This year’s showing of The Game Awards kicked off at The Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles on Dec. 12, 2019. Hosted by Canadian games presenter Geoff Keighley, the event also marks the fifth annual celebration of industry achievements.
In 2017, Keighley told the Los Angeles Times it was “his life’s mission” to create an Academy Awards-style event to present trophies for video games and the surrounding communities.
IGN host and online producer Sydnee Goodman hosted the pre-show event, taking an opportunity to present a selection of awards and world premiere game announcements.
Our recap shows every award and announcement in order of appearance, with commentary for notable speeches and world reveals.
Pre-Show Awards:
Best Community Support – Destiny 2, Bungie Games (Accepted by Mark Noseworthy & Luke Smith)
Other Nominees:
Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix
Fortnite, Epic Games
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Ubisoft
Best Score & Music – Death Stranding (Accepted by Ludvig Forssell)
Other Nominees:
Cadence of Hyrule, Brace Yourself Games, Nintendo
Death Stranding, Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Devil May Cry V, Capcom
Kingdom Hearts III, Square Enix
Sayonara Wild Hearts, Simogo, Nintendo
Best Esports Coach – Zonic (Accepted by Danny Sørensen)
Other Nominees:
Adren
Cain
Grabbz
Kkoma
Sockshka
Best Esports Event – League of Legends World Championship 2019
Other Nominees:
2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals
EVO 2019
Fortnite World Cup
IEM Katowice 2019
The International 2019
Best Esports Host – Sjokz (Accepted by Eefje Depoortere)
Other Nominees:
Machine
Redeye
Goldenboy
Candice
Best Esports Team – G2 Esports
Other Nominees:
Astralis
OG
San Francisco Shock
Team Liquid
Best Fighting Game – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltc., Nintendo (Accepted by Doug Bowser)
Other Nominees:
Dead or Alive 6, Team Ninja
Jump Force, Spike Chunsoft, Chunsoft
Mortal Kombat 11, NetherRealm Studios, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Samurai Showdown, SNK Corporation
Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser accepted the award in person, stating Ultimate was “more than just a fighting game” and thanked director Masahiro Sakurai for putting different game worlds “so seamlessly and so beautifully” with developers.
Pre-show World Premieres:
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order Rise of the Phoenix DLC Expansion 2, Team Ninja
Release: December 23, 2019(Nintendo Switch)
Salaam, Facebook Games
Release: Summer 2020 (Facebook Instant Games, Browser)
Maneater, Tripwire Interactive
Release: May 22, 2020 (PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC)
Humankind, Amplitude Studios, Sega
Release: Coming 2020 (PC)
No More Heroes III, Grasshopper Manufacture, Marvelous Inc.
Release: Coming 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Square Enix entered the pre-show with a new trailer for the anticipated Final Fantasy VII: Remake, showing offnew plot elements surrounding protagonist Cloud Strife. The game is “available worldwide” on March 3, 2020.
2019 Game Awards:
After the award’s pre-show, host and creator Geoff Keighley arrived on stage for proceedings after a live orchestra performance of Death Stranding’s title track with CHVRCHES lead Lauren Mayberry.
Westworld co-creator and The Dark Knight screenwriter Johnathan Nolan arrived on stage to present the first major award of the evening.
Nominees for Best Narrative:
A Plague Tale: Innocence, Asobo Studio, Focus Home Interactive
Control, Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Death Stranding, Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Disco Elysium, ZA/UM
The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division
Winner: Disco Elysium, ZA/UM (Accepted by Helen Hindpere)
Members of ZA/UM accepted the first award of the night, with Helen Hindpere thanking a word-of-mouth for believing “this game exists when we first started talking about it,” and other developers for welcoming their team into the industry.
NBA player Stephen Curry made an appearance to present the award for the most outstanding athlete in Esports this year.
Best Esports Player:
Bugha
Perkz
S1mple
Sinatraa
Winner: Bugha (Accepted by Kyle Giersdorf)
Best Audio Design:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Activision
Control, Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Death Stranding, Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Gears 5, The Coalition, Xbox Game Studios
Resident Evil 2 (Remake), Capcom
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware, Activision
Winner: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Activision
Best Strategy Game:
Age of Wonders: Planetfall, Triumph Studios, Paradox Interactive
Anno 1800, Blue Byte, Ubisoft
Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo Games Co. Ltd., Nintendo
Total War: Three Kingdoms, Creative Assembly, Sega
Tropico 6, Limbic Entertainment, Kalypso Media
Wargroove, Chucklefish
Winner: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo Games Co. Ltd., Nintendo
Content Creator of the Year:
Courage
Dr.Lupo
Ewok
Grefg
Shroud
Winner: Shroud (Accepted by Michael Grzesiek)
Meme, Creative Director and Lead Art Designer for The Evil Within series Ikumi Nakamura appeared on stage to announce the award for 2019’s leading art directors.
Best Art Direction
Control, Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Death Stranding, Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Gris, Normada Studio, Devolver Digital
Sayonara Wild Hearts, Annapurna Interactive, iam8bit Inc.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware, Activision
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Grezzo, Nintendo
Winner: Control (Accepted by Thomas Puha and Mikael Kasurinen)
A brief snippet of CyberPunk: 2077 revealed some of the influences for its soundtrack before singer Griff appeared on stage to perform a track. Artists attached to the game include Run the Jewels, A$AP Rocky and cellist Tina Guo.The game will be released on April 20, 2020.
Death Stranding star and Best Performance Nominee Norman Reedus stepped on stage to present the award for Best Action Game:
Best Action Game:
Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Astral Chain, PlatinumGames, Nintendo
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Activision
Devil May Cry 5, Capcom
Gears 5, The Coalition, Xbox Game Studios
Metro Exodus, 4A Games, Deep Silver
Winner: Devil May Cry 5, Capcom (Accepted by Hideaki Itsuno)
DMC 5 director Hideaki Itsuno credited fans for waiting 11 years for the sequel to release while “staying to my roots” in creating the game. Both Itsuno and his translator ended the speech by shouting “DMC is back!”
Muppet Labs scientists Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and assistant Beaker also made an appearance to reveal their (fake) VR game The Untitled Beaker Game and serves as a (fake) add-on the Untitled Goose Game.
An award for games delivering significant impact was also awarded (with an unexpected attack from the Goose):
Games for Impact:
Concrete Genie, Pixelopus, Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios
Gris, Normada Studio, Devolver Digital
Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to), Popcannibal
Life is Strange 2, Dontnod Entertainment, Square Enix
Sea of Solitude, Jo-Mei Games, Electronic Arts
Winner: Gris, Normada Studio, Devolver Digital (Accepted by Roger Mendoza)
Best Family Game:
Luigi’s Mansion 3, Next Level Games, Nintendo
Ring Fit Adventure, Nintendo
Super Mario Maker 2, Nintendo
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltc., Nintendo
Yoshi’s Crafted World, Good-Feel, Nintendo
Winner: Luigi’s Mansion 3, Next Level Games, Nintendo
Best Sports/Racing Game
Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Beenox, Activision
Dirt Rally 2.0, Codemasters
EFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020, PES Productions, Konami
F1 2019, Codemasters
Fifa 20, Electronic Arts
Winner: Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, Beenox, Activision
Best Mobile Game:
Call of Duty: Mobile, TiMi Studios, Activision
Grindstone, Capybara Games
Sayonara Wild Hearts, Annapurna Interactive, iam8bit Inc.
Sky: Children of the Light, Thatgamecompany
What the Golf?, Triband
Winner: Call of Duty: Mobile, TiMi Studios, Activision
Prolific Twitch streamer, Fortnite player and 2018 Game Awards Content Creator of the Year Richard Tyler “Ninja” Blevinsarrived to present
Best Multiplayer Game
Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Borderlands 3, Gearbox Software, 2K Games
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward, Activision
Tetris 99, Arika, Nintendo
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2, Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft
Winner: Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts (Accepted by Vince Zampella & Chad Grenier)
“This year has been crazy for us,” said Respawn CEO Vince Zampella in the team’s acceptance speech.
“For all the team that stuck around and believed and made this magic happen, thank you to the fans, thank you so much,” he said.
IGN pre-show host and producer Sydney Goodman returned from the Pre-show to present the award for games currently active with a large player base.
Best Ongoing Game:
Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Destiny 2, Bungie
Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix
Fortnite, Epic Games
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege, Ubisoft Montreal
Winner: Fortnite, Epic Games (Accepted by Donald Mustard)
Donald Mustard returned to the stage for an acceptance speech, reflecting on the online shooter’s progress while calling for more pushes to an evolving virtual world
“This idea that we need to lean into what a persistent virtual place can be and the more that we’re trying to experiment with stuff and try different things,” Mustard said.
“We’re finding more and more that our goal is to try to create a metaverse. To create a place where all IP can live together. Where all kinds of experiences can happen.”
Esports Game of the Year:
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve, Hidden Path Entertainment
DOTA2, Valve
Fortnite, Epic Games
League of Legends, Riot Games
Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment
Winner: League of Legends, Riot Games
Best VR/AR Game:
Asgard’s Wrath, Sanzaru Games, Oculus Studios
Blood & Truth, Sony Interactive Entertainment London, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Beat Saber, Beat Games
No Man’s Sky, Hello Games
Trover Saves the Universe, Squanch Games
Winner: Beat Saber, Beat Games
Best Performance (Voiceover, Acting and Motion Capture)
Ashly Burch as Parvati Holcomb in The Outer Worlds
Courtney Hope as Jesse Faden in Control
Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz in Gears 5
Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff in Death Stranding
Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling in Control
Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges in Death Stranding
Winner: Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff in Death Stranding
Fan Favourite Game: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime appeared on stage, sporting his Fils-A-Mech sunglasses and character pin to present the award for the best first game release by an independent studio:
Fresh Indie Game:
Disco Elysium, ZA/UM
Gris, Nomada Studio
My Friend Pedro, Deadtoast Entertainment
Outer Wilds, Mobius Digital
Slay the Spire, Mega Crit
Untitled Goose Game, House House
Winner: Disco Elysium, ZA/UM (Accepted by Helen Hindpere)
Emmy-winning writer for Adventure time and notable voice actor Ashly Burch presented this year’s award for outstanding directing roles in a game production.
Best Game Direction:
Mikael Kasurien for Control
Hideo Kojima for Death Stranding
Kazunori Kadoi & Yasuhiro Anpo for Resident Evil 2 (Remake)
Hidetaka Miyazaki for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Alex Beachum for Outer Wilds
Winner: Hideo Kojima for Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima accepted the award on behalf of his studio Kojima Productions and thanked collaborators working four years for Death Stranding since his departure from Konami. He also credited Sony Interactive Entertainment and Guerrilla Games for providing the game engine.
“I really want to thank a lot of people who started this ship going,” said Kojima, through his translator.
“The small boat was also all the staff who came to work together.”
Fast and Furious series actress Michelle Rodriguiez announced the world premiere for the franchises’ new racing game Fast & Furious Crossroads scheduled for a May 2020 release.
Rodriguez reprises her role along with Vin Diesel, Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris who all appear in the game.
Co-star Vin Diesel also made a surprise appearance on stage and revealed the existence of an unreleased four-minute trailer for Fast Nine.
The live orchestra also returned with a medley scoring the nominees for Game of the Year.
Both Diesel and Rodriguez presented the event’s last award:
Game of the Year:
Control, Remedy Entertainment, 505 Games
Death Stranding, Kojima Productions, Sony Interactive Entertainment
Resident Evil 2 (Remake), Capcom
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware, Activision
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Bandai Namco Studios, Sora Ltc., Nintendo
The Outer Worlds, Obsidian Entertainment, Private Division
Game of the Year: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, FromSoftware, Activision (Accepted by Hidetake Miyazaki)
A standing ovation from the audience came for Sekiro director Hidetaka Miyazaki when he grasped the Game Award.
His translatorstated the studio was unsure about the game’s success due to its “difficult and complex elements,” but were reactive to the positive response from players.
Miyazaki thanked the staff at FromSoftware and Activision for their support along the development. The studio promised to continue creating quality-content releases for fans.
The Game Awards 2019 World Premieres:
Xbox Series X System, Microsoft
Release: Holiday 2020 (Console launch)
Keighley took a moment to comment on the internet’s habit of leaks before revealing the world premiere of Microsoft’s new next-generation console Xbox Series X, slated for release in Q4 of next year.
“Series X will lead us into the future,” said Xbox head and Microsoft Gaming VP Phil Spencer, who stepped onto the stage to discuss the console’s capabilities.
“Our fastest, most powerful Xbox will set a new bar for performance, speed, compatibility. Developers around the globe are already hard at work building games for Xbox Series X.”
He also revealed the “early development” of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, a follow-up to 2017’s action-adventure Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and serves as a launch title for the Series X.
Commercial breaks during the stream also revealed The Joker coming as DLC for Mortal Kombat 11 and a new free Expeditions game mode update for Control.
Godfall, Gearbox Software
Release: Holiday 2020 (PlayStation 5)
Counterplay developer Keith Lee and Gearbox Publishing President Steve Gibson stated the game looks to “reinvent combat” within an explorable new fantasy universe and third-person combat.
“We call it a looter-slasher,” Lee said.
Gibson also stated the game was an exclusive for the upcoming next-generation console.
“It was so amazing to us, we had to call our friends over at Sony, our friends over at Epic,” said Gibson, adding they wanted to make Godfall work for next generation hardware and engines.
Bravely Default II, Silicon Studio, Square Enix.
Release: 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Prologue, PlayerUnknown
Release: TBA (Systems TBA)
Epic Games director Donald Mustard spoke with Keighley about an exclusive event in Fortnite with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. A special message from director J.J. Abrams encouraged players to attend in-game while a free TIE-Whisperer glider is also being given to participants during the movie sneak peek.
Rey, Finn and the Sith Trooper were also surprise released as downloadable character skins ahead of the event on Saturday, Dec, 14 at 2PM EST in Risky Reels.
Sons of The Forest, Endnight Games
Release: TBA (Systems TBA)
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story, Airship Syndicate, Riot Forge
Release: TBA (In development for consoles and PC)
A first-ever story based RPG is coming based on the League of Legends franchise and players get to control the original game’s champions in a different way.
Comic book artist Joe Madureira spoke with Keighley about the teaser, taking RPG and adventure elements from Battle Chasers and Darksiders to create a new turn-based game with League champions.
“The story takes place after Burning Tides,” Madureira said.
“So everyone believes Gangplank is dead, Bilgewater is in chaos and you’ll actually play as some League champions and explore Bilgewater, The Shadow Isles and we have a lot of other surprises as well,” he said, adding Poros are also mandatory to Ruined King.
Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, Wizards of the Coast, Tuque Games Inc.
Release: Coming Fall 2020 (Systems TBA)
Apex Legends: Mirage’s Holo-Day Bash Season Update, Respawn Entertainment, Electronic Arts
Release: Now (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Keighley’s awards speech was interrupted by Apex Legends character Mirage, who delivered holiday greetings from the stage’s screen.
He also showcased a part of the game’s winter makeover and a nutcracker screen. An update for the game was immediately dropped after the video call, bringing new cosmetics and limited game modes for its first Holo-Day Bash.
Weird West, WolfEye Studios, Devolver Digital
Release: TBA (Systems TBA)
Magic: Legends, Perfect World, Cryptic Studios
Release: TBA (Systems TBA)
A surprise release for VR brawler Path of the Warrior was released for the Oculus Quest immediately after its announcement.
More details arrived for Sucker Punch Studios’ stealth-action adventure Ghost of Tsushima which included a new cinematic trailer (scored by a live orchestra behind the stage screen) and a release window for Summer 2020.
Microsoft introduced the turn-based Gears Tactics which includes over 40 hours of campaign levels set within the Gears of War franchise and is slated for release on Xbox One and PC in April 20, 2020.
Naraka: Bladepoint, 24 Entertainment, NetEase
Release: Coming 2020 (PC)
Redhill Games announced a new first-person tactical coop game called Nine to Five, with an online multiplayer alpha sign-up available now.
Grammy Award winning rock band Green Day appeared on stage with a performance and their own release for the Green Day Music Pack for Beat Saber, along with a 360-degree feature for all levels.
New World, Amazon Games
Release: May 2020 (PC)
Convergence: A League of Legends Story, Double Stallion, Riot Forge
Release: TBA (In development for consoles and PC)
Creative Director Lee Thomas stepped onto a platform to discuss the second story-based game set in the League universe.
According to Thomas, Convergence is a “single player action-platformer” where players assume Ekko, a young character who invents a time device and can navigate through warped parts of the LoL world.
Surgeon Simulator 2 was also announced during a commercial break in the streams, with added multiplayer features to the over-the-top medical sim. A release yet has yet to be announced, while players could sign up for a beta online.
The revived studio Telltale Games announced episodic series The Wolf Among Us 2 and continues the decisions of Bigby Wolf in the Fables Universe.
Keighley’s sixth annual The Game Awards show is expected to take place next year in December, 2020.
