Hollow Knight: Silksong Devs Likely Won't Be Attending The Game Awards 2025
Team Cherry co-founders expect being surpassed by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
While, as per the tradition, there are six candidates competing for this year's illustrious GOTY title, and most truly deserve their place in the Top 6, it's no secret that for many gamers, the real showdown is between just two games – Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Notably, the one dissenting voice seems to be coming from Silksong's very own development team, with Team Cherry co-founders Ari Gibson and William Pellen revealing that they probably won't be present at The Game Awards 2025, fully expecting Sandfall Interactive's title to surpass theirs.
Team Cherry
Responding to Bloomberg's congratulations on the Game of the Year nomination, Pellen said the team hasn't decided yet whether they will attend the ceremony, noting that they are "pretty busy" at the moment.
Gibson added that, in their view, Expedition 33 has broader appeal, while Silksong is "on that knife's edge, where it appeals to some and infuriates others," suggesting this is why they may not feel the need to fly 13,000 kilometers from Adelaide to LA to attend in person or even record a video message for the upcoming show.
Be it pessimism or realism on Team Cherry's part is for everyone to decide for themselves, but what's interesting here is that while Silksong does share 4 of its 5 nominations with Clair Obscur, in the Best Action/Adventure Game category, only Silksong from the duo remains.
This means that – even if we assume, likely incorrectly, that Expedition 33 automatically wins over Silksong in every other aspect – the Hollow Knight sequel can still easily take this category. Furthermore, if TGA 2024 is anything to go by, this category comes with a proper awarding ceremony, with developers invited on stage and everything – rather than a blink-and-you-miss-it announcement hidden among trailers and ads – opening up a possibility where Silksong wins, but no one is there to accept the statuette.
As for the other four categories shared by Silksong and Clair Obscur – Game of the Year, Best Art Direction, Best Score & Music, and Best Independent Game (why Expedition 33, with its AA budget, is competing with indies is beyond me, but it is what it is) – it still feels a tad odd for the developers of what has been one of the most anticipated, and the most wishlisted, games of the past half-decade to just give up.
Sure, most people do view Expedition 33 as a game with no rivals this year – just look at the Polymarket bets, which give it a 93% chance of winning Game of the Year – but it's important to remember that the opinions of regular gamer guys and gals matter little at The Game Awards, a ceremony that gives 90% of the voting power to gaming journalists and news outlets with no connection to the gaming world whatsoever.
In other words, if Astro Bot managed to beat Black Myth: Wukong in 2024, predicting the winner this year is more or less a futile exercise – and anything can happen, including Expedition 33 losing to one of the other five contenders.
So, what do you think about Team Cherry's reluctance to attend the event? Could there be other factors at play, like the time and financial costs of attending, similar to why GDC's creator believes the conference has outlived its usefulness? What is your Game of the Year this year? Drop your thoughts down in the comments!
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