On Dec. 11, the Game Awards 2025 (GA25) was broadcast to over 171 million gamers, all ready to know who won which awards, as well as see any upcoming games for 2026. All they got, however, were previews of subpar Triple-A games and an awards show heavily favored towards action role-playing game (ARPG) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
It was not the titles that the ARPG won that annoyed people, but rather the overabundance of the awards that they received. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won nine awards over the course of the four hour long awards ceremony, including the coveted Game of the Year award. Naturally, this upset gamers within the gaming community.
Junior Kaegan Redington discussed his opinions on the matter, openly expressing his disappointment on the matter. “Robbery,” said Redington about the show. Throughout the ceremony, “Expedition 33” won various awards, angering people who thought there were other games that were more suitable for these titles, such as Redington.
For example, many gamers disagreed with the decision of the ARPG winning Best Art Direction, with most agreeing Hollow Knight: Silksong deserved it more.
“I think Silksong should have won because they’ve, like, hand-animated everything, and they have a unique style that’s pretty appealing,” Clay Swanson, a Montclair High School junior, said. Swanson said he identifies as part of the art community, which both he and Redington maintain is a community known for disliking AI art.
Naturally, when the developers of Expedition 33 revealed their use of generative AI for placeholder textures during the development process, Swanson, along with many others, were angered.
“I think it’s affecting them because it showed the corporations that they can use AI and get away with it,” Swanson said.
Even though there is backlash, a handful of people still acknowledge that Expedition 33 is a good game. Senior Semaj Anderson is one such person. I played the game, so I know what it’s like. It’s a good game, it definitely deserved the win,” Anderson said.
Despite all this, there is still a demographic of people who are adamant about the horrible quality of the game of the Year winner. Tate Thomas, an MHS freshman, theorizes a reason for this, thinking about the current state of the gaming community.
“I feel like people are starting to judge a game based on how famous it is rather than how good it is,” Thomas said, reflecting on the thought processes of players. “This unfortunately might become the default thinking of gamers.”
