- No Xbox first-party title has been nominated for GOTY for the 12th year in a row.
- Xbox Game Studios earned 5 nominations at TGA 2025, with Microsoft’s Bethesda also adding 4.
- However, neither The Outer Worlds 2 nor Indiana Jones could get a GOTY shoutout.
The Game Awards has finally announced the nominees for its most coveted Game of the Year, and many of the usual suspects like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Death Stranding 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong unsurprisingly made the cut.
PlayStation/Sony ended up as the most nominated publisher at the awards show, with both Ghost of Yotei and Death Stranding 2 getting 8 nominations each. On the other hand, however, Xbox failed to make its mark in the biggest category once again.
Why It Matters: Despite many acquisitions and dozens of studios under its belt, Xbox and Microsoft have failed to produce a first-party game worthy of a GOTY nomination, with even Bethesda failing multiple times under the American giant.
For the 12th year in a row, no first-party Xbox title has been nominated for GOTY at The Game Awards. Xbox Game Studios did end up with 5 nominations overall, but none of its major releases could get their name in the hat for Game of the Year.
South of Midnight took home 2 nominations, one for innovation in accessibility and the other for games for impact with both Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2, also making the list of best role-playing titles.
But, even accounting for Bethesda’s AAA offerings like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Doom the Dark Ages, Microsoft only went home with 9 nominations, ten less than long-term competitor PlayStation.
And, this has been going on for 12 years at Xbox, with the publisher’s in-house AAA titles like Forza Horizon 5 and Gears of War 4 failing to get into the running for GOTY.
Even after its purchase of Bethesda, however, games like Indiana Jones: The Great Circle and Starfield have failed to make a dent.
Many are arguing that Psychonauts 2 amounted to an Xbox nomination in 2021. However, Double Fine explicitly announced that it wasn’t a Microsoft or Xbox exclusive before releasing it on all platforms, as the game was already developed and wasn’t an in-house Xbox production.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devotedly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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