The Game Awards, the video game industry’s biggest annual year-end celebration, today announced its 2020 nominees with The Last Of Us Part II, Hades, and Ghost of Tsushima leading nominations, which also includes the Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales game and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Star Wars: Squadrons.
Highlighting the games from the past year that truly transformed entertainment, created camaraderie and community, and pushed the envelope on innovation, this year’s diverse list of nominees includes 95 different games, individuals, and teams spanning across a multitude of gaming genres and platforms. The nominees will be honored during the free digital live-streamed event on December 10, which will be available across more than 45 global video platforms.
In 2019, The Game Awards reached 50 million global viewers, including a peak live concurrent audience of more than 7.7 million fans. Taking a virtual format this year, The Game Awards will air live in 4K UHD from Hollywood, California, with special segments from other locations around the world, including London’s historic Abbey Road Studios. The host cities for The Game Awards will be digitally connected for an innovative celebration with live award presentations, musical performances, and spectacular world premiere game announcements.
This year’s Game of the Year nominees are Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo), DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix), Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE), Hades (Supergiant Games), and The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE).
In the gender-neutral Best Performance category, a diverse group of actors will compete for the industry’s highest honor. The nominees include Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey (The Last of Us Part II), Daisuke Tsuji (Ghost of Tsushima), Logan Cunningham (Hades), and Nadji Jeter (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales),
This year Sony Interactive Entertainment is the most nominated publisher with 22 nominations across its portfolio of games. This is the second-highest count for publisher nominations in The Game Awards history, following Nintendo’s record-setting 23 nominations for The Game Awards 2017.
The nominees for The Game Awards are selected by a global jury of more than 95 media publications and influencer outlets.
Following the nomination announcement, fans will be able to help choose the winners in all categories via authenticated online voting on www.thegameawards.com. In China, fans can vote for their favorites on Bilibili. Additionally, fans will exclusively determine the “Most Anticipated Game” category via The Game Awards’ Twitter DMs and share the vote to their timelines.
The Game Awards is executive produced by Geoff Keighley and Kimmie Kim. LeRoy Bennett returns as creative director for his sixth year, and Richard Preuss returns as director for his fourth year.
More exciting partners and ways to watch The Game Awards will be announced in the coming weeks.
Check out the list of nominees below.
The Game Awards 2020 Nominees:
Game of the Year
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Game Direction
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Narrative
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (George Kamitani)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroki Iwaki, Sachie Hirano)
Ghost of Tsushima (Ian Ryan, Liz Albl, Patrick Downs, Jordan Lemos)
Hades (Greg Kasavin)
The Last of Us Part II (Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross)
Best Art Direction
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Score and Music
DOOM Eternal (Mick Gordon)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Nobuo Uematsu, Masahi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki)
Hades (Darren Korb)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Gareth Coker)
The Last of Us Part II (Gustavo Santaolala, Mac Quale)
Best Audio Design
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Resident Evil 3 (Capcom)
The Last of Us Part 2 (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Performance
Ashley Johnson as Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
Laura Bailey as Abby, The Last of Us Part II
Daisuke Tsuji as Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima
Logan Cunningham as Hades, Hades
Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Games for Impact
If Found… (DREAMFEEL/Annapurna Interactive)
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition (Cardboard Computer/Annapurna Interactive)
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
Tell Me Why (Dontnod Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
Through the Darkest of Times (Paintbucket Games)
Best Ongoing
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Call of Duty Warzone (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Best Indie
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth)
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
Best Mobile, Presented by LG WING, Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon
Among Us (InnerSloth)
Call of Duty Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
Legends of Runeterra (Riot Games)
Pokémon Café Mix (Genius Sonority)
Best Community Support
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Fall Guys (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Valorant (Riot Games)
Innovation in Accessibility
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Grounded (Obsidian/Xbox Game Studios)
HyperDot (Tribe Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft)
Best VR/AR
Dreams (Media Molecule/SIE)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
MARVEL’s Iron Man VR (Camoflaj/SIE)
STAR WARS: Squadrons (Motive Studios/EA)
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Skydance Interactive)
Best Action
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Nioh 2 (Team Ninja)
Streets of Rage 4 (DotEmu)
Best Action/Adventure
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
MARVEL’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Respawn/EA)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Role Playing
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
Persona 5 Royal (Atlus, P Studios)
Wasteland 3 (inXile Entertainment/Koch)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Best Fighting
Granblue Fantasy: Versus (Arc System Works/Cygames)
Mortal Kombat 11/Ultimate (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (Dimps/Capcom)
One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai-Namco)
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe: Late[cl-r] (French Bread/Arc System Works)
Best Family
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Toys for Bob/Activision)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Velan Studios/Nintendo)
Minecraft Dungeons (Mojang/Double Eleven/Xbox Game Studios)
Paper Mario: The Origami King (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
Best Sim/Strategy
Crusader Kings III (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox)
Desperados III (Mimimi Games/THQN)
Gears Tactics (Splash Damage/The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo/Xbox Game Studios)
XCOM: Chimera Squad (Firaxis/2K)
Best Sports/Racing
Dirt 5 (Codemasters Cheshire/Codemasters)
F1 2020 (Codemasters Birmingham /Codemasters)
FIFA 21 (EA Vancouver/EA Sports)
NBA 2K21 (Visual Concepts/2K)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (Vicarious Visions/Activision)
Best Multiplayer
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
Among Us (InnerSloth)
Call of Duty: Warzone (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Debut Game
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio/Devolver)
Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry/Playstack)
Raji: An Ancient Epic (Nodding Heads Games)
Röki (Polygon Treehouse/CI Games)
Phasmophobia (Kinetic Games)
Content Creator of the Year, Presented by Adobe
Alanah Pearce
NickMercs
TimtheTatman
Jay Ann Lopez
Valkyrae
Best Esports Game
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Esports Athlete
Ian “Crimsix” Porter / Call of Duty
Heo “Showmaker” Su / League of Legends
Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu / League of Legends
Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro / Call of Duty
Matthieu “ZywOo” Herbaut / CS:GO
Best Esports Team
DAMWON Gaming / League of Legends
Dallas Empire / Call of Duty
San Francisco Shock / Overwatch League
G2 Esports / League of Legends
Team Secret / DOTA2
Best Esports Event
BLAST Premier: Spring E2020 European Finals (CS:GO)
Call of Duty League Championship 2020
IEM Katowice 2020 (CS:GO)
League of Legends World Championship 2020
Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020
Best Esports Host
Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere
Alex “Machine” Richardson
Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez
James “Dash” Patterson
Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden
About The Game Awards
Reaching nearly 50 million viewers in 2019 and hailed as “the Oscars for gaming world” by the New York Times, The Game Awards is one of the largest live streamed events of the year on the Internet. The Game Awards brings together game creators, esports athletes, digital influencers, fans and Hollywood for a night of awards, exclusive game world premieres, new game announcements and musical performances that celebrate gaming as the most powerful, inspiring and immersive form of entertainment. The Awards airs live and free across more than 45 digital video networks including Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and globally on more than 30 digital networks in countries including China and India.
The Game Awards is guided by an advisory board that includes the executive leadership teams from Activision (Rob Kostich, President), AMD (Dr. Lisa Su, CEO), Electronic Arts (Laura Miele, Chief Studios Officer), Google (Phil Harrison, VP and GM, Stadia), Microsoft (Phil Spencer, EVP of Gaming), Nintendo of America (Doug Bowser, President), Riot Games (Marc Merrill, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder), Rockstar Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft (Yves Guillemot, CEO), Valve, Warner Bros. Games (David Haddad, President) and Tencent (Steven Ma, Senior Vice President).
