What to expect from The Game Awards and the 2025 GOTY gala: announcements, rumors, and leaks

The world of video games is preparing to put the finishing touches on another historic year with a new edition of The Game Awards. The GOTY gala, hosted by Geoff Keighley (here are the date and time of the event), will reward the best games of recent months and decide the big winner of 2025. Will it be Expedition 33? Or perhaps the statuette will go to Silksong? Maybe one of the other nominees will spring a surprise...

The fact is that the gala is also known for giving us lots of announcements and surprises, both about games we already know about and others we still know nothing about. At MeriStation, it’s time to get out the crystal ball and see what might be presented at The Game Awards 2025. Here are the reasons to stay home.

Last year’s announcements at The Game Awards

To get an idea of what to expect from this year’s event, there’s nothing like reviewing everything that happened at last year’s edition. Here’s a comprehensive summary of The Game Awards 2024, highlighting the following:

• Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet announced, the latest from the creators of The Last of Us
• Elden Ring Nightreign announced, the new multiplayer game from From Software
• First trailer for The Witcher 4 featuring Ciri
• Okami 2 announced with Hideki Kamiya at the helm almost 20 years later
• Split Fiction announced by the studio behind It Takes Two
• Project Robot announced, the latest from Fumito Ueda (Shadow of the Colossus)
• The creators of Blasphemous reveal Ninja Gaiden Ragebound
• The Outer Worlds 2 announced
• Mafia: The Old Country unveiled

As you can see, some of this year’s best games (such as Split Fiction and Ragebound) were presented at The Game Awards last year. Will there be any big names from 2026 hidden away at this year’s gala? Added to this will be the usual fare: expansions, ports, trailers for series and movies, concerts, new announcements, and release dates for games that have already been presented.

Confirmed games at The Game Awards 2025

These are the titles whose presence has been revealed by The Game Awards account or the company behind them. The list of those you can definitely expect to see a trailer for:

• Solo Leveling: ARISE OVERDRIVE
• Marvel Rivals news
• First game from Windflower Interactive (new studio from the creators of Kena Bridge of Spirits and The Pathless)
• Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
• New Tomb Raider
• Release date for Phantom Blade Zero
• New trailer for Resident Evil 9: Requiem
• New trailer for Exodus
• New trailer for Saros (from the creators of Returnal)
• Presentation of Jonathan Blow’s next project (Braid, The Witness)
• Surprise from Sega (new look at Persona 4 remake?)

Rumors about The Game Awards 2025

And now we come to the section you’ve all been waiting for: rumors and leaks. The stuff that gossipmongers, the voices in our heads, and deep internet forums are talking about. A lot has been coming out in the last few hours, and the hype has people believing even in Half-Life 3, but if we sift through it all, these are the names that come up most often, the ones that come from the most reliable sources and the ones that have been circulating for quite some time. We’ll see how many turn out to be true.

• Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Remake
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, shadow drop in January
• New Diablo expansion
• New God of War... in 2D... and in Greece
• New Total War
• Third part of the Final Fantasy 7 remake
• Fable release date
• Something from Remedy (Control 2 or the Max Payne remakes)
• New Divinity game from Larian Studios

Without a doubt, the great mystery of this edition has been the diabolical statue that appeared in the Mojave Desert, whose identity was finally revealed hours before The Game Awards. It is the latest from Larian Studios, winners of GOTY in 2023 with Baldur’s Gate 3. The appearance of the monolith is identical to a logo that has just been registered for a new installment of the Divinity saga. Now the question is whether we are looking at Divinity Original Sin 3 or a reboot of the franchise with new mechanics that will make it more popular than ever, as happened with Baldurs. Coming from whom it comes from, it has our full attention and looks set to be one of the most striking events of the show.

Lots of live music

This isn’t a gamble. It’s a reality. Get ready for lots of ads, brand collaborations, and concerts. The event doesn’t finance itself, and Geoff Keighley is a master at this. We already know, for example, that The Muppets will be presenting an award and that there will be music on stage. We’ll see bands like Evanescence perform their song “Afterlife” from the Netflix series Devil May Cry.

Let there be no doubt that there will also be time for celebrities of all kinds. A few years ago, we had poor Al Pacino attending the gala and giving the longest acceptance speech in history. This time, names such as actor Jeffrey Wright have been confirmed, so hold on to your most caffeinated drink. Another awkward moment is coming, with Geoff trying to get Hollywood to take video games more seriously. These moments often lead to situations of cringe-worthy embarrassment and pure surrealism.

Other common moments

We should also assume that Geoff Keighley will want to get serious at some point and acknowledge the terrible layoff figures in the industry. After years of ignoring the issue because, according to him, he wanted to focus only on the positive aspects of video games, the presenter finally heeded the criticism and brought visibility to the situation in 2024, when he created a platform for those affected to look for work, and we assume he will continue to do so in this edition. It would be to his credit.

No one should rule out the possibility that video game adaptations (the latest series and movies) will also feature prominently. There’s always room for a trailer for them. Perhaps about the imminent second season of Fallout? Or maybe the rumors about God of War and Tomb Raider are not so much about a new installment of their sagas, but about their future adaptations? There is no better showcase for everything related to the sector that will be released in 2026, as is the case with Mortal Kombat 2.

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