The Game Awards Situation

Last night was the Game Awards and there was a stat that chat was regurgitating that I didn't believe. I thought it was so outlandish they must have escaped from a mental institution and were spewing a bunch of mumbo jumbo until I checked and verified the authenticity. The claim was that last year's Game Awards had higher viewership than the Super Bowl. And I said, well that's a bunch of fiddlesticks, no way! Super Bowl had like a hundred and twenty something million viewers, it was like the most watched Super Bowl ever. No way the Game Awards beat that. Turns out it did.

Jeff Keighley hung his hog on the Super Bowl numbers. A hundred and fifty four million global viewers. Now Super Bowl is an event that mainly only Americans care about, I get that. Game Awards is international. But even still, those numbers blew my fucking mind, blew my ass out. So, it is like a super big deal, and I watched the Game Awards every year but had no idea it was this big. And now that I have this knowledge locked away in the old steel trap up here,

it makes the Game Awards final reveal from last night even more odd, just peculiar. Because it is a blunder, that is the most important final reveal. And last night, boy howdy did that one fall flat, unfortunately. And I know a lot of people have criticized Jeff Keighley, like playfully teasing about how he'll overhype things that don't warrant that level of glaze or you know anticipation

Where Jeff Keighley will sometimes you know get you like biting your nails like holy shit What's he about to reveal because he's hyping it up so much like in my numerous decades in the industry I've never been this excited. This is my honor my privileges the apotheosis of gaming I present to you the world premiere for the poop that took a pee too. As he's starting to get like tears in his eyes for it and it's like well, I think you

oversold this one a bit to be honest with ya. Though one that people point to is from last year where he revealed Okami. I do not think that's a good example of that because that is not overhyped, that genuinely is extremely exciting. I fucking love Okami and cannot wait for the new Okami. But he does have a history of doing that occasionally and last night was one of those examples for the final reveal. Our final world premiere comes from 61 members of the team that built Apex Legends and Titanfall. Four years ago,

the principals founded a new independent studio with the hopes of pushing the shooter genre forward with a new original game." If that doesn't put a boner in your trousers, nothing will. You cannot have a more hype introduction than that right there. Those sentences alone could make the Grinch's heart grow three sizes. And when I was watching this live, I actually thought for a moment we

might be seeing a Titanfall 3 or at the very least a spiritual successor to Titanfall. But that's where they get you. Jeff's got you eating out of the palm of his hands right now. You're hook line and sinker buying into this delusion. Like I have said for a long time we will probably not see a Titanfall 3. Unfortunately I think EA is going to kegel on that property forever and never use it for anything ever again because they didn't perform financially well for them. Even though these games are beloved I don't think we'll ever see

a new entry into this franchise. But I really was starting to buy into the fantasy here because he's mentioning that a lot of people responsible for those masterpieces have broken off and are now pursuing something new together. And you're expecting like maybe it's in a similar vein to Titanfall. You know, Professor Utonium's in the lab and he's putting together all the ingredients of the perfect little shooter.

But that wasn't what was on the menu. Instead, what was served up on the plate was a seemingly standard hero shooter. Now I always have a great time watching the Game Awards, this year I also had a lot of fun watching it, I just really don't understand why they would save this game as their final reveal which is like always the most important reveal because it's the one that sticks with the viewers the longest and it's usually reserved for the one that's gonna fucking have them you know gushing grannies and having a generic hero shooter be in that

place feels really odd and a lot of people have been kind of clowning on it for it. Bring in the heat.

Your light belongs to me.

Your light belongs to me. Forming. It's not the most exciting looking game, it's not gonna put you on the edge of your seat there. And it does give me a similar vibe to Concord when that was revealed unfortunately. And a lot of people have taken to calling this Concord when that was revealed unfortunately. And a lot of people have taken to calling this Concord 2. Even though the game's not out or anything yet, it does kind of have a lot of similar DNA to it from the look of the gameplay here. And it just feels like a game that shouldn't

have been saved for last as like the big oorah. This should have just been a game that they show somewhere in the middle or towards the beginning where it's like hey this game's also right around the corner if you want another hero shooter like if you're really salivating for more hero shooter action here comes High Guard like that like that makes sense it just doesn't really compute why they would have this be the final reveal I think what would have fit here best actually was the Star Wars KOTOR game. They have a new KOTOR coming out called

Fate of the Old Republic and that was extremely hype. I think if they had saved Fate of the Old Republic for the final reveal that would have been a big pop-off moment because that is something that a ton of people, myself included, cannot wait for. And now I need to go back and replay KOTOR 1 and 2, because it is so cool. That is something people have really wanted. Whereas with High Guard, I feel like there's more people asking for the common cold than more hero shooters.

And especially from such a talented team that have put together games like Titanfall, you would hope that they'd spread their wings a bit more than just like a hero shooter game. So it's just one of those things that is underwhelming for a final game reveal. Anyway though I had a great time watching the Game Awards as I do every year it's become a tradition and I always think Jeff Keighley and his team put on a really impressive and really entertaining show. And I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into it. Though I will say I think this year there is a lesson to be learned in the amount of

nominations a game can get. With the E33 sweep, I do think there maybe needs to be some kind of limitations in place. I said from the second the credits rolled on that game that it was special. And it is in my top 20 favorite games of all time. I think it is a full-blown, full-fucking-chub masterpiece. But that being said, I don't think it should be in every category that it was in,

even if it could fit into that category. Like, the most contentious is the indie game category. While, yes, it is definition, an indie game, I do feel like it shouldn't be there to give room to other games to shine in that category. Like, it is an unbelievable game. And by being as good as it is and in every category that it was present, it drowned out a lot of other extremely impressive games from this year. 2025 was genuinely an amazing year for games.

There were so many super slappers, absolute bangers out the wazoo, but if you only watched the game awards, you would think that it was just Expedition 33 really. And that's a shame. I do think E33 deserves like the Game of the Year win and many of its other wins, because I do think that does epitomize what the games industry should be about. A team of passionate creators that all banded together under very unlikely circumstances

with a very wild way of assembling this team of creatives to create something that's really not been done before to the degree in which they did it with the budget that they had, apparently less than 10 million dollars. It is an unreal story and the person at the head of Sandfall, he is like a gamer's gamer. That guy, I've watched a couple of his interviews, he is always singing the praises of the goats that have came before him and he's not just doing lip service, he knows his shit. Like this is a guy who lives and breathes this medium

that wanted to do something truly special in it and I think they succeeded and it's great to see the reception be as positive as it is to their art. I'm very happy for that team and I think it deserves all of the glaze that it gets. But when it comes to the Game Awards I just think it would have been best if it was reserved for you know a handful of the categories that it was nominated in. And I also

think that would have been better for Expedition 33 overall as well because when people who aren't overly familiar with it see it keep winning everything it makes them tired of it. It makes them soured on E33 as a whole. I saw a comparison drawn by a lot of people about like the Patriots when they were on their dynasty run winning everything. people about like the Patriots when they were on their dynasty run winning everything people fucking hated the Patriots because they were so good. Expedition 33 is having a similar phenomenon it won so

much people now just hate it by default it's like they don't want to engage with it anymore they'd rather spit and shit on it and that kind of thing. I just overall feel like less is more in this case where it'd be in its strongest categories like voice acting, narrative, music, and game of the year, that kind of thing, as opposed to like 13 categories. Because it is a lot and it does unfortunately push out some of the other extremely good

games from the year. Like Kingdom Come 2 didn't win anything, but I feel like, by all definitions, it should have won Best RPG of the Year. It's just... I love Expedition 33, and I'm super happy to see it do so well. But for the awards here, I would really have liked to be able to celebrate some of the other great games that also came out this year. Like I said, this was an extraordinary year for banger titles releasing, especially in the indie category. So many good indie games came out this year.

But anyway, I'll stop yapping about it. But anyway, I'll stop yapping about it. That's really about it. See ya.