The Game Awards celebrated the technical and artistic achievements of the video game industry on Thursday night, ending with the naming of the role-playing adventure Baldur’s Gate 3 as game of the year.
It was the crowning achievement for a game based on Dungeons & Dragons that largely stayed under the radar during its six years in development by the Belgian company Larian Studios. But its summer release — 23 years after its predecessor — captivated gamers, who celebrated a robust character creator, deep narrative and branching paths that made it seem as though anything was possible in its fictional universe of vampires and elves.
Baldur’s Gate 3, which is available on the PC, the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, also went home with several other awards, including those for best role-playing game, best performance and best multiplayer.
The awards show in Los Angeles also served as one long commercial for upcoming games, many of them previously unannounced.
Those titles included Big Walk, by House House, the developers behind the quirky Untitled Goose Game; reboots of classics from Sega, including Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio; an immersive retelling of “Jurassic Park”; and OD, a new horror title from the auteur game designer Hideo Kojima. Skull & Bones, a pirate game from Ubisoft that has been postponed for years, got another release date: Feb. 16.
Hello Games, the developers behind the ambitious planetary explorer No Man’s Sky, debuted footage from a new game, Light No Fire, that features open-world versions of Earth that allow multiplayer exploration.
Hollywood celebrities also made appearances, demonstrating how the movie and video game industries are becoming more intertwined. The actors Matthew McConaughey, Timothée Chalamet and Simu Liu and the filmmaker Jordan Peele — who is working with Kojima — appeared on the stage to promote games.
“All I can say is that I will have a unique relationship with every player,” McConaughey told audiences about the character he will voice for Exodus, an upcoming sci-fi game from Archetype Entertainment.
First presented in 2014, the Game Awards decides on winners through a voting jury of the news media and input from players. On its official YouTube channel, Thursday’s show often approached 900,000 simultaneous viewers.
“It has progressively gotten larger and larger,” said Alyssa Mercante, a senior editor at the gaming website Kotaku who attended the ceremony. “Essentially it is like the Oscars — if the Oscars also had movie trailers.”
Mercante said the event was a reflection on the successes and struggles of the industry, where men still outnumber women in leadership roles even though some analysts say players are split relatively equally between genders.
Before the event, members of the Game Awards Future Class — bestowed to young industry professionals — signed a letter that asked for the ceremony’s organizers to comment on the Israel-Hamas war and “express support for the protection of Palestinian human rights.” Despite the pressure, the conflict went unmentioned.
Near the end of the ceremony, which extended past three hours, the mind-bending horror mystery Alan Wake 2 won for best game direction. It had previously won awards for best narrative and best art direction.
“Direction is nothing without a team who actually builds it,” said Sam Lake, the game’s creator. “Believing the same vision and building something out of it, we can make miracles. We can make art. And we can be more than the sum of our parts.”
Here is a partial list of winners:
Game of the Year: Baldur’s Gate 3
Best Game Direction: Alan Wake 2
Best Narrative: Alan Wake 2
Best Art Direction: Alan Wake 2
Best Score and Music: Final Fantasy XVI
Best Audio Design: Hi-Fi Rush
Best Performance: Neil Newbon, Baldur’s Gate 3
Best Ongoing Game: Cyberpunk 2077
Best Independent Game: Sea of Stars
Best Debut Indie Game: Cocoon
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