The Game Awards 2019 logo
The Game Awards 2019 – who would you vote for?

The closest thing the video games industry has to the Oscars is just around the corner, with Control and Sekiro both picking up plenty of nods.

Many award ceremonies have competed for the title of the ‘video game Oscars’ over the years but the most convincing has always been The Game Awards and its predecessors.

Now in its sixth year, and with no other major competitors left, (the Golden Joysticks is primarily voted on by fans) the 2019 The Game Awards event is due to take place on 13 December.

In advance of that, organisers have announced the nominees in each category, as voted on by a panel of international judges that includes Metro.co.uk.

However, the event already seems destined for controversy as the nine nominations for Death Stranding are the most of any game, and yet host and organiser Geoff Keighley is not only a close friend of creator Hideo Kojima but actually appears in the game as a minor character.

Close behind Death Stranding is Remedy’s Control with eight nominations and FromSoftware’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with five.

The Game Of the Year award is clearly going to be the most hotly contested, with Control, Death Stranding, and Sekiro facing off against Resident Evil 2, The Outer Worlds, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (which as a December release missed out on last year’s awards and could only be considered for the first time this year).

Although the final winners are decided by the voting jury you can still vote for your favourites via The Game Awards website, to see how that compares to the winners on the night.

Of course, the other big appeal with The Game Awards is that it’s one of the most import events for announcing new games and is used by almost all publishers for that purpose.

Exactly how that will work this year, given no games for the PlayStation 5 or Project Scarlett are expected to be announced until 2020, is unclear, but there’s already been rumours that Half-Life: Alyx and Crash Bandicoot Worlds will be there.

Nintendo also usually uses the event to announce or demo new games, and it doesn’t have a next generation console coming out next year.

The Game Awards 2019 Nominees

Game of the Year

  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • Resident Evil 2
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  • The Outer Worlds

Best Action Game

  • Apex Legends
  • Astral Chain
  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
  • Devil May Cry 5
  • Gears 5
  • Metro Exodus

Best Action-Adventure Game

  • Borderlands 3
  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • Resident Evil 2
  • The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
  • Sekiro: Shadows Dice Twice

Best Art Direction

  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • GRIS
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • The Legend Of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Best Audio Design

  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • Gears 5
  • Resident Evil 2
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Best Community Support

  • Apex Legends
  • Destiny 2
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Fortnite
  • Rainbow Six Siege

Best Family Game

  • Luigi’s Mansion 3
  • Ring Fit Adventure
  • Super Mario Maker 2
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
  • Yoshi’s Crafted World

Best Fighting Game

  • Dead Or Alive 6
  • Jump Force
  • Mortal Kombat 11
  • Samurai Shodown
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Best Narrative

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence
  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • Disco Elysium
  • The Outer Worlds

Best Game Direction

  • Control
  • Death Stranding
  • Resident Evil 2
  • Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
  • The Outer Worlds

Best Score/Music

  • Cadence Of Hyrule
  • Death Stranding
  • Devil May Cry 5
  • Kingdom Hearts 3
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts

Best Independent Game

  • Baba Is You
  • Disco Elysium
  • Katana ZERO
  • Outer Wilds
  • Untitled Goose Game

Best Ongoing Game

  • Apex Legends
  • Destiny 2
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Fortnite
  • Rainbow Six Siege

Best Performance

  • Ashly Burch (The Outer Worlds)
  • Courtney Hope (Control)
  • Laura Bailey (Gears 5)
  • Mads Mikkelsen (Death Stranding)
  • Matthew Porretta (Control)
  • Norman Reedus (Death Stranding)

Best Mobile Game

  • Call Of Duty: Mobile
  • GRINDSTONE
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts
  • Sky: Children Of Light
  • What The Golf?

Best RPG Game

  • Disco Elysium
  • Final Fantasy XIV
  • Kingdom Hearts 3
  • Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
  • The Outer Worlds

Best VR/AR Game

  • Asgard’s Wrath
  • Blood & Truth
  • Beat Saber
  • No Man’s Sky
  • Trover Saves The Universe

Best Strategy Game

  • Age Of Wonders: Planetfall
  • Anno 1800
  • Fire Emblem: Three Houses
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms
  • Tropico 6
  • Wargroove

Best Sports/Racing Game

  • Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
  • DiRT Rally 2.0
  • eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020
  • F1 2019
  • FIFA 20

Best Multiplayer Game

  • Apex Legends
  • Borderlands 3
  • Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare
  • Tetris 99
  • The Division 2

Fresh Indie Game

  • ZA/UM – Disc Elysium
  • Nomada Studio – GRIS
  • Deadtoast Entertainment – My Friend Pedro
  • Mobuis Digital – Outer Wilds
  • Nega Crit – Slay The Spire
  • House House – Untilted Goose Game

Games for Impact

  • Concrete Genie
  • GRIS
  • Kind Words
  • Life Is Strange 2
  • Sea Of Solitude

Content Creator of the Year

  • Courage (Jack Dunlop)
  • Dr. Lupo (Benjamin Lupo)
  • Ewok (Soleil Wheeler)
  • Grefg (David Martinez)
  • Shroud (Michael Grzsiek)

eSports Coach

  • Eric ‘Adren’ Hoag – Team Liquid
  • Bu-Ri ‘Cain’ Jang – Team Liquid
  • Fabien ‘Grabbz’ Lohmann – G2 eSports
  • Kin ‘KKOMA’ Jeong-Gyun – SK Telecom T1
  • Titouan ‘Sockshka’ Merloz – OG
  • Danny ‘Zonic’ Sorsensen – Astarlis

eSports Event

  • 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals
  • EVO 2019
  • Fortnite World Cup
  • IEM Katowice 2019
  • League Of Legends World Championship 2019
  • The International 2019

eSports Game of the Year

  • Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
  • Dota 2
  • Fortnite
  • League Of Legends
  • Overwatch

eSports Host

  • Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere
  • Alex ‘Machine’ Richardson
  • Paul ‘Redeye’ Chaloner
  • Alex ‘Goldeboy’ Medez
  • Duan ‘Candice’ Yu-Shuang

eSports Player

  • Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdork
  • Lees ‘Faker’ Sang-Hyeok
  • Luka ‘Perkz’ Perkovic
  • Oleksandr ‘S1mple’ Kostyliev
  • Jay ‘Sinatraa’ Won

eSports Team

  • Astralis
  • G2 Esports
  • OG
  • San Francisco Shock
  • Team Liquid

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