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It's that time of year again. Geoff Keighley is back, with the annual event celebrating the year's best in gaming. There's plenty of awards to be given out, but also importantly, plenty of game announcements to be made. So settle in, because we'll be wrapping up every announcement made at the event. It all kicks off at 6:30 CST.

The first announcement is The Free Shepherd. You play as a sheepdog herding things. PS5 and Steam, 2027.

Donkey Kong Bananza wins best family game.

Decrepit is a first person soulslike.

Audio Mech is a new game from the AudioSurf dev. Demo available on Steam tomorrow.

Doom: The Dark Ages wins innovation in accessibility.

Guild Wars 2 is getting new content. Visions of Eternity.

Best eSports game goes to Counter-Strike 2.

Best eSports athlete: Chovy.

Best eSports team Team Vitality.

Pragmata is about a guy in a mech suit and a girl. April 24, demo today though. Coming to NS2.

Best mobile game: Umamusume.

Solasta March 12, 2026.

Tank Rat 2026.

Best indie: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Read Dead Redemption's lead desinger has a new game that's a puzzle platformer. Bradley the Badger.

Stupid Never Dies is an action game. Out 2026. Has former Capcom employees that worked on Resident Evil and Devil May Cry games.

Best adaptation: The Last of Us Season 2.

Best action game: Hades 2

Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic announced. It's an RPG. Directed by Casey Hudson, KOTOR and Mass Effect director.



John Carpenter's new game has you shooting tons of zombies. March 12. Toxic Commando.

Larian has announced a new Divinity. It'll be bigger than Baldur's Gate 3.



Best performance: Jennifer English

4 Loop is a new PlayStation game, from JJ Abrams and the Left 4 Dead creator.

Coven of the Chicken Foot has you play as an old lady exploring with some monsters.

Frictional Games, creator of SOMA, Has horror sci-fi elements. Called Ontos.

Games for impact: South of Midnight

Resident Evil Requiem gets a new trailer. February 27.

Braid's creator has a new game. Has puzzle elements. Order of the Sinking Star. 2026.

Wizards of the Coast has an action-RPG. Exodus is a new game from them. Early 2027.

Warlock - Dungeons and Dragons is launching in 2027. A gameplay reveal will happen next year.

Screamer is out next year. Is a storytelling game involving racing, has anime style.

Remedy is working on a new project. Control Resonant. 2026.

Nagoshi Studio is working on Gang of Dragon.

Street Fighter is getting a movie. It'll be out next year.

Best ongoing game: No Man's Sky.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight gets another trailer. May 29.

Best audio design: Battlefield 6

Content creator of the year: Moistcr1tikal

Best fighting game: Fatal Fury

Most anticipated game: GTA VI

Paper Trail is a slightly creepy game made by indie devs where your drawings come to life and haunt you. It's made by kids.

Tomb Raider is back. Tomb Raider Catalyst. 2027.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis. 2026. It's a remake of the original. Crystal Dynamics is working on it.



Forest 3.

Invincible Vs. a 2D fighting game gets a new trailer. April 30.

Switch 2 exclusive title. It has coop. Orbitals.

Best action/adventure game: Hollow Knight Silksong.

Best art direction: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

Best sim: Final Fantasy Tactics

Best debut indie: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred expansion out April 28.

Marvel Rivals is getting Deadpool.

Lenny Kravitz is in 007: First Light.

Best score: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

Lords of the Fallen 2 has a gameplay trailer.

Best sports game: Mario Kart World

Best community support: Baldur's Gate 3

Best VR/AR game: The Midnight Walk

Best RPG: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

Player's voice: Wurthering Waves

Housemarque is working on Saros, out next year, with a cinematic trailer reveal tonight.

Best narrative: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

The Ascent's developers have a new game called No Law.

Best multiplayer: Arc Raiders

Total War: Warhammer: 40K revealed. Pre-alpha footage shown off.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is coming next year.

Burnout's former devs are working on a Star Wars game. Star Wars: Galactic Racer, out next year.

Co-op adventure Out of Words, a stop motion animated game.

Phantom Blade 0 is an action game out 9/9/2026. Developed by S-Game.

Best direction: Clair Obscure

Capcom is making a new 2D Mega Man game called Dual Override. Out in 2027.



Bowser Jr. makes his appearance in a new trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, out this April.

Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja show a teaser for Nioh 3. Demo out Jan 26.

The final reveal is a game that's far along in development but hasn't been leaked or shown anywhere yet. It comes from former Apex Legends developers. This is meant to push shooters as a genre. It's named High Guard. It's a shooter where you can materialize mounts and use abilities. Hero shooter elements. January 26, f2p.

GOTY: Clair Obscure: Expedition 33

 

[Ambers_Crimson_8K]

Lol come on, I'm sure it's a great game but maybe it's time to pretend nothing happened this year. Arc Raiders and Silksong were there too, and they're absolutely incredible. Both of them could have been GOTY imo

You're comparing a side scrolling game which was great by the way! I own it on PC and PS5 (Silksong)
And Arc Raiders - a multiplayer game - which is fun, btw! I know I beta test it before it even came out.

To a High End AA RPG, with a lot of substance, a bigger story, numerous characters and voice actors, bigger levels and boss, amazing high end visuals and graphics. An incredible score/soundtrack, etc. (Expedition 33)

There is no comparison - Expedition 33 will win every time!
Those two games don't even come close in comparisons!

Again like I said nothing much came out in 2025 that could compare.

 

[AlexMCS]

Nothing wrong with having a preference for real-time combat, but Expedition 33 does turn-based as well as it has ever been done before. A modern-day Chrono Trigger, if you will.

Eternal Sonata though.
Also, Octopath CotC and 0, specially the mobile gacha, weirdly enough, have (much) better turn based systems, without the GFX fluff.
E33 is very good though, gotta give it to them, but calling it "indie" is a huge stretch IMO.

Very happy for a new Rockman though.

 

[64bitmodels]

Wow expedition 33 won game awards? damn who could've predicted that one?

It's kinda like seeing Elden Ring win back in 2022. Like yeah it was early in the year but you just kind of know a GOTY when you see it.

Just a testament to how you can make a GOTY candidate yourself if you were willing to download Unreal w some friends and put in the time and effort. Not that you should download Unreal unless your audience is exclusively 5090 owners, but i digress

I am always pleased to see some megaman and some ace combat.

 

[FanNintendo]

Mega Man 12 or Dual Overdrive look so gorgeous bring the good old memories with Mega Man 1 old dull color. Also notices it is coming to all platforms includes Switch 1! I hope it continues with Switch 1 in 2027 that would make Switch 10 years anniversary.

 

[Xzi]

E33 is very good though, gotta give it to them, but calling it "indie" is a huge stretch IMO.

Well I was surprised to learn the budget for Hades 1 and 2 was about the same as Expedition 33. "Indie" categories definitely need to be better-defined, or maybe need to be separated out into "self-published," "low budget," "small dev team (10 people or less)," etc.

 

[MeowthBlep]

Well I was surprised to learn the budget for Hades 1 and 2 was about the same as Expedition 33. "Indie" categories definitely need to be better-defined, or maybe need to be separated out into "self-published," "low budget," "small dev team (10 people or less)," etc.

Good idea!

 

[64bitmodels]

Eternal Sonata though.
Also, Octopath CotC and 0, specially the mobile gacha, weirdly enough, have (much) better turn based systems, without the GFX fluff.
E33 is very good though, gotta give it to them, but calling it "indie" is a huge stretch IMO.

Very happy for a new Rockman though.

it's not even a stretch, that was blatantly false and pure BS. Expedition 33 is literally published by an outside studio with outside funding involved with the game. It's an AA game, not indie

The one thing I would have changed is to give best indie and best debut indie to Silksong and Dispatch respectively.

 

[RedoLane]

Welp, time to play Expedition 33.... when I'll have a good hardware for it.

And one morning later, game getting optimization patch for Steam Deck, so I bought it on sale price and been rocking my weekend and parrying mostly successfully in combat despite the framerate. Quality can be more desired on better hardware, which is why I'll probably get a Steam Machine.

 

[Ambers_Crimson_8K]

And one morning later, game getting optimization patch for Steam Deck, so I bought it on sale price and been rocking my weekend and parrying mostly successfully in combat despite the framerate. Quality can be more desired on better hardware, which is why I'll probably get a Steam Machine.

Build you a desktop! We just built my little brother a new Ryzen 7 Setup with new AMD Components and GPU, he's running everything at 4K right now on Ultra!
Desktop components are super cheap right now, going into the holidays, you can build a powerful PC for cheap.

 

[Xzi]

Desktop components are super cheap right now, going into the holidays, you can build a powerful PC for cheap.

Huh? I've seen some good deals on pre-builts, but DDR5 RAM kits cost about as much as a high-end GPU right now.

 

[Ambers_Crimson_8K]

And one morning later, game getting optimization patch for Steam Deck, so I bought it on sale price and been rocking my weekend and parrying mostly successfully in combat despite the framerate. Quality can be more desired on better hardware, which is why I'll probably get a Steam Machine.

Build you a desktop! We just built my little brother a new Ryzen 7 Setup with new AMD Components and GPU, he's running everything at 4K right now on Ultra!
Desktop components are super cheap right now, going into the holidays, you can build a powerful PC for cheap.

Huh? I've seen some good deals on pre-builts, but DDR5 RAM kits cost about as much as a high-end GPU right now.

We just built my brothers PC for under $800! We gave him a GPU we already had so that saved him $300....but overall he bought everything else.
Obviously you're not looking hard enough or searching the wrong stuff.
https://shorturl.at/RWA5K (Bundle)
Buy the main parts and wait for the inflated ram prices to drop later!
They just started that non-sense glad we got his stuff before this happened, only paid $118 for his DDR5 ram at 32gb.

Or do this bundle with the ram and buy the processor separate, there are always work arounds, just have to do research.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails?ItemList=Combo.4848369

 

[Xzi]

They just started that non-sense glad we got his stuff before this happened, only paid $118 for his DDR5 ram at 32gb.

Yeah mine was only $90 early this year for 32GB, I knew price hikes were likely to be coming with tariffs alone, didn't even consider AI would be ten times as problematic.

Buy the main parts and wait for the inflated ram prices to drop later!

Not sure that's the best advice for someone who wants a gaming PC now, RAM shortage is predicted to last through 2027 and perhaps even longer. The Gabecube may end up being a bargain next year even at $800ish, assuming Valve had already sourced some memory.

 

[Ambers_Crimson_8K]

Yeah mine was only $90 early this year for 32GB, I knew price hikes were likely to be coming with tariffs alone, didn't even consider AI would be ten times as problematic.


Not sure that's the best advice for someone who wants a gaming PC now, RAM shortage is predicted to last through 2027 and perhaps even longer. The Gabecube may end up being a bargain next year even at $800ish, assuming Valve had already sourced some memory.

Again I posted the other link, where you can still get the ram cheap in a separate bundle.

 

[Xzi]

Again I posted the other link, where you can still get the ram cheap in a separate bundle.

There's a good reason it's so cheap, it's DDR4 3200. Custom builds have provided better price-to-performance for decades, but pre-builts on sale for the holidays are the better option for anyone in the market at this very moment.

 

[ertaboy356b]

it's not even a stretch, that was blatantly false and pure BS. Expedition 33 is literally published by an outside studio with outside funding involved with the game. It's an AA game, not indie

The one thing I would have changed is to give best indie and best debut indie to Silksong and Dispatch respectively.

Or give Best RPG to a game with an actual Role Playing mechanic.

 

[LightBeam]

Again like I said nothing much came out in 2025 that could compare.

And you have every right to believe it so. Doesn't make it true tho, I could write the same kind of post about any other game lol. Sidescrollers and multiplayer games aren't lesser games either, I just find it regrettable that you don't seem interested in giving due credit to all the other awesome games of the year that absolutely deserved more than what they were given. Glad you're enjoying E33 that much tho, but this doesn't beat the allegations of "minimizing other games to glaze the mid western RPG" that some often say. Not that I agree with that, but I also find that understandable.



I know the game awards are nothing more than a celebration by the industry for itself, but this year especially felt like a circlejerk welcome party for the new industry plant. Which pains me to say, I do feel pride about a game developed in my home city getting that much recognition, but when whatever game pleases "the right people", journalists and whatever, it just gets bad rep from a lot of people who will never want to engage with it, and it's not E33's fault nor the devs.

As I said, games that release in December aren't award-eligible until the following year. Not that a hero shooter would ever win anything other than a community vote anyway. So fair enough, he found a loophole in my statement since I didn't specify premium (non-F2P) games. I'd be even more clueless when it comes to mobile slop.

Haha dw I'm just messing with you. I do think you're exagerating a lil bit when you say that they're just "fps games but worse", but it's undeniable that "hero-based anything" means uncreative slop most of the time and honestly, seeing Keighley hyping up Highguard that much to show "a new breed of shooters" that's just Paladins but worse, is quite crazy to me.
We're at the dawn of 2026, and suits are still so out of touch, will they ever realize that we've had enough

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Bradley the Badger was the most interesting announcement for me, interesting art style but also fun looking gameplay.

 

[RedoLane]

Yeah mine was only $90 early this year for 32GB, I knew price hikes were likely to be coming with tariffs alone, didn't even consider AI would be ten times as problematic.


Not sure that's the best advice for someone who wants a gaming PC now, RAM shortage is predicted to last through 2027 and perhaps even longer. The Gabecube may end up being a bargain next year even at $800ish, assuming Valve had already sourced some memory.

Funny thing is, I don't see myself needing more RAM for my gaming needs, since almost all my games really require 16GB in total. 32GB requirement is for games that neither of my components meet the minimum requirements, so for now I won't be considering a desktop upgrade.

That being said, a Steam Machine will make up for the lost quality on the Steam Deck, even if performance isn't as good as, let's say... a PS5 Pro.
Then again, I missed on a lot of graphic-intensive games from that era, so a Steam Machine would work well for medium-high graphics setup on any game up to, well....today, and maybe next year too!

 

[Robert Newbie]

Eternal Sonata though.

Sorry for derailing the topic, but I just wanted to boost Eternal Sonata. It's definitely an unexpected gem of the 7th gen, but it's not commonly mentioned.

I'm sad that Tri-Crescendo has only ever been able to develop one or two original IP's, but I appreciate that they're still in business co-developing games with Bandai Namco, Nintendo, and Sony.

 

[Lumstar]

Funny thing is, I don't see myself needing more RAM for my gaming needs, since almost all my games really require 16GB in total. 32GB requirement is for games that neither of my components meet the minimum requirements, so for now I won't be considering a desktop upgrade.

That being said, a Steam Machine will make up for the lost quality on the Steam Deck, even if performance isn't as good as, let's say... a PS5 Pro.
Then again, I missed on a lot of graphic-intensive games from that era, so a Steam Machine would work well for medium-high graphics setup on any game up to, well....today, and maybe next year too!

I think it's a shame how few games leverage the computing power available today. And to make matters worse, studios are afraid of attempting it because the games will be review bombed as "unoptimized".