Every June, the video game industry gets together in Los Angeles to tout its wares to the press and public. What used to be a massive festival of corporate marketing spend at the E3 trade show has downsized considerably to a handful of livestreams organized around Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, but it’s still an important point in the calendar — if only because it’s the moment that the release schedule for the second half of the year comes into focus.
That means we now have a pretty close to complete picture of the games that might be contending for Game of the Year at Keighley’s The Game Awards in December. The announcements out of the June showcases didn’t really fill the hole left by Grand Theft Auto 6’s delay into next year — and it’s fair to say that they didn’t field that many obvious GOTY contenders, either.
Microsoft was one of the few publishers to confidently play its hand, putting down October release dates on Ninja Gaiden 4, Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2, and the newly revealed Keeper from Double Fine. Ninja Gaiden 4 is an all-out action game, a category that tends to struggle for GOTY nominations. A role-playing game like The Outer Worlds 2 has a much better shot, although Obsidian’s games can be a bit divisive among critics (they already have one 2025 contender, Avowed, which seems unlikely to make the cut), and fans seem unsure about the direction of this sequel.
Keeper, however, looks like perfect bait for The Game Awards jury. We know nothing of it beyond its debut trailer, but it seems to be a wordless yet surprisingly emotive action-adventure about a sentient lighthouse and its bird companion. It’s got striking artwork and hails from a beloved studio, last nominated for Psychonauts 2 in 2021. Everything depends on how well it reviews at launch, of course, but Keeper could be a solid bet.
Metacritic and OpenCritic’s best games of the year lists (discounting the Switch 2 Zelda remasters). There’s been a long post-launch conversation about it.
What’s more, Clair Obscur is a sentimental favorite with a great backstory. It’s a passion project from a small, newly formed development team and an upstart publisher that beat the big boys at their own game. The community feels like it has some ownership over games like this — a similar if not exactly analogous example being 2023 GOTY winner Baldur’s Gate 3. Clair Obscur belongs to us, and the jury might feel it’s heartless to put such well-funded sequels as Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yōtei ahead of it. We’ll see how things look in four or five months’ time. But don’t be surprised if Clair Obscur goes all the way.
The post Can anything top Clair Obscur for Game of the Year? appeared first on Polygon.
