This week (as of this writing) was the 2025 Game Awards, and with it came discussion from various avenues of game journalism and criticism about the place of The Game Awards. A particular avenue of speculation that I found myself being drawn down is, well, why do we care about The Game Awards? Part of this lies with the cynicism and not-quite-contempt that the Academy Awards are often also held in. This lead to me thinking about why the Game Awards grabbed people’s attention, why we cared then, and why the luster has fallen off now.

The Game Awards have happened, and there were some fun performances (including a 63-year-old flutist from Venezuela, Pedro Eustache, who stole the show), and other great moments (Christopher Judge getting an award for Best Performance presented by Al Pacino – something that you usually don’t get outside of the Oscars or Emmys). Also, as always, there were a whole bunch of trailers and new game announcements. So, rather than picking apart the winners and who did or did not get robbed, I figure I can talk about some of the new games we got to see, and was excited about. As always, these are in no particular order.