The Game Awards are held annually at the Microsoft Theater. Photo by Cesar Armas 

By Cesar Armas, Staff Reporter

Since The Game Awards (TGA), also known as the “Oscars for gaming,” was founded in 2014 by Geoff Keighley, the awards have gathered an enormous following with world premieres, orchestra performances, and the grand prize for the game of the year. 

This year’s games nominated for the 2022 game of the year award include; “A Plague Tale: Requiem,” “Elden Ring,” “God of War Ragnarok,” “Horizon Forbidden West,” “Stray,” and “Xenoblade Chronicles 3.” With fans voting left and right, the winner remains up in the air. 

The award ceremony is set to premiere on Dec. 8, 2022, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. Leading up to it, six games are chosen by an international jury of over 100 media and influencer outlets. After they are chosen, fans can vote for their favorite games in different categories such as the game of the year, best narrative, best art direction, best score and music, innovation in accessibility, and many more through TGA’s website. 

There is now a new award category, best adaptation, which represents how accurately and faithfully a video game gets adapted into another form of entertainment. Examples of this are the Uncharted movie or the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.

Games can also qualify for more than one category so fans should take a look to see if a game released this year made multiple or just one category during voting. 

With more and more people acknowledging video games, viewership for TGA has skyrocketed. In 2014, TGA had 1.9 million views, compared to 2021’s 85 million views. With this upcoming celebration, perhaps it could surpass its former set record. 

Publications such as The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Times, Variety, and others have written articles about the awards and drawing comparisons. 

As TGA has become more popular, so have the faces joining the ceremony. Aside from community figures like game developer Hideo Kojima and lead director Jeff Kaplan, and the CEO of Xbox, Phil Spencer. Famous actors such as Keanu Reeves, Giancarlo Esposito, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Jim Carrey have joined to host and celebrate the ceremony.  

Fans can expect to see future projects announced, and different industry members announcing winners for categories. This year, see musician Hozier and composer Bear McCreary with the world premiere performance of “Blood Upon the Snow” from “God of War Ragnarok.” 

TGA doesn’t only celebrate developers, they support people who make a difference in the video game industry such as professional esports teams, commentators, individual players, and content creators and communities. In fact, there is voting for the best esports players, teams, and events.

In a recent site called “Visit Rokay City” that went live this week, 505 Games and Epic Games are teasing some kind of announcement to come during The Game Awards. The screen shows a downtown city landscape with a sailboat on one corner showing the Epic Games logo. The skyscrapers bare a ticking countdown leading up to the award ceremony, causing fans to believe the gaming companies will reveal a new project on that date. 

Now, for the first time ever, fans can vote using a Discord account, join their official TGA server, and attend a virtual watch party for the awards. People can watch the awards ceremony through most social media platforms such as YouTube or Twitch. If fans cannot make it to the in-person event, they can still get a similar experience by purchasing tickets to a theater near them to watch the event in IMAX.