The Game Awards are simultaneously an awards ceremony and a trailer extravaganza in which game studios and publishers show off their upcoming plans. Some of these trailers are for games that have already been announced; others are what TGA presenter Geoff Keighley calls ‘world premieres’. We already know from official announcements what will be released, but we also have some informed guesses about which titles and franchises could get trailers, release date reveals or other updates – plus some far-reaching wishes about what should be released.
What we know: Mecha break gets “a special announcement.Bandai Namco will unveil one new fighter for Tekken 8. Border countries 4 gets its first real trailertogether with Mafia: the old country. Plus, there’s some sort of update coming War frame: 1999.
Now it’s time for some educated guesses and some less likely hopes and dreams. Share your own predictions in the comments.
Hideo Kojima will appear with things to actually show
We knew Kojima would appear before the Game Awards confirmation last week. Kojima will always show up. The only remaining question is which of Kojima’s three projects are most likely to get a big splashy showcase this year. There are Death Stranding 2: On the beach And O.Dbut there is also Doctordescribed as a spiritual successor to Metal Gear. I suspect so Death stranding 2 will be the main event here, as it needs an actual release date in addition to “2025”. Why don’t we announce that date during TGAs? —Maddy Myers
They won’t be “world premieres,” but we’ll probably see upcoming matches of 2025 at the show – especially the February 2025 lineup, inclusive Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Civilization 7, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Granted, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in HawaiiAnd Monster Hunter Wilds. With all of these release dates fast approaching, these games will likely get some final trailers so people remember to play them in two months. —MM
Max Payne 1 and 2 remakes
All in all, Remedy Entertainment has had a solid year. By 2024, Alan Wake2 became the fastest selling game in the history of the company; the game’s physical Deluxe Edition launched in October, alongside the game’s second and final expansion; and in between all that excitement, Remedy announced FBC: Firebreakthe company’s first multiplayer game set in the universe of Control.
But there is another elephant in the room. In 2022, Remedy announced it was making a remake Max Payne And Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne as a combined experience in partnership with Rockstar Games. We haven’t heard much about the project since, other than a brief mention in the business review of the company earlier this year that the game was about as far along in development as Code name Condor – as it turned out FBC: Firebreak.
A Max Payne remake trailer debut at The Game Awards would be a big step forward for the company and an excellent way to round out an overall successful year. It would also likely be a very emotional moment, as James McCaffrey, the voice of Max Payne and a longtime friend and collaborator of the studio, passed away in December 2023. —Toussaint Egan
In January 2024, it was secretly announced on social media: Dawnwalker is an “AAA action RPG set in medieval Europe” developed by Rebel Wolves, the studio co-founded in 2022 by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
In October, Bandai Namco released a statement It was announced that the company had struck a deal with Rebel Wolves to publish the game, which is expected to be the first of a series of titles set in what is being described as the “Dawnwalker Saga.” Not much else is known about the title, other than the fact that the game is being built using Unreal Engine 5 and that the company is expected to reveal more information about the project “in the coming months.” Sounds like top-notch TGA announcing material to me. -AT
It’s been four years since IO Entertainment announced it was working on a standalone 007 game in collaboration with MGM. Since then, we’ve heard neither a peep nor a peep from the developer regarding the game’s progress… That is, until October, when CEO Hakan Abrak briefly but enthusiastically spoke about The development of Project 007 with IGN. There’s not much to go off of, but come on: developers typically don’t talk publicly about projects in development unless they have something to say or they prepare to say something. The word is all yours, IO Interactive. -AT
After being revealed in 2019 and completely rebooted in 2021, exclusively for Rare’s Xbox Always wild was missing for years – until Phil Spencer visited the studio in October 2024 confirmed in a post on Threads that the game actually exists (“Great day at Rare, hanging out with the developers at their desks and playing Everwild”). When the team said the game would be rebooted in 2021, 2024 was the expected release date, but obviously that didn’t happen. However, this seems like exactly the kind of Game Awards surprise that could happen. Seems more likely then Silk song. —MM