While The Game Awards’ presentations and reveals were full of surprises this year, with major publishers such as Sony, Square Enix, Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, and Capcom all showcasing upcoming titles, there were some noticeable absences from the show that leave a lot of mystery heading into 2023. Here are five games that were suspiciously missing from The Game Awards 2022.

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Alan Wake 2

Announced at last year’s showcase by Remedy Entertainment CEO Sam Lake, Alan Wake 2’s absence is especially strange considering that the game was supposed to reveal more information this past summer. Coming over a decade on from the Xbox 360 original, which was remastered as a multiplatform title in 2021, many fans still don’t know what to expect from Alan Wake 2 since it was mentioned to be Remedy Entertainment’s first survival horror title.

Back in May, Remedy revealed that the studio had decided to delay revealing more information on the game to avoid taking time away from development, likely so it could hit its slated 2023 release window. At the time, this felt like soft confirmation that the game would once again appear at The Game Awards, where it was initially revealed last year. Instead, fans still know just as much about Alan Wake 2 in December 2022 as they did in December 2021, which raises some concern regarding its release in 2023. Hopefully Remedy has some details to share soon.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Given that its sequel was delayed past a decade of the original film’s release, delays are almost an expected tradition of James Cameron’s Avatar franchise. Such is the case for Ubisoft’s upcoming open-world Avatar game, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, although with the second film preparing for release, and The Game Awards’ continued obsession with combining the film and video game industries, it feels somewhat strange that there was no appearance from the game at this year’s ceremony.

While it’s not yet known if Frontiers of Pandora will release in either 2023 or 2024 (the latter date lining it up closer to the release of Avatar 3 than Avatar: Way of the Water), the impending release of the second movie, which is likely to be one of the biggest pop culture events in years, feels like a missed opportunity to capitalize on excitement fans of Cameron’s 2009 movie might have for the rapidly developing future of the franchise. As of right now, it’s not yet known when Ubisoft will show Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora again, as the game was last showcased in June 2021.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

As winner of The Game Awards’ Most Anticipated Game category, as well as a surprising presence from Nintendo with reveals such as Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, Fire Emblem Engage’s season pass, and a clip from The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it feels downright bizarre that there was no appearance for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, the company’s biggest known 2023 release with a cemented release date of May 12th.

Given The Game Award’s history with revealing gameplay for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2014, a formal trailer revealed in 2016, and its multiple wins including Game of the Year in 2017, it feels like The Game Awards would have been an important event for Nintendo to want to reveal more regarding its impending sequel. While more Tears of the Kingdom information is likely not too far off considering the release date, this feels like somewhat of a missed opportunity to uphold a fun tradition.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Given the lack of a traditional PlayStation Showcase event this year, it was surprising to see Sony participate in The Game Awards this year, not only to accept the many, many awards for God of War: Ragnarok, but also to announce that both The Last of Us Part 1 and Returnal will be coming to PC and finally reveal Death Stranding 2. There was a major elephant in the room regarding this appearance, however, as Sony currently has one major traditional PlayStation Studios title revealed for 2023 that was nowhere to be seen throughout The Game Awards: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

Just recently, Insomniac reconfirmed that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is slated for release in 2023, but the studio has not released any new trailers or information since the game’s reveal in September 2021, leaving some fans understandably skeptical. Furthermore, the lack of a PlayStation Studios-focused event this year has left many PS5 owners unsure of what to expect from first-party developers in 2023, even outside the confirmed PlayStation VR2 line-up and promised multiplayer games from studios like Naughty Dog. Even seeing a teaser for Spider-Man 2 would have been enough to reassure fans that 2023 will still be a great year for first-party titles, and while that’s certainly still possible, there is some confusion as to what Sony is planning for year three of the PS5’s lifecycle.

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Starfield

Above all other absences felt at The Game Awards 2022, none were more distracting than the lack of any new reveals from Xbox Game Studios or its current subsidiaries. While newly announced titles would have also been exciting, the lack of any Starfield gameplay reveals or footage following its major delay from November 11th 2022 to Q1/Q2 2023 set The Game Awards up as the perfect stage to excite fans for Bethesda Games Studios’ upcoming sci-fi open-world RPG. Unfortunately, Starfield was nowhere to be seen, nor was Bethesda Softworks’ other upcoming Xbox exclusive, Redfall.

This, combined from a lack of major exclusive output from Microsoft in 2022 outside smaller budget projects like Grounded, Pentiment, and As Dusk Falls, is seemingly set to end the year on a disappointing note for those excited for the company’s 2023 slate, despite promises that it will be one of the most exciting years in the first-party Xbox history. Considering that Starfield was a perfect game for The Game Awards’ stage with its majorly ambitious scope and presentation, its absence ended up being one of the show’s biggest bummers.

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