The succinctly-named Game Awards debuted around this time last year as a sort of resurrected Spike VGAs. Remember those? The new(er) show, produced again this year by Geoff Keighley, promises less hype and more game, with nominees selected by a jury of 32 members of "international media."
One of the things I like about the Game Awards as opposed to the VGAs is that it doesn't categorize games by platform, so you don't end up with situations like that of 2013, when BioShock Infinite was up for Game of the Year and best Xbox game, but was somehow omitted entirely from the PC category. Game Award categories are platform-agnostic: The Best RPG category, for instance, includes PC-exclusive, PS4-exclusive, and multiplatform games.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt leads the way this year with seven nominations, followed by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain with, appropriately, five. Both games are in the running for the Game of the Year award, along with Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Super Mario Maker. This year's show will also include three esports-specific categories, which will be chosen by fans: Esports game of the year, player of the year, and team of the year, whose nominees include Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, Optic Gaming, SK Telecom T1, and Team Solomid.
The Game Awards 2015 will take place on December 3, and will be streamed live on Twitch, YouTube, Steam, and other fine gaming sites. Our executive editor Tyler Wilde is part of the judging process.
