What to expect from The Game Awards 2025: What’s rumored to be there, what’s already confirmed, and what we think is taking home GOTY

It’s Geoff Keighley’s big day, and we stand to benefit with the awareness of cool games on the horizon. The 11th year of The Game Awards kicks off on Thursday, December 11 at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, and voting for award categories is already underway.

As usual, Keighley is playing his cards close to the vest about what announcements will be in the show. A few appearances are already confirmed, such as Resident Evil 9, Exodus, and a performance from Evanescence (sure to bring the crowd to life). Of course, there are also the far less certain rumors about what will appear based on a mix of insider reports and good ol’ gut feelings. For instance: That Assassin’s Creed 4 remake that Ubisoft refuses to say is real has gotta be imminent, right?

Here’s what we know about The Game Awards 2025 so far.

Confirmed trailers

We know for sure we’re getting a “terrifying new look” at Resident Evil Requiem during The Game Awards. It’s about time we saw the action half of that game that supposedly exists—maybe even a Leon appearance?

There’ll be a new trailer for Exodus, the sci-fi game from ex-Bioware devs that first debuted at the show in 2023. You might remember it best by its stage introduction by Matthew McConaughey. It returned for an update at last year’s show, and this year completes the hat trick.

We’ll also get our first proper look at the next game from Neon Giant, the studio that made cool cyberpunk shooter The Ascent.

We’ll update this section as more games are confirmed for the show.

Rumors and speculation

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach PC — A recent ESRB rating suggests that the PC version of Death Stranding 2 may be nearing release.Control: Resonant — A trademark filing has kicked off speculation that a sequel to Remedy’s Control will be announced at the show.Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake — The existence of a remake for the 2013 Assassin’s Creed game has leaked so many times at this point, it’s reasonable to speculate Ubisoft hasn’t confirmed it’s happening because it’s waiting for the biggest stage of the year.Shenmue 4? — This is a weird one: A YouTube account with 8 subscribers uploaded off-screen footage of what is supposedly a Shenmue 4 trailer that could premiere at the awards. Or, it’s an elaborate fake made with AI or someone with a lot of spare time.Max Payne Remake — If Remedy shows up to the TGAs for a new Control, might it also be dual-wielding the Max Payne remake it announced way back in 2022?

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Will Half-Life 3 be announced?

That seems unlikely.

But “The Game Awards” is three words! Coincidence?

Well, now that you say that…

Oh, there’s also a big statue in the desert

(Image credit: KingVision18)

We genuinely have no idea what this giant monster portal is promoting, except that it’s definitely to do with a Game Awards announcement: Keighley tweeted out the coordinates. A few days later, another teaser in the replies: “The █████ are silent. █████ bleeds. New █████ stir.”

Either the statue is intentionally generic-looking to keep us guessing, or it’s teasing something generic-looking. Lots of folks called out God of War, but Cory Barlog says no. Others are sure it’s Diablo 4-related, but Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is sure it’s not. A few are calling Elden Ring 2 or Elder Scrolls 6, which would fulfill the role of a “bombshell” reveal that Keighley aims to deliver each year. My money is on a dark fantasy game we’ve never heard of, possibly of the gacha variety.

The GOTY nominees (and who we think will win)

The games up for the top award this year are:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33Death Stranding 2: On The BeachDonkey Kong BananzaHades 2Hollow Knight: SilksongKingdom Come: Deliverance 2

We think Silksong developers Team Cherry are probably right in saying that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will be the winner here. Clair Obscur was the biggest surprise hit of the year as the debut game from Sandfall Interactive, which tends to be an advantage in a popular vote. It also reviewed extremely well, and it’s broken into the semi-mainstream with celebrations for its story, characters, combat, and dazzling performances. The last time a turn-based RPG had this much acclaim going into the TGAs, it won Game of the Year.

See all the other Game Awards nominations here.