GAMA and the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design revealed the winners of the Origins Awards 2025 at Origins Game Fair.
The categories for this year’s awards had been compacted from 16 categories to 12 categories (see “2025 Origins Award Nominations“). At first glance, the winners among the board game categories seem to be fairly spot on; handing out awards to Flip 7 and Endeavor: Deep Sea, two games also nominated by the Spiel committee this year for different awards (see “2025 ‘Spiel des Jahres’ Nominees Announced“). The Miniatures Paint category was very much dead on as AK Interactive Real Colours Markers Set from AK Interactive is an almost universally talked about product among retailers that have ordered them.
On the not-so-great side of winners announced, Magic: The Gathering – Bloomburrow Collector Booster Box winning the award for Best Randomized Constructable Game is a questionable move, primarily because Collector packs can’t be drafted (and played like a game). The Collector Booster product is aimed at people who collect Magic, but may not actually play it, which somewhat lessens the idea of the product being a “constructable game.” Giving the award to any number of Play Booster products WotC released over that last year would’ve been a much better choice.
The Miniatures and RPG category winners were also a bit lackluster. The Miniatures’ winners (aside from the paint markers) were very much “off-the-beaten-path” choices, the products didn’t really make too big of a splash at retail in 2025. Also, Star Trek: Into the Unknown actually came out in April 2024, which is kind of a stretch for the 2025 awards cycle (see “‘Star Trek: Into the Unknown’ Core Set“). The two RPG awards were also fairly avant-garde choices, especially in an award cycle where a whole host of highly-touted and best-selling D&D core rulebooks hit the market (see “Fastest-Selling ‘D&D’ Product Ever”).
The 2025 Origins Award winners are as follows:
Co-Op / Solo Game
Marvel United: Multiverse from CMON (Asmodee)
Gateway Game
Seaside from Hachette Boardgames USA
Party Game
Flip 7 from The Op
Heavy Strategy Game
Endeavor: Deep Sea from Burnt Island Games / KTBG
Light Strategy Game
Fromage from R2i
Fixed Constructable Game
Compile: Main 1 from Greater Than Games
Randomized Constructable Game
Magic: The Gathering – Bloomburrow Collector Booster Box from Wizards of the Coast
Miniatures Core Product
Star Trek: Into the Unknown – Federation vs Dominion Core Set from WizKids
Miniatures
Fool’s Gold Miniature – Tarrasque (Gray) from Hit Point Press
Miniature Paints / Hobby Accessory
AK Interactive Real Colours Markers Set from AK Interactive
RPG Core Product
Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast from Possum Creek Games
RPG Supplement
Call of Cthulhu: No Time to Scream from Chaosium
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