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The Game Awards 2019 – Liveblog as it happens

The Game Awards 2019, as it happens.

Tim McDonald

Published: Dec 12, 2019 08:55 pm

Hello, and welcome to PC Invasion’s live updates page for The Game Awards 2019. Throughout the next few days (well, hours, but it’ll feel like longer) I’ll be updating this page with any and all PC relevant news that pops up. And also probably anything else that deserves some snark.

The liveblog

8:36pm – And we’re off. Sort of. The pre-show is kicking off with Sydnee Goodman, who promises trailers and awards and things.

8:37pm – Nominees for Best Community Support are Apex Legends, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV, Fortnite, and Rainbow Six: Siege. The winner is apparently Destiny 2, so hooray for them! I’m sure they’re happy about receiving an award before the show even starts.

8:39pm – A world premiere trailer! And it’s… oh, it’s for the Switch. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 DLC, or some such. Well, that means nothing to us here.

8:42pm – Lual Mayen is here talking about his game Salaam, about refugees. Looks neat and it’s a fascinating concept, but I’m not sure if it’s on PC.

8:43pm – Nominees for Best Score. Cadence of Hyrule, Death Stranding, Devil May Cry 5, Kingdom Hearts 3, and Sayonara Wild Hearts. The winner is Death Stranding, which is actually coming out on PC next year! And I have lots of snarky comments to make about that, but I’ll save them for when it wins another 19 awards throughout the night.

The chap up collecting the award hopes that he can continue to do “weird shit” in the future, and I’m fairly certain that with Kojima at the helm of a studio, that’s going to happen.

Seriously though, are we actually doing awards in the pre-show? Wow.

8:44pm – Maneater trailer, from Tripwire. This is the excellent-looking game where you play as a murder shark, and it is very definitely PC relevant.

8:55pm – Good grief, we’re racing through the awards. Winner for Best Esports Event is League of Legends World Championship 2019. Best Esports Host, the winner is Sjokz. Finally, Best Esports Team is apparently G2 Esports. I missed at least one because they were on screen for about half a second before moving onto the next. It’s a good thing The Game Awards is very focused on awards.

I’m not quite sure how those are judged, but okay. I assume best esports team won a lot of things.

8:48pm – Okay, a brief break. Trailers and Jumanji cast and things.

8:51pm – Something deliciously relevant: the Humankind trailer, with Amplitude’s Jeff Spock presenting it and telling us we can create our own avatar. Trailer below, but our story’s live already!

8:53pm – We’re racing through things now. A new world premiere, and even our poor host doesn’t know what it is… but apparently it’s for the Switch, so I can safely ignore this. It’s No More Heroes 3, which would be very exciting were it on PC.

8:55pm – And now a Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer. Which is a PlayStation exclusive for a year, but it’ll doubtless be on PC at some point!

8:56pm – Best Fighting Game nominees. Dead or Alive 6, Jump Force, Mortal Kombat 11, Samurai Shodown, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. To nobody’s surprise, the winner is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

You know, if they’re going through awards like this in the pre-show, I’m sure the real show is just going to be amazing. Or they’re just trying to get as many awards out of the way as quickly as possible because this show isn’t actually about the awards. You decide.

8:59pm – And we’re off. The show is now actually starting.

9:01pm – With a song and an orchestra and stuff. It’s quite good, though I have no idea what it’s related to. Death Stranding? Or maybe this is a popular artist and I’m out of touch and have no idea.

9:05pm – Okay, we’re now actually starting. There was a brief video showing clips of things we’ll be seeing – lots of the nominated games. Curiously, it ended with a shot of Half-Life‘s G-Man.

Geoff Keighley is on stage now, though, wearing a rather nice suit. He says hello to everyone. Hello, Geoff!

“Yes, we’re going to have awards. Yes, we’re going to have a lot of brand new game announcements and surprises.” For some reason he sounded more excited about the second part than the first.

9:06pm – Jonathan Nolan of The Dark Knight and Westworld fame is here to present Best Narrative. It surprises me that he says that the best narratives are often in games and not in any other media, and it doubly surprises me that he namedropped Fallout in that list. But hey, it’s nice we’re getting a nod from another industry. And maybe he’s talking about the original two games.

The nominees, which aren’t just being rattled off in one breath: A Plague Tale: Innocence, Control, Death Stranding, Disco Elysium, The Outer Worlds. Disco Elysium takes it, and from what I’ve played it’s a very deserving winner. It does very, very clever things with narrative structure. Also, it killed me with a ceiling fan and it deserves an award for that.

9:10pm – A “surprise that came out of nowhere”, according to Keighley. It’s… something. Dream 75 years of time in one night? Dreams which aren’t under control? This may be new.

Nope, never mind. It’s a bloody trailer for the Xbox Series X, which isn’t quite as silly a name as the Xbox One X but it’s damn well up there. It also looks like the obelisk from 2001, but I’m not sure I mean that in a good way. So, the SeXXbox.

9:12pm – Phil Spencer is here to talk about how the Xbox consoles power our dreams, which is actually a horrifying thought and seems like the plot of a Philip K. Dick novel.

The Series X is the new Xbox and there’s a game being announced. Lots of shouting and chanting and tribal-looking people and a big monster. It’s Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga! So that might actually end up on PC! Historically, most Xbox exclusives tend to.

9:16pm – Global Gaming Citizen! It’s a lady who has started a coding school for girls in Afghanistan. This is all about empowerment and creating games that aren’t about white men, and there’s definitely a market for that.

Mild irony that this is followed up with a trailer indicating Mortal Kombat 11 is 50% off, with The Joker and (possibly?) Harley Quinn coming. Oh, apparently that was Cassie in a Harley Quinn skin. Oh well.

Anyway, I’m not sure who decided to put those back-to-back, but that was probably not the wisest move. I’m pretty sure I got whiplash from that tonal shift.

9:20pm – More trailers. Control‘s Expeditions Mode is out now, with The Foundation expansion coming on 26 March.

9:21pm – Stephen Curry from the Golden State Warriors is here to give out the award for Best Esports Player. Bugha, Faker, Perkz, S1mple, Sinatraa are the nominees. And the winner is… Bugha! I don’t know who that is, but apparently he’s a Fortnite player. Well done him! If the 13 seconds of research I just did is any indication he’s only 16, so I can imagine this is a pretty special thing for him.

9:25pm – A trailer for Godfall, a new “looter-slasher” coming from Gearbox and Counterplay Games. It’s due out in the holiday season of 2020. Apparently, this is also the first PlayStation 5 game announced, but it’s also coming to PC. Trailer and news to come shortly.

Third-person, real-time melee combat. Solo and co-op. Gearbox are apparently responsible for getting Sony and Epic involved (Epic Games Store exclusive, it seems) to help things along.

9:28pm – Three awards rattled off in as many seconds. Best Audio Design goes to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Best strategy game goes to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Content Creator of the Year goes to Shroud. And then a trailer for Bravely Default 2, which I can safely ignore.

9:31pm – Rebecca Ford is here to talk about multiplayer space-ninja loot-’em-up Warframe, and… oh! Apparently Empyrean is out right now on PC. Huzzah!

9:33pm – And now we have someone talking about how great Samsung is. That was then followed up with a brief bit about Ewok, previously mentioned as someone for best Content Creator. She’s a deaf 14-year-old, so competing at a professional level is a hell of an accomplishment.

9:35pm – A look at the Theros: Beyond Death stuff for Magic: The Gathering. I’m slightly baffled that gets a cinematic trailer, but so it goes.

9:37pm – Good grief, another new game announcement. Prologue, from that PlayerUnknown fellow. That’s… a tiny teaser trailer. No idea what it is. So, that was marginally pointless. More an announcement that PlayerUnknown is working on a new thing than a real reveal of the game.

9:38pm – Ikumi Nakamura is here! The best part of E3 is here, and I’m very happy about this. She’s here to give out the Best Art Direction award: Control, Death Stranding, GRIS, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening are up for this. Control takes it.

9:43pm – Donald Mustard of Epic Games is here to talk about Fortnite. Apparently, J.J. Abrams will be in Fortnite this weekend to show off stuff about Rise of Skywalker, in-game. An exclusive clip and some other bits and pieces. And there’s a free glider, too, for anyone who logs in: a TIE Whisper.

9:49pm – Sons of the Forest announced; most likely a sequel to The Forest. Military team stranded in the woods after a helicopter crash, and lots of horrible thingies lurking around. Also strange women with multiple arms grinding on rocks. Hey, you do you.

9:50pm – Followed immediately by Ruined King: A League of Legends Story. This is by Airship Syndicate, and it’s a turn-based combat thingy, as far as I can tell. Set after Burning Tides so Gangplank is believed to be dead, and you’ll be taking control of League champions exploring Bilgewater and the Shadow Isles.

9:53pm – And now Margot Robbie/Harley Quinn is on screen for a Birds of Prey trailer. I shall go and get a drink while this is on.

9:54pm – A brief Doom Eternal trailer talking about how it has 75 awards and nominations despite not being out yet, and then an advert about quitting vaping. I am not quitting vaping in the middle of The Game Awards. I need to retain my sanity somehow.

9:55pm – Gaming Tweet of the Year? Really? Piss off.

9:56pm – And now a behind-the-scenes look (or listen, I guess) to Cyberpunk 2077‘s soundtrack. Providing a soundtrack “for fucking shit up,” says one person involved. A whole lot of artists talking about their music being in the game.

10:00pm – We’ve just had a nice musical interlude, which gave me a moment to fortify my brain. Norman Reedus of Death Stranding and The Walking Dead fame is here now, to present Best Action Game.

Apex Legends, Astral Chain, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Devil May Cry 5, Gears 5, Metro Exodus. The winner is… Devil May Cry 5! The fans have been thanked for waiting 11 years for a sequel, so I guess we’re not counting DmC: Devil May Cry.

10:04pm – Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance announced. The trailer has an… interesting choice of a metal soundtrack. Lots of smashing things with hammers and decapitating them with swords. I have no idea if that’s on PC, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon!

10:05pm – Geoff Keighley has been interrupted by Mirage from Apex Legends. He’s here to announce the Apex Legends seasonal event, starring him, which apparently starts now. Legendary G7 skin for those who partake.

There are limited time event skins, a limited time winter express mode, and other such things. It’s Mirage’s Holo-Day Bash, and it’s live now.

10:09pm – Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker from The Muppets are going to be presenting an award, which I can only assume is the Game Awards people preempting any comments I might make that the people behind some of the decisions for this awards show are a bunch of muppets. For now, though, a new trailer for Ori and the Will of Wisps, which looks as gorgeous as you’d expect. It’s out on 11 March, 2020.

10:12pm – Aaand we’re back to Samsung adverts. How’re you all doing? Doing anything interesting? Got any plans for the holidays?

10:13pm – Bunsen and Beaker are here, and I expect them to be one of the most professional parts of the evening. Too harsh? Hm. Well, they’re here to announce the winner of Games for Impact. And they’re announcing The Untitled Beaker Game.

Yes, it’s Untitled Goose Game but starring Beaker. With Beaker getting chased by a goose. Norman Reedus doesn’t look impressed, but personally, I really hope this is in some way real. Even as a mod. Seriously.

10:15pm – And the goose has appeared to interrupt the awards! This is possibly the best thing The Game Awards has ever done, because Muppets and horrible goose.

Anyway, the nominees for the award are Concrete Genie, GRIS, Kind Words, Life is Strange 2, and Sea of Solitude. The winner is GRIS. I can’t imagine how thrilled they are to receive an award from two Muppets and the goose from Untitled Goose Game.

10:20pm – Another three awards instantly rattled off. Best Family Game was nothing but Nintendo and Luigi’s Mansion 3 took it. Best Sports/Racing Game went to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. Finally, Best Mobile Game went to Call of Duty: Mobile. Two awards we can safely ignore, and one that went to the sole arcade-y entry.

10:22pm – Ex-Arkane devs at WolfEye have partnered with Devolver Digital to make an ARPG, Weird West. Before the title popped up, I was going to say that it had very clear weird west stylings, so I guess they’ve decided to just name the game after that. Sensible decision.

10:24pm – Can I please have a moment to not type words? Apparently not. A short trailer for Magic: Legends, an MMO action-RPG from the studio that made Neverwinter. You can sign up for the beta now, too.

And then a quick trailer talking about how great the Stadia is, which is nice, because I needed another good laugh after Bunsen and Beaker left.

10:30pm – A nice break for some more adverts, and now the streamer Ninja is here. I got mistaken for him a few months back. I’m not sure if I should be happy about that or not.

Anyway, best multiplayer game of the year. Apex Legends, Borderlands 3, Modern Warfare, Tetris 99, and The Division 2. Apex Legends takes it, but Mirage isn’t here to accept it so it’s some chaps from Respawn instead. As the devs have just noted, Apex was a bit of a shift for them, but it worked out rather well.

10:34pm – Ghost of Tsushima is up now, but that’s a PlayStation exclusive so I can sit back and rest my fingers for a moment. You can enjoy the picture of the man playing the shakuhachi while I wait.

10:40pm – And now Gears Tactics, the Gears of War turn-based strategy game. This is coming to PC. A 40 hour campaign, apparently, and it’s pretty visually impressive. It looks… very, very XCOM. That’s probably a good thing. It’s due out on 28 April, 2020.

10:42pm – A quick look at Naraka: Bladepoint, a stylish third-person hack-and-slasher from Netease. I’m not hugely impressed, but then again this is coming 10 minutes after Ghost of Tsushima, so it’s a pretty hard act to follow.

10:43pm – Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers! Yes, it’s been out for months. Shut up. I’m happy to see it. It’s great. Even if this is just an accolades trailer, the music still gave me goosebumps.

10:46pm – Best Ongoing Game award time. Final Fantasy XIV is up for this, so you know I’m– oh. It’s Fortnite. Okay then. Fine. I’m not bitter.

10:51pm – A quick tease for Nine to Five, from Redhill Games. It’s a tactical shooter, and the trailer… starts with small cartoon bunnies with assault rifles, and is then followed up by a merc shooting the TV they’re on. It promises strategic, tactical combat rather than open chaos, with round-to-round decisions, so it might be a bit Rainbow Six: Siege. The alpha’s coming in 2020, but you can sign up now. Assuming the site’s not dead, anyway.

I can’t be the only one slightly disappointed it’s not actually about the bunnies killing each other with assault rifles.

10:52pm – Bloody hell: another slew of awards in under two minutes. Esports Game of the Year goes to League of Legends; Best VR/AR Game goes to Beat Saber; Best Performance goes to Mads Mikkelsen for Death Stranding. Then there’s the Player’s Voice category, which is basically the public’s Game of the Year award. That goes to Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Four awards in under two minutes, when the last 20 minutes were trailers. Ever get the sense that calling this show “The Game Awards” is a bit misleading? At least they haven’t given any away offscreen this year.

And now, a Samsung advert. Because why not?

10:58pm – Okay, now Green Day is on doing some music. I have nothing much to add… oh, never mind, they’re apparently announcing a video game. Come off it. I’m guessing it’s not a remaster of Green Day: Rock Band, either.

11:06pm – Never mind, it’s just a Green Day music pack for Beat Saber, out tonight.

11:08pm – Another announcement. New World, coming in May 2020. I have no idea what it is, but it looks a bit hack-and-slash-y. Zombies and monsters and corruption. Life and death battling it out. More info when the official site isn’t dead, I’m sure.

Anyway, Reggie Fils-Aime is here now.

11:11pm – He’s presenting Fresh Indie Game, and believes it’s the most important award of the night. He may have a point in that indie games are important, tend to do innovative things and push in strange new directions, and that basically every dev was an indie dev at some point… though it’s diminished somewhat by the fact that fucking Subway is sponsoring this award.

Tough category. Disco Elysium, GRIS, My Friend Pedro, Outer Wilds, Slay the Spire, and Untitled Goose Game. Disco Elysium takes it.

And the voiceover person notes that Disco Elysium also wins Best Independent Game, so I guess that’s one award they didn’t really give out on stage.

11:15pm – Another world premiere. Conv/Rgence: A League of Legends Story. Time-bending appears to be the crux of this, and it’s by Double Stallion Games. It’s a single-player action-platformer starring Ekko, and is all about the problems of messing with time. Sounds interesting.

11:17pm – Ah, good, another advert about how great Stadia is. It’s nice that they keep giving us these little bits of comedy throughout this purgatory.

11:19pm – A trailer for Surgeon Simulator 2. Did we know that’s happening? It’s 4am here. For some reason I think that’s new, but it was right in the middle of a slew of adverts so that’d be an odd announcement. I’m just going to assume that was already announced and I somehow missed it.

11:22pm – A world premiere reannouncement, whatever that is.

Holy shit. It’s The Wolf Among Us 2.

Holy shit.

YES.

Also, Ashly Burch is here now. But anyway: The Wolf Among Us 2! Yes!

11:23pm – Ashly Burch is presenting Best Game Direction. Death Stranding takes it, over Control, Outer Wilds, Resident Evil 2, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Kojima’s here to pick it up, and Norman Reedus looks very pleased in the audience. I’m kinda glad I can’t see Geoff Keighley’s face right now.

11:25pm – “Gaming Tweet of the Year” is from @ytsunnys. We don’t actually know what it is, though. Instead, we’re shuffled off to a Season of the Dragon trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online, with the global reveal event on 16 January 2020.

11:30pm – Michelle Rodriguez is on stage now, for “one last game announcement.” It’s the world premiere of the “latest expansion” to The Fast & The Furious universe.

The character models in this look a bit off, I must say – most notably Vin Diesel – but then it’s presumably a racing game so the cars are a bit more important. Fast & Furious: Crossroads, coming May 2020.

11:32pm – And now Vin Diesel is on stage. Being that both Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez are pretty outspoken about their love of video games, it’s kinda nice having them here. It feels a lot less random than having a film star with no links to games.

These two are presenting Game of the Year, I think. But before that, the orchestra is playing music from said games to pay tribute.

The nominees, for what it’s worth, are: Control, Death Stranding, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and The Outer Worlds. We’ll find out what wins shortly.

11:37pm – And the Game of the Year award goes to… Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Holy shit, I didn’t see that coming. I respect that one though.

Apparently, it also wins Best Action-Adventure Game, so that’s another award we didn’t see. But hey! Hidetaka Miyazaki is here, and he’s apparently very moved by this award. He says (through his translator) that he was surprised and overjoyed by the reaction to Sekiro, considering the difficulty and complexity of the game. Well done, FromSoft.

11:40pm – And that’s it! We’re done! Now I need to format this article, add more screenshots and links, and do all of that other stuff. But if you’ve stuck around through this liveblog: thank you. And if you’re reading this after the fact: thank you. It’s over, and soon, I can sleep.