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Best Announcements From The Game Awards 2020

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Best Announcements From The Game Awards 2020

All the biggest surprises and prizes from the gaming industry’s biggest night.

Airing from three locations, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London, the coronavirus pandemic didn’t stop The Game Awards this year. Although the lack of a live audience did impact the event’s usual format, it still managed to be a star-studded night.

2020 has been a challenging and unpredictable year for the gaming industry. But despite everything there was plenty of recognition for the important role video games have played in fostering a sense of community during these difficult times.

Musical performances came to us through livestream; with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder crooning ‘Future Days’ down the camera from his home, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s medley for Game of the Year coming to fan’s live from iconic Abbey Road studios.

A slew of special guests, including Keanu Reeves, Gal Gadot and Christopher Nolan, also featured on our screens announcing winners and highlighting industry achievements.

The show wasn’t short on exclusive announcements or exciting reveal either. With news and trailers from big developers like Bioware, Riot and Nintendo, and some treats from newcomers too. Like Striking Distance Studios, led by Dead Space and Call of Duty veteran Glen Schofield.

Biggest Winners

The Last of Us Part II

Naughty Dog’s sequel, released June 19, 2020, led the nominations going in – and they took home the lion’s share of accolades. TLoU2 won seven of the ten awards it was nominated for, including Game of the Year. Laura Bailey also nabbed the performance award for her portrayal of Abby.

Awards Won

  • Game of the Year
  • Game Direction
  • Narrative
  • Audio Design
  • Performance (Laura Bailey)
  • Innovation in Accessibility
  • Action/Adventure Game

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix’s long anticipated remake of FFVII managed to nab the award for best RPG, beating out Genshin Impact, Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza: Like a Dragon for the top spot. They also took home best score and music.

Awards Won

  • RPG
  • Score and Music

Among Us

The hit indie title that got plenty of people through the last stretch of lockdown saw recognition for community and mobile play. Indie studio, InnerSloth, took home the award for best multiplayer game, also tucking best mobile game under their belt while they were at it.

The team also teased the new airship map we first heard about back in November.

Awards Won

  • Multiplayer Game
  • Mobile Game

Hades

Supergiant Game’s September release was nominated in multiple categories including Action, Art Direction, Game Direction, Indie Game and Game of the Year. While the team managed to beat out Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout in the Indie category, they lost out to TLoU2 in both Game Direction and Game of the Year.

Despite the fluid 2D/3D fusion of Hades art-style, they lost out in the Art Direction category to Ghosts of Tsushima.

Awards Won

  • Indie
  • Action

Esports

Heo “Showmaker” Su of Damwon gaming took home the award for esports athlete of the year. Damwon Gaming became the first South Korean team to take home the Worlds title since 2017. And Showmaker played no small part in their victory over China’s Suning Gaming this year.

Unsurprisingly, Riot’s League of Legends stole the esports segment of the show, winning esports Game of the Year, while the LoL World Championship 2020 took home event of the year as well.

G2 Esports claimed a victory as well, winning Team of the Year.

Awards Won

  • Athlete; Heo “Showmaker” Su, Damwon Gaming
  • Team; G2 Esports
  • Game; League of Legends
  • Event; League of Legends World Championship 2020

For a full list of nominees and winners across every category, head over to The Game Awards official site.

Best Announcements

The night wouldn’t be what it is without the reveals. And this year didn’t disappoint with exciting news from developers, gorgeous trailers and the promise of some diverse and enticing 2021 releases.

From Master Chief dropping in to Fortnite, to Bioware teasing a new installment for Dragon Age and more. We’ve rounded up some of the biggest and most intriguing announcements and premieres of the evening.

Mass Effect

Big news for fans of Mass Effect.  Bioware followed up their Dragon Age trailer with a brand-new glimpse at a new instalment for the space action series. The very brief teaser showed an asari picking up a piece of N7 armor. (An asari who could potentially be Liara?)

It’s uncertain whether or not this latest instalment will continue Shepard’s story and pick up where Mass Effect 3 left of. The trailer could also easily be for a sequel to Mass Effect: Andromeda, but either way we’re keen to see what’s next for the science fiction franchise.

The Callisto Protocol

Striking Distance Studios haven’t been around long, but they’ve got one of the industry’s best at their helm. That much was evident from their teaser trailer for survival horror game, The Callisto Protocol.

The studio CEO, Glen Schofield, was one of the brains behind 2008’s insanely creepy Dead Space. And judging from what we’ve seen of the Callisto Protocol, we can expect plenty of that same tense, unnerving atmosphere in this latest project.

Ruined King

Riot first teased Ruined King back at the Game Awards 2019, but this was our first look at a full trailer with gameplay.

Featuring iconic heroes like Miss Fortune, Ahri and Braum, this single-player addition to Riot’s League of Legend franchise is slated for release in early 2021.

New Smash Bros Character – Sephiroth

Smash and Square Enix already saw plenty of success with their previous crossover, with Cloud becoming one of Super Smash Bros for the Wii U aka SSB4. Now, another legendary Final Fantasy character will join the Smash Bros crew. FFVII and VII Remake antagonist Sephiroth will be available in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s second Fighters Pass.

When exactly can fans get a hold of him? When the Joker was announced for the first Fighter’s Pass back at the Game Awards 2018 it took about four months for his release. We can probably expect a similar timeframe for Sephiroth’s released, especially considering Minecraft mascots Steve and Alex were released back in October.

https://twitter.com/Star_Road18/status/1337269404527173632?s=20

Ark II

Fans of the prehistoric adventure sim, Ark, also received a treat with developer [who] announcing a sequel featuring actor Vin Diesel as Santiago. Diesel is well known for his love of video games and pop culture, and he’s bound to inject his own enthusiasm into the project.

We’re predicting plenty of top-quality memes once we finally see the full fruits of this collaboration.

That wraps it up for our highlights for 2020’s show. If you missed out on seeing it live you can still catch the video up on the official Twitch.

Avatar of Eliana Bollati
Eliana Bollati
Eliana is a freelance editor & journalist from Australia with a passion for esports and video games. An avid player of video games for the better part of three decades, she began following professional esports circuits during the 2010s. She brings both a player and longtime fan perspective into her commentary on the professional scenes.