A lot happened during the 2025 Game Awards.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won almost every award for which it was nominated, including Game of the Year. Capcom gave us two long-awaited announcements: one confirming Leon S. Kennedy as the co-lead of Resident Evil Requiem and the other being the reveal of the first new Mega Man game since 2018. A new mainline Tomb Raider game and a remake of the series’ first entry. Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios teased a new Divinity.
But what you might not realize is that a bunch of the biggest and most memorable moments of the show were owed to Canadians. (And not just Markham, Ont.-born producer and host Geoff Keighley.) From a brand-new Star Wars game to an original new sci-fi RPG to a guest role for a legendary filmmaker, Canadian developers had a killer night at The Game Awards. Here’s a breakdown of what they showed off.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Image credit: Larian Studios
Belgium’s Larian Studios, which has a support team in Quebec City, won Best Community Support for Baldur’s Gate 3. The beloved developer has continuously added free content and other updates to the mega-popular RPG since its launch in 2023, so this is a well-deserved win.
Battlefield 6
Image credit: EA
EA’s Battlefield 6, which is developed by the global “Battlefield Studios” team that includes Montreal’s Motive, won Best Audio Design. Given that it’s an immersive first-person shooter with all kinds of realistic sounds of gunfire and explosions, this is certainly an appropriate win.
Digital Extremes
The fan-favourite London, Ont. developer had not one but two games during the show. Of course, there was its signature offering, Warframe, with perhaps the most unexpected trailer imaginable. As creative director Rebecca Ford and director of community and live ops Megan Everett admitted on stage, it can be difficult to get into Warframe, given just how much there is to it. So naturally, DE got none other than famed German filmmaker and actor Werner Herzog to record a video explaining what Warframe is. Incredible.
There was also a short trailer for DE’s other game, the fantasy action-RPG Soulframe, which is still in pre-alpha. The brief video offered a tease for Alora, Empress of Eldveil, a character who DE recently confirmed will be voiced by Baldur’s Gate 3 star Jennifer English. (Coincidentally, English also won Best Performance for her role as Maelle in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 last night.)
Digital Extremes is one of Canada’s most talented and beloved teams, so it’s great to see it doing so many cool things.
Exodus
At first glance, the thing that might stick out the most to you is the fact that Exodus is that game with Matthew McConaughey. You know, the one for which he came to The Game Awards in 2023. But what you likely don’t realize is that several of the key people behind the sci-fi action-RPG are Canadian alums of BioWare Edmonton.
Yes, while Wizards of the Coast-owned Archetype Entertainment is based in Austin, Texas, co-founder and head James Ohlen was one of the main designers on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the first two Baldur’s Gate games. On top of that, Exodus narrative director Drew Karpyshyn was the lead writer on Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. Both Ohlen and Karpyshyn eventually went to BioWare Austin to work on The Old Republic MMORPG before leaving to start up Archetype with other Austin coworkers, like Chad Robertson (co-founder and general manager) and Chris King (creative director).
That BioWare DNA looks prevalent throughout everything we’ve seen so far from Exodus. The game follows a young traveller named Jun who must venture out into the galaxy in hopes of finding a way to stop the mysterious Rot from destroying their home. With a choice-based narrative focused on time dilation, upgradeable sci-fi weaponry and powers and all kinds of companions/romance options, Exodus looks like it could be a great spiritual successor to Mass Effect.
More information on Exodus can be found in our preview with Archetype.
Forest 3
Vancouver-based Endnight Games surprised viewers with the reveal of its third The Forest game, and this one takes the player from Earth to space. There’s still that creepy atmosphere that defined the previous games, but this time, you’ll encounter alien creatures and use sci-fi weaponry to fight back.
That said, many details have yet to be confirmed. For instance, the actual plot of the game remains under wraps, as does the release window. We also don’t know whether Forest 3 will feature multiplayer functionality like its predecessors.
South of Midnight
South of Midnight from Montreal-based Compulsion Games won the Games for Impact award. Associate narrative director Farah Nixi and senior producer Diane Guillemont took to the stage for a heartfelt acceptance speech. They also confirmed that South of Midnight will launch on PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in the spring.
If you missed it earlier this year, it’s a delightful action-adventure game that follows Hazel, a young woman in the American Deep South who goes searching for her mother after a deadly storm. It’s one of the most visually stunning games in recent memory and tells a beautiful story about family, history and empathy. Highly recommend!
Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic
Perhaps the single most surprising game reveal was a brand-new single-player Star Wars RPG set in the Old Republic era. A cinematic trailer teases a Force user who must journey through a time of great change.
While any Star Wars RPG would have been intriguing, it was the fact that it hails from none other than Casey Hudson that drew attention. He’s the Edmontonian who served as creative director on such BioWare classics as the original KOTOR and the Mass Effect trilogy, four of the most beloved games of all time. The last we had heard of Hudson was that his studio, Edmonton’s Humanoid, had been shut down last year by parent company NetEase while working on an original sci-fi IP.
But now we know that Hudson has opened another studio in the Albertan capital called Arcanaut Studios. It also has offices in Kelowna, B.C. While we don’t know how many of Hudson’s old colleagues are with him, an exclusive interview with StarWars.com noted that the game is being “built by people who helped shape [the] legacy” of KOTOR.
That said, publisher Lucasfilm noted that development on the project is “early” for console and PC. It’s also a spiritual successor to KOTOR rather than any sort of sequel or follow-up. But regardless, knowing one of Canada’s most storied developers is returning to the galaxy far, far away is unbelievably exciting.
Street Fighter (2026)
We got the first trailer for Legendary Pictures’ adaptation of Capcom’s iconic Street Fighter series. It’s pretty over-the-top, but that’s probably what you’d expect from such a movie. Pretty much the entire cast showed up (minus Balrog actor 50 Cent — yes, you read that right), and that’s where the Canadian angle comes in. Fan-favourite character Chun-Li is played by Vancouver’s Callina Liang (who starred in this year’s Steven Soderbergh-directed Presence with Lucy Liu).
The rest of the cast that made an appearance includes Noah Centineo (Ken Masters), Andrew Koji (Ryu), Jason Momoa (Blanka), Roman Reigns (Akuma), Cody Rhodes (Guile), David Dastmalchian (M. Bison), Andrew Schulz (Dan Hibiki), Vidyut Jammwal (Dhalsim), Eric André (Don Sauvage). Orville Peck (Vega), Olivier Richters (Zangief), Hirooki Goto (E. Honda), and Mel Jarnson (Cammy).
Street Fighter hits theatres on October 16, 2026.
Warlock
Canadians really did the heavy lifting for Wizards of the Coast at The Game Awards. Alongside Exodus, the media giant showed off a new Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure game called Warlock. It hails from Montreal-based Invoke, a roughly 200-person team that includes alums from Ubisoft, Eidos Montreal and other studios.
In the game, you control Kaatri, the titular mage who strikes a deal with a patron and goes on a personal high-stakes journey. At The Game Awards, Alberta-born actress Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, EDI in the Mass Effect games) also took to the stage to confirm she plays Kaatri.
Invoke didn’t reveal anything else about the narrative, but it did tease how sorcery plays into all facets of gameplay, be it combat, exploration or puzzle solving. The team was also quick to note that while the game is heavily inspired by the world of D&D, it’s not trying to recreate the tabletop experience, unlike Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3.
Invoke says a full gameplay reveal will come in summer 2026 ahead of a planned 2027 launch. For more, check out our preview with Invoke.
What were your favourite parts of The Game Awards 2025? Let us know in the comments.
Image credit: Lucasfilm
