Game Awards 2025: All Winners, Xbox Reveals & Major Game Updates
▼ Summary
– The Game Awards 2025 celebrated the year’s best games and showcased upcoming titles, including the world premiere of *Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred*.
– The *Diablo 4* expansion launches April 28, 2026, featuring a new campaign, two new classes including the Paladin, and a reworked endgame.
– Other major announcements included *Control Resonant*, *Ontos* from Frictional, and two new *Tomb Raider* games in development.
– *Clair Obscur: Expedition 33* was a standout third-party Game Pass title, receiving significant recognition and nominations at the show.
– Xbox revealed a new Developer_Direct for January 2025 and that *South of Midnight* will come to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in Spring 2026.
The Game Awards 2025 delivered a spectacular evening, celebrating the year’s best titles while unveiling a thrilling slate of upcoming releases. This annual event serves as both a recognition of outstanding achievement and a premier showcase for the future of interactive entertainment, offering fans a glimpse at the next wave of must-play experiences.
Blizzard Entertainment premiered the next major chapter for its flagship action RPG with Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred. This expansion represents the climax of the narrative that began with Lilith’s return. Players will confront the Prime Evil Mephisto in an extensive new campaign set in the ancient Skovos Isles. The expansion introduces significant new content, including two fresh character classes, the long-awaited Paladin returns, alongside comprehensive Skill Tree revisions, an increased level cap, and a completely redesigned endgame system focused on player choice, mastery, and lucrative rewards. Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred is scheduled for release on April 28, 2026, across Battle.net, Xbox, PlayStation 5, and Steam platforms.
The show also featured several other major announcements that have the gaming community buzzing. Fans got their first look at the sequel to the award-winning Control, titled Control Resonant. Frictional Games, renowned for Amnesia and Soma, unveiled their latest project, Ontos. In a surprising move, the iconic Tomb Raider franchise revealed not one but two new games currently in development: Legacy of Atlantis and Catalyst.
A standout story of the night was the success of Sandfall Interactive’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The title, which is available now through Game Pass Ultimate, received multiple nominations and awards. Its journey from a reveal at the Xbox Game Showcase to becoming the year’s most significant new third-party addition to Game Pass has been remarkable, and the recognition for the development team is well-deserved.
For deeper dives into these announcements, detailed previews are available covering Control Resonant, No Law, Lords of the Fallen 2, the new Tomb Raider projects, Ontos, and the latest expansion for Expedition 33.
Just before The Game Awards began, a special edition of The Official Xbox Podcast aired, sharing additional exciting news. The broadcast confirmed that a new Developer_Direct presentation is scheduled for January, featuring Playground Games. Furthermore, Compulsion Games announced that their acclaimed title, South of Midnight, will reach a wider audience in Spring 2026 with releases planned for PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch 2.
Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Softworks, and their partners enjoyed a strong showing across numerous categories. Titles like Avowed, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Ninja Gaiden 4, South of Midnight, and The Outer Worlds 2 all received nominations. The evening brought wins for DOOM: The Dark Ages in Innovation in Accessibility and for South of Midnight in the Games for Impact category. Key third-party partners also saw success, with nominations and awards for games including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and ARC Raiders.
Congratulations go out to all the talented developers, creators, and teams at Xbox, Bethesda, Activision, and Blizzard whose work was honored this year.
(Source: XBOX news)
