🍪 The Game Awards Were Polished on Stage and Messy Everywhere Else
Hello there, industry insiders, exhausted developers, and people who watched The Game Awards wondering why it felt harder than usual to just enjoy the night.
On the surface, the 2025 Game Awards were a success. Big reveals. Big wins. Big numbers. Sandfall Interactive Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 made history. The production was slick. The stream ran smoothly.
But if you paid attention to Reddit, forums, private Discords, and the conversations happening after the show, a different story emerged.
People were not arguing about who should have won.
They were arguing about what this show actually is now. Game Cookies is here to bring the untold.
Expedition 33 Won Everything. Nobody Denied It. But It Still Changed the Mood.
Let’s get this straight. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 deserved its awards. We loved the game. We cheered every win. Most people did.
That is not where the tension came from.
The tension came from how completely the game occupied the ceremony. Nine awards. Category after category. The same names. The same stage walk. The same music cues.
By the midpoint of the show, people online were already predicting outcomes with uncomfortable accuracy.
🦊 Kiki: When one game becomes the answer to every question, the night stops feeling like discovery and starts feeling like confirmation.
🍪 Chip claps, then notices the clapping getting shorter each time.
“This Is Just E3 With Trophies Now” Was Everywhere
One of the most repeated takes across Reddit and forums was blunt.
“This doesn’t feel like an awards show anymore. It feels like E3 with trophies.”
People were not mad about trailers. They were mad about priority.
Award speeches were rushed. Some categories were barely acknowledged. Meanwhile, world premieres, ads, and brand partnerships got breathing room, music, and pacing.
🦊 Kiki: When awards feel like interruptions between commercials, people stop emotionally investing in who wins.
🍪 Chip looks at the runtime and wonders why the thank you speeches are the shortest content on the show.
Let’s Talk About the Cost of Being There
This is where the gossip turned sharp.
Attending the Game Awards was expensive. For some indie teams, it cost more than their entire marketing budget for the year. Flights, hotels, tickets, time off production.
And once inside, the class system was impossible to miss.
Premium seating. Media rows. Partner sections. Overflow balconies. Some developers watching from phones in the lobby. Others not invited at all.
🦊 Kiki: When your industry’s biggest celebration feels like a luxury purchase, people start asking who it’s actually celebrating.
🍪 Chip checks his wallet again. Still just a crumb.
Not Everyone Was Invited. Everyone Noticed.
Another widely shared frustration was access.
Some nominated developers were not invited. Others received passes that did not include networking events or after parties. A few teams reportedly found out about nominations from social media before any official outreach.
Meanwhile, sponsors and partners moved freely through private lounges and closed door gatherings.
🦊 Kiki: Awards talk about community. Badges talk about tiers. People feel the difference immediately.
🍪 Chip bumps into a velvet rope and apologizes to it.
The Parties Were the Real Game Awards
Ask anyone who stayed late. The real conversations happened after the cameras turned off.
Publisher dinners. Invite only rooftops. Hotel bars where deals were hinted at, not announced. Developers quietly asking if anyone knew who was hiring. Others realizing nobody from their publisher showed up at all.
Some people celebrated wins. Others tried to secure their next project. Some left early because they already knew where this year was heading.
🦊 Kiki: The trophies are public. The power dynamics are private.
🍪 Chip hides behind a glass and watches business cards change hands.
The Indie Debate Was a Proxy War
Yes, Expedition 33 is indie. Sandfall is not a mega studio. Kepler is not a giant publisher. No one serious is denying that.
But the argument online was never really about definitions. It was about scale.
A one person passion project and a 30 plus person studio with publisher backing are both indie. They do not exist in the same competitive reality.
🦊 Kiki: The problem is not calling bigger teams indie. The problem is pretending all indies need the same lane.
🍪 Chip holds up two cookies again. Same word. Very different ovens.
Category Stacking Made the Night Feel Pre Decided
Another repeated complaint was how categories overlapped.
The same Game of the Year contenders showed up in narrative, direction, art, music, performance, and genre awards. Once momentum started, the night felt locked.
People compared it to the Oscars, where dominance happens, but structure limits total saturation.
🦊 Kiki: Films have buffers. Games don’t. When one title hits every category, the system amplifies it until nothing else can breathe.
🍪 Chip tries to hand another game a microphone. It is already occupied.
The Industry Is Shrinking. The Show Keeps Growing.
This contrast hit hard.
While the Game Awards expanded production, sponsors, and spectacle, the industry spent the year cutting jobs, closing studios, and canceling projects quietly.
Many developers watched the show while dealing with layoffs, uncertainty, or burnout.
🦊 Kiki: It’s hard to clap without hesitation when your Slack is full of goodbye messages.
🍪 Chip claps slowly, then stops, unsure.
The Geoff Question Came Back. Again.
It always does.
Not accusations. Not conspiracies. Just discomfort with how much power, curation, and narrative shaping sits with one figure.
Is the Game Awards an awards body, a media platform, or a personal brand?
Most people weren’t asking for change. They were asking for transparency.
🦊 Kiki: When one person becomes synonymous with an industry moment, scrutiny is inevitable, not hostile.
🍪 Chip looks at the stage and realizes how empty it feels without variety.
The Real Question People Left With
The most common post show question wasn’t about winners.
It was simpler.
“Who is this show for now?”
Players. Developers. Publishers. Advertisers. Algorithms.
If everyone is the audience, no one feels centered.
🦊 Kiki: The Game Awards didn’t fail this year. They revealed who they’re optimized for.
🍪 Chip leaves a cookie on an empty seat and floats away.
Stay sharp, because rooms always tell the truth.
Keep building, even when the spotlight narrows.
And remember, awards don’t define the industry. Access does.
– 🦁 Leo
