Okay, let's get this straight. I'm sitting there, watching The Game Awards 2025 unfold – same as every year, hoping for some genuine magic – and BAM! Cyberpunk 2077 gets nominated for Best Ongoing Game. My soda went down the wrong pipe. I choked. My cat, Mittens, looked genuinely concerned. Cyberpunk? Ongoing? Did they mistake three years of frantic bug-swatting and one single, solitary expansion pack for a live-service juggernaut? 🤯 It’s like nominating a meticulously repaired vintage car for 'Best Public Transportation System.' Sure, it runs now, and it’s pretty cool, but it ain't a subway line, Geoff!

Let’s rewind. Yes, CD Projekt Red deserves serious kudos. They pulled a No Man's Sky-level redemption arc. Phantom Liberty? Fantastic! The base game is finally in a state where I, a hardened skeptic, am actually planning to dive into Night City next year. They patched, polished, and poured their hearts out to fix the launch disaster. But here’s the kicker: Fixing your broken game doesn't magically transform it into a live-service title. It just means you finally delivered the product you promised years ago. One paid DLC (as excellent as it is) does not an 'ongoing' game make.

Now, look at the company it was keeping in that category:

• Apex Legends: Seasons, new legends, maps, events, battle passes. Constant churn. Live-service 101. ✅

• Final Fantasy XIV: Expansions, patches, raids, story updates, housing drama. A literal MMO. ✅

• Fortnite: The king of constant reinvention. New seasons, collabs, map changes, game modes. It defines ongoing. ✅

• Genshin Impact: Regular updates, new regions, characters, events, story chapters. Gacha-fueled perpetual motion. ✅

• Cyberpunk 2077: ...Released a big patch and one expansion over three years? Mostly focused on making the game playable? ❌

It’s not even in the same galaxy as the others! It’s a single-player RPG with a defined beginning, middle, and end. You finish it. You move on. Maybe you replay it. You don't log in every Tuesday for the new 'Night City Hotfix' event.

Honestly, this whole TGA thing was a bit of a mess, wasn't it? Beyond the baffling category confusion:

• Developers who poured their souls into their work got eclipsed by celebrities who probably couldn't tell a joypad from a toaster. 🙄

• The whole vibe felt less like celebrating games and more like a glorified ad reel. 🎥

• And let's not forget the folks protesting outside about the actual ongoing issues in the industry – crunch, layoffs, lack of protections. That felt more real than half the stuff on stage. ✊

But the category confusion? Chef's kiss of absurdity. It wasn't just Cyberpunk! Remember the whole Dave the Diver debacle? Nominated for 'Best Indie'... while being published by Nexon, a multi-billion dollar behemoth? Even its own developer was like, 'Uh, guys? We're not indie.' 🤷‍♂️ The jury seemed to be working on pure, unadulterated vibes.

Game	Category Nominated For	Why It Was Weird
Cyberpunk 2077	Best Ongoing Game	Single-player RPG with patches & one DLC
Dave the Diver	Best Indie Game	Published by giant corporation Nexon

Geoff Keighley basically shrugged when asked about Dave the Diver, saying it's up to the jury. Okay, fine. But someone needs to give these jurors a cheat sheet! What is an 'ongoing game'? What defines 'indie'? Is it budget? Studio independence? The feeling you get when you see pixel art?

Look, No Man's Sky got nominated for Ongoing in the past. That sorta made sense – Hello Games has delivered 27 free major updates since launch, constantly adding huge chunks of content. It feels like a live-service game without the aggressive monetization. Cyberpunk's updates? Mostly about making cars stop falling through the map and ensuring V doesn't T-pose during emotional moments. Vital work? Absolutely. 'Ongoing game' content? Nope.

So here’s my plea for TGA 2026:

1. Define. The. Categories. Clearly. In writing. With examples. Maybe even flowcharts! 📋

2. Give the guidelines to the jury. Stop the 'vibes-based' nominations.

3. Let the devs talk. Less Hollywood, more people who actually make the magic. ✨

4. Acknowledge the real issues. The protests outside weren't background noise.

Otherwise, what’s the point? How can we take the awards seriously if the categories themselves are meaningless? Maybe next year they’ll just get Taylor Swift to announce GOTY while riding a unicorn made of NFTs. At this point, nothing would surprise me. 🦄

Until then, I’ll be over here, finally giving Cyberpunk 2077 a fair shot – because it’s a good, fixed, FINITE single-player RPG. Not an 'ongoing' anything. And that's perfectly okay! Just... put it in the right box next time, okay Geoff?