Among the things that happened at The Game Awards Thursday night at Microsoft Theater, Mark Hamill terrified and impressed with his Joker voice, Shaquille O’Neal announced a sequel to his Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Super Nintendo cult favorite game “Shaq Fu,” and developers, performers and personalities honored the people that make games.
The awards, presented by go90, recognized games and the people that make them during a live event that saw celebrity presenters like Hamill, Kiefer Sutherland, and Shaq and musical performances from Chvrches and Deadmau5.
“The Game Awards, what’s been so brilliant about it, is that we can all come together and celebrate our industry but also invite people in so you do understand and you do see it as the spectacle it is,” Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller, who was nominated and later won the Trending Gamer Award, said.
Other performers mirrored Miller’s thoughts on The Game Awards.
“The nice thing about The Game Awards is that it gives us a footing,” Ashly Burch, who was nominated for Best Performance, said. “Movies have awards and TV has awards. Games have awards too, and we’re an artistic medium and we should be honoring the people within that industry.”
In his acceptance speech for Trending Gamer, Miller thanked all game developers for not giving up through the grueling process that can be game-making.
“On behalf of the millions of lives you’ve changed, it is worth it,” Miller said. “Thank you for making games. I would not be the person — we would not be the people we are today — if it wasn’t for video games. So, thank you, each and every one of you who does this, who makes games. Thank you for your art. And know that we are forever in your debt.”
The performances for the night included Chvrches playing “Leave a Trace” from their new album “Every Open Eye,” Deadmau5 playing some new tracks with Mario-themed undertones, and Ben Harper playing piano and singing as part of a tribute to the late Nintendo President Satoru Iwata who passed away in July. A complete winners list is below:
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Complete Winners List:
GAME OF THE YEAR:
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Super Mario Maker
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (WINNER)
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR:
Bethesda Game Studios
CD Projekt Red (WINNER)
From Software
Kojima Productions
Nintendo
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME:
Axiom Verge
Her Story
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League (WINNER)
Undertale
BEST MOBILE/HANDHELD GAME:
Downwell
Fallout Shelter
Lara Croft Go (WINNER)
Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Pac-Man 256
BEST NARRATIVE:
Her Story (WINNER)
Life Is Strange
Tales From The Borderlands
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Until Dawn
BEST ART DIRECTION:
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bloodborne
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Ori and the Blind Forest (WINNER)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
BEST SCORE/SOUNDTRACK:
Fallout 4
Halo 5: Guardians
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (WINNER)
Ori and the Blind Forest
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
BEST PERFORMANCE:
Ashly Burch as Chloe Price (Life is Strange)
Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft (Rise of the Tomb Raider)
Doug Cockle as Geralt (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt)
Mark Hamill as The Joker (Batman: Arkham Knight)
Viva Seifert (Her Story) (WINNER)
GAMES FOR CHANGE AWARD:
Cibele (Nina Freeman)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Life Is Strange (DONTNOD Entertainment / Square Enix) (WINNER)
Sunset (Tale of Tales)
Undertale (tobyfox)
BEST SHOOTER:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Splatoon (WINNER)
Star Wars Battlefront
BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE GAME:
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (WINNER)
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rise of the Tomb Raider
BEST ROLE PLAYING GAME:
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Pillars of Eternity
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (WINNER)
Undertale
BEST FIGHTING GAME:
Guilty Gear Xrd
Mortal Kombat X (WINNER)
Rise of Incarnates
Rising Thunder
BEST FAMILY GAME:
Disney Infinity 3.0
Lego Dimensions
Skylanders: SuperChargers
Splatoon
Super Mario Maker (WINNER)
BEST SPORTS/RACING GAME:
FIFA 16
Forza Motorsport 6
NBA 2K16
Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
Rocket League (WINNER)
BEST MULTIPLAYER:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3
Destiny: The Taken King
Halo 5: Guardians
Rocket League
Splatoon (WINNER)
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME:
Horizon Zero Dawn
No Man’s Sky (WINNER)
Quantum Break
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
ESPORTS PLAYER OF THE YEAR:
Kenny “KennyS” Schrub (WINNER)
Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
Peter “ppd” Dager
Syed Sumail “Suma1L” Hassan
ESPORTS TEAM OF THE YEAR:
Evil Geniuses
Fnatic
Optic Gaming (WINNER)
SK Telecom T1
Team SoloMid
ESPORTS GAME OF THE YEAR:
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (WINNER)
Dota 2
Hearthstone
League of Legends
TRENDING GAMER:
Total Biscuit
Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles
Greg Miller (WINNER)
Markiplier
PewDiePie
BEST FAN CREATION:
GTA V – Targets (Hoodoo Operator)
Real GTA (Corridor Digital)
Portal Stories: Mel (Prism Studios) (WINNER)
Super Mario Maker e-Reader Levels (Baddboy78 / theycallmeshaky)
Twitch Plays Dark Souls (Twitch Community)
