The nomination of Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 (CO:EXP33) in the “Best Independent Game” category at The Game Awards 2025 is just yet another “lack of professionalism” example from Geoff Keighley and all of this “AAA gaming industry”.
Before the introduction of Internet in home/handled consoles, releasing a game often required finding a publisher. Otherwise, you had to be wealthy enough to handle localization, purchasing cartridges or discs, marketing and so on all by yourself. Even if you count Windows, there was neither online store or game hub like the Windows Store or Steam today (and yes, even PCs had physical media back then…).
A prime example of this for me is the Shantae series. The very first Game Boy Color game “Shantae” was published by Capcom and released only in the United States. Without Capcom, WayForward wouldn’t have been able to release their game, and proof of this is that Shantae: Risky’s Revolution, the planned sequel for the Game Boy Advance, was canceled as Capcom refused to publish the second game and there were no other publisher to help them. Steam didn’t exist back then so it wasn’t until the Nintendo DSiWare online shop that WayForward could self-publish their game, with the new second game to the series, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge. That’s what you call an indie game. A game that doesn’t need a publisher. You must know what “independent” means, anyway.
So no. It has nothing to do with the budget or the number of developers like I can read sometimes on Internet, you simply just have to stick to the definitions. CO:EXP33 can compete for the “Game of the Year” category as it deserves to, but for “Best Independent Game” there is definitely a problem as it doesn’t meet the criteria. Developed by Sandfall Interactive, CO:EXP33 is published in both physical and digital formats by Kepler Interactive and is even distributed by Bandai Namco in certain regions of the world. The previous year, Dave the Diver was also nominated in this category even though it’s published by the biggest Korean publisher, Nexon! This is really not fair for all the real independent nominated games there.
But here’s the catch: They can get away with this because of “I don’t care” attitude from The Game Awards organizers with their narrow-minded view of the industry, from gaming journalists who lack professional ethics, and from influencers who only care about their egos. I’ve brought this issue up every year: The Game Awards are nothing more than a show by the elite, for the elite, with a narrow view of video games as a medium. It tries to mimic the movie industry with an awards ceremony featuring the year’s flagship games, as if only Hollywood-budget productions existed. In 2023, Keighley and his team were heavily criticized for forcing the category winners to keep their speeches under one minute, while the ceremony hosts stood on stage for 20 minutes rambling about their damn lives before announcing the winner. See the irony here? This is discouraging and this is concerning for the future of this media.
