What do you hope to see at this year’s Game Awards?

The Game Awards air this Thursday night and although we’re still wincing at some of the snubs excitement is starting to build. While ostensibly the evening is about rewarding existing titles most gamers will be tuning in to see the new announcements and trailers for games arriving in 2025 and beyond. While we have to hope that this year’s edition doesn’t repeat some of last year’s mistakes we should still expect some big news especially from the major publishers.

The one announcement that everyone has been waiting for is unlikely to occur however. While a Switch 2 announcement by Nintendo could happen any moment now — it has to happen by March 31 of next year or their stock price will take a hit — it seems extremely unlikely that it’ll be revealed outside Nintendo’s own independent program. That’s not to say that a Direct showcasing the eventual Switch successor couldn’t happen earlier in the week; just that if we haven’t heard anything before the preshow starts on Thursday night we should dial down expectations appropriately.

To me the biggest mystery is what Atlus has planned for next year. After releasing four titles in 2024 — including Metaphor: ReFantazio which is nominated for Game of the Year — they currently have nothing announced for the future. We know the mobile game Persona 5: The Phantom X is expanding to most regions in the near future so it wouldn’t be surprising if that gets a trailer and release dates, but with all the likely attention on Metaphor you’d have to think Atlus (and their parent company Sega) would like to build some momentum by looking ahead to what’s coming next. Persona 6 is the game every Persona fan is dying to hear announced, but it’s also suspected that there are other Persona-adjacent titles and remasters that could also get revealed.

Speaking of Sega it would be awesome if we finally got more information on the forthcoming resurrection of some of their iconic franchises — I’ve been waiting for a new Jet Set Radio for literal decades at this point. Other “known” games I expect to be making an appearance are Death Stranding 2 and (speaking of long-anticipated games) Grand Theft Auto 6. CD Projekt Red is another developer I’d love to see at the show because it’s been a couple years since their roadmap was revealed and it may be time for an official announcement about one of the games.

What about you? Any titles you hope to see at the Game Awards? Could the Switch 2 make a surprise appearance? Speaking of the show do you expect that the criticism from last year will be met with changes or are you guessing it’ll be more of the same? Or do you skip the show entirely?