Last night saw the best games of 2021, and the people responsible for them, awarded for their efforts at the annual video game award show — The Game Awards 2021. With a name like that, what did you expect?
The show was hosted by video game journalist Geoff Keighley and featured The Matrix Resurrections stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Ann Moss as award presenters. They were joined in their hosting duties by Simu Liu from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, industry friend Guillermo del Toro and Giancarlo Esposito from Far Cry 6.
Let’s face it though, the four-hour-long affair is about the trailer debuts just as much as the games winning awards. There were more than a few this year so we’ve covered them separately here. If you’ve got four hours to spare and want to catch every minute of the show you can watch it over on YouTube (linked below) but if you just want a recap of the major category winners here they are. You can find a list of the winners of every category here.
The Game Awards 2021 winners
Here are the winners in the major categories:
Game of the Year
Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) (WINNER)
Metroid Dread (Mercury Steam/Nintendo)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine/Xbox Game Studios)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Best Game Direction
Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda) (WINNER)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA)
Returnal (Housemarque/SIE)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine/Xbox Game Studios)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Best Narrative
Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA)
Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine/SQUARE ENIX)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal/SQUARE ENIX) (WINNER)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine/Xbox Game Studios)
Best Indie
12 Minutes (Luis Antonio/Annapurna Interactive)
Death’s Door (Acid Nerve/Devolver Digital)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab) (WINNER)
Inscryption (Daniel Mullins Games/Devolver Digital)
Loop Hero (Four Quarters/Devolver Digital)
Best Multiplayer
Back 4 Blood (Turtle Rock/WB Games)
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) (WINNER)
Knockout City (Velan Studios/EA)
Monster Hunter Rise (Capcom)
New World (Amazon Games)
Valheim (Iron Gate Studio/Coffee Stain)
Best Family
It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) (WINNER)
Mario Party Superstars (NDcube/Nintendo)
New Pokémon Snap (Bandai Namco/The Pokémon Company/Nintendo)
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Nintendo)
WarioWare: Get It Together! (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
Most Anticipated Game
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) (WINNER)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo)
Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
Best Art Direction
Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda) (WINNER)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine/Xbox Game Studios)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)
The Artful Escape (Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna)
Best Score and Music
Cyberpunk 2077 (Marcin Przybylowicz, Piotr T. Adamczyk, Composers)
Deathloop (Tom Salta, Composer)
NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 (Keiichi Okabe, Composer) (WINNER)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Richard Jacques, Composer)
The Artful Escape (Johnny Galvatron & Josh Abrahams, Composers)
Best Audio Design
Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios) (WINNER)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Resident Evil Village (Capcom)
Returnal (Housemarque/SIE)
Innovation in Accessibility
Far Cry 6 (Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft)
Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios) (WINNER)
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal/SQUARE ENIX)
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)
The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (Creative Bytes Studios/Falling Squirrel)
