, winners, and teams who debuted new games tonight. We’ll see you again on Friday, June 5th for our biggest Summer Game Fest ever from the Dolby Theater in LA. And we’ll be back right here at Peacock Theater for the Game Awards next December. Thanks to our entire Game Awards team and everyone who helped make this show possible. Happy holidays. Good night, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the 2025 Game Awards. Now, it’s time to break down all the biggest reveals, announcements, game trailers, and more. I’m your host, Damon Hatfield, along with co-hosts Alak and Nick Leone. Woo! That was a long run of a lot of trailers, previews, world premiieres. Lots of world premiieres. Just a sort of an onslaught. Uh, but there’s definitely a lot to talk about. Let’s jump into uh absolutely one of the biggest reveals of the show, Star Wars: Fate of the Republic, spiritual successor to Knights of the Old Republic, which was uh directed by Casey Hudson. Now he’s returned. Uh, I’m very excited. Although, we should point out this has got to be in very the earliest stages of development because this studio was only founded in July of this year. I mean, they’ve canceled a whole Knights of the Old Republic remake before we got this. So, I could only assume this is at least three years away at this point. But, it does feel nice to see Casey Hudson back at home. Uh, kind of full circle. It’s real nice. It feels nice to have a Star Wars game back. Uh, I I just I double We’ll get to that. No, I mean I I love Star Wars. I love Knight of the Old Republic. I’m feeling good about this. I really liked this trailer. You know, it’s uh there’s so many sci-fi games. So, when when it’s not immediately obvious what it is, you start is is this going to be intergalactic? Is this Exodus? But then halfway through, I don’t I think it’s cuz like the the the red light that our character wanders into, I was like, “Well, maybe is this Star Wars? Is this going to be Star Wars Eclipse?” Right. No, it’s something completely different. Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s the thruster and it’s also like the like the the thruster the joystick that they use. I was like that’s very Star Wars adjacent. So, it’s got to be something Star Wars plus the cape. I mean that’s a beautiful thing about something like the Old Republic though. It allows us to kind of separate ourselves from the established Star Wars iconography and you know I mean Knights of the Old Republic is when I was introduced to just there being normal swords in the Star Wars universe. I was like why would you ever want one of those? But turns out they’re pretty good. Yeah. I know Alec, have you you haven’t played Build Republic? Uh, no I have not. I’ve had a lot of people be like, “You have to play this game. You don’t understand.” So, I guess they didn’t get Kotar, but they got what? Potar. F O T I O R. Um, this looks incredibly beautiful. Like, just looking at the cinematic, it just looks so so colorful. It just it looks like the way I want a Star Wars game to look like. So, I can’t wait to dive into the Old Republic with this one. But that also means you haven’t you’re not familiar with the story of Knights of the Old Republic then, right? Not like in a nerdlike way. So, what you should do is try and play it as as soon as humanly possible before before the internet spoils an incredible story for it. Okay. Because it truly is like I I didn’t see that coming. It’s one of the best Star Wars stories. Yeah. In that game. Uh and there’s a remaster of it, too. It’s pretty accessible. Um but I’m I’m I’m wondering. So, it’s this new studio. I don’t think did they announce a publisher? No. Okay. I don’t think so. that Casey Hudson was just as a as a new studio was able to get the license from Lucasfilm to make a new Star Wars game. I think that says something. Oh yeah, 100%. I think I mean he was the face of Mass Effect for better and worse. Like I think that he was uh someone who took a lot of unfair criticism uh especially during the Mass Effect 3 era, but honestly uh I I just I I associate him with some of the greatest RPGs ever made, let alone space RPGs. So this just feels right. if he So, who’s who owns Knights of the Who owns Couttor? Well, I mean, in theory, was was it Saber Interactive doing Nights of the Old Republic? So, aren’t they also part of like Embracer Group or something at this point? So, I I they are just this entity that I assume this giant amorphous entity that owns a lot of things and I don’t truly know what they own, but that feels like the right bucket to cast it into. I’m just wondering if there could be any connection to Cotor. Oh, I mean, it has to be at this point. Think so. I’m just curious if any of the established storylines from Cotor will come back, if we will see, you know, anything related to Darth Revan or anything of that nature. And I think this is also coming on the heels of them announcing a Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2 remake with all of the cut content that um what’s the bio uh the Fallout New Vegas studio name? Oh, Obsidian. Obsidian. Yes, the Obsidian Star Wars um Knights of the Old Republic 2 with all the cut content that was then fan modded back into the game. So that’s coming on the tail end of that that was announced like a week ago, I think. I I think it was maybe announcement that that it fell apart or something. I don’t really Yeah, I wouldn’t hold our breath for that one. Okay. Star Wars Fate of the Old Republic. That sounds great. Looking forward to playing it 2032 whenever that’s done. Uh but we will get to play a new Star Wars game much sooner than that because they announced another game, Galactic Racer. Yes, Pod Racing is back, baby. Sabula’s back. Back. This is so wizard. And it’s coming in 2026. And it’s from Fuse, uh, which is former Criterion devs. I mean, as soon as they said Criterion and you see a pod race, you’re like, duh. Why have they never done a pod racing burnout before, it just it all makes so much sense. Just the high-speed intensity. And again, everyone knows that the best part of Phantom Menace is the extended pod racing sequence. So being able to enjoy that in high fidelity, the the the Darth Ball lights. Okay, that one’s pretty good, too. That one’s pretty good, too. I I love the pod racing in Phantom Menace. So, I was excited to see this in as a as a new game, but not, you know, in Jaku now. Um, so it’s like going back into a different planet and doing pod racing. That’s really cool. It’s working. It’s working. How Okay, I got to know though. I know no one’s ever really dead in Star Wars, but I feel like Sabula died a really hard death during the race in Phantom Menace. How does he come back? No, he survives the end. He just Oh, he he walks back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You’re right. All right. Fair enough. Maybe he learned his lesson. Maybe he’s going to play fair. Yeah. I mean, this is I mean, there was there was the Star Wars Pod Racer that came out at the time around 2000. Like a GameCube. No, GameCube game. PS1. Yeah. Well, 2000 would be Yeah. Yeah. around that era. Um, but yeah, they haven’t really done they there’s so much they could do with it. I think it got a limited run games re-release on like Nintendo Switch One, but I’m I’m surprised. Um, yeah. No, this this all makes sense to me. It’s really interesting to see the the speeders as an addition to Pod Racing, though. I think that’s a a fun thing. It’s just called Galactic Racer, not necessarily just pod racing. That’s true. That’s true. Yeah. There’s all sorts of things they do. I I I’m interested to see pod racing Galactic Racing on other planets besides Tatooine. Yes. Yeah, varied biomes will be very nice. And it looks like it’s going to take us through really iconic uh locations from all of the movies. Um it looked like we saw the down at from Force Awakens, right? I want to know what characters are alive during that time so we can go race with them. Like we’re just set in the continuity. David, well that was there. I mean unless they’re just being like Smash Brothers, whatever. They’re all here. Just throw everybody in. Race as Princess Leia if you want to. That’s fine. Be kind of sick though. Star Wars Mario Kart. Man, this got mean the multiplayer possibilities here. Yeah, this is like a no-brainer game that that shouldn’t have taken this long to get a powder. It feels weird that it has taken this long, but I’m glad it’s here. Okay, those are the two Star Wars games. Then we knew something Divinity was coming. This is This is It was a gnarly trailer. Pretty hardcore trailer. This one will leave an impression on you, this Divinity trailer. It really was. I feel like another game that made me feel this way was the Diablo 4 trailers which I was waiting for and this one had the same effect on me when I s was watching it. I was like, “Whoa, this is going to be a hardcore story.” Um, that was really incredible and I think it sold me. It sold me. It was very impressive. It was very, you know, gory, but there’s there’s something about it that you convinced me like I’m gonna go play Divinity. You got to check it out. Start with Balders’s Gate Three. I I would suggest first before you jump into this because I think you only got like one of these games in you a year. And I think starting with their uh most recent outing is probably the thing that makes sense. But uh this was a really fun trailer to watch with the rest of IGN in our giant atrium that we have because everyone was just like, “Oh my gosh, is this the Witcher 4? Is this is because I mean it looks like they’re about to have the conjunction of spheres in the sky and then it looked like, you know, something like Lords of the Fallen with the guy’s crown on his head.” But I’m just really digging like the folklore of it all. Um, it feels very Wicker Man in in its kind of establishment and setup and then it just becomes more and more hellish as this progresses. Uh, the thing I’m most excited about though is just once again Larry returning to uh a world that they fully own and they have full say over how the course of the history of this world unfolds. Because with Balders’s Gate 3, they are tied to kind of an established universe of what Fyun is as a Dungeons and Dragons entity. with this. They just get to have fun. And um I’m really excited to see what they do with their origin characters this time around because Divinity Original Sin 2 had a pre-written characters that were incredible to play. Balders’s Gate through Balders’s Gate 3 made those characters incredible companions. So, I’m curious to see what the next iteration on that origin character uh formula is with something like this. Yeah, when we were watching this, I was convinced it was for Diablo I. Me, too. Because Blizzard, you know, has always has great cinematics. Um, and the the imagery would fit there. But I forgot I remembered that uh Balders’s Gate 3 also had great and very gross cinematics. A tadpole through the eye, man. Yeah. Yeah, that too. So, this is a tone setting piece. You know, we don’t see any gameplay. Don’t really I would assume years. Oh, was there a date on this? A year or anything like that? I would assume this is at least a couple years out. And I’d be very curious to see if they take an early access route the way they did with Balders’s Gate 3. Um, I would argue that the reason why Oh my goodness. I mean, just vomiting directly into the pig pen and having the pigs eat then the vomit. Just crazy all over. But I’d be very curious to see if they take that early access route because I would argue that the early access route is why Balders’s Gate 3 was so successful. The game went through uh numerous iterations from early access all the way through release and the game changed fundamentally and for the better I would argue. U characters just completely change their arcs and UI and things like that. So I hope they take that route because you know uh it’s it’s the Miiamoto quote. I can’t remember right now. Uh delayed game is eventually good but a bad game is forever bad but not from Miiamoto. Actually not the Miiamoto with an asterisk. Yes. So, what is what do you think this this sort of mood piece tells us? Because it seems like all these people that were enacting this ritual sacrifice got what they deserve. So, what’s our role here? What’s what’s what what what who’s the villain? What’s the what’s the hero’s job here? Well, I I think they unfortunately unleash something uh wrong into the world. And I mean, the thing that I the vibe I got from watching this is something that I get every time I watch a Diablo cinematic where I was like, this is just like blasphemous. like there’s just something evil and um it this should not be and the fact that you can evoke that feeling from people is like hey hats off to your team. You did a good job making me feel very uncomfortable throughout this entire thing. Um but just I love the folklore angle. I think that’s such a again Wickerman’s like one of the greatest horror movies ever made and I think taking that angle with this was uh very good. I just don’t know that I need to see a man burned alive in glorious uh 4K. They wanted to make it as memorable as possible. Don’t forget this game is coming out in like 400 years. Yeah, they succeeded. Whenever there’s a show like this or a State of Play or a Nintendo Direct, I always like to show my six-year-old son a lot of the trailers, but I will not be showing him the trailer. Not the Divinity trailer. Uh, okay. We actually have a few exclusive trailers to show you as a thank you for hanging out with us today. We’re going to show you a few throughout the show. Let’s take a look at the first one right now. That was amazing. Thank you. Heat. Heat. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. We are back breaking down all the biggest announcements from the game awards. So much more we saw tonight that we absolutely have to talk about. But first, many of the games we saw tonight won’t be out for a while. So if you’re looking for something to play right this second, well, not right this second, after the show. Head on over to humblebundle.com where a membership will get you awesome action games like Nine Souls, Streets of Rage 4, Like a Dragon Guiden, The Man Who Erased His Name, and more. That’s humblebundle.com, the same place you’ll find the Humble Holiday Rebundles for 2025. Three bundles launching daily at 9:00 am. So look out for those and get yourself some amazing new games. Let’s get back into it. Resident Evil Reququum. Yes, we could stop talk. We could stop talking around it. We can say his name. Let’s go. Ready? One, two, three. Leon. He’s back, baby. My boy’s back. And he’s never looked better. Grizz. Grizzled Leon. I How does he age so well? I mean I mean he survived a zombie outbreak, a plague outbreak in a remote Spanish village, another zombie outbreak across the Atlantic Ocean. He did Jesse across the entire Atlantic Ocean with the president’s daughter, might I add. Uh dude, I I think this it feels I feel a little bit sad to say like this is what t this is what it takes for me to get fully on board the Resident Evil Reququum train. Seeing him suddenly wield the chainsaw that has decapitated him for all these years, using that to saw an enemy in half, I cheered. Uh, I think the entire IGN Atrium cheered. It was so cool to see. And it is it is the it is exactly what I thought Resident Evil 6 was attempting with each of its three campaigns opting for a different type of survival action survival horror uh of that of that kind. And this is taking a very smart approach. You have Grace Ashcraftoft with the traditional survival horror that we know, you know, it’s the game of cat and mouse where you are the mouse. And then the flip side is Leon where you are the cat now and it’s time to make the bad guys run for cover. Yeah. One of my worries about it when I heard about the rumor was like I hope he’s not just a cannon. And I love that we get to play as him as well. So we have two players, two characters to play through. And it kind of reminds me of Resident Evil 2. We had Claire and Leon. So it’s almost like we get to feel that again. I wonder if they’ll do anything with the zapping system again. You know, that was brought back with R that was established with RE2 where you would do one campaign as I don’t assume that’s the case here. I would assume there’s a very distinct point in the campaign where you play as Leon and then another point where you play as Grace. But very curious to see how that interacts, if there’s any synergy between the two. If you pick up an item in one area, if it’ll be gone for the other character, stuff like that is what the dual protagonist always did in Resident. Will they meet each other? I’m not sure if we saw Oh, I think we just saw them see each other. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, it poses a lot of questions like do do they explore any of the same areas or are they on completely separate paths? How often do they meet? How often do you switch parts? If you if if you really are if if Capcom is in control and there’s just certain parts in the story where you switch characters, that’s kind of like a an a difficult balancing act for Capcom because maybe maybe you’re not ready to give up this the survival horror aspect of it or the action part of it, right? You don’t want to frustrate the player when they’re like, “No, I wanted I did not want to stop playing as Leon, you know.” And I, you know, another thing I’m curious about is just revisiting the locations. I think one of the things that they showcase a little bit more in the trailer, and I can’t remember his name right now, but the they establish the antagonist or what appears to be the protagonist, the sort of mad scientist guy. They say they make mention of him buying a mansion in Raccoon City that was previously owned by Umbrella. I’m pretty sure there’s only one of those in Raccoon City. And I’m pretty sure it’s the Spencer Mansion, but you know, because it’s so high fidelity with the RE engine, I had a hard time telling if that was indeed the Spencer Mansion that we see uh Grace getting ushered into. So, uh again, we are in a post uh nuke raccoon city. I’m very curious to see how that plays into it. Are we going to see irradiated zombies or something that like what is the Crimson uh the Crimson Zombie equivalent? You know, if it if we’re going all the way back to RE1, surely there’s some very scary enemy that we’re going to have to contend with that we haven’t had a chance to yet. I’m curious to see if the scientist guy, whose name I also forgot, he’s got cool eyes. Yeah, he does. Goggles. Um, if he’s going to have an interaction kind of like Mr. Is it Mr. X in the possib feeling of him chasing after you throughout the game because Yeah, Grace is running for cover and she’s kind of hiding around. So, and and and not even that, like there’s also the first person versus third person. Capcom has already said that you can play the game uh completely in first person or third person. I want to know what the default is. Like what do they recommend cuz I’d prefer to do that. Yeah, exactly. And you like scary games? I do. You like Resident Evil? I love Resident Evil. The only one I haven’t played is the first one, Resident Evil 1. I have to go back. Interesting. But I played all of them. Um there’s a couple of details in the press release that came along with this. First of all, Nick, I think you’ll like this. in the deluxe edition. Uh if you get that that you get the Leon’s Resident Evil 4 costume. Oh, that’s awesome. With the jacket. Y. And then they’re going to have a um a a dedicated like presentation for our for Resident Evil Reququum early 2026. It’s coming in February, so January or something. They’re going to do their own thing. But at that point though, I’m just like I don’t want to see any more about the game. I just want to play it. It’ll be one month later. That’s all I need. I get that. Ready to go home to Raccoon City. We’re sold already. Just Just give us the game. Just fast forward to February 2026. Sticking with the sort of uh spooky theme. I don’t know what we’re seeing right there. This is also Resident Evil. Yeah, that was Resident Evil. Sticking with the sticking with the spooky theme. Control resonant. Control 2 is called Control Resident. This is a wild trailer first trailer that they showed here. I mean, it it’s cool. And honestly, this is a stuff that I love about Remedy is that they’re not afraid to break free from the established mold that made the previous game so successful. This game, despite being a control game, looks like it plays completely different. It looks like it’s focusing more on, honestly, it looks more like a Devil May Cry game compared to the original Control with it being a heavy emphasis on melee combat. And it looked like there was like air dashes and things like that. But, uh, yeah, it looks like we’re playing as Jesse’s brother, uh, Prisoner 6, which is, uh, an interesting thing I did not expect because I’m not going to lie, it hurts a little. I do love Jesse quite a bit, especially as a new director of the Federal Bureau of Control. So, I’m hoping that maybe this is another dual protagonist situation or I mean, I trust Remedy at this point to just make a good game uh no matter what. But that said, Alan Wakeake 2 did have a dual protagonist as well. Did you play Control? I played Alan Wake. Yeah, I was really intrigued by the uh uh what they said. They said um we tried to contain everything. we tried to contain came out and it looks like we saw multiple types of monsters throughout the entire trailer and I’m curious about what things we might see. Yeah, I mean that’s that I mean that’s part of the beauty of the Federal Bureau of Control. was, if you’re familiar with the internet terminology, that like the SCP Foundation where there’s this idea that there’s this imagin imaginary organization that is responsible for capturing and containing all the things that go bump in the night and there’s all these strange objects of power scattered throughout the universe that do very different distinct specific things and now they’re all let loose on what looks like to be uh to be New York. Um, one thing that’s interesting about this trailer though is it looks like Prisoner 6 is working in uh collaboration with the bureau. Uh, you know, the the faceless entity that Jesse’s kind of reporting to throughout the entirety of control. So, they always seem like a bunch of scary folk. I’m very curious to see why they’re using a prisoner to do their bidding and what what that means for Jesse at this point. He has an interesting tool at his disposal. This like sort of staff that can transform into different types of weapons. Looks like I mean it looks like the the yin to the yang for of Jesse’s gun, right? Where it’s just like this piece of metal, the stainless steel metal that kind of magnetizes and morphs into have different uh capabilities and uh attributes. So, seems like a right fit. Yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve played Control. Was there any hint that Jesse had a brother? Yeah. Oh, that that was like the through line through the game kind of begins with her entering the Federal Bureau of Control looking for her brother and then it’s revealed that he is this very high-profile thing that’s been captured by the Bureau of Control and there’s like a whole Alan Wake DLC. Uh there there’s a lot about her brother specifically. Okay. We also got another look at Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight which continues to look great. It’s but it is a little bit of a situation like you were just saying with Resident Evil like like I’m already sold on this game. Just just give me the game. I I think this is one of those instances though where every time I see I’m like I’m delighted because I’m like yeah I don’t really spoilers for like a thing that’s showing arcs of like very standard Batman stuff. The one thing I want to know is is Absolute Batman in there? If you’re not reading Absolute Batman, one of the greatest Batman runs currently ongoing right now. Check it out. Hopefully that I’m worried that they’re showing a lot of the jokes from the game. I don’t want them to tell me the jokes. I just want to laugh when I play. But it looks it just looks so so fun. Every time I watch the trailer, it just brings a smile to my face. I mean, all of the characters look look amazing. And are those a clear obscure uh guys? Um I we saw a lot of villains on the trailer and I I I was wondering if you guys spotted any new ones. Um I I saw a lot of the characters that I like. I think we saw um we saw Penguin. We saw Too Faced. Two Face. We saw Robin. Was Robin on the trailer. I don’t know if Robin was established actually as being like a playable character. It looks like he’s playable at least. Plus the Catwoman playing as cat. Playing as a cat. That’s very cute. I mean, it should be pretty exhaustive. Like their last game was uh Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. Every single Star Wars movie in the Skywalker Saga. Every character imaginable. So, I imagine I would think it’s going to be something similar. Just throw everybody in there. And if you if you haven’t already, check out our YouTube because Max and Brian at Gamescom this year interviewed the developers and they basically played like a game of yes or no of is this Batman costume in it? And the the developer was very candid. I did not did not expect them to answer as many of those questions as they did. So, if you want a sneak preview of all the different costumes that are going to be in the game, check that out for sure. We also got a release date. That one’s coming May 29th, which is hilarious because that was three days after when GTA 6 was supposed to arrive. They’re just waiting there. WV just Oh, I guess I guess if nobody wants this release date, I’ll take it. Okay, we got plenty more to talk about from the Game Awards. But first, some brand new trailers we can’t wait to show you. Check these out. Heat. Heat. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. You’re watching IGN’s Game Awards post show coverage. Now, let’s see what the folks online are talking about using our Lenovo Legion 7i, a laptop for everyone. The Lenovo The Lenovo Legion 7i features a GeForce RTX 50 series GPU, latest generation of Intel Core ultra processor, a sleek glacier white design, thermal innovation for improved performance, thanks to the Legion Coldfront Hyper, and Lenovo Pure Sight OLED display for low latency and breathtaking colors for any task. Our first tweet comes from, this one comes from my boy Hayes Madson over on Blue Sky, who says, “I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on Phantom Blade Zero. After what I’ve played and seen, it’s easily one of the most fascinating games of next year. Incredibly ambitious.” And Hayes, I could not agree even more. Again, every time I see this game, it just I I can’t believe it exists. Was this you, Nick, this is my alternate person? This is my alternate persona. I had to get in the show somehow. No, but I I think he makes a good point. I think that the uh this not necessarily debut game uh from the developer because uh Esgame has made uh previous smaller titles, but this is certainly their their first AAA gigantic video game that they even had a full PlayStation direct for. So, uh yeah, I think what we saw incredibly ambitious and I’m I’m digging like the when we saw the trailer I was like, “Oh, this looks like Lone Wolf and Cub to some extent.” And then we see him as a baby. Our character uh S Soul I think is his name. I I forget the character’s name, but he gets rescued as a baby by this man in a mask. And then later at the end of this trailer, we see him having to face off against this man who saved him, which is always always fun synergy. It’s always It’s always good. It’s It’s like poetry. It rhymes. Yeah. I mean, this looks looks great. And this the CGI work is great. And then I the facial animation that we’ve seen that I think is in game cuz it looks like it’s just sort of a conversation that’s happening in game. Really really impressive stuff happening there. And this is like you know a developer that is not very wellnown. Correct. And and again not especially not for a game of this scale. And the thing that always continues to impress me. The thing I love about video games, especially action games, is when they constantly give you new toys to play with, because after a while, you get you get tired of playing with the same old sword, same old uh, you know, shield or whatever. There’s so much variety in terms of all the different weaponry the character can wield. And I’m I’m pretty pumped for it. I’m very curious to see if I could play with the uh original dialect, though. That’d be nice. Yeah, that’s become more and more common. I Yeah, that’s that’s usually a requirement for me, hopefully. And we got a release date for this, too. This is in September. September 9th of 2026. So, uh, a little bit a ways away, but it’ll be it’ll be nice. When is GTA again? That’s in November. Okay. So, that’ll that’ll give us plenty of time to beat Phantom Blade Zero before GTA 6. Something to tide us over. I’m just trying to I’m looking at going to the release calendar here so we can start. I I always like to try and plan your schedules around September. I think this has got to be the only game. Uh, oh, also the Halloween game is is the day before, September 8th. Okay. So, those are two games in September right now. Phantom Blade Zero and Halloween. I think I know which one I’m going to buy. There you go. I know which one you’re going to play, too. Okay. Uh, leaked ahead of time before the Game Awards was the the Tomb Raider release, but that was for the Tomb Raider remake. We actually got we got two Tomb Raider games here. So, first is the allnew Well, let’s do the remake first. That’s coming next year. Tomb Raider Legacy of Atlantis. A remake reimagining of the original 1996 game coming for that game’s 30th anniversary next year in 2026. She looked amazing. She looks great. I love her old costume. Uh she just looks incredible. I loved everything that I saw and I’m excited to jump into the world of Larara Croft in her, you know, original game for the first time remade for 2026. Certainly easier to play, I would assume, now in 2025. Just jumping across the chasm is going to be a little bit easier, I think. Did she do all these acrobatics in the first year? So that’s the when she crawl like she goes up the thing and then she does like style. It’s very iconic from the original. It’s so cool and I’m glad that they they did that. And then as soon as you see the dinosaur print in this I was like, “Oh, the dinos are back. Let’s go.” And then she has like a Max Pain move where she can dive backwards shooting two handguns. Looks great. There’s the swan dive that looks exactly like as it did in the original game. And then the the swimming when she’s swimming. It’s just like I I remember this scene. And now you probably won’t get trapped in a weird angle underwater and drowned to death. Uh no. And this also means Unreal Engine 5. We can lock the butler in the freezer. This is all I want. Thank you so much for making this happen. Crystal Dynamics. Um, yeah, she’s it’s got a voiceover where Lara is talking about it like she’s telling an old tale. Like I remember I remember this the first adventure I ever went on or whatever it was. So, I don’t know. It just be interesting to see. Yeah, that move. I love this. It’s so cool. The way the camera tilts, too. It’s It’s a nice touch. Yeah. I never realized what was missing from newer games until I saw this. just just unnecessary acrobatics. It does actually look like the 2013 Lara, though. You think so? I feel like it they split the difference. Yeah. It’s like, oh, it feels like she grew into this. Yeah, exactly. She’s like 18 in that game. But also, just seeing this, I’m like, this is like the mummy Indiana Jones type stuff. And I’m like, just give me more of that. Games need more giant ball chasing you down a corridor. Yeah. And it’s it’s great that this is coming next year. We won’t have to wait too long. And then they got you with the one-two punch because in 2027 we got what’s the name of it? Tomb Catalyst. Brand new game. Yeah, I’m very excited. I I cannot wait. Uh also a pretty bold move for them to just come out swinging. Two games one year after the other. Baller move, Crystal Dynamics, well done. I mean, I I I love it because I I feel like lately we we we’ve gotten a lot of remakes and it’s good to have a remake and then be like, yes, remake, but also new game. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see. There was that trilogy, the reboot trilogy, 2013 to 2018. Now we get a remake of the first one. What’s this new game going to be like? Yeah. I mean, what what are the learnings they have with um the the uh remake? And what are the things that they want to change and adapt for the new game? Saw some weapons there. I saw a bow. What else did we see from weapons? I mean, we have her infiltrating a little another yet another tomb living up to the namesake here. And uh it seems like we got a glimpse of our protagonist as well. Yeah. I mean, she seems much more confident and sure of herself in that original trilogy. Like we said, she’s very young. She wasn’t an an adventurer yet. She had to sort of grow into that role. Yeah. I mean, notably, she has her first kill in the first game, and it’s actually like a very serious moment. She was like, “Oh my gosh.” I mean, it happens pretty early on in the game. Yeah. You had 12 years. 12 years. Oh, someone at Embracer was like, “You’re not doing enough with Tomb Raider because we got these two games. has got this live action Amazon show coming. So is Phoebe Waller Bridge. She’s like the showrunner. Still show running it. Yeah. Okay. Hey, I like Flea Bag. Sure. And Sansa Stark is Laura Cross. Oh, yes, that’s right. She got like all all like jacked for the role, too. Cool. So, two Tugan Mar games revealed and then there was a new a new Yakaza game was revealed. Wait, hold on. I don’t think you can call it that legally, Damon. You can’t see it, but there was an asterisk on the Yakaza. No, it’s called Gang of Dragons and it’s from what? The creator of Yakuza. Yeah, it’s from Nagoshi Studios. Um, you know, Toshihiro Nagoshi. Uh, yeah. I mean, he’s only made Super Monkey Ball and Yakuza, and it’s like, well, I guess I’m not doing Super Monkey Ball anymore, so let me make another Yakuza. But, uh, notably, he has, uh, one of my favorite actors. He was in Train to Busousan. Uh, I just call him my son with giant arms because that’s what he’s known for. He has very big, large, buff arms. And it looks like he’s cracking heads and taking names. I mean, from what I’ve played of Yakuza, this seems very Yakuza-ish. I mean, it is called Gang of Dragons. Yeah. And the thing that is the audacity of Nagoshi is what is what I really appreciate about the man because the trailer ends with him walking through the Teesha Street signage like you know uh or I’m sorry the um uh uh Kabukicho sorry the Kabukicho uh gate where I was like dude that’s just kamuroo that’s are you allowed to do that Nagoshi? But then again I’m not going to question a man with big arms or a dude like Neoshi. So, hey, it looks like he’s going to have a fun time doing it. So, go for it, man. Cuz I thought there was also that sort of like spin-off from Sega with Project Century. Yes, Project Century. But that one is from uh RG, right? Right. Yeah. Which is actually Yakuza. I thought that might be this at first, but no, this is its own thing. Seems more Yakuza than Like a Dragon. Mhm. Right. I I I would assume so. Yeah. More of like an action brawler, dramatic crime noir uh thriller. I would assume there’s probably some sort of uh land heist going on. Some shady Yakuza dealings. And hey, it looks like there’s a drivable car maybe. Yeah. And guns. That’s not a thing that you typically see too often in Yakuza. Explosions. It definitely looks more action-packed than a standard Yakuza. More action movie, but there it is. Yeah, that is fun trailer. Definitely something I’d want to look more into. All right, coming up soon, we’ve got a look at something special from our friends at Cracked. Later, we’ll be talking to the developers of Action Adventure Game Bradley the Badger. But first, we’ve got another brand new trailer for you. Check it out. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. Well, that just about wraps up our 2025 Game Awards coverage here on IGN. Before we go, I want to get some final thoughts from the panel on how the show was. Let’s start with you, Alak. How was the How was the show this year? I I loved it this year compared to last year. Although last year, I will give it points because of Witcher because I I love Witcher, but I feel like it started strong with Star Wars and then we we ended with some really awesome games. We I mean we’ll talk about Highguard later, but I’m excited to see a new first-person shooter come into you know the world of FPS games. So I loved it. Although I will say though we didn’t get anything from Hideiojima. So I was expecting He was even there. He Wait, he wasn’t? I thought he was. No, he was there. He was. Yeah. So I expected to see something from Fizzant or specifically OD. That’s what I really was looking for. But I’m just really happy we got a new Star Wars game. Yeah. I feel off balance. They show Kojima and there’s nothing. He He didn’t even get to the stage. What’s going on, Jeff? No. Uh, I I thought it was a fun show. Uh, you know, I will always be a little bit sad when I don’t see uh a Final Fantasy. I was in in the smallest, deepest recesses of my heart hoping for Final Fantasy 7 remake part 3 just just to to I know it’s coming, but I just want to see it already. Uh or and you know, I was actually a little bit surprised by the overall lack of JRPGs. We saw a lot of uh gotacha games, which is for a certain audience, but not necessarily myself. Uh but happy for you if you’re happy about that. Uh but yeah, overall some pretty solid games and uh to to Aliex’s point uh from XA Apex devs, Titanfall devs, I’m very excited, especially since they are doing a similar launch cadence. It feels like uh Apex Legends kind of showed up one day and kind of shadow dropped and it feels like Highguard’s about to do the same thing. It’s coming out in like seven weeks, I think Jeff said. So uh late January. Very excited to jump into that. Yeah. Let’s talk briefly about High Guards. That That was his last big reveal um this year. It seems to be like a fantasy uh shooter. A fantasy shooter with guns. Yeah. And horses. And horses. And ridable horses. It kind of seems like instead of jumping out of a plane, you are riding into battle on the horses as your like initial let’s get into position thing. But the one thing that really got my attention was the I wouldn’t necessarily call it doesn’t seem particularly like a hero shooter. Although each character class or character does have their own distinct ability, it reminds me of something like Apex Legends with their ults or even something like Valerant. And I think the beauty of something like Valerant is all of the ults have some sort of like area of denial effect to them. So it forces you to think a little more strategically. And based on what we saw in this trailer, it looks like the impression I got is the multiplayer match unfolds in distinct phases where you kind of get wide open space and it gets narrower and narrower into more arena based combat as you kind of meet in the middle where you have two literal Mortal Engines looking tanks kind of just colliding against one another. So, I’m very curious to see what the overall gameplay loop is like. And it certainly looks distinct and like something I’ve never really seen before. So, that’s got my attention. Plus, coming from the caliber Apex Legends Titanfall, they know how to make a game that feels good to play. And I can’t wait to play yet another good feeling first-person shooter because we need it. Yeah, I I’m specifically interested in how this theme is going to attract competitive players. I think uh we we talk about Apex, there’s a lot of competitive players in there and also Titanfall, too. So, seeing a medieval fantasy theme, I think, is something that some people might be shocked at. At least I was a bit taken aback. I didn’t realize that this would be something I would be potentially trying out, but I’m I’m I’m intrigued by it. I’m curious about how competitively people will uh adopt this game. And I know there’s some people who love hero shooters, some some who absolutely don’t, but this looked like a really fun blend of a lot of things we’ve seen from different shooters. And I mean, they they said it they wanted to create a uh a new breed of shooter, and it looks like they’re they’re doing so. They say anything about when this is coming? Uh January 27th, I want to say it’s like Yeah, it’s seven weeks out. uh free to play as well. So, uh very exciting. I will for sure be checking it out day one. Uh hopefully uh no one’s as good as they are at Apex at this game because now I look at Apex Legends gameplay, I’m like, “Yeah, I’m not doing any of that. That stuff’s crazy. It’s releasing so soon. January 26.” So, Oh, yeah. Yeah. A day of All right, that’s Highg Guard. Uh good show this year. Good show. Two Star Wars games that are surprised. Two Tomb Raider. Yeah, Tomb Raider games. Surprise Lenny Kravitz. So, Lenny Kravitz, villain in 007 First Light. That’s great. I love it. Uh, Resident Evil Recquum’s looking great. And, um, uh, the Divinity trailer was real, real gross. We actually have a few more of our own surprises to show you. So, let’s get right to it with some brand new looks and deep dives at some amazing things heading your way soon. Roll it. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. The original Nitro Deck and Nitro Deck Plus transform the Nintendo Switch gaming experience with added comfort, speed, and my personal favorite touch, no stick drift. But what about the Nintendo Switch 2? We need to know when it’s coming for the Nintendo Switch 2. Here with me to show off something special is global brand manager of Crack, Jack in Charge. Jack, what’s going on, man? Thanks for having me back. All right. I think it’s no secret what you’re here to talk about today, but let’s make it official. What have you got to play with today? So, we’re here to showcase and launch pre-orders for the official Nitro Dec 2 for Switch 2. And I’m so happy to be back. It’s finally here. You finally brought it. You’ve given the people what they want. And when can people pre-order? It’s available right now, right? It’s available for pre-order right now at cracked.gg.crkd.gg. And yeah, I mean, let’s talk more about kind of what makes it different and kind of the improvements we’ve made from from the original Nitro Deck that that people loved. So, walk me through it. How do you actually get a Nintendo Switch 2 connected to the Nitro Deck 2? Yeah, so unlike the original Nitro Deck or the Nitro Dec Plus where the console slid down into the deck, with the Nitro Dec 2, you have this new retractable locking mechanism where you pop the lock and it expands and retracts. Okay. Um, so I’ve got a I’ve got a switch here somewhere. How convenient. I love it. Instead of sliding it down into the deck, uh, you place it now on these rubberized backings. Um, there’s a little guide right here to help you line it up. No longer locked to like that kind of cradle that you need to lock it into. Very similar to like some uh handheld phone devices I’ve seen. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, essentially, you place it in and then uh tighten it on the back so it doesn’t fall out. You tighten you tighten the dial and and that’s it. Um, yeah. No, this is great. One thing I really appreciate about the Nitro Deck line of products is the added heft that they add to the Nintendo Switch. I know it’s going to come down to personal preference, but for me, I like my consoles to feel meaty and have a nice little heft to them. That way, it feels, you know, it feels sturdy in your hands sort of thing. And yeah, no, I’m I’m digging the build. Now, you had mentioned previously that what we’re seeing here is currently a prototype version of the Nitro Deck 2, and I’m already in love with what I’m seeing and feeling here, and it’s only going to get better. Yeah. So, another main difference, too, is kind of the it’s more sculpted and refined. Um, so it feels even more ergonomic in your hands. Um, I mean, you can really feel the difference when it’s in your hands. Also, the placement of that right thumb stick. With the original Nitro Deck, you had it either above or below the the action buttons. With the Nitro Dec 2, we’ve offset it a bit, so your thumb kind of rests more ergonomically for for that kind of handheld experience that that you would want from a from a Nitro Deck. Feels a little more sleek and refined. like it feels more comfortable to hold. It has a nice little weight to it. And me personally, I’m a huge fan of offset analog sticks. I think that is the superior way of holding a controller. And I couldn’t be more thrilled that this is kind of aligning with my sensibilities. Now, you had said that once you lock it in and secure it, it’s ready to go. Is it auto pair? Do you need to do any sort of pairing? You said this connects via Bluetooth, correct? Yeah. So, that’s another great point. Let’s talk about connectivity because with the original Nitroc, remember, it was a wired connection. But with the Nitroc 2, it’s mainly the main connection type is going to be Bluetooth. So, um, you would connect it as you would with a with a Pro Controller. Um, there’s a pairing mode. You pair it. Um, but also if you want to use it for in wired mode, it comes with this U-shape USBC adapter that plugs into the deck and the switch at the bottom. Uh, that way you get the uh the lowest latency possible, right? Because if you’re connected exclusively via Bluetooth, there is the possibility of some latency. Yeah. And depending on the environment too, right, this interference. So now tell me a little bit about uh price point up front. How much is the Nitro Dec 2 available for um purchase? So pre-orders go live today at crack.gg. That’s crd.gg. And the price for the Nitro Dec 2 is going to be $99.99. And that comes with the deck, the centerpiece. It comes with We forgot to mention that it’s backwards compatible with the original switch and the OLED switch because of that retractable design. Mhm. So, you get this um compatibility bar uh that’s built for the OG and OLED. So, you kind of reintroduced the cradle for the OG Switch and OLED. So, yeah, you get that as well. Uh that U-shape adapter and a charging cable. Um and also separately, we’re launching pre-orders for a hard shell case that you see right here, and that’ll be $39.99 as well. I love it. I’m digging the design, and I love the little rubberized tips right here. It’s looking clean and looking classy. Over the last couple years, we’ve been listening to the community. We’ve been making improvements. So, taking all the feedback that we got from the community and trying to put it into the Nitroc 2, trying to think about what people would want in the Nitroc 2, I think we’ve encompassed all of that in in this device and I’m really happy. I’m really proud with this and I’m super excited to bring it to gamers. Yeah, it’s feeling good so far. But would you mind actually walking us through um so you said you guys have been listening to the community quite a bit? Yeah. Could you talk a little bit about how you’ve uh you and the team have iterated on the design of the Nitro Deck and Nitro Deck Plus with two based on feedback, guidelines, anything people might have been saying? Yeah, so let’s run through it real quick. So like I said before, it’s a little bit more sculpted and refined. So it’s a it’s it feels more ergonomic. So with the original Nitro Dec and the Nitro Dec Plus, we introduced Hall effect thumbsticks which essentially eliminated stick drift, right? So what you have in the Nitro 2 is capacitor thumb sticks and we’re calling it cracked captive stick technology. So, we’ve um opted to use capacitor sticks, which essentially is similar but different. There’s no contact points, so you still have that longevity of the stick. There’s still no stick drift. Um but it uses low power, so uh low battery drainage. Um it’s pinpoint accurate. So, you you still have kind of all the benefits that you would get from Hall effect, but you you don’t have that kind of risk of getting magnetic interference when using it with the console. And you can also adjust the um thumb stick. One of my personal favorite touches. I love it. You can also adjust the thumb stick resistance with this resistance ring right here. If you turn it all the way to the left, it loosens up the thumb stick. If you turn it to the right, uh it tightens it up. And that’s just personal preference, too. Maybe you want the right one a little bit more snappy for aiming. You want the left one looser for moving around. Um so it’s just like little features like that. going back to kind of listening to the community and and um you know trying to make and continue to build on what we’ve already built. Uh another improvement that we have is the display stand is made out of metal now. Um that’s classy. Yep. And we’ve also added an extra uh remappable button up by the trigger. I think I I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before, but that looks that’s such a smart decision. Talk talk to me about that a little Yeah. So, with the Nitro Plus, you saw like the the side buttons for the for the original switch, but with the Nitro 2, we opted to to do an extra button on the bumper and call it L2. So, by default, it will be your bumper button, but um you can remap these buttons just like any button on on the Nitro deck, uh whether it’s on the deck itself or or within the cracked app. So, you mentioned that the Captive Stick technology has a low drain on the devices battery. Does the Nitro Dec 2 feature a battery? So, yeah, the Nitro Dec 2 does have a battery, but it’s not for the reason that you think. It doesn’t it doesn’t charge the the Switch 2 console itself. It’s more there for uh battery usage for like uh Bluetooth pairing and low voltage stuff like connecting to the cracked app for firmware updates and customization. Um but yeah, it does have a battery. Because the Nitro Dec 2 is a Bluetooth controller, can you also pair it with like a mobile phone? Yeah, that’s a great question. So, you see these three right here. Obviously, you got switch two in the middle. You’ve got uh the OLED switch there, but al it’s also compatible with the original Switch. Um, and you also got this middle plate. Now, you don’t need to use the middle plate to to use it as a pro controller, but essentially you can use this as a pro controller for your PC, Android, iOS devices, which include smart TVs and tablets. Um, so yeah, you’re not really only getting kind of a handheld uh upgrade for your Switch 2. You’re also um bridging the gap between the generations of the Switch console, but also having the multi-purpose of using it as a pro controller for other things as well. So it it it’s it it’s crossunctional. Not only is it crossgen, it’s also cross console. Yeah. Right. Uh, so not only do you get obviously the Nitro 2 compatibility with the Switch 2, you get the Switch OLED vers and original Switch, plus you can use the Nitro Dec 2 as a standalone controller. If you have some buddies over and you need another controller, you can pick it up and use that or you can connect it to a PC, mobile device, things like that. You got it. That’s awesome. All right, so we have the new Captive Stick technology, the ability for the Nitro Dec 2 to kind of work as a standalone controller in addition to being crossgen. Uh what else is new about the uh Nitro Dec 2? So we still have swappable stick tops that’s kind of paired with the crack cap to stick technology. Not only do you have all those kind of that new technology in the thumb stick, but the resistance, it’s also swappable. So you can twist and pull the stick tops off, but we’ve also included a swappable D-pad, which you can replace. Uh, and also today we’ll have some D-pad packs on pre-order. There’ll be four different styles. There’ll be a black colorway and then also a cracked kind of metallic color. Tell me a little bit about the cracked app. You mentioned that you can reprogram like you can uh reprogram some of the macros that are added to the Nitro Dec 2 via the app. Tell me about it. How does it work? Yeah, so there’s kind of two parts to the Cracked app. Uh we’ve built the True Collection system. So every single one of our products is compatible with the cracked app in that sense where you can touch your mobile smart device to the phone, it recognizes it. You can register it to your collection of cracked products. Uh and then from there you have cracked control. Um so since the Nitro 2 has Bluetooth, you can connect via Bluetooth to crack control to adjust the customizable features like button remapping, uh firmware updates and and things like that. Now, before we round things out a little bit, I just want to clear up something that might lead to some possible confusion if you’re looking to pre-order the Nitro Deck 2 right now. You might notice a difference between the black here. Could you talk a little bit about what’s available via the pre-order versus this? Yeah, so for pre-order today, you’re going to have smoke black, which is kind of a smoky black translucent front cabinet. And we’re also going to have a white edition, which very similar to what you see here. The only difference is that the thumb stick base is going to be like this cracked metallic color. But yeah, you’re going to have smoke black and white available for pre-order today. Looking real classy. Now, I got to ask, is there any plans for additional color variants, colorways, because I know that the uh purple retro look was super popular with our audience as well as the kind of gray retro look. Any plans for anything special in that regard? Yeah, so we’re launching with smoke black and white as our main SKS that that will be kind of stable SKS going forward. Um, but I mean we’re looking at maybe collections in the future, but right now for the foreseeable future, it will just be white and smoke black. So you may see you may see some cool collections maybe halfway towards the end of 26. We’ll have to have you back to talk about those as well. But Jack, thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me back, man. It’s a pleasure. The Nitro Deck 2 is available for pre-order right now in the smoky black and white. So make sure to check it out. Where can people find it again? At cracked.gg. at crd.gg. There you go. And for more on all things cracked, stay tuned to IGN. is coming. Heat. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. Reach your impossible. At the 2025 Game Awards, an allnew 3D action adventure game was revealed. Here to tell us all about Bradley the Badger are Christian Conttosa and David Stolani, co-founders of developer Day for Fernight and co-directors of Bradley the Badger. Welcome. Thanks a lot for having us. Congrats on the big reveal. I think the game looks awesome. Thank you. The two of you, you know, this is your first game as Dayight Studios, but you both have very impressive resumes in the games industry. Christian, you were lead designer on Red Dead Redemption and Manhunt. Plus, you have credits on numerous other games, GTA San Andreas, Middleear, Shadow of Mordor, Shadow of War, and Rise of the Tomb Raider. And David, you were creative director on the two Mario Plus Rabbids games. Plus, you worked on Just Dance, Beyond Good and Evil, many more. So, a lot of experience between the two of you. Tell us how Bradley the Badger came together and why this is something that you wanted to collaborate on. Okay, I’ll I’ll I’ll start. Yeah, let go. So, um, this whole thing came together because we’ve been friends for, you know, two decades and a half, maybe more. We started out in the games industry together at Ubisoft Milan in the late 90s. And, um, we’ve been in touch ever since. We’ve been talking about, you know, what each other was doing. And um when one fateful uh day in October, which was my birthday in 20 2023, uh David Day after wishing me happy birthday asked me the classic question, what are you doing? How are you feeling? And I sort of like went off on like how, you know, I really thought it would be great to do something together. and you know like I missed the old days when it was just a small group of people um doing something um exciting and he kind of mirrored exactly my thoughts and it was the exact junction in time for us to start something together because back in the days when we started in Ubisoft when we met in Ubisoft actually Christian started before but um the the teams were composed by 20 people so it was like a small warm family and then uh everything changed in 27 years. So my last team was like 400 uh 80 people. So it was uh quite huge and I’m sure the same for you at Perfect. Yeah, big teams, big uh, you know, big responsibilities with big big budgets. And so it was the impetus behind it was to kind of go back to the beginning in a way. And um, and it all started from that phone call, you know, then then after that, you know, we were we were riffing on ideas at that point already. How did you settle on a animal mascot 3D platformer? Um, I think that the the start of it of it all was sort of like what kind of game we felt like we could do together and what kind of a story we could do together. Um, a big passion for me is is storytelling. I’ve I’ve designed games and gameplay mechanics, but for me it’s always been um a a a medium to tell a story. And David is the master of like player first uh game mechanics. And so it was always like what can we do that has your what what you’re a genius in and what I can contribute. There is also a bit of what we loved when we were younger like games from Rare games from Nintendo. So I believe that Bradley is that kind of colorful and joy joyful mascot but then the mechanics and the story are something completely new and innovative. It’s funny Mission Games from Rare because in this trailer at the 8second mark early on uh he’s got a banjo hanging on the wall. Ah, not just a banjo but Zoo. Oh, I didn’t notice the It wasn’t just a small reference. There’s like a whole game from Rare in in some of those shots. Yeah. Yes, we are huge fans of Rare. They’re amazing now, but in our heart really there is the rare wear of the 90s. um games that we grew up playing, but also games that were there while we were making games. We were doing Game Boy Color games and we were playing Banjo Kazouie and and uh Conquer Bedford for a day and we were like, “Okay, we might as well just call it quits and go home.” Plus, our composer is Grant Kirk, so it was making perfect sense. Yeah. So in a way there we we we see ourselves as you know spiritually inspired by the rare of that of that era. And then the gameplay here is kind of is it a a game within a game Bradley’s aware he’s in a game and you’re you’re sort of parading other games. Tell tell us about what makes the gameplay unique here. So there’s the story angle and there’s the game play and the game mechanics angle and both make the game fairly unique. the the story is that yes, Bradley finds himself in these strange game worlds that to him are completely alien. That’s definitely not his uh village and that’s definitely not the sort of adventure that he’s used to. And you know, for us, these obviously are parodies of other games because this whole game is a is a satire of the games industry and of the games that that we play. So there’s a little bit of industry setter and a little bit of uh gaming and game content sort of parody. And then of course in addition to that we have all these cool uh new game mechanics that are uh inspired by this tool that Bradley finds that is um that is allowing him to wield the power of a game developer. Yeah. We saw that a little wheel pop up on screen there. There’s scale, transfer, liquify, gravity, volumeify. at least that we can see from there. What What’s the idea? These are just tools that Bradley’s going to be able to use to manipulate his environment. Yeah, that’s the whole idea. Players will be able through these powers to modify some elements of the environment around them and solve puzzle their own way. And we have been amazed during play test of how players were keeping finding different solution even solution that we were not initially thought about. So it was crazy. It was even inspiring for us to say this guy is trying to do that. Let’s put it in game in the uh this this Badgerborn world that we see here. uh the first world he sort of emerges to that’s sort of paring I don’t know some kind of a game that you might want to get good at. Uh there’s some like dark enemies there and there’s some like like I don’t know if it’s blood but there’s some a little bit of splatter there when he hits the enemies. So my question is can I play this game with my six-year-old son? Uh yes, absolutely. We we we want to tell a story and make a game for all ages and we’re very much inspired by uh Pixar films and and movies like The Lego Movie um Racket Ralph. So really something that uh kids and young adults can enjoy for the content, for the mascot, for the game play, and then an adult can play it and find uh deeper meanings, outer layers, inner layers, and sort of like get some of the jokes that maybe a kid would just not immediately understand. Plus, I will say that also our art director, which is Fabio Poche, it’s a great art director. It comes with a huge background from Disney and he did a fantastic job at designing Bradley and putting these mascot from the ‘9s in uh words that are truly realistic in a way. So this contrast is working very nicely. Yeah, I agree. And uh and it’s and and of course it’s a parody. So we’re not taking ourselves super seriously, right? And one thing that we didn’t mention is that all the powers kind of combine and stack with each other. So you can you you mentioned some of them by being attentive to the the UI that we show in the trailer. But if you were to use u scale in in that object that you saw the the giant apple for example that already has been subjected to one other power which is transfer. So Bradley first transferred into that unfinished apple and then used scale to to become giant or you can shrink down and you can combine all these powers together and that’s where the sandbox free form puzzle solving comes from. You you got to find your own solution to some of these problems. Why scaling up? Maybe you want to destroy part of the environment or squashing enemies and while scaling down maybe you want to sneak in some places. Yeah. Or sneaks past someone. Yeah. How did you settle on a badger as your your animal? So, so we so we were talking about like making this um out of context uh mascot, right, that finds himself in these, you know, strange worlds where he doesn’t belong. And we were thinking what would be the most unlikely animal for a mascot in uh inspired by these sort of 80s and 90s games that had all sort of animals. And initially we thought we’re going to go with the honey badger because it’s like such it’s such a nasty untreatable unlikable animal that we were like we just want to you know we’re just going to embrace it. But then otherwise working with Fabio and doing all the sketch work and everything, we really fell in love with the more traditional looking Badger, the American Badger. And then we just went like with the Exactly. with the American Badger as the sort of mascot for not just for the game, but for our company as well. Yeah. Yeah. There’s there were lots of uh mascot platformers in the 90s, but I don’t think there’s been a Badger one yet. So, yeah, we did some research. which we just didn’t we went for we went for something that was not immediately out there in the uh you know in the collective unconscious so to speak but also something that you know again resonated but the initial initial idea was to just do the most unlikely mascot character that of course becomes incredibly successful right exactly that’s the key part so your your reveal trailer here ends up uh in in live action something is happening it’s a little unclear is there I know you set up a little mystery there. Is there any sort of thing you want to leave uh fans on as as they wait to hear more about Bradley the Badger? Um yes, there’s definitely live action in there and um and you know it it it looks as if somehow Bradley finds himself in a another strange looking world there. And um but why? But why? And who’s this strange person that he meets? you know that all those questions will be answered but um why they’re meeting I one is streaming it will be it’ll be it’ll be interesting because of course everything ties together this is this is a bit of a tease but um but it’s also just not there just for a trailer it’s a story that develops along with the game and it’s completely attached to the game so each word has a correspondence in what is happening in live action but for now we cannot uh say more than that. And if maybe people pay attention to every single frame of live action and every single frame of the game, maybe they will find even more. Maybe. Maybe. Who can say? It all looks very cool. When are me and my son Kingo going to get to play Bradley the Badger? Ah, it will be out when he’s ready. So we need to wait a little bit more because we we we venture in this journey because we want to do something like we like to do things. So we don’t want to rush it. Uh we cannot say the date now. It’s coming but it’s coming. I promise you and your son that the g the game is coming. We just we just this is a labor of love and we just want to put all the love that we and and our team has into into this project so that when it comes out people are going to be uh hopefully as excited about it as we are. I’m excited. It really does look cool. Uh can’t wait to see more. Viewers, for more on Bradley the Badger and all things video games, stay tuned to IGN. The official product partner of IGN is Lenovo Legion. reach your impossible. Well, thank you all so much for hanging out and watching the Game Awards with us tonight. And as always, a big thank you to everyone working behind the scenes here at IGN for helping us cover live events all year long. We’ll see you all real soon. From all of us here at IGN, thank you and good night. I don’t know.
The Game Awards 2025 is back! Tune in on Thursday, December 11 at 4:30 PT / 7:30 ET to celebrate amazing awards in gaming. The show will be hosted by Geoff Keighley and will have performances by Evanescence and The Game Awards Orchestra.
#IGN #Gaming
Erika Ishii with the popcorn while in the camera shot for nominees lmao so real for that
Midsong fans stay mad that expedition 33 cleared
6:31:11 yes ❤
CS2 💪💪💪💪
Bro I really thought ghost of yeoti would win at least SOMETHING. The map designs and graphics were AMAZING. but if anyone had played expedition 33, did it deserve all the awards? I would rlly like to know.
Thre is no such thing as half life 3, Gordon.
But only nothingness
My reaction to MKW winning:My disappointment is imeasurable and my day is ruined
A SWEEP for Expedition 33!
4:34:40 someones excited
industry plant 33 wins over half the awards? who coulda predicted that
We fell for the hl3 hoax again
Expedition 33 is obviously a great game, but COME ON, best RPG? Compared to KC:D2?? This is a joke.
5:58:30 now this is podracing
For thoses who just want the results:
3:11:35 Best E-Sport Games
followed by Best Esport Athlete
and Best Esport Team
3:15:05 Best Mobile Games
3:19:30 Best Independent Games
3:27:05 Best Adaptation Movie
3:40:10 Best Action Games
3:56:20 Best VA Performance
4:10:05 Games For Impact
i'm getting borred of doing it so for the rest of it, DIY bellow
MEGA
M A. N
6:08:29 lol you can hear a dude in the crowd yell out Bloodborne 2
How loud do gamers have to get before sony will notice??
what the hell. so many adds… awful
People are complaining about ads just use adblocker jesus crist😂😂
no armored core 7, who car
we NEVER getting to armored core 9 </3
Remedy <3 Thank you!
6:14:30 Kojima's reaction haha
I just came for the flûte guy at the End
04:06:30 Zenless Zone Zero
so….. basically french awards night
EU NÃO AGUENTAVA MAIS A MÚSICA DO EXPEDITION 33 DE TANTO QUE ELA TOCAVA
I'm honestly pretty hyped for a lot of games that were announced this year, my Steam wishlist grew quite a lot! I personally loved the whole show; we got a LOT of great trailers and reveals, and not much time wasted on anything other than that and the actual awards (well, except for the miss Piggy segments I suppose). This felt like the E3's of my childhood, back when I was still excited for Nintendo games mostly ^^
Silksong got robbed really hard like only one award damn. E33 did deserve GOTY but Silksong deserves more praise
They should be ashamed of themselves for giving awards to a single game, dislike for the absence of KCD2, the worst TGA of all time
6:27:13
You welcome!
6:27:28 THE GOAT! THE MIGHT! THE LEGEND!
How many awards in total? 3×3
BRUH WHAT THE PHUCK DID THEY DO TO LARA CROFT SHE LOOKS GOOFY AF!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢😢
Game of the Year:
Claire Obscure: Expedition 33
You're welcome!
That crowd did not appreciate Evanescence enough lol
5:51:00 and yall didnt get Lily as a musical guest boooo lmao
Until down even being on the roster for best adaption had me rolling.
4h 51m :
4:37:39 Street fighter scenes
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is not a real RPG. It’s a short, linear turn-based action game, where skills are collected like cards and stacked into combos. No freedom, no choices, no depth, just flashy visuals and marketing hype. It doesn’t deserve all the awards it grabbed at TGA 2025. This event was SCAM
Well whoever chose the winner clearly don't understand games