At the end of every year, the gaming community comes together to select games, personalities, and organizations to win specific awards in given categories. Gamers can cast their votes to influence who or what gets an award, and once again, the voting has now started on the Game Awards Show website.
This year, 102 games and individuals have been nominated and can be voted for across 29 different categories. The major categories for the awards are organized as: game awards, community awards, esports awards, other awards, and international awards. The game awards category holds the coveted “Game of the Year” award, along with awards for the best games in their respective genres and best games for developers (game direction, narrative, sound design, etc.). The community awards only has one award, but it includes the return of the “Trending Gamer,” an award for a personality that has made an impact on the gaming community. The esports awards are awarded this year to the best esports game, esports player, and best esports team. The other awards only has one award, the Best Debut Indie Game, presented by Shick Hydro, and the international awards will be awarding the Best Chinese Game this year.
Gamers can head over to the Game Awards Show page to begin casting their votes. The voting is broken down into two forms, a voting jury, making up 90% of the voting, and public fan votes, making up 10% of the voting. Some of the hottest categories and nominees are as follows:
- Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Persona 5, Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Best Game Direction: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Best Narrative: What Remains of Edith Finch, NieR: Automata, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Best Art Direction: Destiny 2, Cuphead, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Persona 5, Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Best Score/Music: Destiny 2, Cuphead, NieR: Automata, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5
- Best Performance: Melina Juergens, Hellblade, Laura Bailey, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Claudia Black, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Brian Bloom, Wolfenstein II, Ashly Burch, Horizon: Zero Dawn
- Games for Impact: Please Knock on My Door, Night in the Woods, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Burn Me, My Love, What Remains of Edith Finch, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- Best Esports Player: Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi, Je-hong “ryujehong” Ryu, Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac, Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David, Lee sang-hyeok “Faker”
- Best Esports Team: Team Liquid, SK Telecom 1, Lunatic-Hai, FaZe Clan, Cloud9
- Best Debut Indie Game: Slime Rancher, Mr. Shifty, Hollow Knight, Golf Story, Cuphead
The voting period will end on December 6th at Midnight PT. The Game Awards Show will be live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, CA on the following day, December 7th. The awards show will start around 5:30 PT/8:30 ET and will be available for viewing on Twitch, YouTube Live, Steam, and a variety of other platforms.