Getting ready to send Game Awards live updates on the winners and, just as importantly, the new game reveals. You can view all of this year’s nominees here and watch the video presentation on YouTube.
The show starts in two minutes! Return to this page for ongoing updates from the Game Awards.
Turns out it starts at 7:37! Technical issues or normal awards madness?
And we’re off! To the preshow… Sydnee Goodman from IGN is hosting it, she’s great.
I guess they’re giving away an award during the preshow?
Destiny 2 (Bungie) wins Best Community Support!
Well-deserved, Bungie has really listened to its fans since breaking ties with Activision.
New DLC from Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 just premiered. More X-Men to play as: Cable, Gambit, Ice Man, and Jean Grey. Looks like the story will revolve around the Phoenix.
Lual Mayen joins the stage to present Salaam, a mobile game that puts you in the shoes of a refugee. It looks like something that will prove really valuable for gamers and non-gamers.
Best Score/Music goes to Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE). That suggests a lot more awards for the game will be announced over the course of the night.
Best eSports Coach goes to Zonic.
Best eSports Event goes to League of Legends World Championship 2019.
Best eSports Host goes to Sjokz.
Best eSports Team goes to G2 eSports
I don’t know enough to give an opinion on those winners. But running through categories so quickly tells us that the Game Awards understand that the announcements are the big draw for viewers.
No More Heroes 3 receives a suitably wacky trailer. Coming to Switch sometime in 2020. Showing the video now pretty much shuts down hopes that the hero will be the newest Smash Bros. fighter.
Wow, a new trailer for Final Fantasy VII Remake! During the preshow! Bet that means Square Enix wouldn’t pay for the promotion.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai Namco/Sora/Nintendo) wins Best Fighting Game!
I wrote that down before Sydnee even read the winner. It was a given and very, very well-deserved.
Honestly, Sydnee Goodman would be a much better host of the Game Awards than Geoff Keighley, who’s better at the behind-the-scenes stuff.
The Game Awards proper has begun with a performance. Chvrches is on stage to perform their song from Death Stranding.
Wow, outright incredible performance. I don’t think Green Day or Grind (up later in the night) will be able to top that.
The video teasing the Game Awards nominees and announcements shows how much of a priority the show puts on AAA big-budget titles. Wish the indies received more love.\
Geoff Keighley on stage, saying it’s been an incredible year for games. In reality, 2018 has been a bit of a ho-hum year without any real masterpieces. Great games, but not brilliant wins.
Jonathan Nolan on stage to give out the Best Narrative award, which goes to Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)! Looks like some love is going to Indies after all. The developers also win Best Role-Playing Game.
Wow. They had all of 20 seconds to give their speech. For winning two awards.
The first big announcement is incoming.
The Xbox Series X!
Microsoft’s new console unveiled. No industry pros expected this announcement until sometime next year. Phil Spencer says it will “lead to the future of console gaming” when it arrives 2020. They’ve got to release a price tag now, right?
A new game for Ninja Theory unveiled as well. Smart to do it during Game Awards’ 4K stream.
The trailer was for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.
Those graphics! It looks like actors doing live performances. I can’t wait, I’m buying the console day one.
Norman Reedus is here, so there’s that I guess.
The Game Awards shared a video from Facebook Gaming about a video game studio for women in Pakistan.
A Joker game was teased. Very little shown, though.
Only at the Game Awards is a new Final Fantasy trailer one of the smaller stories of the night.
A free update and paid expansion announced for Control, a major Game of the Year contender.
Stephen Curry comes on stage to announce Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf (Immortals, Fortnite) as Best eSports Player.
A trailer unveils Godfall, made by Gearbox exclusively for the PlayStation 5! The first game announced for next year’s console and the main competitor to the Xbox Series X.
Another loot-driven action RPG playable in solo and co-op. This live-service bubble is going to burst sooner rather than later. I hope PS5 has more than this ready for launch…
Best Audio Design goes to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Best Strategy Game goes to Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems/Koei Tecmo/Nintendo)
Community Award goes to Shroud. Strange for a content creator not to come on stage for their award.
Square Enix announces Bravely Default, a sequel to the 3DS game for Nintendo Switch. It won’t be a huge game, but the original has its fans.
Warframe: Empyrean announced, which I can’t speak much to but I’m sure the game’s fans are excited!
A very sweet video was played about Ewok, a 14 year-old hearing impaired girl who’s become a mega-popular Fortnite streamer.
Best Art Direction goes to Control (Remedy/505)!
The Worldwide Creator of Epic Games joining Geoff Keighley on stage to tease Fortnite’s Star Wars tie-in content. Looks like J.J. Abrams will appear in the game (with Geoff Keighley) to reveal more. A bit tired of the host of the Game Awards appearing in the games of nominees, to be honest.
Rey, Finn, and the Sith Trooper skins added to Fortnite. Outfits like that are why the free-to-play game is making billions of dollars.
Ruined King is the first-ever Riot Forge game, a story-driven turn-based RPG tied into League of Legends. Apparently it has a new take on turn-based gameplay. Riot’s doing a big push to capitalize on the popular IP.
A new trailer for Birds of Prey debuted. It’s hard to tell what kind of audience these various DC movies have.
CD Projekt Red shared a behind-the-scenes video of the hard rap and rock soundtrack in Cyberpunk 2077. Not super newsworthy, but really interesting!
Wow, so much to share during these Game Award live updates. Haven’t even had time to process the announcements!
Random Elon Musk appearance. Then a less random appearance of Norman Reedus announcing the winner of Best Action Game. The winner is Devil May Cry 5 (Capcom)!
Not sure Reedus has ever played a video game, to be honest.
Geoff is having a “conversation” with Mirage from Apex Legends, a back-and-forth that’s trying really hard to be funny. But the actual announcement is for the seasonal event Mirage’s Holo-Day Bash, which looks pretty fun and really shakes up the game’s visual aesthetic.
New look at Ori: The Will of the Wisps, the game I’m most exciting for in 2020. It somehow looks more beautiful than the first game in the series, which itself was visually stunning.
But it’s pushed back to March.
Interesting to watch tech ads so hyper-targeted for a video game playing audience.
Facebook gaming also shared a video about using games to remove the stigma of mental health. Cool to see that, as an interactive medium is such an amazing tool for that purpose.
A short (but delightful) Muppets segment to introduce a fake Muppet Labs game that spoofs Untitled Goose Game. Norman Reedus looks confused by all of it.
Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver) wins the Games for Impact award.
Best Family Game goes to Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Next Level Games/Nintendo)
Best Sports/Racing Game goes to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled (Beenox/Activision)
Best Mobile Game goes to Call of Duty: Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision). I find that disappointing, a lot of wonderful mobile titles released this year but it goes to a tired franchise.
Oculus Studios announces Path of the Wars, a VR beat ’em up that looks pretty fantastic. VR may be the best home for that genre nowadays.
The biggest streamer in the world Ninja announces Apex Legends (Respawn) as Best Multiplayer Game. Yet he still won’t play games on his stream with women other than his wife.
Now an extended cinematic trailer for Ghost of Tsushima which didn’t actually reveal a lot. It was followed by a performance of the Japanese influenced score and announced for Summer 2020, officially making it the last exclusive for the PlayStation 4.
Here’s a trailer for Gears Tactics, an XCOM-like strategy game featuring the world of Gears and War. The trailer promises a 40+ hour campaign. Hope there’s a way to play it on a handheld, which is ideal for strategy games. It arrives really soon! April 28, 2020.
Sydnee Goodman back on stage to present the award for Best Ongoing Game, which goes to Fortnite (Epic Games). The obvious pick, but not the wrong one. Maybe now the studio will let their employees work 70 hours a week instead of 80.
New FPS 9-5 was announced. A developer talks with Geoff about the strategic gameplay. This was almost certainly paid promotion, but that’s how the Game Awards keep the lights on.
Best eSports Game goes to League of Legends (Riot Games)
Best VR/AR Game goes to Blood & Truth (SIE London Studio/SIE)
Best Performance goes to Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff in Death Stranding
Reggie Fils-Aimé, who recently retired from Nintendo, is joining the stage tonight. Really hoping he announces Mother 3. I’ve never played its predecessors, but he’s been asked about the game for over a decade and it would be a nice goodbye to finally reveal the release of an English-language version.
The Game Awards does a really great job differentiating the ads from the big announcements.
Green Day playing a 30 year-old song. I wasn’t expecting a lot from the performance but this is still a letdown.
They’re following it with what I believe is a newer song. But, thinking about it, how many people care about new Green Day songs?
A game called New World announced for May. I’ve never heard of it, but this looks absolutely incredible. It definitely has next gen in mind despite a May release. I can’t wait for next year when games look like this.
Reggie hits the stage! Safe to call him one of the most beloved high-ranking corporate employees in the world. He’s so inherently likable despite of all of that. He’s revealing the best indie game, giving a great speech about their importance. But he has to be there for more than that, right?
Fresh Indie Game Presented by Subway (yes that’s really the name) goes to ZA/UM for Disco Elysium. Disco also wins Best Independent Game, because the awards are virtually identical, but only one makes you want to buy a $5 footlong. This time the studio only had 10 seconds to accept two awards.
Riot Games revealed Convergence, their second League of Legends spinoff of the night.
Another ad plays for Google Stadia, the company’s likely temporary foray into video games.
Surgeon Simulator 2 arriving next year.
The Wolf Among Us 2 unveiled. The sequel to the Fables comic spinoff is the first title from the new TellTale, which shows the company is actually serious about making games.
One of the biggest awards of the night, Best Game Direction goes to Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE). Of course. His work has plenty of flaws, but Hideo Kojima has a very unique vision for his games.
Actress Michelle Rodriguez introduces Fast and Furious: Crossroads, a game based on the movie arriving in May. Looks very not great and cheaply made. Rodriguez introduces Vin Diesel, who will share the Game of the Year. First is an incredible musical sampling of each of each nominees from the orchestra.
The last and most anticipated award, Game of The Year goes to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (From Software/Activision). A bit of a surprise but still a solid choice in a year without any standout masterpieces. It was created by the developer of Dark Souls, one of the most influential games of the last decade, so it bears resemblance to Martin Scorcese’s win for The Departed as an award for a culmination of great work.
That ends the 2019 Game Awards live updates! Surprised there weren’t a couple more big announcements, but it was an enjoyable enough event. Hope you liked following along with me! Until next year.
