LOS ANGELES — The Game Awards returned to Los Angeles' Microsoft Theater Thursday night for its first in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic. Basking in the cheers of the gaming community was FromSoftware's "Elden Ring," which won the top Game of the Year prize.
"We have faced so many difficulties while developing this game...so I'm really relieved," said director Hidetaka Miyazaki. "I haven't made up my mind to create even more interesting games than this one. As for 'Elden Ring,' we still have more things we want to do, so getting this GOTY award really, really encourages us."
Heading into the ceremony, "Elden Ring" received seven nominations. "Elden Ring" also won prizes for art direction, roleplaying and direction.
FromSoftware last won Game of the Year in 2019 for "Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice."
For The Game Awards creator and host Geoff Keighley, Thursday's show was a welcome return to ceremony's usual form, with notable gaming figures — Xbox's Phil Spencer and previous Game Awards honorees Hideo Kojima, and Josef Fares — in attendance.
Of course, this year also touted something new for the ceremony — its inaugural Best Adaptation category.
Ahead of the show, Keighley told the Los Angeles Times that 2022 is an optimal time to start celebrating "authentic" and fresh takes on gaming content.
"[The category] just speaks to how gaming is taking over pop culture," he said in November via video call. "Part of the mission of our show is to celebrate the power of this medium as the largest, most dominant form of entertainment. So I think this is just another example of it's continued proliferation."
Netflix's "Arcane," an animated take on the world of Riot's "League of Legends," took home the first Best Adaptation award.
The Game Awards' in-person comeback also saw prizes for "Stray," "Bayonetta 3" and "God of War Ragnarök," which won six categories. See the full list of the 2022 Game Awards winners below:
Game of the year
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) | WINNER
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)
Game direction
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)| WINNER
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Narrative
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) | WINNER
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)
Art direction
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) | WINNER
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Score and music
Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök | WINNER
Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Audio design
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) | WINNER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Performance
Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök | WINNER
Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Manon Gage, Immortality
Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök
Games for impact
As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios) | WINNER
A Memoir Blue (Cloisters Interactive/Annapurna)
Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
Endling: Extinction Is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
Hindsight (Team Hindsight/Annapurna)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)
Ongoing game
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix) | WINNER
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)
Indie
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna) | WINNER
Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Debut indie
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna) | WINNER
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
Norco (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Vampire Survivors (poncle)
Community support, presented by Discord
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix) | WINNER
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man's Sky (Hello Games)
Mobile
Marvel Snap (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse) | WINNER
Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed & Quantum/Respawn/EA)
Diablo Immortal (Blizzard/NetEase)
Genshin Impact (HoYovese)
Tower of Fantasy (Hotta Studio/Perfect World/Level Infinite)
VR/AR
Moss: Book II (Polyarc) | WINNER
After the Fall (Vertigo Games)
Among Us VR (Schell Games/InnerSloth)
Bonelab (Stress Level Zero)
Red Matter 2 (Vertical Robot)
Action
Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo) | WINNER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)
Action/adventure
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) | WINNER
A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Roleplaying
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) | WINNER
Live a Live (Square Enix/Nintendo)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCI)
Triangle Strategy (Artdink/Square Enix)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)
Fighting
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games) | WINNER
DNF Duel (Arc System Works/Eighting/Neople/Nexon)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (CyberConnect 2 Co. Ltd/Bandai Namco)
The King of Fighters XV (SNK/Plaion)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Family
Kirby and the Forgotten Land (HAL Laboratory / Nintendo) | WINNER
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Traveller's Tales/WB Games)
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
SIM/strategy
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft) | WINNER
Dune: Spice Wars (Shiro Games/Funcom)
Total War: Warhammer III (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Two Point Campus (Two Point Studios/Sega)
Victoria 3 (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox Interactive)
Sports/racing
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE) | WINNER
F1 22 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver/Romania/EA Sports)
NBA 2K23 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
OlliOlli World (Roll 7/Private Division)
Multiplayer
Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo) | WINNER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
Overwatch 2 (Blizzard)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)
Most anticipated
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo) | WINNER
Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software/WB Games)
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
Content creator of the year
Ludwig | WINNER
Karl Jacobs
Nibellion
Nobru
QTCinderella
Adaptation
Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix) | WINNER
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger/CD Projekt, Netflix)
The Cuphead Show! (Studio MDHR/King Features Syndicate/Netflix)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group/Paramount Pictures)
Uncharted (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)
Innovation in accessibility
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) | WINNER
As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
The Last of Us Part I (Naughty Dog/SIE)
The Quarry (Supermassive Games/2K)
Esports game
Valorant (Riot Games) | WINNER
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
Dota 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Rocket League (Psyonix)
Esports athlete
Jacob "Yay" Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant) | WINNER
Jeong "Chovy" Ji-hoon (Gen.G, LOL)
Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok (T1, LOL)
Finn "karrigan" Andersen (FaZe Clan - CS:GO)
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
Esports team
LOUD (Valorant) | WINNER
DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
FaZe Clan (CS:GO)
Gen.G (League of Legends)
LA Thieves (Call of Duty)
Esports coach
Matheus "bzkA" Tarasconi (Loud, Valorant) | WINNER
Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
Erik "d00mbr0s" Sandgren (FPX, Valorant)
Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
Go "Score" Dong-bin (Gen.G, LOL)
Esports Event
2022 League of Legends World Championship | WINNER
EVO 2022
PGL Major Antwerp 2022
The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
Valorant Champions 2022
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