Shroud has accused The Game Awards of being “rigged” following its Game of The Year Arc Raiders snub.
The Game Awards confirmed the nominations for 2025 this week, with Sandfall’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 receiving 12 noms — the most in the Awards’ history. Embark Studios' Arc Raiders, meanwhile, has just one nomination, in the Best Multiplayer category alongside Battlefield 6, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Peak, and Split Fiction.
Ahead of the announcement, Canadian Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek, who specializes in competitive multiplayer first-person shooters, had called on his fans to vote for Arc Raiders as Game of the Year 2025 over Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, saying multiplayer gamers were “the minority.”
Shroud is a former professional Counter-Strike player who has built an enormous online audience of 6.8 million subscribers on YouTube and 11.3 million followers on Twitch. He threw himself into Arc Raiders upon its explosive launch, and in a recent Twitch stream reacted to The Game Awards nominations reveal to suggest that the game’s controversial AI-generated voice work had contributed to it missing out on recognition for GOTY.
"The world is just not ready for AI in video games, not yet,” Shroud said. “They're just not ready. But, hey, at least they nominated it for something. I genuinely thought they wouldn't nominate it for anything because they were scared to get backlash. But at least they nominated it for something, so that's good.”
Shroud continued: "Once again, another year, another rigged year. That's crazy.”
With the end of 2025 in sight, single-player role-playing game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has emerged as a frontrunner for GOTY. Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive Donkey Kong Bananza is also up for GOTY, which Shroud certainly took issue with.
“Imagine Donkey Kong, too… if Donkey Kong would win, this award show is just chalked,” Shroud said. “Who the f*** is playing Donkey Kong Bananza? Nobody’s playing Donkey Kong Bananza. Nobody. That is insane.”
Admitting Expedition 33 is probably going to win GOTY, Shroud said he hoped Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 would emerge victorious instead. He believed Arc Raiders will win best Multiplayer, and Battlefield 6 will win best Action. He expressed confusion that Arc Raiders was not nominated for best Audio Design, given the plaudits it has received in that area.
Shroud had previously claimed that voting in The Game Awards doesn’t matter. “All the f***ing awards are rigged anyway, who cares?” he said. “When have you ever seen an award that’s actually legit?”
Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards uses a combination of votes from the games media and influencers as well as public fan voting. The voting jury has in the past had more of an influence on the outcome. Keighley has said he’s considered going all in on public voting for The Game Awards, but expressed concerns about “social engineering.”
The Game Awards ceremony is set for December 11, 2025 at 5pm PT/8pm ET.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
