The producers of The Game Awards have confirmed that a digital version of the annual awards show will stream on Thursday, December 10.
“With the world unable to safely gather in one physical location, The Game Awards will adapt a multi-city approach to the 2020 broadcast,” reads a statement regarding the show’s format. “The show will air live in 4K UHD from studio locations with no in-person audience in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and London. The three host cities for The Game Awards will be digitally connected for an innovative celebration with live award presentations, musical performances, and spectacular world premiere game announcements.”
The statement doesn’t exactly reveal which channels the show will be broadcast through, but it does mention that “fans around the world and thousands of live co-streamers will participate and virtually interact with the show across social media, through live in-game experiences, and via interactive extensions on leading streaming platforms.” It also notes that further details will be announced in the coming months.
Geoff Keighley will also return as host/producer of the 2020 Game Awards, which he feels are especially important given the events of this year.
“In 2020, video games have connected and comforted us more than ever, and that makes the 2020 edition of The Game Awards our most important show ever,” Keighley says. “Our team is working hard to deliver an innovative and thoughtful program that celebrates excellence, previews the future, and amplifies important voices that are shaping the future of this medium.”
Along those same lines, it’s already been announced that this year’s show will feature a new award designed to honor Innovation in Accessibly. This new award will recognize “software and/or hardware developers that are pushing the medium forward by adding features, technology, and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience.” As with all the other awards, no Innovation in Accessibly nominees have been announced yet.
The 2020 Game Awards will also revive one of last year’s best ideas by coinciding with “a weekend of instantly playable game content, in-game drops, demos and live streams that celebrate the exciting future for video games across PC, console, mobile and mixed reality experiences.” Special “Game Award Sales” will also be available across various digital marketplaces.
While it sounds like the 2020 Game Awards will look fairly familiar (minus, of course, the live audience), we’ll be curious to see whether or not this year’s showcase features quite as many reveals as last year’s presentation given that the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the production and reveals of so many projects.
