gamescom awards 2025: The Nominees

It's the same procedure as every year: the most outstanding games at gamescom are recognised with the gamescom awards. This year's favourites include titles from 2K Games, Bandai Namco, Nintendo and Capcom.

With five nominations across all categories, Capcom's Resident Evil Requiem is the game with the most nominations across all gamescom award 2025 categories. It has been nominated for Best Visuals, Best Audio, Best Gameplay, Most Epic and Best PlayStation Game. Borderlands 4 from 2K Games and Crimson Desert from Pearl Abyss have each received four nominations. Two Nintendo Switch 2 games, Donkey Kong Bananza and Mario Kart World, as well as the enchanting 3D adventure Hela from Windup and Knights Peak, have received three nominations each.

The indie team Bippinbits from Dresden, together with publisher Kepler Interactive, is also in the running with their game with the incomparable name PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant (which means 'planetary defence cannon commander'), which has been nominated for two awards. The same goes for Cairn, Grounded 2, Little Nightmares 2, Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree, Winter Burrow, and the recently launched and successful Tiny Bookshop from neoludic games. Incidentally, a new category this year is 'Best Lineup', which honours the company with the most impressive overall portfolio of presented titles, as selected by the jury. Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom Entertainment, HoYoverse, Joystick Ventures and Quantumfrog are all hoping to win an award in this category.

A number of other awards will also be presented in the Global Awards group category. These are directly related to the opening of the show and the event itself. Examples include Best Trailer/Announcement, which is voted on by the audience only, and the special jury award, Heart of Gaming. There are also new awards for Best Booth (Consumer and Jury) and Best Business Booth (Jury), which replace the old Best of Showfloor category. A new category is also Best Merch. The winners of the following categories will be announced live during the awards show on 22 August 2025.

Best Visuals

• Borderlands 4 (2K Games)
• Bye Sweet Carole (Maximum Entertainment)
• Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss)
• MIO: Memories In Orbit (Focus Entertainment)
• Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)

Best Audio

• Cairn (The Game Bakers)
• Little Nightmares 3 (Bandai Namco)
• Phantom Blade Zero (S-GAME)
• Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
• Rockbeasts (Team17)

Best Gameplay

• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo)
• HELA (Windup / Knights Peak)
• Mario Kart World (Nintendo)
• PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant (Kepler)
• Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)

Most Entertaining

• Dispatch (AdHoc Studio)
• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo)
• Grounded 2 (Microsoft)
• HELA (Windup / Knights Peak)
• Mario Kart World (Nintendo)

Most Epic

• Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss)
• Dune: Awakening (Funcom)
• Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
• Super Meat Boy 3D (Headup)
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Focus Entertainment)

Most Wholesome

• HELA (Windup / Knights Peak)
• Is This Seat Taken? (Poti Poti Studio)
• Star Birds (Toukana Interactive)
• Tiny Bookshop (neoludic games)
• Winter Burrow (Pine Creek Games)

Games for Impact

• Cairn (The Game Bakers)
• Forever Skies (Far From Home)
• Hollow Home (Galaktus)
• Monowave (Studio BBB)
• Tiny Bookshop (neoludic games)

Best Microsoft Xbox Game

• Borderlands 4 (2K Games)
• Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss)
• Grounded 2 (Microsoft)
• Little Nightmares 3 (Bandai Namco)
• Ninja Gaiden 4 (Microsoft)

Best Nintendo Switch Game

• Donkey Kong Bananza (Nintendo)
• Mario Kart World (Nintendo)
• Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Nintendo)
• Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree (Bandai Namco)
• Winter Burrow (Pine Creek Games)

Best PC Game

• Anno 117: Pax Romana (Ubisoft Mainz)
• Borderlands 4 (2K Games)
• PVKK: Planetenverteidigungskanonenkommandant (Kepler)
• Towa and the Guardians of the Sacred Tree (Bandai Namco)
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard)

Best Sony PlayStation Game

• Borderlands 4 (2K Games)
• Crimson Desert (Pearl Abyss)
• Cronos: The New Dawn (Bloober Team)
• Pragmata (Capcom)
• Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)

Best Mobile Game

• Arknights: Endfield (Hypergryph)
• Dungeon Clawler   (Stray Fawn)
• Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)
• Love and Deepspace (InFold Games)
• Servant of the Lake (Rusty Lake)

Best Lineup

• Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Capcom Entertainment
• HoYoverse
• Joystick Ventures
• Quantumfrog

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