Last night was the Game Awards, a gala that aims to be the Oscars of video games. Among all the announcements made, of which we have highlighted the most important of the night, several awards were also given. Giving them different weight and importance, it still isn’t the Oscars, but it has become the major gala of video games. And it is also an awards ceremony where it is easy to attend to discover what is being cooked in the industry at all levels.
Before diving into the big winners and losers of each category, it’s important to provide a brief summary. Knowing how many nominations each of the involved parties had is essential.
The big favorite of the night was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. With 13 nominations, the French game had a hard time not leaving as the big winner of the gala, especially when no one had received so many nominations in the history of the Games Awards. Following closely were Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Ghost of Yotei, with 7 nominations, and Hades II and Hollow Knight: Silksong, with 6 respectively. Among the surprises were Split Fiction, which only had 4 nominations, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II and Silent Hill f, which only managed 3.
How did it turn out for everyone? With few surprises, to be honest. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was the biggest winner with 9 statuettes out of the 13 that could be won, leaving no room for anyone else. In that sense, Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Ghost of Yotei are the big losers of the night, as they went home empty-handed despite all their nominations. A big disappointment for Sony.
Creators, players, and online
Among the most unique categories are those of esports and creators. Here, Counter-Strike 2 stood out particularly. Winning both the award for best esports and having a Counter-Strike 2 team, Team Vitality, win the award for best esports team, Valve has been the big winner in this category. Although there were no surprises, Jung “Chovy” Ji-hoon took home the title of best esports athlete for League of Legends after an excellent Worlds.
For his part, MoistCr1TiKaL has won the award for best content creator of the year. With tough competition from Kai Cenat, it is quite likely that being a much more likable figure in public outside of the streaming fandom itself has had an impact.
Among the awards separated from the rest of the categories, Wuthering Waves won the Players’ Voices largely due to the rewards offered by Kuro Games for players to vote for their game. In the most anticipated game category, GTAVI won, much to absolutely no one’s surprise, and for best adaptation, the second season of The Last of Us took home the big prize. Similarly, Doom: The Dark Ages achieved its only award by winning innovation in accessibility for its numerous difficulty options.
A game that has eclipsed all others
Entering the major categories, it is evident that there is a clear winner above all others. That does not take away from the fact that there have been some quite interesting awards. Mario Kart World won best sports game, Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles won best strategy game, and Donkey Kong Bananza won best family game.
In the field of action-focused games, Hades 2 won best action game and Hollow Knight: Silksong won best action-adventure game. The highly questionable Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves won best fighting game, not without controversy.
As no surprise to anyone, ARC Raiders won the award for best multiplayer game. And its main competitor, Battlefield 6, won best sound design, rightly taking the award from Expedition 33. In the impact games category, the interesting South of Midnight won, and No Man’s Sky won for best support. Additionally, The Midnight Walk won best VR game and Umamusume: Pretty Derby won best mobile game, resulting in a well-distributed set of secondary awards.
But at the end of the day, there was only one big winner. A game that took it all. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 won the awards for best role-playing game, best indie game, best indie debut, best soundtrack and music, best art direction, best narrative, best direction, and game of the year. Accumulating all the technical awards, except one, and all the big awards, becoming the grand prize of the year according to the Game Awards. Even if there has been some controversy over whether it should be considered an indie game or not.
With this, the Game Awards concluded, much less distributed than usual, although with great announcements and a clear winner. Something that gives us a clear perspective on the situation of the mainstream video game industry.
