The Sport Awards 2025 Snubbed Overwatch 2

Like clockwork, the nominations for The Sport Awards have been unveiled, and controversy has inevitably adopted. This 12 months, voices like Shroud have pushed again on the dearth of affection for viral extraction shooter ARC Raiders, although the sport lacking the voting cutoff as a result of its late launch possible contributed to a few of the omissions. Others are pissed off about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 taking over half of the slots for Finest Efficiency, with the casts of Hades 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Dispatch, and Demise Stranding 2 going uncelebrated within the class. For me, although, the most important misfire is discovered inside a class that usually will get appeared over in favor of the larger awards: Finest Ongoing. It is because it leaves out Overwatch 2, a sport that has risen from the ashes of a horrible launch to retake its throne on the prime of the hero shooter style.

Designed to honor live-service titles that provide distinctive post-launch help, be it free updates, thrilling collaborations, or drastic enhancements, the Sport Awards 2025’s Finest Ongoing lineup is filled with stellar video games:

Closing Fantasy 14
Fortnite
Helldivers 2
Marvel Rivals
No Man’s Sky

Screenshot (1315) — tga finest ongoing class

To be clear, I’m not arguing in opposition to any of those video games being right here. Fortnite is a juggernaut, No Man’s Sky and Closing Fantasy 14 are two of gaming’s best redemption tales, Helldivers 2 is beloved, and Marvel Rivals’ content material cadence is extraordinary for its style. Nonetheless, I actually really feel {that a} sixth slot ought to have been added to this class as a method to honor all that Blizzard has carried out to enhance Overwatch 2 over the past 12 months, as the sport has come leaps and bounds over the past 12 months.

Whereas it’s true that genre-specific classes are likely to solely have 5 slots in The Game Awards, the GOTY and Finest Efficiency classes having 6 reveals this quantity is unfair and may be modified if there are extra video games deserving recognition.

The Overwatch 2 of 2025 Lastly Feels Like a Worthy Successor to the First Sport

Overwatch 2’s initial struggles had been effectively documented. The sport’s monetization drew ire from the neighborhood, as the unique Overwatch was extraordinarily beneficiant with free and earnable rewards. The cancelation of PvE is among the greatest gaming disappointments of the previous few years, as gamers felt lied to. The shift to 5v5 proved controversial, with 6v6 enjoyers feeling overlooked, and the narrative basically being deserted following the Invasion missions’ launch felt like a slap within the face to lore lovers. All of this mixed to create the commonest evaluation of Overwatch 2: the sequel solely exists to usher in battle move income and attain new gamers by being free-to-play.

Overwatch 2 completely might have caved to the criticism, falling aside after its historic Steam review-bombing and all of the hate in each developer replace or trailer launched for the sport. Nonetheless, Group 4 saved working, addressing neighborhood criticisms one after the other and making Overwatch 2 into greater than only a hole shell of the award-winning authentic. When wanting on the timeline for Overwatch 2’s 2025 enhancements, it’s clear that Blizzard has kicked issues up a notch over the past a number of months:

February 2025 introduced the return of loot packing containers to Overwatch 2, giving gamers extra rewards to chase by way of weekly challenges, OW2 Twitch Drops, particular occasions, and battle passes. These packing containers are fairly beneficiant, too, as they embody quite a few skins that had been unique to high-priced Battle Go bundles and the in-game store. They’re additionally gameplay-exclusive and can’t be bought.
February 2025 additionally noticed Perks added to Overwatch 2, a system the place gamers select between just a few buffs for his or her hero as they degree up all through the spherical.
April 2025 introduced the discharge Overwatch 2’s game-changing Stadium mode, which proved to be the most important burst of pleasure for the neighborhood because the sequel’s announcement. Deep builds for heroes to let players play the way in which they wish to, unique maps and modes, common updates, and an eSports-like announcer all give the mode a distinct really feel from conventional Overwatch.
April additionally introduced the return of 6v6 aggressive to Overwatch 2, giving followers of the normal fashion an Open Queue expertise to take pleasure in in the event that they disliked the texture of 5v5. Hero bans, a long-requested characteristic, additionally got here to the sport in April.
June 2025 introduced map voting to Overwatch 2 after years of gamers requesting the characteristic.
August 2025 added Progression 2.0 for Overwatch 2, which provides gamers hero-specific development bushes and devoted SR rankings for particular person characters, correctly rewarding them for maining particular characters. In a welcome good religion gesture, gamers had been retroactively given rewards for all their time put into heroes previous to the system being added, which means gamers logged in to seek out dozens of loot packing containers and different unlocks.
November 2025 introduced a lore codex to Overwatch 2, and whereas gamers nonetheless wish to see previous comics and animated shorts added to the timeline, it’s shaping as much as be an effective way for gamers to maintain up with the story in-game. Important lore updates have additionally been promised for each season going ahead in order that the story retains transferring alongside.

overwatch 2 junkrat's loot box hunt june 6 8

Basically, Overwatch 2 has ticked each field, barring PvE, that gamers needed to see ticked. Its storytelling is bettering, 6v6 enjoyers have a method to expertise the previous fashion, loot packing containers have been a boon for beauty collectors, and long-requested mechanics like map voting have been launched. Huge surprises like Stadium have shaked issues up, too, and when paired with a dozen new heroes, a number of new maps, and a number of sport modes, Overwatch 2 truly feels content complete. Due to that, it actually shouldn’t be getting ignored this awards season.

Overwatch 2’s TGA Snub Displays Players’ Incapability to Forgive

To me, The Sport Awards leaving Overwatch 2 off its record feels consultant of what number of gamers who don’t actively play Overwatch proceed to have a look at the sport. These on the surface are nonetheless taking jabs on the title regardless of its many enhancements, performing like it’s nonetheless in the identical state that it was at launch. That is unfair and insulting to Group 4 and the work that it has put into its hero shooter, and it reveals simply how uninformed lots of Overwatch’s present detractors are. Sure, the sport deserved all of the criticism it obtained at launch, however mentioned criticism proved constructive and led to a greater sport. This drawback is not unique to Overwatch 2, as I’ve seen individuals bash Best Ongoing nominee No Man’s Sky even after its quite a few unbelievable updates, both as a result of ignorance of how a lot the sport has modified or as a result of players have a tendency to carry grudges. If the web hive thoughts decides a sport is unhealthy, that’s typically the top of the story, as it is going to be memed upon and insulted for years. That is not proper.

I’m not saying that Overwatch 2 needed to win Finest Ongoing (although it’d have a superb case to take action), nevertheless it completely deserved a spot alongside these different 5 video games as a result of its drastic enhancements. I would additionally argue that it might be honest to offer it a Finest Neighborhood Help nomination as effectively. Giving it these nods wouldn’t have simply been deserved, however it might have been an enormous enhance to the sport’s fame, signaling to lapsed gamers and potential newcomers that Overwatch 2 deserves one other look in 2025. There’ll at all times be room to enhance — Marvel Rivals’ Zombies PvE and constantly cool occasion skins are two areas Overwatch 2 ought to look to for inspiration — however in terms of bettering, that’s one thing Overwatch 2 has been doing with each passing season. The Sport Awards’ Finest Ongoing class is designed to acknowledge excellence within the live-service style, and since Overwatch 2 completely matches the invoice in its present type, it stands out to me as the most important snub of the 12 months.