Ok, the title of this thread is kind of a joke, I wanted to sound dramatic. lol

But seriously, after the bomb that was Highguard, the final announcement at The Game Awards 2025, I noticed that the "Last surprise" of the show usually doesn't end up very well.

Or is it just my imagination?

I did a quick research, and those are the final surprise at the events since 2015:

2025 - Highguard (66 Meta, 2.6 User Score, Mixed on Steam)

2024 - Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (Still need to see more, mostly negative reception on trailers)

2023 - Monster Hunter Wilds (Good sales, good reception, but some fans of the series ended up disappointed)

2022 - Final Fantasy XVI Release Date (kinda Ok, but the game had mixed reaction from fans and possibly disappointing sales)

2021 - Matrix Awakens and Matrix 4 (The game was Ok, but the movie was a failure)

2020 - Mass Effect (Game STILL in development)

2019 - Fast and Furious Crossroads (35 Meta, 1.7 User score)

2018 - Joker in Smash (Ok)

2017 - Metro Exodus (Ok)

2016 - Mass Effect: Andromeda (Considered the Black Sheep of the series)

2015 - The Walking Dead: Michonne (Considered one of the weakest Telltale Games)

Source: Here

So, what do you guys think? Am I just imagining things, or there's some bad omen at the final reveals of TGA?

The idea is that the "one last thing" is supposed to be something super hype to finish the show with a bang, so when this underwhelms it comes off as especially disappointing; same thing happened with say the Bethesda ports ending the recent partner direct, Octopath Traveller 0/Adventures of Elliot at last year's partner direct, etc.

It's basically a failure to "read the room" and comes off as being out of touch with what your audience wants.

As far as it being a bad omen, I guess it's more that game development is already such a minefield that more games than ever are turning out less than stellar.

Intergalactic is going to be a similar situation to Monster Hunter, good sales, good reception but because it's a new IP you can change the "fans of the series" part with the internet is never going to change their hateful opinion, doesn't matter how good it is lol. 

The "one last thing" in this case should have been Divinity, which was clearly the hit of the show.

Yeah, the "one last thing" being Highguard was pretty underwhelming.

Divinity, or even the new Resident Evil Requiem trailer would be better.

lol.... this is a crazy theory, but I get it.

The "one last thing" sets you up, expectation wise....

You're onto something.
That's not a good track record for such a coveted announcement placement.
Now I'm wondering Nintendo's record during all their Directs for all their "one last thing". At least in Switch's time, it seems solid and not cursed.

I guess Divinity or Star Wars: FOTOR not being the final announcement was for the best then.

Yeah. I'm not one for all-cutscene trailers, but as far as those kinds of trailers go, I thought Intergalactic looked pretty cool and I'm pretty sure that would be a very common opinion if there weren't so many people who were manipulated into the anti-woke delusion.

The only curse is Geoff and the existence of The Game Awards.