Each year The Game Awards sees its fair share of viral moments both cringe and heartwarming, but none have persisted through the years quite so much as orchestra member Pedro Eustache--better known as "Flute Guy." Fittingly, Flute Guy once again got his moment in the spotlight this year, showing off his strangest flute variant yet.

Ever since he went viral in 2022 for enthusiastically playing the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 medley on a strange-looking tenor flute, Eustache has been a regular feature of The Game Awards. Each year he seems to get more dedicated airtime during the orchestral section, playing bigger and more unusual flutes.

Pedro Eustache playing a strange new flute during the Clair Obscur tribute

2025, of course, is no different, with Eustache even getting his own announcement video on The Game Awards' social media pages in the lead up to the show. His appearance in the orchestral section didn't disappoint, with his flute part highlighted through the Death Stranding 2 arrangement, and his part in the Clair Obscur section played on a strange new flute that appears to be made out of PVC pipe.

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Nex Playground - The Active Play System

$199 (was $249) | Limited-time deal

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Nex Playground Complete Family Gaming Bundle

$290.37 (was $358) | Deal ends Dec. 12 at 5 PM PT

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The Nex Playground, a motion-controlled video game console for players of all ages, is back in stock at Amazon and on sale for a limited time. Normally $249, the incredibly popular family-friendly console is discounted to $199 at Amazon and Best Buy. The Nex Playground remains sold out at Walmart, Target, and on the manufacturer's website.

Amazon also has a limited-time bundle deal as part of its Game Awards 2025 Sale. From now until December 12 at 5 PM PT--or until it sells out--Prime members can get the Nex Playground Complete Family Gaming Bundle for $290.37 (was $358).

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Of all the new games announced at The Game Awards, the Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive Orbitals might just be the most charming thanks to its retro anime aesthetic.

Orbitals is a two-player co-op adventure, where players step into the roles of Maki and Omura to save their home from a supernatural cosmic storm. Aside from showing off the game's gorgeous '80s anime-inspired visuals, Orbitals' debut trailer also highlights how Maki and Omura will traverse space and work together to solve puzzles.

In one example of how the game's co-op will work, the trailer shows one character piloting a spaceship while another operates the ship's turret. Another portion of the trailer highlights one of the duo using a levitating beam to help transport some important piece of a puzzle, while the other navigates a series of dangerous platforms.

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RDS Game Traveler Deluxe Switch 2 Full System Case

$35 (was $40) | Deal ends Dec. 12 at 5 PM PT

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Mario Kart World Game Traveler Deluxe Travel Case

$20 (was $25) | Deal ends Dec. 12 at 5 PM PT

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Nintendo Switch 2 owners can save on the most popular full system travel case for the first time at Amazon. Officially licensed by Nintendo, the RDS Industries Game Traveler Deluxe Full System Case is discounted to $35 (was $40). For a more compact travel case, the Mario Kart World Game Traveler Deluxe is on sale for $20 (was $25). Both of these deals are part of Amazon's Game Awards 2025 Sale and are only available until December 12 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET.

The Full System Case is similar to the sold-out $85 All-in-One Case made by Nintendo--just with a far more reasonable price. The Mario Kart World-themed Game Traveler Deluxe is comparable to Nintendo's $40 case.

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As The Game Awards 2025 came to a close, we got one more surprise: Wildlight--a team of devs led by folks who previously worked on Titanfall 2 and Apex Legends--announced its new game: Highguard. Not only that, the game will be playable in a few weeks.

A gameplay trailer showcased that Highguard leans into Apex Legends' hero shooter formula but takes it in a different direction, opting for an objective-based raid shooter as opposed to a kill-or-be-killed battle royale. The narrative direction of the game is different too, opting for something that looks more high fantasy (like horses, magic, and pet familiars) while still maintaining that science-fiction flair when it comes to the various characters' abilities and firearms.

On Steam, Highguard is described as a "PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent. [Players will battle] rival Warden crews for possession of the Shieldbreaker, then break into and destroy the enemy base to secure territory in this all-new breed of shooter."

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To probably no one's surprise, Sandfall Interactive's turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won Game of the Year at this year's The Game Awards (as well as GameSpot's Game of the Year accolade), and the team delivered a heartfelt thank you to "the unsung heroes of this industry," YouTubers. Hold on, let me explain.

Game director Guillaume Broche took to the stage at the end of The Game Awards to accept the GOTY trophy on behalf of the team at Sandfall Interactive. While commenting that the outfit--a traditional French garb replete with a black-and-white striped shirt and a red beret--started as a joke and thanking the team, publisher Kepler Interactive, and the cast, Broche had a couple more people in mind to give special thanks to.

"And also, I want to extend [my] thanks to the unsung heroes of this industry," he said during his roughly five-minute speech. "The people who make tutorials on YouTube on how to make a game because we had no idea how to make a game before. So, thank you."

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Mega Man is one of the few icons of the NES era that's still beloved four decades after his peak, but Capcom's hero is finally making his comeback. At The Game Awards, the first look at Mega Man's next game was revealed. It's called Mega Man Dual Override, and its retains the side-scrolling action of the original games with updated visuals that pop off the screen.

Mega Man Dual Override will arrive in 2027, which dovetails with the 40th anniversary of the original Mega Man that debuted in 1987. The title character is a heroic robot who is able to steal certain powers and abilities from bosses he defeats, allowing him to use them against the other bosses. The games even let players strategize which bosses to go after first to determine the enemies who were vulnerable to his newfound weapons.

Six Mega Man games were released on the NES before the series went to the SNES with Mega Man 7 in 1995. The spin-off series, Mega Man X, also debuted on the SNES, and the franchise continued in various forms through 2018 and the debut of Mega Man 11.

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After breaking The Game Awards' record for the most nominated game of all time, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has shattered yet another record, officially becoming the most award-winning game in the award show's 12-year history. After securing 13 nominations, the debut title from Sandfall Interactive took home nine awards, including Game of the Year. Expedition 33 also received awards for Best Narrative, Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Independent Game, Best Debut Indie Game, Best Performance (Jennifer English), and Best RPG.

Prior to Expedition 33, The Last of Us: Part II held the record for the most The Game Awards wins in one night. Naughty Dog's revenge-fueled, action-adventure game took home seven during 2020's The Game Awards, as well as the award for Most Anticipated Game back in 2017. Other big The Game Awards winners include God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur's Gate 3 with five wins each, and Overwatch and Astro Bot, both of which secured four in their respective release years.

Of course Expedition 33 wasn't the only winner at 2025's The Game Awards--though it certainly felt close. Other winners include Hades 2, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Donkey Kong: Bananza, Battlefield 6, Doom: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and No Man's Sky.

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Upcoming gacha-RPG game Arknights: Endfield will release on January 22, 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and mobile, as revealed in a music-video trailer at The Game Awards 2025. The Arknights spin-off features action-RPG gameplay in a semi-open world, mixed with elements of factory simulation like Satisfactory--and, of course, plenty of anime girls for its gacha system.

The release date was dropped at the end of a trailer, which also doubled as a music video, revealing Endfield's title track Give Me Something for the very first time. The track is performed by American band OneRepublic, who also appeared in the trailer alongside Endfield's cast of launch characters.

Endfield is a spin-off from tower defense game Arknights, moving away from the franchise's origins with more traditional action-RPG mechanics. Setting it apart from the many other anime-style gacha RPGs that spawned from Genshin Impact's success, Endfield also includes elements of strategic management, with factory-simulation mechanics similar to Factorio or Satisfactory.

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At The Game Awards, developer S-Game has released a new trailer for its upcoming action game, Phantom Blade Zero, confirming a release date of September 9, 2026 on PC and PlayStation 5.

The trailer was pretty epic, starting with some CGI of a martial artist crossing swords with some thugs while carrying a baby in some Death Stranding kind of way. We then cut to some actual gameplay of our protagonist, the elite assassin Soul, as he travels around various environments, enters various cutscenes, and engages in various battles. It's not quite a souls-like, but based on combat encounters and enemy designs, you'd think it was one. Actually, it looks like a cool mix between Where Winds Meet, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.

First announced back in 2023, Phantom Blade Zero is one of several high-profile games inspired by '80s and '90s Chinese Wuxia action movies. Phantom Blade Zero features a seamless map with interconnected regions for players to explore. This aspect of the game was inspired by classic Dark Souls, while combat revolves around fast-paced offense and even quicker blocks against your usual cannon-fodder enemies and tougher bosses.

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At The Game Awards, Disney and Lucasfilm announced a new Star Wars game, Star Wars: Galactic Racer. It is one of many upcoming Star Wars games in the works, but this one is all about speeding past Star Wars environments at several hundred kilometers per hour.

Galactic Racer certainly seems to pay homage to Episode 1: Racer, but that game was all about podracers, while Galactic Racer's trailer focused more on more types of vehicles, like speeders and speederbikes. The brief trailer showed lots of new models of vehicles we haven't seen before, but with a distinct Star Wars style.

The trailer also made use of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, showing a racetrack on Jakku in the shadow of the AT-AT graveyard, from Episode IX. It left off with a tease for Sebulba, the infamous racer who was rivals Anakin Skywalker in Episode 1. That's so wizard.

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Warframe has been hanging around in perpetual beta for well over a decade now. Even the developers joked about it at The Game Awards this year. The game may not be finished, but it still holds a whole world of mythology to dive into. And who better to reintroduce players to Warframe than documentarian and occasional actor, Werner Herzog. Although Herzog didn't appear in person, he left quite an impression in the trailer below.

In terms of backstory and mythology, Warframe is a little convoluted. The short version is that players control Tenno, warriors who were asleep in suspended animation for centuries before being awakened in the middle of an intergalactic war. There have been 13 years of story expansions, and it's a little too much to take in all at once. And yet Herzog's delivery goes a long way toward making it sound very compelling.

"The Game Awards is a special night, and it's inspiring to see different industries come together to celebrate the craft of game making," Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford said in a statement. "That's exactly why our partnership with Werner Herzog was so perfect for this trailer. He brought a totally fresh perspective to Warframe, embracing its strange beauty and human core. This collaboration allowed us to see our own world we created through different eyes, and we have never been more sure of Warframe's future for 2026 and beyond. Thank you to everyone who helped us survive for more than 12 years. We look forward to continuing to be weird and doing things our own way to serve our communities across every medium we can."

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A short but sweet new preorder trailer for Housemarque's highly anticipated third-person shooter Saros appeared during The Game Awards on December 11.

The trailer didn't tell us much we haven't learned from the previous trailer: there's still an eclipse, actor Rahul Kohli being handsome and angsty, and a whole lot of projectiles and tentacles. What's definitely new, however, is where it ended: on a new release date of April 30, 2026, pushed back from the original date of March 20.

At first glance, Saros looks like a pretty straightforward follow-up to Returnal, but it features a number of gameplay differences that pull it further away from roguelite territory. Resources and progression are not lost upon death in Saros, though the world will still be altered, providing a unique experience each run. It stars Kohli, known for Midnight Mass, The Electric State, and more.

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Neon Giant’s debut project, The Ascent, dropped players into an isometric action game hosted by a neon world of crime and conspiracy. Today at The Game Awards, the Sweden-based studio announced its next adventure, No Law, a gritty first-person shooter that centers on one man’s quest for vengeance.

No Law follows Grey Harker, a retired military veteran living in another neon-soaked metropolis called Port Desire. He leaves active service for a life of peace, but one day he is attacked in his home, and he sets out to learn the truth behind the encounter.

Harker’s quest can be approached through a direct approach with guns blazing, or with a careful touch via stealth tactics. In an interview with GameSpot prior to the TGA reveal, Neon Giant co-founders Tor Frick and Arcade Berg spoke at length about how player choices are key to No Law--especially in how Port Desire reacts to those choices.

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Sometimes you get caught on camera at something like a baseball game, and your face is forever immortalized with whatever cheese or grimace you made. Ben Starr understood that as, when the camera cut to him during a The Game Awards segment, the prolific voice actor gave a wry smile and two thumbs up. And honestly, it might just be the perfect meme to encapsulate this whole year.

Digital Extremes' community director Megan Everett and creative director Rebecca Ford took to the stage to talk about the free-to-play shooter-RPG Warframe. While discussing how they're not there to announce that the game is out of open beta after 12 years of development, Ford shot directly at Starr because the only thing they learned in 12 years is that he'll "do anything for money."

Cue to Starr, cascaded in a red hue as he gives a slight smile and a double thumbs-up in what could easily be a Call of Duty or Fortnite emote. And he held the pose for a while, too; in fact, he sat there for about four seconds. That doesn't sound that long, but when you've got millions of eyes on you at once, it can feel like an eternity.

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In a surprise announcement at The Game Awards, indie horror studio Endnight Games has revealed Forest 3, a follow-up to The Forest and Sons of the Forest. In a major departure from the series' usual mutant-infested islands, Forest 3 seems to be taking the protagonist to another planet, with its trailer showing a malfunctioning spaceship crash-landing on an unknown (but still mutant-infested) world.

Now for a completely unexpected world premiere. Here’s Forest 3! #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/kKiF7b4rAS

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 12, 2025

The trailer starts with a cozy spaceship interior, setting a scene you would never guess was related to The Forest or its follow-up, Sons of the Forest. The spaceship soon malfunctions and crashes into a swamp on an unknown planet, slowly building up the horror of its setting as the trailer progresses.

While Sons of the Forest hinted at an alien origin to its central mystery, it's still a surprise that the next game in the series will take players to a different planet. There are still very few details about Forest 3 available, including where or even when the game is set. While Sons of the Forest took place a few years after the original game, it's unclear if Forest 3 will also be within a similar timeline, or set in the far future.

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