The gaming industry’s annual end-of-year award show, The Game Awards, will stream live on Thursday, December 9. Nominees have been revealed for more than 30 categories, including Best Multiplayer, Best Action, Best Debut Indie, and Best Performance. Over 100 games are included amongst all nominees.
For the all-important Game of the Year, we have a solid variety of genres and big-name sequels, even if none of them stand out as much as previous years.
Game of the Year
- Deathloop
- It Takes Two
- Metroid Dread
- Psychonauts 2
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village
Nintendo once again dominates the Best Family category, including one of our favorite family games of the year, New Pokémon Snap.
Best Family Game
- It Takes Two
- Mario Party Superstars
- New Pokémon Snap
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
- WarioWare: Get It Together!
Sony Interactive Entertainment leads with 11 nominations from Returnal, Ratchet and Clank, , and two big sequels in the Most Anticipated category (God of War and Horizon). Xbox Game Studios and Square Enix have 10 nominations each. Bethesda’s Deathloop earned six nominations, as did Sony’s Ratchet and Clank.
Technically Microsoft is the biggest winner, as they now own Bethesda, bringing their total nominations across both publishers to 20.
Winners are voted with a select jury of over 100 media outlets. Fans can also vote on the website by signing in, and the total winners in each category are the result of a blended vote between the jury (90%) and fans (10%).
Last year’s The Game Awards was an online-only event due to COVID-19 restrictions. This year the award show will return to an in-person, invite-0nly live event in Los Angeles, CA. The award show will also stream live online, on December 9.
