(VOTING OPEN) Golden TWIG 2025: the Most Honest Awards in the Industry
Every year we’re handing out Golden TWIGs for 2025’s biggest wins, loudest failures, and most absurd corporate theater, with zero PR polish and maximum operator honesty. If you have strong opinions about what actually mattered this year (and what should’ve been quietly buried), this is your moment.
The Golden TWIG nominations show:
The Talk of the Year
Roblox quietly kept compounding while the industry argued whether it’s a platform, a genre, or a safe haven for child molesters. Meanwhile, AI dominated every conversation despite producing incremental gaming outcomes at best. Ubisoft’s implosion turned into Succession style content. And looming over it all was EA choosing the nuclear option: cash out at the top.
Nominees:
EA going to the Saudis · Roblox’s continued dominance · AI everywhere · Ubisoft’s collapse · Tim Sweeney vs The World (Apple & Google)
Last Year’s Winner: Mass Layoffs
Correction of the Year (What We Got Wrong)
This is our annual ritual of humility. We believed Enzoi could meaningfully threaten The Sims. It didn’t. We assumed Call of Duty’s downside was capped. It wasn’t. We worried Switch 2 pricing would stall adoption. Turns out fandom beats spreadsheets. And Apple’s long-awaited Games App? Five years of work for… vibes. The correction of the year reminds us that confidence ages faster than data.
Nominees:
InZoi · Call of Duty’s Battlefield’s ceiling · Switch 2 pricing fears · Apple’s Games App’
Last Year’s Winner: Phillip Black “Squad Busters will become Supercell’s most downloaded game.”
Most Damage Received
Ubisoft continued its transformation into a French corporate soap opera of the worst kind. Xbox struggled to justify scale post-Activision. Warner Bros. Games effectively got valued at zero by the acquirers. Lilith’s portfolio bled despite genre tailwinds. Amazon Games capped a decade-long spending experiment with no breakout to show for it. Money was spent. Value was not created. Several MOBAs and MMOs that nobody asked for were shipped.
Nominees:
Ubisoft · Xbox / Activision · Warner Bros. Games · Lilith Games · Amazon Game Studios
Last Year’s Winner: Ubisoft
Most Disappointing Game
Disappointment is about expectations meeting reality. Mind’s Eye burned hundreds of millions to land a sub-40 Metacritic and refunds. Black Ops 7 shattered the myth of franchise immunity. Rainbox Siege X proved rebrands don’t fix core fatigue. Borderlands 4 felt creatively stranded. Splitgate 2 went from over a billion-dollar valuation to double-digit concurrents.
Nominees:
Mind’s Eye · Black Ops 7 · Rainbow Six Siege X · Borderlands 4 · Splitgate 2
Last Year’s Winner: Concord
Mice Nuts (Small Game, Big Respect)
While giants stumbled, these games quietly earned respect. Clover Pit and Ball x Pit showed how PC leads and mobile follows. Dispatch proved writing still matters. Anno: Pax Romana and Heroes of Might & Magic reminded us that Ubisoft can actually build good games not just obliterate shareholder value. None of these needed $300M budgets, just clarity of vision, execution and zero executives breathing down your neck.
Nominees:
Dispatch · Clover Pit · Ball x Pit · Anno: Pax Romana · Heroes of Might & Magic (revival)
Last Year’s Winner: Balatro
Most Skeptical Move
Apple’s Games App solved no real problem. Netflix pivoted from mobile to TV games without explaining why anyone should care - or how to even play these games. Royal Kingdom raised questions about Dream’s genre instincts. Supercell’s experimental launches felt noisier than insightful. And Ubisoft’s Tencent carve-out looked less like a reset and more like surrender dressed as partnership.
Nominees:
Apple Games App · Netflix Games 2.0 · Royal Kingdom · Supercell experimental launches · Ubisoft–Tencent structure
Last Year’s Winner: Netflix Games paid $50M for 1-year GTA Mobile exclusivity
Most Brilliant Move
Saudi Arabia played the long game, assembling IP, platforms, and global reach. Tim Sweeney chose the hard way. After $100M and a five year legal fight delivered TKOs to both Apple and Google. Playtika’s SuperPlay deal turned Solitaire into a real franchise. And quietly, AI-powered ad tech prevented UA economics from collapsing post-IDFA.
Nominees:
Saudi gaming acquisitions · Tim Sweeney’s Epic beating Apple and Google in court · SuperPlay → Playtika · AI ad tech
Last Year’s Winner: Disney x Epic
Crushed It
Clash Royale pulled off a near-impossible resurrection on a nine-year-old game. Battlefield nailed launch and narrative after years of pain. Grow a Garden proved Roblox can still mint breakout hits. Century Games kept scaling beyond expectations. Gossip Harbor showed that merge still has room when design actually evolves. These weren’t lucky winss. They were earned.
Nominees:
Clash Royale · Battlefield 6 · Grow a Garden · Century Games · Micro Fun
Last Year’s Winner: Brawl Stars
Limping Donkey (a unicorn that is no more…)
Every cycle produces symbols. Forte raised nearly a billion and shipped nothing, leaving collateral damage behind. Dreamhaven didn’t become Blizzard 2.0 — it became a cautionary tale. Bungie’s aura faded under delays and restructures. Believer nearly disappeared. And hovering above it all: gaming VCs who raised at the top, deployed too late, and now pretend drones were always the plan. Gravity always wins.
Nominees:
Forte · Dreamhaven · Bungie · Believer · Gaming VCs
Last Year’s Winner: Forte
