Megabonk withdraws from The Game Awards category for best indie debut

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Joshua Robertson is the news editor for TheGamer. When he's not writing breaking news, community stories, or covering industry events, you can find him begging FromSoftware for a Bloodborne remaster.

Regardless of what you think of The Game Awards, it's pretty much established as the premiere awards ceremony for video games. The Game Awards is pretty much the Oscars for video games, although the awards are peppered between over two hours of commercials, which is why a nomination is considered one of the most prestigious things a game developer can ask for.

You definitely don't see many studios rejecting a nomination outright, but that's exactly what has happened with the viral indie hit Megabonk. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Megabonk had been nominated for Best Debut Indie at The Game Awards, alongside other illustrious titles like Dispatch and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. But unlike those games, Megabonk will not be appearing at The Game Awards next month.

Megabonk withdraws from The Game Awards category for best indie debut

That's because Megabonk's creators have announced via the game's Twitter account that they will be withdrawing the game from the category at The Game Awards this year. In their post, they explain that while it is “an honor and a dream” to see Megabonk nominated, they believe it does not qualify as a debut indie game as they have released indie games under different studio names before.

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Megabonk's creator then follows that up with a call to those who would have voted for the game in the category, saying again that the game “doesn't feel right” in the category and asking fans to “vote for another one of the great debut titles” up for the award instead. It's the first time a creator has ever willingly withdrawn their game from The Game Awards in the entire history of the ceremony, with the only other examples coming close being the fan-made titles Pokemon Uranium and Another Metroid 2 Remake, which were withdrawn from the Best Nintendo Fan Creation category in 2016. It's a pretty noble thing to do, though Megabonk probably wouldn't get past the beast that is Expedition 33, and it kind of sheds light on how The Game Awards work, I'm pretty sure Megabonk's creators wouldn't have let the nomination happen if they'd been warned about a dev The whole nomination process should be changed to avoid such mishaps in the future.