The annual Game Awards will be happening in a few weeks, a celebration of the greatest hits to have come out in 2018. With Sony canceling the PSX, all eyes are now on the award show to end this year with a bang. In a tweet by creator Geoff Keighley, it seems he shares the same sentiment, as he reveals that this year’s Game Awards will feature its biggest lineup of brand-new announcements since the show’s inception.

On December 6 #TheGameAwards will stream live on a record 40 global video platforms. With our biggest lineup yet in terms of new game announcements, it’s going to be a very exciting night filled with surprises and celebration. Worlds Will Change. Will You? pic.twitter.com/0hQ8lz5CHw

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) November 9, 2018

From its debut on Spike TV, mired in celebrity cameos and unnecessarily intrusive advertising, to its established place as a prestigious award show that has become an industry stalwart, the Game Awards has come a long way. Its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards, was a project worked on by Gametrailers legend Geoff Keighley for the better part of 10 years, before he spun it off as his own passion project.

Injecting his own finances and leveraging all of his connections in the vast gaming industry, he sought to make a definitive award show that trimmed the excess fat to focus on what was most important, both to viewers and the event itself: the games.

The standalone show, rebranded as simply The Game Awards, had its inaugurate presentation in December of 2014, with the backings of industry giants such as Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. Though no longer on broadcast TV, Keighley managed to secure streaming via its backers’ consoles as well as Steam, and the refocused award show would go on to pick up more and more sponsors and streaming avenues with each passing year.

Now on its 5^th show since the relaunch, the Game Awards has become synonymous with reputable esteem in the gaming industry. Though most publications still dole out their own takes on Game of the Year, Keighley’s “Oscars of Gaming” has commanded enough respect in the field to definitively crown the best of the year, a decision voted on by a panel of global journalists and industry professionals as well as fans at home.

In a way, the Game Awards should also be called the “E3 of Winter”, since for the past few years, the show has had enough viewership and corporate sponsorship to warrant revealing global premieres and game announcements not shown anywhere else. This year is no different, with the Game Awards carrying enough weight now to justify these companies saving their surprises until the end of the year. Appropriately, the show’s occurrence in December means that the pull of the holiday season tempts a strong showing by them to boost sales before the year’s end.

Whatever the case, it’s a win-win for everyone involved. Creators get a chance to have their works placed on revered pedestals, corporate professionals secure the eyes of many viewers and advertising gains, gamers watching get a taste of highly anticipated projects to come, and Geoff Keighley can rest easy knowing that all of his hard work and efforts have paid off.

The Game Awards will stream live December 6 on a “record 40 global video platforms.”