By Francine Canelo // Staff Writer
This year the 2021 Game Awards took place in person at the Microsoft Theatre in a show over three hours long. There were new game reveals, gameplay trailers, and updates on games that were previously announced.
During the pre show, host Sydney Goodman presented the awards for Games for Impact, Best Esports Athlete, Best Esports Team, Best Esports Coach, Best Esports Event, and Best Audio Design. Check out our other article to see the full list of winners.
The pre show had an abundance of new game announcements and trailers, including a new character in “King of Fighters XV” alongside new beta testing dates. The studio Gun Interactive is partnering with Sumo Nottingham for the “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” online game, revealed for the first time during the pre show.
Before listing off some of the winners for the Esports category, “Homeworld 3” was announced to come in the last quarter of 2022. “Homeworld 3” is a real-time strategy game by the studio Blackbird Interactive.
After announcing a few winners, more world premieres were shown, including a sneak peak at “The Expanse” from Telltale Games coming after the ending of the series that inspired it. “Babylon’s Fall,” a co-op action RPG by Platinum Games is coming to PC and Playstation in March.
“Chivalry 2,” which was nominated for Best Action Game, revealed new maps and updates coming to the game. “Monster Hunter Rise” also got a trailer revealing new content. The expansion for “Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak” is coming sometime in the Summer of 2022.
Three more trailers were shown back to back before Sydney Goodman announced the winner for Best Audio Design. “Thirsty Suitors,” an RPG from Annapurna Interactive and Outerloop Games was shown in a Scott-Pilgrim-like battle your exes narrative. “Evil West” got its first gameplay trailer, from the developers Flying Wild Hog, set to release in 2022.
“Have a Nice Death” is coming to early access in 2022, where players can control the Grim Reaper in a 2D platformer. The game comes from Magic Design Studios and was consulted on by the creator of “Dead Cells”.
Before the main show started two more announcements were made. “Planet of Lana” got a new cinematic trailer and a release date of 2022. Then “Persona 4 Arena Ultimax” was announced for PC, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch with a release date of March 17, 2022.
After the awards and world premieres in the pre show, Sydney Goodman gave the stage over to the host of the main show, Geoff Keighley. He established the first Game Awards show in 2014, and has hosted the main show ever since.
The main show opened with a performance by Sting. He sang the song “What Could Have Been” from the show “Arcane” adapted from “League of Legends.”
Geoff Keighley opened the show after Sting’s performance with a statement about abuse in the gaming industry. In light of the allegations of workplace misconduct at multiple gaming studios, he announced that at the Game Awards they would not support any type of abuse in the industry and displayed a hotline where workplace misconduct and abuse can be reported.
Presenting the award for Best Indie Game was actor Giancarlo Esposito. He voiced the character Anton Castillo in “Far Cry 6,” for which his performance was nominated for Best Performance at this year’s show.
After the award for Best Indie Game, more world premiere trailers were shown. The Gameplay Reveal trailer was shown for “Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.”
While earlier Geoff Keighley omitted any studios in his statement on industry misconduct, some fans were upset to see that a new game from Quantic Dream was announced. The studio has been criticised for allegedly having a toxic workplace culture and harassment of female employees.
The studio revealed one of their early development games, “Star Wars: Eclipse” which has no release date as of yet. The game is set during the High Republic era, within the action-adventure genre.
“Wonder Woman” from Monolith Productions was revealed as well. The game is set to be a third person single-player action adventure. The game does not yet have a release date.
The Award for Best Performance in a game was announced before more trailers were shown. “Alan Wake 2” is set to be Remedy’s first ever survival horror game, and more information on the game will be coming Summer 2022. “Alan Wake 2” has a release date of 2023.
Ben Schwartz took the stage with a video cameo from Jim Carrey to reveal the new Sonic the Hedgehog game, “Sonic Frontiers.” They also showed a trailer for the movie “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” Coming April 8, 2022 from Paramount Pictures.
Fans of the “Horizon” franchise got a new look at “Horizon Forbidden West,” set to release Feb. 18, 2022. The action RPG will be a Playstation exclusive game.
The Game Awards Orchestra was back this year to play a medley of songs from the nominees for Game of the Year. The Orchestra played music from “Resident Evil Village,” “Psychonauts 2,” “Deathloop,” “It Takes Two,” “Metroid Dread,” and “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.”
After the Orchestra, actor Simu Liu came on stage to present the award for Best Action Game. The actor is best known for playing Shang-Chi in the film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.”
More gameplay trailers, world premieres, and expansions were announced after the award for Best Action Game. “Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Expansion” is set to be released in February and fans got to see more content from the new expansion.
The creator of “Silent Hill” announced the debut game from his new studio, Bokeh. The game, “Slitterhead,” is an action horror game that as of yet has no release date. “Nightingale” from Inflexion Games is coming to early-access on PC in 2022. “Nightingale” is a Fantasy-Victorian survival game with first-person combat.
On Quest 2, fans of Lady Gaga can now play “Beat Saber” to some of her songs. Jumpship Studio revealed a new trailer for “Somerville” as well. The sci-fi game is coming some time in 2022.
A musical performance of “Delicious Last Course” came to the stage of The Game Awards to announce the DLC for “Cuphead.” The next expansion is coming June 30, 2022.
Director Guillermo Del Toro showed a new trailer for “Nightmare Alley,” a film he directed coming Dec. 17, 2021. Then Del Toro presented the award for Best Art Direction.
Multiple Awards were presented in succession after Del Toro’s appearance. The awards for Player’s Voice, Best Role Playing Game, Best Score/Music, Content Creator of the Year, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Mobile Game, and Best Narrative were all announced.
“Tchia” got a trailer during The Game Awards that showed the protagonist taking the shape of different animals in the tropical world. The game is set to release in spring 2022. A new gameplay trailer for “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” showed off some of the playable characters. There’s no updated release date for the game yet, which is anticipated some time in 2022.
“Forspoken” also got a new gameplay trailer and a release date of May 24, 2022 from Square Enix. After more than a decade, fans of “Warhammer” got a new entry in the franchise with “Warhammer Space Marine 2.” The game comes from Focus Home Interactive and Saber Interactive.
On Aug. 23, 2022, the reboot to “Saint’s Row” will be released. The game got a new gameplay and story trailer at The Game Awards before the winner for Best Action Adventure Game was announced.
Some more releases for 2022 are the early access on PC “Dune: Spice Wars” inspired by the Dune books and recent 2021 film, as well as “Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands” coming March 25, 2022.
“Among Us” comes to VR sometime next year on Playstation VR, MetaQuest 2, and Steam. In 2022, “Star Trek: Resurgence” comes to PC and consoles. The game is set shortly after “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and is a collaboration with ViacomCBS.
Reggie Fils Aime, the former President of Nintendo of America presented the award for Best Ongoing Game. He has made multiple appearances at The Game Awards since he retired as President.
Some more world premieres included “Rumbleverse” from Iron Galaxy and Epic Games. The battle-royal brawler is coming in 2022. “A Plague Tale: Requiem” got a new trailer, also set to release in 2022. The game is a sequel to the 2019 “A Plague Tale: Innocence.”
“Dying Light 2” got a cinematic trailer showing more of the world and the characters that players will encounter when the game releases Feb. 4, 2022.
The next musical performance was by Imagine Dragons with guests Darren Korb and Ashley Barrett from Supergiant Games. They performed “Build That Wall” and “Enemy” from the soundtrack to Supergiant’s game “Bastion.”
A trailer for the new show “Halo” inspired by the game of the same name debuted. It’s coming to Paramount Plus in 2022. The award for Innovation in Accessibility was given out before an announcement for the release of “GTFO,” a game that was in early access beta testing for two years.
More awards were listed off as the night continued. The winners for Best Game Direction, Best Esports Game, Best Family Game, Best Fighting Game, Best Sim/Strategy Game, Best AR/VR Game, and Most Anticipated Game were all announced.
After “Elden Ring” won Most Anticipated game for the second year in a row, a new trailer was shown and the game received a release date of Feb. 25, 2022.
A new studio from some industry veterans also showed a debut game. ARC Raiders is coming in 2022 from the developers at Embark. Later on, “The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience” was announced via a cameo from Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss.
After showing the game experience, they showed a new trailer for the upcoming movie, “Matrix Resurrection”, set to release on Dec. 22, 2021.
Neil Druckman from Naughty Dog presented the final award of the night, Game of the Year. He accepted the award in 2020 for “The Last of Us Part II.” The award went to “It Takes Two,” and was accepted by Josef Fares, who had made headlines at the 2017 The Game Awards for dropping an f-bomb towards the Oscars.
For the entire list of nominees check here, and for the list of winners you can check here. This year’s The Game Awards was longer than usual, and focused the majority of its time on presentations and trailers. Josef Fares said it best when he accepted the award for Game of the Year, “The Game Awards is getting way better.”
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