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2025 has been filled with exceptional new game releases, but I think most would agree there's a pretty clear frontrunner for the Game of the Year title in Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Even the devs at Team Cherry, which finally delivered the exceptional Hollow Knight: Silksong this year, figure they're "safe" from the burden of delivering a GOTY acceptance speech for The Game Awards in December.
Ari Gibson and William Pellen, the co-founders of the Australian studio behind Silksong, were asked by Bloomberg (paid article link) if they'd be heading to LA for The Game Awards after receiving a nomination for the event's top award. "Maybe not," Pellen says. "We're pretty busy."
"This year I think we're safe," Gibson adds when presented with the idea of recording a video message to accept a GOTY win. "I think Expedition 33 – it's exceptional and broadly palatable. Whereas we're on that knife’s edge, where it appeals to some and infuriates others."
Honestly, I'm not sure I'd describe Expedition 33 as "broadly palatable." It is, after all, a surrealistic and deeply sad take on the old-school JRPG formula that asks you to respond to no end of Dark Souls-style enemy attack patterns. But then, I guess tricky dodges and parries didn't stop Elden Ring from being a runaway GOTY-level hit.
But then, despite Silksong's often intense difficulty, it's also been a massive success that's set some ridiculous records on Steam. I guess the real lesson here is that everybody loves being beaten down by oversized bosses while confronting the overwhelming melancholy of existence.
Expedition 33 already took the top prize among the Golden Joystick Awards 2025 winners, and is similarly up for the GOTY award among fellow The Game Awards 2025 nominees like Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bananza, Hades 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and, yes, Hollow Knight: Silksong.
For more of the best games in 2025, you know where to click.
