When it came to next-gen console news, however, Microsoft didn’t steal the spotlight fully. A Diablo-like “looter slasher” was also revealed during the show, Godfall, a PlayStation exclusive for the upcoming PlayStation 5.
Another big surprise was a teaser for The Wolf Among Us 2, a game that was previously canceled after the Telltale Games studio shut its doors last year. It isn’t clear what team is behind this revival, but we’re excited to find out more.
On the awards front, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice took home Game of the Year. Disco Elysium, the ambitious and dialogue-focused RPG from ZA/UM, took home a total of four awards.
Death Stranding won three categories out of its nine nominations. Its wins included best performance, from Mads Mikkelsen, and best game direction.
Several celebrities, both in and out of the gaming world, took the stage to announce different awards. Some of these faces include former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, E3 2019 darling Ikumi Nakamura, and Hollywood star Vin Diesel.
As for game trailers, streaming audiences around the globe saw stunning teasers for hotly anticipated titles like the Final Fantasy VII remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and a new Fast & Furious game called Fast & Furious Crossroads.
Overall, it was a show that had near nonstop action, in-between its rapid-fire game reveals, awards and performances from bands like Green Day and Chvrches.
What follows below is a retelling of the biggest game teases and release announcements, along with a complete list of award winners. And if you missed the show, you can re-watch it below.
The latest game reveals
Every year game publishers capitalize on the attention paid to The Game Awards to tease some of their top upcoming titles. Elise Favis and Gene Park break down the latest info on all the big reveals.
A Fast and Furious finish
Vin Diesel took the stage just ahead of announcing the Game of the Year award to reveal Fast & Furious Crossroads, a game that looks rough around the edges despite the Hollywood star power behind it. It’s coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in May 2020. The game will feature performances from Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese Gibson.
The Wolf Among Us 2?!?!?!
Yeah, we’re surprised, too. After Telltale’s closure last year, we didn’t expect this anticipated sequel to the narrative adventure game to ever see the light of day. A very short trailer was shown, with Snow asking Bigby, “Can I count on you?” And all he answers, with his cigarette hanging from his hand, is “Always.” AdHoc Studio, comprised of Telltale veterans, will create the new release.
Another new League of Legends game
CONV/RGENCE is one of the handful of upcoming League of Legends-branded games, and the second to appear at The Game Awards. All of them plan to expand the lore and universe of the series. Created by Double Stallion and Riot Forge games in partnership with Riot Games, this single-player platformer features gorgeous 2D art and puts players in the shoes of a young inventor named Echo. Echo holds a device that can manipulate time, and this title will explore the “perils and consequences of messing with time.”
Amazon Games makes an appearance
Amazon Game Studios showed a new trailer for its upcoming 2020 MMO, New World. The game was first announced in 2016, one of three titles as the retail and tech giant attempts its own entry into the industry. [Editor’s note: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.]
The game will feature construction, as well as your standard fantasy character classes (with some firearms), all set against the backdrop of colonization. The trailer showed dynamic day/night cycles, and a few creatures. The game will be released May 2020, and will be available on PC.
A green saber? Green Day DLC announced for Beat Saber
Green Day was the headlining musical act for The Game Awards, but there’s a good gaming reason, too. Beat Saber is launching a music pack featuring six songs from Green Day’s catalogue. Beat Games, now owned by Facebook, also introduced 360-degree levels to the popular virtual reality game.
Beat Saber is one of the more popular VR games. YouTube and Twitch influencers often played it on their channels and it became a viral hit.
The Green Day song pack will include the following tracks: “Fire, Ready, Aim,” “Father of All,” “American Idiot,” “Holiday,” "Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Minority.”
It’s available now for $6.99 on Oculus Quest and Rift.
Naraka: Bladepoint
From a development team based in China comes Naraka: Bladepoint, a melee combat game featuring both a female and male protagonist. It looks like the game takes place in Asia, too, and the two wielded long swords as they battled different enemies. Naraka: Bladepoint arrives in 2020.
Gears of War gets tactical
The Gears of War Franchise moves to turn-based strategy with Gears Tactics. The trailer featured gameplay that mixed the hyperviolence and exaggerated art design of the Gears franchise, with the top-down strategy perspective seen in games like XCOM. The action would transition to the more familiar third-person aesthetic.The trailer promised more than 40 hours for a singleplayer campaign, while offering upgradeable armor and weapons for its multiplayer. Gears 5 was a rare success story for Xbox Game Studios. Now both of Xbox’s marquee action titles feature a strategy series, the other being the Halo Wars titles.
A longer Ghost of Tsushima trailer
Yes, we knew this one was coming — a Ghost of Tsushima trailer was teased during Sony’s State of Play stream just a couple days ago — but now we got to see the whole trailer. You play as a samurai in feudal Japan. It looks like the protagonist may be called, or nicknamed, “The Ghost.” The gorgeous trailer was shown as orchestral music played. The biggest news of all is that Ghost of Tsushima arrives for PS4 in summer 2020.
It’s weird. And it’s wild. And it’s set in the West.
Some of the makers of Dishonored and Prey went and made their own independent studio — Wolfeye Games — and its first title is an action RPG called Weird West. And, you guessed it, it takes place in the Wild West.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Up next, a short trailer for Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the follow-up to Ori and the Blind Forest, is coming March 11, 2020 for Xbox One and Microsoft Windows 10.
A new Dungeons and Dragons title is coming
Dark Alliance, a role-playing game and spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance will look to build upon the tabletop game’s long running impact on video gaming with a new tale around Forgotten Realms legend, Drizzt Do’Urden. For more, read Elise Favis’s interview with Wizards of the Coast president Chris Cocks here.
The Forest sequel seems horrifying
Sons of the Forest is the sequel to The Forest, a survival horror game that initially launched in 2014 in early access on Steam and came to consoles in 2018. The trailer was filled with bizarre creatures and dark entities, some with an inhuman amount of limbs. No release date was given.
An Epic Star Wars announcement
Epic Games further teased its exclusive scene reveal from the upcoming film “The Rise of Skywalker,” and further detailed various Star Wars cosmetics available this weekend, including a Whisper Tie Fighter glider that players will get when they drop into the game for the scene reveal.
PlayerUnknown reveals ... an unknown
PlayerUnknown, the developer behind the massively popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, announced its next project at The Game Awards. According to its official site, it’s “an exploration of new technologies and gameplay,” and its aim is to “give players unique and memorable experiences, each and every time they play.” It’s rather cryptic, and so was the trailer, which only showed a forest in torrential rainfall.