Can Clair Obscur win the Big Five GOTY awards?

This coming Thursday, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is up for (and the favourite to win) yet another Sport of the Yr award on the DICE Awards in Las Vegas. It’d appear to be the 2025 GOTY narrative, and Clair Obscur’s dominance of it, has already wrapped up, however in actual fact, we’re only halfway through the annual game awards cycle. The three most vital industry-voted awards are but to come back: DICE, the Sport Builders Alternative Awards in March, and the BAFTA Sport Awards in April.

This implies Clair Obscur nonetheless has one summit of GOTY acclaim to climb. Can it win Sport of the Yr in any respect of what we’re calling the Huge 5 recreation awards ceremonies: the Golden Joystick Awards, The Sport Awards, the DICE Awards, the GDC Awards, and BAFTA?

Whilst dominant as Clair Obscur is, this specific feat shall be extraordinarily troublesome to tug off; it’s solely been executed as soon as earlier than. It is because these 5 awards ceremonies have fairly totally different voting our bodies, and every has its peculiarities (particularly the 2 British awards that bookend the season, the Golden Joysticks and BAFTA). To seal a Huge 5 sweep, a recreation must win over {industry} friends, critics and media, and most people. It helps to run unopposed by heavyweight rivals, as Clair Obscur is, however even then, success shouldn’t be assured.

First, a fast rundown of the Huge 5:

• The Golden Joystick Awards is first out of the gate in November of the discharge 12 months, and its Final Sport of the Yr award is voted on by followers.
• The Sport Awards is by far the highest-profile and most influential ceremony. It runs in December, and is voted on by a world jury of critics from gaming websites like Polygon, plus mainstream media and a handful of influencers.
• The DICE Awards is held within the February following the discharge 12 months on the DICE exec convention in Las Vegas. It’s voted on by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, an American {industry} physique.
• The Sport Builders Alternative Awards occurs in March through the Sport Builders Convention in San Francisco. It’s voted on by a panel of recreation {industry} creatives and commerce journalists.
• The BAFTA Video games Awards sometimes takes place in late March or April, and it’s voted on by knowledgeable panels assembled by BAFTA, the U.Okay.’s display {industry} physique.

With the totally different constituencies represented by these awards, it’s not too stunning that it’s uncommon for all of them to go the identical means. However, the annual GOTY narrative is nothing if not consensus-driven, and tends to coalesce round one excellent recreation as a rule — as has occurred with Clair Obscur.

But for the reason that starting of The Sport Awards period in 2014, the Huge 5 have solely chosen the identical recreation of the 12 months as soon as. It was Baldur’s Gate 3, in 2023. This stays true even when you go all the way in which again to 2003, the primary 12 months The Sport Awards’ predecessor, the Spike Video Sport Awards, was held (and likewise the primary BAFTA online game award ceremony). A Huge 5 sweep is extremely, extremely uncommon.

Picture: Larian Studios

How come? It’s partly destiny and the vagaries of the discharge schedule. It’s fairly frequent for 2 video games that may be thought of a lifeless cert in some other 12 months to face off in opposition to one another and find yourself splitting these 5 awards our bodies between them. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and Half-Life 2 in 2004; Mass Impact 2 and Purple Useless Redemption in 2010; Portal 2 and The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim in 2011; Grand Theft Auto 5 and The Final of Us in 2013; The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 in 2015; The Final of Us Half 2 and Hades in 2020.

(Oddly sufficient, it has been Rockstar’s destiny to finish up in simply such a clash-of-the-titans dying match with each certainly one of its main releases since 2003 — together with in 2018, when God of Struggle wiped the ground with Purple Useless Redemption 2. Grand Theft Auto 6’s dominance of GOTY 2026 has been assumed, however would possibly the identical destiny befall it? Prediction market odds on Fable are already creeping upward…)

Even when that doesn’t occur and there’s an awesome favourite with an apparently clear run, simply one of many Huge 5 awards our bodies can (and sure will) torpedo it. BAFTA, specifically, revels in its function as a last-minute disruptor on the finish of the season. Its jury likes to go a special technique to everybody else with left-field picks like Outer Wilds, Returnal, and, um, Tom Clany’s Ghost Recon: Superior Warfighter. In 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s good run was wrecked when BAFTA swung in with What Stays of Edith Finch?, a low-budget indie household drama. It occurred once more in 2022: Elden Ring simply saved successful till it immediately didn’t, and BAFTA, with good comedian timing, selected the gloriously braindead Vampire Survivors.

Picture: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

As the one public-voted award among the many 5, the Golden Joysticks can even throw a cat amongst the pigeons. Don’t imagine within the knowledge of crowds? Contemplate 2018, when God of Struggle swept all of the critics’ and {industry} awards, however Joysticks voters selected Fortnite. Each deserving winners, however certainly one of these video games grew to become a world phenomenon and a multibillion-dollar {industry} in its personal proper that’s nonetheless performed by tens of hundreds of thousands of individuals in the present day, and the opposite one is simply an excellent online game.

That’s not going to occur this time round; the Golden Joysticks already chosen Clair Obscur as its Final Sport of the Yr. Will probably be stunning if Sandfall Interactive’s recreation doesn’t win at DICE and GDC, too. However a comedy BAFTA combo-breaker continues to be very a lot in play, with Blue Prince a probable recipient, given the BAFTA jury’s type.

The ultimate accolade is perhaps past Clair Obscur’s attain in any case. Whether it is, the Sandfall staff shouldn’t really feel too downcast. They’ll be in superb firm.