Appearing first at the Spike Video Game Awards, the Geof Keighley produced video game accolades show has taken on many different iterations. Now it exists as an online streaming only live event dubbed simply The Game Awards, and without any of the “riff raff,” the hope is that the winners will all be fitting releases.
This year, competition was plenty heated between a handful of games, many of which were years in the making. Fallout 4 was the clear favorite to win any and every award heading into the end of 2015, but games like The Witcher 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5 were not going to go out quietly.
And in the end, it wasn’t Bethesda and Fallout 4, but rather CD Projekt Red and The Witcher 3 that came away the big winners. The ambitious RPG experience clearly took the judges by storm and was rewarded handsomely as a result.
Here is the full list of winners:
Game of the Year:
- Bloodborne Fallout 4 Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Super Mario Maker The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Developer of the Year:
- Bethesda Game Studios CD Projekt Red From Software Kojima Productions Nintendo
Best Independent Game
- Axiom Verge Her Story Ori and the Blind Forest Rocket League Undertale
Best Mobile/Handheld Game
- Downwell Fallout Shelter Lara Croft Go Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate Pac-Man 256
Best Narrative
- Her Story Life is Strange Tales from the Borderlands The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Until Dawn
Best Art Direction
- Batman: Arkham Knight Bloodborne Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Ori and the Blind Forest The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Best Soundtrack
- Fallout 4 Halo 5: Guardians Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain Ori and the Blind Forest The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Best Performance
- Ashly Burch as Chloe Price in Life is Strange Camilla Luddington as Lara Croft in Rise of the Tomb Raider Doug Cockle as Geralt in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight Viva Seifert in Her Story
Games for Change
- Cibele Her Story Life is Strange Sunset Undertale
Best Shooter
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Destiny: The Taken King Halo 5: Guardians Splatoon Star Wars Battlefront
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate Batman: Arkham Knight Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain 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 Undertale
Best Fighting Game
- Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign- Mortal Kombat X Rise of Incarnates Rising Thunder
Best Family Game
- Disney Infinity 3.0 LEGO Dimensions Skylanders SuperChargers Splatoon Super Mario Maker
Best Sports/Racing Game
- FIFA 16 Forza Motorsport 6 NBA 2K16 Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 Rocket League
Best Multiplayer
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Destiny: The Taken King Halo 5: Guardians Rocket League Splatoon
Most Anticipated Game
- Horizon Zero Dawn No Man’s Sky Quantum Break The Last Guardian Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
eSports Player of the Year
- Kenny “KennyS” Schrub Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Peter “ppd” Dager Syed Sumail “Suma1l” Hassan
eSports Team of the Year
- Evil Geniuses Fnatic Optic Gaming SK Telecom T1 Team SoloMid
eSports Game of the Year
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Dota 2 Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft League of Legends
Trending Gamer
- Total Biscuit Christopher “MonteCristo” Mykles Greg Miller Markiplier PewDiePie
Best Fan Creation
- GTA 5 - Targets Real GTA Portal Stories: Mel Super Mario Maker e-Reader Levels Twitch Plays Dark Souls
Say what you will about the event itself, but The Game Awards (and the VGAs before it) continues to prove that the video game awards show can honor a diverse selection of titles. More importantly, it’s hard to argue with the jury’s selections considering the quality of releases this year.
