The Game Awards 2025 in a nutshell
The Game Awards 2025 delivered exactly what PC gamers expect from Geoff Keighley’s yearly mega show: a pile of world premieres, big sequel announcements, and a surprise game of the year sweep.
If you skipped the livestream and just want to know what matters for your wishlist and backlogged SSD, here is a clear rundown of the key reveals, major winners, and what they mean for PC players.
The preshow started with the usual mix of smaller indie spotlights and early awards, then rolled straight into a main show packed with new trailers. Throughout the night we saw fresh RPGs, shooters, horror games, expansions for live games, and plenty of love for PC centric genres.
Big new game reveals for PC players
The real fun of The Game Awards is always in the world premieres. This year leaned hard into single player RPGs and action games with heavy PC appeal.
-
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
Not technically Knights of the Old Republic 3, but close enough to get fans buzzing. Developed by Arcanaut Studios with Lucasfilm Games, this is a single player, narrative driven action RPG that calls itself a spiritual successor to KOTOR. Casey Hudson, game director of the original KOTOR and the Mass Effect trilogy, is leading the project. Expect big choices, light and dark paths, and galaxy spanning story arcs tailor made for RPG fans on PC.
-
Larian’s next giant RPG: Divinity
Fresh off Baldur’s Gate 3, Larian is returning to its roots with a new Divinity. The studio describes it as its biggest game ever, even bigger than BG3. Details are still light, but the reveal confirmed that the desert statue teaser and recent trademarks were all pointing to this return. If you enjoyed Baldur’s Gate 3’s performance and depth on PC, keep your rig ready for another massive install.
-
Resident Evil 9: Requiem
Capcom brought a new look at the next mainline Resident Evil. Leon Kennedy is back with his own more action focused campaign, while Grace Ashcroft’s side of the story leans toward survival horror with less combat and more running for your life. Expect this to be a big showcase title for modern GPUs with high detail environments and horror lighting.
-
Divine and cosmic sci fi: Exodus
Ex BioWare veterans returned with a deeper look at Exodus, a sci fi action adventure RPG backed by Wizards of the Coast. You play Jun Aslan, humanity’s last hope against future evolved beings called Celestials. The pitch is Mass Effect style cinematic storytelling with time bending stakes and a big focus on crew based exploration. It is targeting an early 2027 release, so there is time before your next upgrade cycle.
-
Control: Resonant
Remedy formally revealed the sequel to Control, titled Control: Resonant. This time the focus shifts to Dylan, Jesse Faden’s brother, and the game leans more into melee focused action RPG systems. The first Control was a benchmark title for ray tracing and high end GPUs, so expect this sequel to push hardware again.
-
New Tomb Raider projects
Crystal Dynamics is going all in on Lara Croft with two PC relevant titles. Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis is a full remake of the original game, planned for 2026, with modern action systems including Max Payne style slow motion. Then in 2027 we get Tomb Raider: Catalyst, a brand new adventure that brings back Lara’s classic design while updating mechanics for current hardware and controllers.
-
Ontos from Frictional Games
The studio behind Amnesia and SOMA is shifting to third person with Ontos, a colorful but still unsettling horror adventure. It is coming in 2026 with a focus on reality bending narrative choices. Frictional games are usually well optimized for PC and great for showing off high refresh rate displays in darker scenes.
-
No Law from Neon Giant
Neon Giant, the team behind cyberpunk twin stick shooter The Ascent, is back with No Law, this time a full cyberpunk first person shooter. You play Grey Harker, a war veteran trying to retire peacefully in the city of Port Desire, until trouble finds him. Their last game scaled nicely across mid range and high end GPUs, so this will be one to watch for performance comparisons.
-
Total War: Warhammer 40,000
Creative Assembly finally confirmed a grimdark future entry for Total War. Total War: Warhammer 40,000 brings the strategy series into the far future, complete with guns and iconic factions, and even a role for actor David Harbour. For PC players, Total War games are classic CPU and RAM stress tests, so this will likely be another title that rewards strong multi core performance.
-
Highguard from ex Titanfall and Apex Legends devs
Wildlight Entertainment, formed by former Respawn developers, unveiled Highguard, a free to play fantasy FPS blending rifles and swords, horses and high tech. It is surprisingly close to launch with only weeks to go, and will naturally target PC as a core platform for competitive play.
Beyond these headliners we also saw announcements for Ace Combat 8, a new Star Wars racing game called Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a fresh mainline Mega Man titled Mega Man: Dual Override coming in 2027, and updates for Diablo 4 and other live games.
Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred arrives April 26 2026 and introduces the Paladin class alongside a cinematic worthy of a GPU stress test.
Winners and the Clair Obscur takeover
On the awards side, one game dominated almost everything.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 came in as the favorite and then blew away the competition. It won Game of the Year plus a long list of other categories, including:
- Best Independent Game
- Best Debut Indie Game
- Best Art Direction
- Best RPG
- Best Narrative
- Best Score and Music
- Best Performance for Jennifer English
By the end of the show Clair Obscur had picked up ten awards in total. If you are building or upgrading a system for narrative heavy, visually stylish RPGs, this is now one of the must play benchmarks.
Other notable winners for PC players included:
- Hades 2 for Best Action Game
- Counter Strike 2 for Best Esports Game
- No Man’s Sky for Best Ongoing Game
- Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles for Best Sim or Strategy Game
- Arc Raiders for Best Multiplayer Game
There were also wins for Hollow Knight Silksong in Best Action Adventure, Battlefield 6 for Best Audio Design, and Wuthering Waves taking the fully community voted Players Voice award.
Why this show matters for PC hardware and gaming
While The Game Awards are mainly about trailers and trophies, the event also quietly sets the roadmap for what PC gamers will be playing on their rigs over the next few years.
Many of the highlighted games are large scale RPGs and visually intensive action titles that will pressure both GPUs and CPUs. Larian’s new Divinity, Control: Resonant, Resident Evil 9, and Total War: Warhammer 40,000 will likely be used as real world tests for upcoming graphics cards and processor generations.
At the same time, free to play shooters like Highguard and competitive staples like Counter Strike 2 and Arc Raiders put continued focus on high frame rate performance. That means fast CPUs, tuned settings, and displays capable of 120 hertz or more will remain important for serious players.
Overall, The Game Awards 2025 painted a strong future for PC gaming. Between giant story driven RPGs, experimental horror, new tactical strategy, and fresh multiplayer shooters, there is plenty on the horizon to justify your next upgrade or simply get more out of the hardware you already have.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/live/news/the-game-awards-live-coverage/
