The Game Awards 2025 nominees are official, and Xbox has highlighted a long list of nominated games that players can launch right now across Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC, cloud, and with Xbox Game Pass. Xbox first-party studios picked up nominations for Avowed, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, NINJA GAIDEN 4, South of Midnight, and The Outer Worlds 2. Third-party titles that appear in the Xbox roundup include heavy hitters such as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Ball x Pit, and Rematch.
Many of the nominees called out in Xbox’s post are playable on Game Pass today. Key examples listed by Xbox include Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. The Xbox breakdown also notes that Game Pass subscribers get benefits for esports and competitive titles like League of Legends and VALORANT, and that Fortnite joins Game Pass starting tomorrow, with a roster and crew offer details on the official Xbox post. Voting for The Game Awards is open now at TheGameAwards.com. The ceremony is scheduled for December 11, when winners across categories will be revealed.
For readers who want more on the biggest nominated indie this year, see the site coverage of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the nominations it picked up, which goes deeper into why that game appears across so many categories. Xbox’s post walks through the nominees, highlighting which are Xbox Play Anywhere titles and which are on Game Pass today. That means players can jump into nominated games on Xbox consoles, on PC, on handhelds marketed with Xbox features, or via cloud streaming, without having to make a separate purchase for many of the entries.
Expect the usual mix of awards attention split between major studios and independent developers. A handful of Xbox-linked performances and adaptations also made the list, with Troy Baker landing a Best Performance nod for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and a cross-media adaptation getting a Best Adaptation mention this year.
Join the conversation and follow along on social media by leaving a comment and following X, Bluesky, and YouTube for updates and reactions.
