The Game Awards 2025 is pay-to-win as Megabonk withdrawal reveals insincere “indie” category

Megabonk developer vedinad has announced that its withdrawing from The Game Awards 2025.

Megabonk was nominated for Best Debut Indie Game, one of its many pointless categories, along with Blue Prince, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (shroud’s mortal enemy), Despelote, and Dispatch. Megabonk is a 3D vampire survivors-like game that peaked at over 117,000 players in October, which makes it seem worthy of a nomination.

But vedinad thinks the Game Awards are mistaken.

Why is Megabonk withdrawing from Best Debut Indie Game at The Game Awards 2025?

On an X post earlier today, vedinad stated on Megabonk’s account that it was withdrawing from Best Debut Indie Game since it’s not a debut game for the developer.

“It’s an honor and a dream for Megabonk to be nominated for TGA, but unfortunately, I don’t think it qualifies for the category ‘Debut Indie Game.’ I’ve made games in the past under different studio names, so Megabonk is not my debut game,” he wrote earnestly.

Sounds wholesome enough. But then one fan pointed out that other games nominated for the same category are even more of a fraud than Megabonk.

“Wait until you hear about ‘indie’ games in the indie category that are backed by multi-billion-dollar corporations,” they wrote.

This includes fellow nominee Dispatch, created by AdHoc Studio (the same studio that is developing The Wolf Among Us 2 along with Telltale Studios). Oh, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive (the same studio that raised $120 million from NetEase a few years ago and had an estimated budget of $35 million to make the game).

Like yes, these are technically indie games and technically debuts, but can you put them in the same category as a game like Megabonk and feel it’s fair?

The Game Awards 2025 is not a legit award show

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Game Awards 2025 are out of touch with the gaming community at large. It’s a giant corporate marketing event where you pay to be a part of the celebrity-studded livestream.

You won’t feel any authenticity or realness while watching The Game Awards 2025. And that’s not only because it’s a mainstream push that strips away all the magic of gaming and its fan base. It’s because the categories, awards, and nominations mean nothing.

For the last few years, the award show has consistently shown a clear bias towards AAA titles, particularly narrative-driven RPGs and similar genres. This overlooks a wide range of other worthy genres and their communities. This is likely due to the voting process, which involves a panel of 30 media representatives and influencers. The fan vote accounts for just 10% of the total vote. It’s not like the actual gaming community matters when it comes to the results.

The Hollywood-focused event just doesn’t feel like it’s geared towards the actual gaming community, especially when the panel lacks a wide range of expertise and interests. This event cares more about collecting money to advertise games than it does about the awards. The esports category is usually an afterthought altogether, just listed off between ads.

Honestly, who is taking this seriously? Who thinks that winning one of these things matters? So good luck to “independent” studio Sandfall Interactive, who has hundreds of millions at its disposal.