Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has rightfully dominated the Game Awards 2025. However, some other strong titles missed out, as the Twitch streamer HandOfBlood believes.
This is the situation: On the night of December 12, 2025, the Game Awards took place, the “Oscars” of the video game industry. The surprise hit Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 swept almost everything and even set a new record with 9 awards. Even the Tagesschau reports on Instagram about the awards and the triumph of the role-playing game.
Many fans celebrate the success of Clair Obscur because it shows that passion and creativity can triumph over inflated budgets and consumer-hostile practices of the AAA industry. Because it proves that turn-based RPGs are not dead after all. And because it’s simply a damn good game, that will likely be hard to match for a long time.
Some find, however: Expedition 33 could have left some awards for others. In particular, the fact that one of the best RPGs of the year went home empty-handed is regrettable.
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 would certainly have had chances for an award – if it had been released in a less competitive year.
Clair Obscur is the big winner, Indies and KCD fall behind
Who went home empty-handed? Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 was the first major RPG of 2025, and for some, also the best. Our editor Karsten already explained upon release in February why every RPG fan should keep an eye on the title.
At the Game Awards, Kingdom Come Deliverance also received respectable 3 nominations, for best narrative, best RPG, and Game of the Year – in all 3 categories, however, it had to concede to Clair Obscur. Not everyone finds that fair.
“Not having an award for KCD 2 is fatal,” writes the Twitch streamer HandOfBlood under the Tagesschau post and receives much approval and more than 1,000 likes. He had already written on X that the gaming year simply had been too rich for a single game to receive so many awards.
On Twitch, HandOfBlood further explains: Clair Obscur definitely deserved awards. However, he finds it unfortunate that it swept both awards for indie games, as many other “sick” indie games like Blue Prince or Dispatch did not receive any award. Clair Obscur, however, would have been a success story even with 6 awards.
We have already reported on the controversy around indie games on MeinMMO back in November.
In the RPG category, HandOfBlood really shakes his head. While Clair Obscur is a good RPG, there were also other strong representatives of the genre this year. The fact that Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 did not win here is “ridiculous.” The RPG elements in the title by Warhorse were simply stronger.
Also, KCD2 at least deserved a nomination for best soundtrack.
Note: HandOfBlood’s stream is currently still ongoing (as of 13:30). We will update the article again if necessary.
It was already clear in advance that Game of the Year would be highly contested. Because 2025 was simply a strong gaming year, and that, despite the fact that the signs were anything but good. MeinMMO demon Cortyn therefore stated: No matter which game becomes Game of the Year – we all won this time
