When And How To Watch 'The Game Awards' And What To Expect ...
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - DECEMBER 09: The Game of the Year award is presented onstage during The ... [+] Game Awards 2021 at Microsoft Theater on December 09, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
The 2023 Game Awards show kicks off this evening. The award ceremony, hosted by its creator Geoff Keighley, was founded in 2014, making this year’s the 10th Game Awards. Read on to find out everything you need to know about this year’s show, including when and where to watch and what to expect.
The 10th Anniversary Of The Game AwardsThe very first TGA was held in Las Vegas, NV (this was the first and only one I attended) and the Game of the Year went to Dragon Age: Inquisition, which I still find somewhat surprising to this day. Here’s the full list of GOTY winners:
Dragon Age Inquisition (2014) The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (2015) Overwatch (2016) The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild (2017) God Of War (2018) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019) The Last Of Us Part II (2020) It Takes Two (2021) Elden Ring (2022) TBA (2023)This year’s GOTY award remains to be seen, but it’s a rather intense contest between a lot of beloved, top-notch games. The GOTY nominees for 2023 are:
Alan Wake 2 Baldur’s Gate 3 Marvels’ Spider-Man 2 Resident Evil 4 Remake Super Mario Bros. Wonder The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The KingdomAs you can see, each of these is in some way a sequel, whether or not it has a number at the end of the title. One is even a remake! And while Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn’t a direct sequel to any specific game, it’s another in a long, long line of Mario platformers. Tears Of The Kingdom is a direct sequel to Breath Of The Wild.
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So which will win? My money is on Baldur’s Gate 3 from Larian Studios. It’s already an award darling after sweeping the Golden Joystick Awards earlier this year. As well-received as all of these other games have been, I just don’t see any snagging the top honors from BG3.
When To Watch The Game AwardsThis year’s Game Awards is being held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The theater was formerly the Microsoft Theater (and the Nokia Theater before that) but was rebranded earlier this year. This has been the location for every TGA show except 2014’s Las Vegas show and the virtual show held in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Many other big events are hosted at the same location including the Emmy Awards and Grammy Awards.
The 2023 Game Awards kicks off on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST. The show will be streamed live via YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, TikTok, X / Twitter), Instagram, and Steam. The actual start-time here is for the pre-ceremony which will last roughly half an hour before the 3-hour-long award ceremony proper begins.
As I note every single year, The Game Awards are about twice as long as they should be an include too many categories (at least for the live-show; many could be announced offscreen).
What To Expect: Announcements, Trailers, Leaks And MoreAside from winners in the myriad categories, viewers should expect quite a lot of juicy announcements, new trailers, live music and likely some awkward promotional moments, though last year’s show toned those down a bit.
Some of the announcements we’ve heard rumored, or can predict based on past years, include:
The release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox as well as other Game Pass news. Perhaps we’ll hear more about Starfield’s future, as rumors of a trailer for the Shattered Space expansion have spread. Several new EA Originals titles—basically smaller, more indie-type games that EA helps fund and publish, but does not develop internally. One of these is supposedly Tales of Kenzara: ZAU from Sargent Studios. There is talk of a new Virtua Fighter from SEGA. There is also talk of a new half-sequel to God Of War, something along the lines of Spider-Man: Miles Morales, a smaller release but still a stand-alone. It’s possible that the main character will be Kratos’s son, Atreus. I am holding out hope for both a release date and trailer for Elden Ring’s DLC expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree. FromSoftware has won two TGA GOTY awards and remain one of the most popular studios with viewers and judges. It’s a sensible time to make a reveal. Speaking of special relationships, there’s no doubt that Keighley and Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima have one, and so it would be almost more surprising if we didn’t see something about Death Stranding 2 at the show tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised to get some more Fortnite news given the new season and the release of LEGO Fortnite, Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival, three new games within the broader Fortnite experience. The studio behind GOTY winner It Takes Two, Hazelight Studios, led by eccentric game dev Jose Fares, could announce a remake of its masterpiece, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons. Fares made one of the more memorable—and swear-laden—speeches at The Game Awards in the past.Whatever happens, expect dozens of new trailers and announcements from games both great and small, in what will be a very long award ceremony. What are you looking forward to most? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.
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