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We have our first musical performance of the night. This song, Blood Upon the Snow, is from God of War Ragnarok. A nice performance overall.
Bayonetta Origins is coming on March 17, 2023 as a Nintendo Switch exclusive. This one has an isometric view and has simpler graphics. I guess Nintendo wanted a Bayonetta game that could actually run well on Switch. Not sure how the fans will react to this entry since it seems so different.
Judas is the new game from Bioshock creator, Ken Levine. This one has been in development for a long time so it’s great to see it finally see the light of day. Absolutely a spiritual successor to Bioshock, which I’m all for. I look forward to hearing more about Judas.
We get our first glimpse of the next Hades game, named Hades II. This one seems veyr much in the game of the original, so fans of Hades should enjoy this one. I didn’t care for Hades so I’ll skip it. Sorry.
I’m surprised they’re letting Christopher Judge go on for so long. I hope this doesn’t mean they’ll cut the other presenters short. But it was nice to see him up there!
Christopher Judge wins best performance awards for his portrayal of Kratos in God of War Raganok. This is well deserved!
Al Pacino, yes that Al Pacino, takes the stage. He discusses the importance of performance, so I’m guessing he’s about to list the nominees for best game narrative
Geoff Keighley takes the stage to kick off The Game Awards. He introduces some special guests, like Phil Spencer, Christopher Judge, Hidetaka Miyazaki, and Animal from Sesame Street.
The pre-show ends with a preview of Street Fighter 6. We see new fighters and new content. Expect this one to land in June.
Now, let’s get ready for the big show!
I’ve had my eye on Replaced for some time. I know pixelart games are played out now but this one seems special. I love the cyberpunk look.
Among Us: Hide n Seek gets announced. I don’t understand the appeal of this game. I find it very ‘sus.
We also get a trailer for a game called After Us, which looks kind of interesting. Definitely not ‘sus.
Relic Hunters, Scars Above (pictured above) and Atomic Hearts get some new trailers. Not sure if these are part of the show or simply ads, but nice to see them regardless.
We have a number of world premiere trailers for Horizon: Call of the Mountain, Post Trauma and Viewfinder. The most notable is clearly Horizon: Call of the Mountain since it’s a PS VR2 exclusive.
Okay, this is awesome. There’s a new Hellboy game coming! I love how it captures the art style of the original comics. Let’s hope this is good.
After this, we got a barrage of esports-related awards. Hilarious how they just rattled off the winners. No one to accept the awards.
Multiversus wins best fighting game of the year. I played the open beta and found it good at what it presents, even if I don’t care for Smash Bros. clones. But shout out to the team for winning!
Returnal is coming to PC. This is yet another PS exclusive coming to computers. This one is noteworthy because it’s the first PS5 exclusive to come to PC, whereas previous PS exclusives were on PS4. Does this signify a change in direction?
Marvel Snap predictably wins best mobile game of the year. I say predictably since everyone on Twitter seemed to be playing it. Not me though. I don’t endorse mobile or card games. But hey, do you, people!
Sydnee Goodman kicks off The Game Awards pre-show. We’re shown a glimpse of the next Dead Cells DLC, which seems to be a cross-over with Castlevania. I’d say this is a good way to kick off a show!
We’re 15 minutes away from The Game Awards pre-show. If this is anything like previous years, we’ll get a barrage of announcements and awards. It’s a bit insulting that so many awards get given during a pre-show, but that’s how this program works. Hopefully, they’ll slow down a bit so we can see who and what won.
The titles nominated for game of the year include: Stray, A Plague Tale: Requiem, Horizon Forbidden West, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarök.
Which one do you want to win?
As reported by sister site GamesRadar (opens in new tab), the PlayStation Demo Fest has gone live in time for The Game Awards. Right now, you can check out indie games like Thirsty Suitors (pictured above), Season: A Letter to the Future, Bramble, and You Suck at Parking.
The demos are now available on the PlayStation Store (opens in new tab).
Hey! Computing Writer Tony Polanco here. I’ll be covering The Game Awards tonight and do my best to keep you up to date on the biggest news items to come out of the event.
Tonight promises to be a big year as we should get our first glimpse of titles made specifically for PS5 and Xbox Series X. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for cross-gen games to go away so we can have games that fully utilize current-gen systems.
As for the awards themselves, I hope they get some more air time since the actual awards portion normally seems like an afterthought.
Another confirmed game for the Game Awards tonight is Baldur’s Gate III. The game has been in early access for quite some time, adding features piecemeal. But more than two years after Larian Studios first offered players the chance to buy the game, there’s no release date in sight.
However, the company has suggested that 2023 will finally be the year that BG3 gets a full launch, with a complete story, and every promised race and class available. This is good news for Dungeons & Dragons fans, who have been waiting for a faithful video game adaptation of the popular Fifth Edition ruleset for a while. For fans of the first two Baldur’s Gate games, though, it’s less of a surefire pitch, as it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the first two titles.
One game we know for sure that we’ll see during The Game Awards is Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. This sequel to 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order will continue Cal Kestis’ journey in a galaxy far, far away. EA has promised a gameplay reveal later tonight. If we had to guess, we’d say that Jedi: Survivor will be a third-person action/adventure game with big, explorable levels and refined lightsaber combat — but this time around, maybe either the platforming or the combat will feel a little more fluid than before.
That’s admittedly not our most daring guess tonight, but Fallen Order was a fantastic game. “More of the same, but slightly better” is exactly what fans — including us — probably want to see from the sequel.
One game that fans are hoping to see tonight is Final Fantasy XVI. The next entry in the mainline Final Fantasy series is currently slated to debut in summer 2023, and will be exclusive to the PS5 for at least six months. We’ve seen a few isolated clips of the game’s story and gameplay, but we’ve yet to see an extended preview of either element.
Naoki Yoshida, the game’s producer, will make an appearance at The Game Awards tonight — and that’s about all we know so far. We expect that Yoshida, whom fans affectionately call “Yoshi-P,” will discuss FF16, but that’s not a guarantee. After all, Yoshi-P is also the director of Final Fantasy XIV, the ongoing MMORPG. But we think that tonight is probably FF16’s time to shine. Call it a hunch.
Tom’s Guide covered The Game Awards 2021 around this time last year, and the show had its ups and downs. It was unbelievably long, and spent more time on advertisements than it did on actually distributing awards. On the other hand, we did see some cool game announcements, including Sonic Frontiers, Star Trek: Resurgence and Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s PC port. We have to assume that the show will follow the same basic format this year, so we’d recommend having a game at hand to keep you busy during all the ads.
