The Game Awards 2019

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The Game Awards 2019
Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles
CountryUnited States
Hosted byGeoff Keighley
Preshow host(s)Sydnee Goodman
Highlights
Most awardsDisco Elysium (4)
Most nominationsDeath Stranding (10)
Game of the YearSekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Websitethegameawards.com
Online coverage
Runtime2 hours, 40 minutes
Viewership45.2 million
Produced by
  • Geoff Keighley
  • Kimmie Kim
Directed byRichard Preuss
← 2018 · The Game Awards · 2020 →

The Game Awards 2019 was an award show that honored the best

Grimes, and Green Day, and presentations from celebrity guests including Stephen Curry, Vin Diesel, Norman Reedus, and Michelle Rodriguez. In association with the event, a virtual games festival was held online, allowing free demos to be played through Steam
over a 48-hour period.

Xbox Series X as the successor to the Xbox One. Death Stranding's nominations prompted allegations of impropriety due to Keighley's friendship with game director Hideo Kojima; Keighley clarified he does not partake in voting. Reviews for the ceremony were mixed, with praise for announcements but criticism directed at the decreasing focus on awards. The show was viewed by over 45 million streams, the most in its history to date,[c]
with 7.5 million concurrent viewers at its peak.

Background

A man with brown hair smiling to the right
A woman with light brown hair smiling into the camera
Show creator and producer Geoff Keighley (left) hosted the main show while Sydnee Goodman (right) hosted the preshow.

As with previous iterations of

Cinemark movie theaters across the United States alongside the opening night screening of Jumanji: The Next Level in partnership with Sony Pictures. Keighley had previously wanted to broadcast in theaters and felt the release of Jumanji—which largely focuses on a video game—was a perfect fit.[5]

Keighley spent most of the year preparing for the show,[6] as did about eight of the production's full-time staff; hundreds of contributors worked on the final show.[5] In November, Kim worked 11-hour days to coordinate the show with contractors and decipher its pacing.[7] During the ceremony, Keighley spoke to the animated character Mirage from Apex Legends for the announcement of the game's holiday event. The interaction took place in real-time, with actor Roger Craig Smith performing the movements through motion capture in a studio besides the Microsoft Theater. The game's creative director Drew Stauffer approached creative production studio The Mill in October 2018 with the idea. The Mill partnered with Cubic Motion to develop the technology, and with Animatrik for the motion capture movement.[8] The production teams considered revealing the technology during the show, but opted to maintain the illusion until afterwards.[7]

The show featured presenters such as

Pepe the Prawn's appearance at The Game Awards 2018.[11] In association with the event, a virtual games festival was held online from December 12–14, 2019. Several upcoming games released free demos through Steam, including Carrion, Spiritfarer, and Skatebird, available for 48 hours.[12]

Announcements

Valve announced it would showcase Half-Life: Alyx at the ceremony, but pulled out several hours prior to the event.[13] Announcements on recently released and upcoming games were made for Apex Legends, Beat Saber, Black Desert Online, Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Gears Tactics, Ghost of Tsushima, Humankind, Magic: The Gathering Arena, New World, No More Heroes III, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps. New games announced during the ceremony included:[9][14]

Additionally, Microsoft revealed the

Xbox Series X as the successor to the Xbox One.[15] The announcement was so secretive that Phil Spencer read a fake script about Xbox Game Pass during rehearsals.[10] Godfall's reveal marked the first PlayStation 5 game to be announced.[16]

Winners and nominees

The nominees for The Game Awards 2019 were announced on November 19, 2019.

Facebook Gaming; two winners were announced at E3 2019, and the final three during the awards show alongside videos by Indie Game: The Movie directors Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky.[22]

Awards

Hidetaka Miyazaki accepted Game of the Year for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Hideo Kojima won Best Game Direction for Death Stranding.
Mads Mikkelsen won Best Performance for his role as Cliff in Death Stranding.
Adrián Cuevas (left) and Roger Mendoza (right) accepted Games for Impact for Gris.
Donald Mustard accepted Best Ongoing Game for Fortnite.
Beat Games was awarded Best VR/AR Game for Beat Saber.
Danny "Zonic" Sørensen of Astralis won Best Esports Coach.
Sjokz won Best Esports Host for the second consecutive year.
Shroud won Content Creator of the Year.
Fereshteh Forough (top) and Vanessa Gill (bottom) were named Global Gaming Citizens, among other honorees.

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger (‡).[19]

Video games

Game of the Year
Best Game Direction
Best Narrative Best Art Direction
Best Score/Music Best Audio Design
Best Performance Games for Impact
Best Ongoing Game Best Independent Game
Best Mobile Game Best VR/AR Game
Best Action Game Best Action/Adventure Game
Best Role Playing Game Best Fighting Game
Best Family Game Best Strategy Game
Best Sports/Racing Game Best Multiplayer Game
Fresh Indie Game[d] Best Community Support
Player's Voice[e]
  1. Fire Emblem: Three HousesIntelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo / Nintendo
  2. Sora Ltd.
    / Nintendo
  3. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderRespawn Entertainment / Electronic Arts
  4. Death StrandingKojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment

Esports and creators

Best Esports Game Best Esports Player
Best Esports Team Best Esports Coach
Best Esports Event Best Esports Host
  • Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere
    • Paul "Redeye" Chaloner
    • Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez
    • Alex "Machine" Richardson
    • Duan "Candice" Yu-Shuang
Content Creator of the Year Global Gaming Citizens[f]
  • Fereshteh Forough, Code to Inspire
  • Damon Packwood, Gameheads
  • Luke, Let's Be Well
  • Vanessa Gill, Social Cipher
  • Stephen Machuga and Mat Bergendahl, StackUp

Games with multiple nominations and awards

Multiple nominations

Death Stranding received ten nominations, the most in the show's history to date.[a] Other games with multiple nominations included Control with eight and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with five. Nintendo had 15 total nominations, more than any other publisher, followed by Sony Interactive Entertainment with 12 and Activision with 10.[17]

Multiple awards

ZA/UM won four.[19]

Games that received multiple wins
Awards Game
4 Disco Elysium
3 Death Stranding
2 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Wins by publisher
Awards Publisher
5 Activision
4 Nintendo
ZA/UM
3 Sony Interactive Entertainment

Presenters and performers

Presenters

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards or introduced trailers. All other awards and trailers were presented by Goodman in the preshow and Keighley in the main show.[3][9][28]

Name Role
Lual Mayen Presented the reveal trailer for Salaam in the preshow
Jeff Spock Presented the gameplay trailer for Humankind in the preshow
Jonathan Nolan Presented the award for Best Narrative
Phil Spencer Presented the reveal trailer for
Xbox Series X and Senua's Saga: Hellblade II
Stephen Curry Presented the award for Best Esports Player[29]
Keith Lee Presented the reveal trailer for Godfall
Steve Gibson
Rebecca Ford Presented the trailer for Warframe: Empyrean[30]
Daniel Ketchum Presented the Theros: Beyond Death trailer for Magic: The Gathering Arena
Ikumi Nakamura Presented the award for Best Art Direction
Donald Mustard Presented a teaser for the Fortnite collaboration with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Joe Madureira Presented the gameplay reveal trailer for
Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
Norman Reedus Presented the award for Best Action Game
Jeff Hattem Presented the reveal trailer for Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance
Mirage[g] Presented the Holo-Day Bash Event trailer for Apex Legends
Bunsen Honeydew Presented the award for Games for Impact
Beaker
Raphaël Colantonio Presented the reveal trailer for Weird West[31]
Julien Roby
Ninja Presented the award for Best Multiplayer Game
Sydnee Goodman Presented the award for Best Ongoing Game
Matias Myllyrinne Presented the reveal trailer for Nine to Five
Reggie Fils-Aimé Presented the award for Fresh Indie Game
Lee Thomas Presented the reveal trailer for Convergence: A League of Legends Story[32]
Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez Presented the winner of the
QLED
television
Ashly Burch Presented the award for Best Game Direction
Michelle Rodriguez Presented the reveal trailer for Fast & Furious Crossroads and introduced Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel Presented the award for Game of the Year

Performers

Grimes (bottom) performed music from Death Stranding, Beat Saber, and Cyberpunk 2077
, respectively.

The following individuals or groups performed musical numbers.[3][9]

Name Song Game(s)
Chvrches "Death Stranding" Death Stranding
Grimes
"
4ÆM
"
Cyberpunk 2077
The Game Awards Orchestra[h] "Way of the Ghost" Ghost of Tsushima
Game of the Year medley Control
Death Stranding
The Outer Worlds
Resident Evil 2
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Green Day "Welcome to Paradise" Beat Saber
"Father of All..."

Ratings and reception

Nominees

USgamer's Eric Van Allen criticized the Game of the Year nominees for favoring The Outer Worlds over games like Disco Elysium, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Outer Wilds; he similarly expressed his surprise that Death Stranding received so many nominations. He appreciated the indie game nominations in most categories but felt they were unfairly ignored for Game of the Year.[33] Game Rant's Dalton Cooper named Astral Chain, Devil May Cry 5, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses the biggest snubs.[34] Inverse's Jen Glennon felt Fire Emblem: Three Houses was snubbed in categories like Best Art Direction and Best Audio Design, and considered its Best Strategy Game nomination inappropriate as it is a role-playing game.[35] PC Gamer's Andy Chalk expressed his confusion of Fresh Indie Game nominees as several had created prior games despite the category's intention for first-time developers.[23]

Death Stranding's record ten nominations prompted allegations of impropriety and a conflict of interest due to Keighley's friendly relationship with game director Hideo Kojima and his cameo appearance in the game.[6][36] Keighley said he understood and appreciated the concern but reiterated he does not partake in the jury nominations or award selections, noting he intentionally distances himself due to his close working relationship with developers and publishers.[36][37] Additionally, while Kojima sits on the advisory board for the Game Awards, Keighley asserted the board had no direct influence on the selections.[38][39] Kotaku's Heather Alexandra wrote that the close relationship would continue to reflect poorly on the ceremony, regardless of Keighley's clarification.[38]

Ceremony

The show received a mixed reception from media publications.

mobile games have no place at The Game Awards—both for announcements and awards—due to incompatible audiences; he felt a separate presentation like Nintendo Direct would be more appropriate.[41] PC Gamer's Chalk found the show lacked "mega-blockbuster game reveals" like The Elder Scrolls or Mass Effect.[42] Vice's Patrick Klepek praised Disco Elysium's awards success,[43] and TheGamer's Patricio Kobek suspected it would shape future games and hoped it would lead to more experimental developers.[44]

Viewership

The Game Awards 2019 was the most-viewed ceremony to date,[c] a feat that surprised Keighley as he suspected the show had hit its peak in 2018.[2] Over 45.2 million streams were used to view the show, an increase of 73 percent from the 2018 ceremony's 26.2 million. At its peak, the show had over 7.5 million concurrent viewers, including over 2 million across Twitch and YouTube.[10] The show had increased viewership in China, which Keighley partly attributed to the League of Legends announcements.[7] The increased viewership reassured Keighley that a digital show was more effective than a television broadcast.[10] He partly attributed the viewership increase to "a general rise in live-streaming" but felt it was difficult to cite a specific factor.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Death Stranding's ten nomination record was beaten by The Last of Us Part II's eleven nominations at The Game Awards 2020.[24]
  2. ^ a b Disco Elysium's four win record was tied with 2016's Overwatch[25] and 2018's Red Dead Redemption 2.[26] It was beaten by The Last of Us Part II's seven wins in 2020.[27]
  3. ^ a b The viewership record was beaten in 2020 with 83 million streams.[45]
  4. ^ Awarded for the best debut game by an indie studio in 2019[23]
  5. ^ 100 percent fan-voted award that had a three-round nomination process that began with 24 games. Fire Emblem: Three Houses won with 45 percent of the vote, followed by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with 22 percent.[21]
  6. Facebook Gaming[22]
  7. ^ Animated character from Apex Legends portrayed by Roger Craig Smith[8]
  8. ^ Conducted by Lorne Balfe[4]

References

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External links