The Game Awards 2025 are fast approaching with a date for the event set for early December, and while the nominees for Game of the Year are all strong choices, one development team has already given up hope for the top prize.
Team Cherry, the developers behind the highly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, aren’t confident attending The Game Awards this year is even worth the time since another nominee for GOTY seems far more likely to win.
Despite being one of the most hyped games of the last few years (excluding Grand Theft Auto 6, of course) after the massive success that was Hollow Knight in 2017, Silksong’s developers recently stated that they’re pretty sure another GOTY nominee will nab the award. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG set in a Belle Époque-styled world, has become the clear front-runner for GOTY after its widespread critical acclaim earlier this year.
Team Cherry may not attend The Game Awards
In a recent Bloomberg article about the development of Silksong, Team Cherry mentioned that they might not travel all the way to Los Angeles for The Game Awards from Adelaide, South Australia where the indie studio is based.
Elaborating on why they might not bother showing up for the top award of the year after being among the select few nominated, Team Cherry’s co-founder William Pellen said, “this year I think we’re safe. I think Exedition 33. It’s exceptional and broadly palatable. Whereas we’re on that knife’s edge, where it appeals to some and infuriates others.”
Silksong’s difficulty isn’t for everyone
Silksong, which was released to widespread critical acclaim, was also met with some backlash and a mixed reception in terms of its difficulty, as many players found the game to be far too punishing (though some difficulty was later nerfed). Unlike Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Silksong does not have different settings for difficulty. Where Clair Obscur allows players to experience the narrative with Story Mode and puts its most difficult bosses (like Simon) in optional encounters, Silksong forces all players to take on the exact same challenge.
This sort of approach to difficulty does turn off a portion of any playerbase, and may contribute to a “git gud” mentality to video games that is often off-putting to casual players. The reaction Team Cherry received to Silksong may explain why Pellen believes his game is out of the running against Clair Obscur.
The Game Awards will take place on Dec. 11, and while nothing is set in stone, it seems likely that Clair Obscur will sweep the awards, especially given the game was nominated in 12 separate categories—more than any other game in The Game Awards’ history—and already dominated at the Golden Joystick Awards.
