Talking Point: As We Approach GOTY Season, What’s Your Pick As Things Stand?

We’re getting nearer to Game of the Year season! We will be initiating the votes for the yearly Pure Xbox GOTY survey in roughly two months, but before we arrive there, we wanted to ask for your initial opinions on which title deserves the #1 position in 2025 up to this point.

I don’t know about you, but I sense that this year has been challenging! Personally, it’s going to be a close call between Split Fiction, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and South of Midnight (unless something else astounds me before December), but there are numerous other potential nominees – Hollow Knight: Silksong, Blue Prince, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Monster Hunter Wilds… the list continues indefinitely.

For what it’s worth, Split Fiction holds the highest score for a 2025 game on Xbox on Metacritic at this moment.

Reflecting on the past few years, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the ultimate winner of the Pure Xbox Game of the Year award in 2024, Starfield garnered the most votes in 2023, Elden Ring claimed the #1 position in 2022, Halo Infinite triumphed in 2021, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps emerged victoriously in 2020.

You’ll observe a notable pattern here – four out of the five champions have been Xbox first-party titles. Is there a possibility that this repeats in 2025? Perhaps, but it potentially hinges on how Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, The Outer Worlds 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 perform in a few weeks. Maybe Avowed, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Oblivion Remastered and/or South of Midnight will also be contenders? We’ll have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for the voting in December, but for now, share your GOTY as it stands in the comments.