The Game Awards nominations have been announced, and one title is clearly leading the pack: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. It’s the first epic from an upstart French collective, and it leads all nominees this year with 12 nods, including Game of the Year, Best Game Direction (above), Best Narrative, and Best Art Direction. It’s also the only original IP in the top category, a fact that tends to resonate with jurors who are looking for bold statements of creative intent made on one-offs.
Why Expedition 33 Has an Edge Over the Competition
Expedition 33 combines fast-paced, timing-based, turn-based combat with an emotional story and beautiful, painterly visuals. That range of recognition across artistry, technical elements, and performance categories is revealing. Several of the cast members are up for Best Performance, and the game is listed on ballots for Score and Music as well as Audio Design — an indication that its craft coheres at every level, not just in set-piece moments.
Typically at The Game Awards, the eventual winner is well-represented across a large spread of categories and sits near — or above — the top in terms of total nominations. Expedition 33 checks both boxes. The fact that it’s a fresh universe, not a sequel, is also an intangible advantage; voters tend to reward new worlds that feel fully realized on their first outing.
The Field for Game of the Year at a Glance
It’s a star-studded cast for Expedition 33. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach returns with contemplative meditation on connection and loss, auteur-driven direction, and meticulous sound design. Meanwhile, Hades II improves upon an indie darling formula with new mechanics and razor-sharp combat clarity while Hollow Knight: Silksong is the long-rumored sequel bringing layered 2D exploration along with punishing, twitch-based platforming.
Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Bonanza made a triumphant return, resulting in 3D platforming fun and inventive environmental destruction that completely transforms the play spaces dynamically. Rounding off the six is Kingdom Come: Deliverance II — a grounded historical RPG that’s lauded for sticking to realism and featuring a more emotionally driven story. The closest thing in the set to a “surprise” is this one — but its presence serves also as further confirmation of just how much the field privileges systems-driven immersion.
Interestingly, 3 of the 6 GOTY contenders come from independent developers; a degree of established competition that indies have been doing well to hold recently, competing against the big studios. That balance reflects how player conversation and critical applause gradually center around design clarity, authorship, and replayable depth rather than simply production scale.
Publisher Tally and Momentum Across Award Categories
Sony is out in front with 19 nominations, up and down a list led by Death Stranding 2, Helldivers II, and Ghost of Yotei.
The category distribution can matter as much as straight numbers: games that pick up nominations across Direction, Narrative, and Art Direction typically convert in final voting, while Action and Audio usually point toward strong craft but not the ultimate reward. The footprint of Expedition 33 extends across the artistic core and important stem walls, clearly locking down its frontrunner status.
How Voting Works at The Game Awards This Year
The Game Awards combines both votes from a global panel and the public. The jury is worth 90% of the final result; fan voting is worth the other 10%. Specialized juries consider topics like esports, accessibility, and adaptation. Fans can register an account on The Game Awards website for their chance to vote; however, this is a highly structured voting process in which broad critical agreement tends to carry the day — especially at the top of almost any given category.
It is that balance that makes patterns of nominations so telling. When a game is out front on both Direction and Narrative, with strong, if polarizing, support across Art Direction as well, it indicates ongoing backing from the professional critics and creators who play games for a living all year long. Any sweep into double digits by Expedition 33 suggests that kind of support.
What to Watch as The Game Awards Ballots Close
Be on the lookout to see if Expedition 33 can pick up steam in peer-sensitive categories like Game Direction and Narrative. If it picks up even one of those, GOTY is it’s to lose. Also, given the competition this cycle, with new installments in popular series like Hades II and Silksong and another possible Kojima game in Death Stranding 2, is there room for Winds of Winter?
Whichever way the category skirmishing plays out, one thing is certain: The nominations have pushed a new IP to the front of the pack. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 did more than well — it set the standard.
