334
I just started playing expedition 33 and I can see why it won so many awards absolutely amazing game!
Absolutely deserved. Good on em!
If we could just keep this trend of having the game awards completely snuff the big studios, that'd be great.
does seem weird to me to just give all the awards to one game, but then critic-awards shows always have been kind of a joke
"We've picked one game and we're giving every award to that game because it's the best game at everything and have you played the game yet? You should it's so good it's just the best at everything."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_Interactive
Kepler Interactive was founded in September 2021 at the initiative of former Ubisoft employee and French entrepreneur Alexis Garavayan, who had previously co-founded the video game investment fund Kowloon Nights. Self-described as a "super developer" publishing group, Kepler was born out of an alliance between seven independent studios to “pool their resources and knowledge”:
Hedge Fund ass publisher. Come on, guys. The Gaming Awards have always just been sponsored content and you're getting hoodwinked because you don't recognize the sponsor this time around.
Are you trying to say that any game that gets funding of any kind is automatically not worthy of winning?
I'm perfectly fine with people making money in exchange for an excellent product, and Expedition 33 is a fucking masterpiece.
I won't say E33 didn't deserve to win an award, it definitely did. But I will absolutely say with certainty it did not deserve to be nominated in so many categories and proceed to win basically every category.
Having an award show give awards to only one nominee feels bad for everyone except the show runners, that one nominee, and their fans. Lots of games deserved to be there that simply weren't, and lots of nominees deserved to win but didn't simply because E33 won this year's popularity contest.
For example, Best Performance should not have been allowed to have 50% of the nominees be from the same game (E33, in this case).
Are you trying to say that any game that gets funding of any kind is automatically not worthy of winning?
??? How did you get here?
But it was the best at pretty much everything.
Other than best RPG, that should've gone to kingdome come deliverance 2 imo, but like e33 winning that isn't unreasonable.
Baguette supremacy.
I went over to Reddit so I could keep track if the game awards because I didn't have time to actually watch it. Holy shit the hate E33 is getting is completely ridiculous, as Reddit does. Whether you go to the Silksong, KCD2, Death Stranding, Dispatch, Arc Raiders, or any other games subreddit that was nominated for any award about half the comments saying E33 is trash, overhyped, and their game deserved to win instead. As someone that has enjoyed all of these games, the salt is absolutely bonkers. Most of the ones complaining are basically saying "I never played it but I heard they did [blank] so they don't deserve [blank] award."
I just don't get why they need to shit on other people and the games they like just because their game didn't win. Shit on TGA all you want, but the fans and the devs literally had nothing to do with winning. They were all great games and all deserve praise in their own ways. In two weeks none of us will give a shit anymore anyway and will probably be complaining that "RV There Yet" wins the "Most Innovative Gameplay" award on Steam. I mean, a flippin' gacha game won the "Players Voice" Award and people are spending their time shitting on objectively good games.
Whether you go to the Silksong, KCD2, Death Stranding, Dispatch, Arc Raiders, or any other games subreddit that was nominated for any award about half the comments saying E33 is trash, overhyped, and their game deserved to win instead.
Nine awards is a lot. And this is after they swept Golden Joystick. It's a fine game. It's just not the only game.
Yeah, it's not the only game, but it did a really good job in all the categories it won.
I would've given best RPG to kcd2, but I don't think e33 is unreasonable.
The only issue I have is sandfall shouldn't count as an independent game, they had a publisher and were backed by venture capital.
I don’t think e33 is unreasonable.
For any individual award, sure. It's an arbitrary decision of taste and people can agree to disagree.
When you're stacking up all the awards on a single game, you're effectively ignoring the rest of the releases for the year.
The only issue I have is sandfall shouldn’t count as an independent game
I'm more disgusted with giving "Best Indie" and "Best Debut Indie" to the same title. Why even have two categories at this point? It isn't even the studio's debut title.
Similarly, three "Best Performance" nominees to the same title. You know what you're doing and it's not evaluation or recognition, it's just promotion.
But then these awards gave Pretty Derby the Best Mobile Game and FFT: Ivalice Chronicles (a thirty year old remaster!) Best Strategy, so whatchagonna do?
Game awards have always been glorified ads.
When you're stacking up all the awards on a single game, you're effectively ignoring the rest of the releases for the year.
If a game does the best in multiple categories should it be skipped over just to highlight another game?
Imo that's what nominations are for, saying these 6 games did outstanding jobs in this area, the award should still go to whichever one did the best.
I'm more disgusted with giving "Best Indie" and "Best Debut Indie" to the same title. Why even have two categories at this point?
Because they can go to different games. If an indie studio's first game wins best indie game how can it not also be the best debut indie game? Should it be excluded from winning best indie game just because it's their first game and they won best debut indie?
It isn't even the studio's debut title.
What other games has sandfall developed?
Similarly, three "Best Performance" nominees to the same title. You know what you're doing and it's not evaluation or recognition, it's just promotion.
This isn't just recognizing the game, it's recognizing the actors.
Which 2 would you replace and who do you think did a better job?
Game awards have always been glorified ads.
Agreed
If a game does the best in multiple categories should it be skipped over just to highlight another game?
It's all subjective. If you make Balatro and I make BG3, there's no objective way to evaluate "Best Game" between the two. You've got to make some subjective judgement (or just put your hand out and collect bribes).
Giving one of them a full stack of awards doesn't signal quality, it signals bias.
If an indie studio’s first game wins best indie game how can it not also be the best debut indie game
E33 wasn't the studio's first game. So it shouldn't be winning the "award for debut games" on the ground alone.
But yes, if you're winning the "indie game" (which E33's budget shouldn't have qualified it for anyway) spotlight another game under "debut" even if you're predisposed to favor turn based RPGs over platformers or puzzle games or simulators. In fact, especially then.
This isn’t just recognizing the game, it’s recognizing the actors.
It's recognizing the budget more often than not.
It's all subjective. If you make Balatro and I make BG3, there's no objective way to evaluate "Best Game" between the two. You've got to make some subjective judgement (or just put your hand out and collect bribes).
Giving one of them a full stack of awards doesn't signal quality, it signals bias.
It signals quality from the perspective of a poorly selected jury. I have massive issues with how the game awards runs itself, but the solution isn't to artificially restrict what a game can win.
Bias from a jury's selection is inherent in all awards, e33 winning 9 awards isn't evidence of unfair bias or bribes, its evidence of 1) e33 genuinely doing an amazing job in a lot of different areas and 2) the jury being made up of professional journalists who all run in the same circles.
Neither Sandfall or Kepler have the sort of connections you'd need to beat out Sony or Nintendo if all 3 were using shady tactics.
E33 wasn't the studio's first game. So it shouldn't be winning the "award for debut games" on the ground alone.
What other game has sandfall interactive made?
But yes, if you're winning the "indie game" (which E33's budget shouldn't have qualified it for anyway) spotlight another game under "debut" even if you're predisposed to favor turn based RPGs over platformers or puzzle games or simulators. In fact, especially then.
I think we're just gonna have to disagree here, I don't think the point of rewards should be to spotlight a bunch of different games, that's what the nominations are for.
It's recognizing the budget more often than not.
Yeah, that's fair, but it's not exclusively budget.
I have massive issues with how the game awards runs itself, but the solution isn’t to artificially restrict what a game can win.
It's an awards show. Everything about it is artificial
I have no issue with the Best Debut Indie and Best Indie being the same game.
If Silksong had been the voter's best Indie, it couldn't have won best debut because it wasn't Team Cherry's first game.
But if they're going to give the best Indie award to E33, they kinda have to give it best debut. Otherwise they'd have to give one of the awards to a game that was not the best in the category.
For what it's worth most people are more mad that E33 won best indie and best debut indie. It's not an indie game, many people have said as much and it's completely unfair that they won in categories meant for small budget games by small teams.
Totally deserved in other categories, but that does leave a bad taste in my mouth.
That's pretty much where I'm at too. Though the "Indie Award" has always had similar problems before, such as the Dave the Diver debacle. But even though you could technically argue E33 is an indie it felt really wrong to have it up against something like Blue Prince in the indie categories. E33 had a huge budget with A-list actors ffs.
It's roughly the same for BG3, technically an independent indie studio but also one of the most massive production teams on any game.
IMO indie studios aren't studios without a publisher anymore, if anything a lot of studios with publishers are more indie than many studios without. Reminds me of decades ago and people calling Blizzard an indie studio before the Activision merger.
The category is misnamed. It should be best single A game from an independent studio.
Technically Sandfall is an independant studio. A very well privately funded independant studio founded by industry veterans supported by a great publisher. But no-one is arguing that other games published by Kepler Interactive aren't independant. And with 30-ish full-time employees Sandfall's scale is that of an SME, not an Ubisoft/EA/Sony.
The award doesn't feel right because this middleweight AA category was completely abdandoned the previous decade (which legacy studios are now paying a heavy price for), and "indie" came to mean "single A" because if the material conditions of being an independant company.
At the same time though technological advancements enabled small teams to take on larger and larger projects. "Indie" does not mean what it used to, and Clair Obscur is trailblazing this AA renewal. Award shows simply need to adapt and start restricting entry based on team size or something.
That one is dumb. I love E33 so much but you can tell this had a budget behind it.
They need a “small team” game award or something like that or enforce requirements on indie categories.
I guess I'm confused because I didn't know that "low budget" was now synonymous with "indie." They are an indie dev that made their first game yet their game doesn't count as "indie" because they had a budget? What about a game like No Man's Sky? They were an indie dev that got promoted by Sony and everyone shat on it when it came out and said they bit off more than they could chew. In my opinion, that seems even less fair.
I'm not saying they deserved the award more than any other game, I enjoyed all the games nominated, I'm just saying that if E33 flopped I highly doubt anyone would call them more than an indie dev that tried to punch above their weight just like No Man's Sky.
I guess I’m confused because I didn’t know that “low budget” was now synonymous with “indie.”
There aren't any hard rules of what an indie game is, and TGA don't set any because they don't take their jobs seriously, but it's usually accepted that indie = small teams, small budget. Otherwise, technically games like Cyberpunk 2077 are "indie" because they're self-published, while games published by Devolver Digital are technically not indie because they have a publisher despite the games being made on a tiny budget and occasionally created by only one person.
Expedition 33 had a huge budget compared to other games in its category, and much more developers. They had mo-cap, they had popular voice actors, and they had tons of contract workers overseas. It's not fair to put it up against games that didn't have any of that.
E33 is what the industry refers to as a AA game. Mid-sized budget, mid-sized team. As opposed to AAA, massive budgets with massive teams.
What about No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky (on release) is way smaller in scope than E33. It was made by around a dozen developers only, and they actually self-published it which makes it much more "indie".
So a successful crowdfunding campaign could make a game not indie anymore?
"Indie" means "independent", which means there is no publisher or investor that could influence creative decisions in the service of profits. (As CDPR is publicly traded and does answer to investors, Cyberpunk would not qualify.)
If you want a low budget award, call it low budget award and define a threshold for said budget.
and TGA don't set any because they don't take their jobs seriously
Jesus fucking Christ people, we are talking about video games. Get a grip.
What a benign comment to respond so strongly to lmao
Imagine the average gamer. Imagine the average reddit user.
Now combine them.
The problem with the Internet is that it amplifies minority negative voices. Hundreds of thousands of people played that game and 100 pieces of shit get on reddit and be assholes and it gives all of their players bases a bad name. It's the same across anything. On the Internet a loud minority is going to piss in everyone's lemonade because they are trash humans.
What makes it worse is algorithm based social media prioritize rage bait since it creates engagement. It's breaking all of our brains.
Gamers make me embarrassed to enjoy video games
Seriously though.
I used to be afraid to tell people how much I love video games, because most people thought of the South Park MMO guy meme as your average gamer. It MIGHT be true, but some of us really just love the craft and what is made of that craft!
It's like no one has/had any strong opinion about movie aficionados, other than they may not be fun to watch a movie WITH. I don't know. It was strange then, and still is. lol
Game awards are ridiculous, but I will never forget Expedition 33. It deserves all the accolades it has earned and achieved.
Yeah the game is just straight up amazing. I laughed because I saw an article about the streamer, Shroud, complaining about how Expedition 33 shouldn't have won because Arc Raiders was so great - but then admitted he hasn't played Expedition 33.
I think a lot of it was just getting sick of E33 discussion. I remember when Hundred Line released this year some time after E33 and on Steam forums (which, to be fair, is as bad as most gaming forums), while people were, er, "discussing" the game, plenty of valid complaints were topped off with "just play E33 instead, it's cheaper and much better" Like, I don't even disagree, HL was disappointing, but why are you bringing it up, it's apples and oranges.
It was also the first I heard of E33 personally so it wasn't a good first impression, even if the devs are sweet and actually gave a shout out to HL.
(As someone who prefers Silksong that game's community sucks too though, no, I don't care a game is as expensive as 3 Silksongs)
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E33 was the surprise of the year for me. It came from nowhere.
Hopefully their next game continues with that quality. The old RPG giants are mostly floundering are mere shells of what they used to be. Most of the old talent already sold out or retired.
The industry needs new talent to take over.
And get rid of its predators... I'm always so sad to see my friends working in the game industry so exploited, fired without a thought, all to benefit greedy executives who never played a single game in their lives...
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Which is weird, since that game wasn't even marketed. I literally hadn't even heard of it till it started winning shit left and right
That's one area where you can see it is indie despite the large development cost.
They were published by Kepler Interactive and for some markets Bandai Namco. Neither of which have Ubisoft or EA's marketing budget which normally makes up something like half of the development budget of a game.
They did have some marketing. I know a lot of French streamers were paid to play the game on launch. But yeah not "in your face for 6 months in front of every YouTube video and inside every happy meal box" like a new assassin's creed or something.
Like I had heard whispers of it, but that's abojt it.
It wasn't the only game to have that problem. I was barely aware Death Stranding 2 existed let alone that it was out.
I had heard of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 (because the fans wouldn't shut up about how right leaning and "non-woke" the game was) but did not think it deserved a mention.
To be honest the only game even nominated I had played was Donkey Kong Banaza.... (I was obviously VERY aware Hades 2 and Silksong existed. I just haven't had time to play them. Though I would have been offended if they weren't nominated. Especially Silksong)
Weird, I mostly saw people complaining about kcd2 being 'too woke' because minorities exist
One could even say it's quite the obscure game to win awards like this..?
That’s Clair
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I'm so happy for them, the emotions this game brought to me were absolutely unique, its approach on grief was so beautiful. And can't forget the music that I keep humming for the last months...
Renoir's battle theme is the best song I have ever heard in a video game before. For a while, my YouTube algorithm was taken over by streamer reactions to hearing that song for the first time in game, because universally people were just stunned like "holy shit this is amazing".
A bit overhyped I think. Yes, I haven't played it through yet. Yes, it is indeed a good game (even though I don't like JRPGs). The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Bit I don't think it's better than BG3 and I'm sad, that KCD2 didn't win anything because in most, if not all, categories it was paired up with COE33.
KCD got absolutely shafted. Not getting best RPG sucks but the leads not even being nominated for best performance is just straight up bullshit.
In my honest opinion as someone that had played and enjoyed both games, they both deserved the awards in their own ways. I think Kingdom Come is definitely a better RPG in general, but at the same time E33 is an amazing game that is an RPG. It's semantics at this point and I think it's more of a lack of categories. RPG is such a loose term these days that I feel like it should be sub-divided into a few more. Lumping games together and comparing games that are vastly different based solely on a loose term like RPG is disingenuous.
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this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2025
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