The Game Awards 2020

The Game Awards 2020
Date	December 10, 2020 (2020-12-10)
Location	Los Angeles[a]
Hosted by	Geoff Keighley
Preshow host(s)	Sydnee Goodman
Highlights
Most awards	The Last of Us Part II (7)
Most nominations	The Last of Us Part II (11)
Game of the Year	The Last of Us Part II
Viewership	83 million
← 2019 The Game Awards

The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, and took place on December 10, 2020. Unlike previous Game Awards, the show was broadcast virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic; Keighley presented at a soundstage in Los Angeles, while musical performances took place virtually at stages in London and Tokyo. The show introduced the award's first Future Class, a list of individuals from the video game industry who best represent the future of video games. It also introduced a new Innovation in Accessibility award, for games that featured notable accessibility options.

The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. The show was live streamed across 45 different platforms, and featured several musical performances, as well as celebrity guests as award presenters. The Last of Us Part II received the most nominations and wins in the show's history—eleven and seven, respectively—and was awarded Game of the Year. Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross won Best Narrative for their work on the game, while Laura Bailey was awarded Best Performance for her role as Abby. Several new games were announced during the show, including Ark II, Perfect Dark, and an untitled Mass Effect game.

The 2020 show was the most expensive ceremony to date. It was viewed by over 83 million streams, the most in its history, with 8.3 million concurrent viewers at its peak. It received a mixed reception from media publications, with praise directed at new game announcements, and some criticism for not allowing developers more time to speak. Some critics and viewers shared concerns over the success of The Last of Us Part II due to its polarizing narrative and developer's use of "crunch time".

Winners and nominees

Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross were awarded Best Narrative. Druckmann also accepted the awards for Game of the Year and Best Game Direction, while Gross was also included in the show's Future Class.

Nobuo Uematsu and Masashi Hamauzu won Best Score and Music alongside Mitsuto Suzuki (not pictured).

Laura Bailey won Best Performance.

Sean Murray, lead director of No Man's Sky, accepted the award for Best Ongoing Game on behalf of Hello Games.

Kurt Margenau, co-game director of The Last of Us Part II, accepted the award for Best Action/Adventure Game on behalf of Naughty Dog.

Valkyrae won Content Creator of the Year.

Heo "Showmaker" Su of Damwon Gaming was awarded Best Esports Athlete.

Danny "Zonic" Sørensen of Astralis won Best Esports Coach for the second year in a row.

Sjokz won Best Esports Host for the third consecutive year.

The nominees for The Game Awards 2020 were announced on November 18, 2020.^[3] Any game released on or before November 20, 2020 was eligible for consideration.^[4] The nominees were compiled by a jury panel with members from 96 media outlets globally;^[5] ballots were sent to outlets on October 29 and due back on November 6, though they had until November 13 to submit updated ballots. Outlets were required to submit three games for each category to determine the nominees.^[4] Winners are determined between the jury (90%) and public votes (10%); the latter was held via the official website and on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and closed on December 9.^[6] The two exceptions were the Most Anticipated Game and Player's Voice awards, which were fully nominated and voted-on by the public;^[7][8] the former was determined exclusively on Twitter and announced during the show,^[7] and the latter was announced on December 8 after several rounds of voting.^[8] A new Innovation in Accessibility award was also added for games that featured notable accessibility options.^[9] Around 18.3 million people participated in the public vote, doubling from the previous show.^[10]

Awards

Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger ().^[11]

Video games

Esports

Games with multiple nominations and awards

Multiple nominations

The Last of Us Part II received eleven nominations, the most in the show's history. Other games with multiple nominations included Hades with nine, Ghost of Tsushima with eight, Final Fantasy VII Remake with six, and Doom Eternal with five. Sony Interactive Entertainment had 26 total nominations, more than any other publisher, followed by Supergiant Games and Xbox Game Studios with eight.^[3]

Multiple awards

The Last of Us Part II received the most wins in the show's history, with seven. Four games—Among Us, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and Hades—won two awards. Across its two winning games, Sony Interactive Entertainment won a total of nine awards, while Innersloth, Square Enix, Supergiant Games, and Xbox Game Studios won two.^[11]

Presenters and performers

The following individuals, listed in order of appearance, presented awards, introduced trailers, or performed musical numbers. All other awards were presented by Geoff Keighley or Sydnee Goodman.^{[1][12][13][14]}

Presenters

Performers

Ceremony information

The Game Awards 2020 was hosted and produced by Geoff Keighley.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, show creator and producer Geoff Keighley did not want to host a normal ceremony for the 2020 show.^[17] Not wanting to take a hiatus and inspired by the success of Summer Game Fest,^[5] he considered hosting the show from his home, but his board urged him to attempt a larger show on par with previous years.^[18] In case of a significant surge of COVID-19 cases in California, the crew had several back-up plans for the show, including broadcasting from Keighley's house.^[2] Keighley worked with his partners to develop a virtual show.^[17] He and his team took inspiration from other shows throughout the year, including the Democratic National Convention, in which the "audience" was featured on virtual screens,^[19] as well as the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards, wherein the hosts were isolated on stage and the nominees accepted via video call.^[18] While developing the show, Keighley also spoke to hundreds of viewers via Zoom to discuss their own interests;^[18] these calls often included other industry figures, such as Valve Corporation president Gabe Newell and Epic Games creative director Donald Mustard.^[20]

The presentation used three soundstages in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo; each location had minimal attendees, mostly related to production crew and presenters. Keighley said that this allows them to include additional presentation events as with past shows, as well as explore taking future shows to different venues.^[17] According to Keighley, the theme of the show was about strength and comfort, given the impact of the pandemic. He wanted to implore the theme of unity, given the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in November 2020; he cited The Game Awards 2018 as an example of this theme, which had led with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aimé, Microsoft's Phil Spencer, and Sony's Shawn Layden all sharing the stage.^[20] Keighley felt that the inclusion of film and television stars was an interesting way to show a wider appreciation for the industry. His team wanted to include Henry Cavill in the show, but he was busy working on The Witcher.^[5]

Keighley noted that the 2020 show was the most expensive to date, partly due to the COVID-19 tests required for the crew and the worldwide remote camera set-ups.^[2] As with the previous show, the presentation ran alongside the Game Festival, consisting of playable demos and additional in-game content.^[18] The show introduced the award's first Future Class, a list of individuals from across the video game industry who best represent the future of video games. The inductees included industry professionals such as Kinda Funny's Blessing Adeoye Jr., Naughty Dog's Halley Gross, and GameSpot's Kallie Plagge.^[21] The presentation was aired on December 10, 2020, live streamed across more than 45 online platforms. It was executive produced by Keighley and Kimmie Kim, and directed by Richard Preuss. LeRoy Bennett returned to serve as creative director.^[22]

Announcements

Around April and May in 2020, Keighley was worried about a potential lack of game announcements due to the impact of COVID-19 on the industry; however, several developers were able to submit their announcements and trailers for demonstration.^[5] Announcements on recently released and upcoming games were made for Among Us, Back 4 Blood, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Disco Elysium, Dragon Age 4, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, The Elder Scrolls Online, It Takes Two, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Monster Hunter Rise, Myst, Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139..., Oddworld: Soulstorm, Outriders, Overcooked: All You Can Eat, Returnal, Scarlet Nexus, Sea of Solitude, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge, Super Meat Boy Forever, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and Warframe.^[23]

New games announced during the ceremony included:^[23]

Ratings and reception

The show received a mixed reception from media publications. VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi praised the ceremony, particularly applauding its celebration of diverse games such as The Last of Us Part II and Tell Me Why as well as the varied and interesting new game announcements.^[24] Todd Martens of Los Angeles Times felt that the show should have allowed more time for the developers to speak and discuss their artistic visions behind the games, noting that the presentation does little to demonstrate video games as art.^[25] Kat Bailey of USgamer questioned Doom Eternal's nomination for Game of the Year, describing it as "messy, unfocused, and, well, just not as good" as its predecessor.^[26]

Similar to concerns over Death Stranding's predominance in the nominations and ceremony for the 2019 awards due to its creator Hideo Kojima's friendship with Keighley, some viewers shared concerns related to The Last of Us Part II at the 2020 awards, both for its awards success and due to the developer's "crunch time" practices.^[27] The Last of Us Part II was well-received at release but narrative elements polarized some critics and players, and the game had been subject to review bombing.^[28] Kotaku's Ian Walker criticized the game's Best Game Direction win, noting that Hades should have won due to developer Supergiant Games's less demanding work culture.^[29] Keighley stated that the awards were not rigged in the manner that some viewers had suggested and that there was no influence of Naughty Dog or its staff on the award selection. He said that the game was popular with players and media alike, as proven by the Player's Voice award, in which The Last of Us Part II had placed second. He further stated that it would be difficult to incorporate criteria related to games developed under poor industry practices like crunch time into the awards selection process without becoming a slippery slope, but believes discussions of these practices should be a conversation held by the larger community.^[27]

Over 83 million streams were used to view the ceremonies, with 8.3 million concurrent viewers at its peak.^[30] Keighley has expressed his surprise by the consistent growth of the show over the years, but confessed that it has led him to fear "that year where it doesn't grow ... There's going to be a year where we don't have the same viewers".^[5]

Notes

References

External links

• Official website