Four blockbuster games shared the most nominations announced today by The Game Awards. Destiny 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Super Mario Odyssey shared six nominations each. And among the newcomers is Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, one of the hottest new games and a pioneer in the battle royal genre, as a nominee for Game of the Year.
The awards are akin to the Oscars of games, identifying the top games of the year and previewing big titles coming ahead. The winners get a huge boost in publicity in front of both a live and livestream audience. The video game awards show will take place at the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles on December 7. This year, the awards will feature the debut of The Game Awards Orchestra and a full slate of more than 100 games nominated across categories such as PC, console, mobile, virtual reality, and esports.
Missing from the Game of the Year nomination is Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.
A jury of 51 global media and influencer outlets picked the nominees. Nintendo had the most nominations with a total of 23, followed by Sony Interactive Entertainment with 15 and Activision Publishing with seven. Other top nominees include Persona 5 from Atlus and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds from PUBG Corp.
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To select the fan winners, The Game Awards is teaming up with Facebook, Google, and Twitter so fans around the world can vote directly in several categories, such as Best Esports Player, Best Esports Team, and Most Anticipated Game. Last year, The Game Awards reached over 8.5 million viewers in 2016.
“This has been such a great year for video games,” said Geoff Keighley, creator and executive producer of The Game Awards, in a statement. “With incredible new Zelda and Mario games releasing in the same year, plus the phenomenon that is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, we’ve never had a more diverse slate of nominees, including a record four women nominated in our genderless Best Performance category.”
This year The Game Awards is also introducing the Student Game Award (SGA) category, recognizing emerging talent at the high school and college/university level. Six games were nominated for the first-ever SGA award, with the winner selected by an all-star panel of game creators including Todd Howard (Bethesda Game Studios), Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions), Illka Paananen (Supercell), Kim Swift (EA Motive) and Vince Zampella (Respawn).
Above: You have to admit, Bowser looks good.
The full list of nominees is on the link above, and a partial list is below:
Game of The Year
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Persona 5 (Atlus)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Best Game Direction
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games)
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo EPD)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD)
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames/Bethesda)
Best Narrative
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Tameem Antoniades, Elizabeth Ashman-Rowe/Ninja Theory)
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (John Gonzalez/Ninja Theory)
- Nier: Automata (Yoko Taro, Hana Kikuchi, Yoshiho Akabane/Platinum Games)
- What Remains of Edith Finch (Ian Dallas/Giant Sparrow)
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Jen Matthies, Tommy Tordsson Bjork/MachineGames)
Best Art Direction
- Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
- Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
- Horizon: Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Persona 5 (Atlus)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Best Score/Music
- Cuphead (Kristofer Maddigan)
- Destiny 2 (Mike Salvatori, Skye Lewin, C Paul Johnson)
- Nier: Automata (Keiichi Okabe, Keigo Hoashi)
- Persona 5 (Shoji Meguro)
- Super Mario Odyssey (Naoto Kubo, Shiho Fujii, Koji Kondo)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Manaka Kataoka, Yasuaki Iwata)
Best Performance
- Ashly Burch, Horizon: Zero Dawn (As Aloy)
- Brian Bloom, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (as BJ Blazkowicz)
- Claudia Black, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Chloe Frazer)
- Laura Bailey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (as Nadine Ross)
- Melina Juergens, Hellblade (as Senua)
Games for Impact
- Bury Me, My Love (The Pixel Hunt/Figs/ARTE / Playdius)
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm (Deck Nine/Square Enix)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Please Knock on My Door (Levall Games AB)
- What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Ongoing Game
- Destiny 2 (Bungie / Activision)
- Grand Theft Auto Online (Rockstar Games)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
- Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG. Corp)
- Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
- Warframe (Digital Extremes)
Best Independent Game
- Cuphead (Studio MDHR Entertainment)
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Pyre (Supergiant Games)
- What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Mobile Game
- Fire Emblem Heroes (Intelligent Systems / Nintendo)
- Hidden Folks (Adriaan de Jongh/Sylvain Tegroeg)
- Monument Valley 2 (ustwo games)
- Old Man’s Journey (Broken Rules)
- Super Mario Run (Nintendo)
Best Handheld Game
- Ever Oasis (Grezzo/Nintendo)
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
- Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam/Nintendo)
- Monster Hunter Stories (Marvelous / Capcom/Nintendo)
- Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World (Good-Feel/Nintendo)
Best VR/AR Game
- Farpoint (Impulse Gear/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn/Oculus Studios)
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom)
- Star Trek: Bridge Crew (Red Storm Entertainment/Ubisoft)
- Superhot VR (Superhot Team)
Best Multiplayer
- Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games/Activision)
- Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
- Fortnite (Epic Games)
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.)
- Splatoon 2 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Most Anticipated Game
- God of War (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man (Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Monster Hunter: World (Capcom)
- Red Dead Redemption II (Rockstar Games)
- The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Esports Game
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
- DOTA2 (Valve)
- League of Legends (Riot)
- Overwatch (Blizzard)
- Rocket League (Psyonix)
Best Esports Player
- Lee Sang-hyeok “Faker” (SK Telecom 1, League of Legends)
- Marcelo “coldzera” David (SK Gaming, Counter-Strike: GO)
- Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac (FaZe Clan, Counter-Strike: GO)
- Je-hong “ryujehong” Ryu (Seoul Dynasty, Overwatch)
- Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi (Team Liquid, DOTA 2)
Best Esports Team (organization)
- Cloud 9
- FaZe Clan
- Lunatic-Hai
- SK Telecom T1
- Team Liquid
Student Game Award
- Falling Sky (Jonathan Nielssen, Nikolay Savoy, Mohsen Shah / National Film & TV School)
- From Light (Faffinabout / USC)
- Hollowed (Erin Marek, Jerrick Flores, Charley Choucard / University of Central Florida)
- Impulsion (Hugo Verger, Remi Bertrand, Maxime Lupinski / IIM)
- Level Squared (Kip Brennan, Stephen Scoglio, Dane Perry Svendsen / Swinburne University)
- Meaning (Hariz Yet / DigiPen Institute of Technology Singapore)
Chinese Fan Game Award
- Honor of Kings《王者荣耀》 (Timi Studio Group)
- ICEY《艾希》(FantaBlade Network)
- Gumballs & Dungeons《不思议迷宫》(QcPlay Limited)
- jx3 HD《剑网3》重制版 (Kingsoft Corporation)
- Monument Valley 2《纪念碑谷2》(ustwo games)
