A streamer accidentally bought Celeste's missing Game Award

How Celeste’s award went missing in the first place is a mystery

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Platforming indie darling Celeste took the gaming industry by storm back in 2018, and won two awards at that year’s Game Awards: Games for Impact and Best Independent Game. While the game is still thought of fondly over four years later, news has just come to light that its developer, Extremely OK Games, never received one of their well-earned awards, at least physically, after it mysteriously went missing.

An auction listing for Celeste's award — _{[Image Source: Kotaku / Prestige]}

As reported by PC Gamer and Kotaku, streamer Prestige is Key was scouring the internet to find a replica of the Game Award trophies that we see handed out time and time again each year. He finally found a listing on eBay, and lo and behold, it was a real award listed, not just a replica.

Prestige proceeded to bid on the item and win, and once it arrived, he saw that it was none other than the actual award that the Celeste team had won and been handed on stage.

When he asked the seller where it came from, their answer only vaguely alluded to some “liquidation sources,” which didn’t quite add up considering Extremely OK is still around making games.

Most of the time, the awards that get passed out on stage during shows don’t actually have the name of the winner on them — that’s added later — so although Ninja presented an award to the team when they won, that statue was promptly handed back to staff when they walked offstage, and then Extremely OK’s real award just… never showed up (although their statue for the Games for Impact award seemed to make it to them just fine).

Celeste's award for best Independent Game at The Game Awards 2018 — _{[Image Source: Kotaku / Prestige]}

After figuring out the award in his possession was indeed real — and missing — Prestige got in touch with the studio to make sure he could get it back to them. In return, Extremely OK decided to send him some signed copies of Celeste, as well as reimburse him for the auction and shipping costs.

This is probably the best this scenario could have turned out, and it makes me happy to see some genuinely kind people gaming. Good on you, Prestige.

About The Author

Noelle Warner

After a few years of working in game development, Noelle joined the Destructoid team in 2021. She particularly loves interactive storytelling and cuddling with her cats!