Liveblog: The Game Awards 2022
Tune in for a special late showing on the RPS react-o-tron
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The Game Awards 2022 will shortly open on Geoff Keighley’s beaming, powdered face, and we’ll be liveblogging all the game announcements and reveals that follow. If you don’t already have somewhere to watch, feel free to join myself and Liam as we narrate, debate and maybe even hot-take our way through the show’s surprises.
Or! We’ll collapse from exhaustion thirty minutes in. Yes, it’s a late one if you’re a fellow UK dweller, with The Game Awards stream starting at 12:30am GMT. That’s a more reasonable 7:30pm EST / 4:30pm PST for those on the same continent as the master of trailermonies himself. Here’s the official YouTube stream, and you can find the special RPS Liveblog Widget: Caffeine Edition further down this page.
For more of the latest news and trailers, check out our Game Awards 2022 hub. We also live-blogged the show as it happened right here.
Our live coverage of this event has finished.
Evenin'. Join us back here at 12:30am GMT / 7:30pm EST / 4:30pm PST for The Game Awards liveblog! It'll be RPS... after dark.
Good morning (ugh) everyone. I just had a nap thinking it would help me be more awake for Geoff, but it's had the opposite effect. I feel terrible.
Terribly excited to see all the new announcements, that is! We have fun here.
Let's get the important questions out of the way first. James: what did you have for dinner, and what methods will you be using this evening to try and stay awake until 3AM?
Bloodyhell says: 4:30 pm PST is perfect for me (Seattle, WA), so I am going to head to the couch after I stop working. Hopefully, there will be some fun stuff.Have fun! Fingers crossed Geoff has a few tricks hidden up the sleeves of his delightful blazer.
RaymondQSmuckles says: I'm wishing against all odds for a Titanfall 3 announcement. Just a thing I hope happens.
Evening/morning everyone. If you're just joining us, such as from Twitter or the push notifications thing I'm still learning to use, we're about six minutes from kickoff.
@Liam I had eight fish fingers and two bags of beef Hula Hoops, and no, it wasn't my first choice.
Joey Balliro says: i just wanna see capcom announce a new mega man game. its the month of the blue bomber's 35th anniversaryIt has been four years since 11, so, fingers crossed! It would be great to see any kind of Capcom presence, to be honest.
@james I mean, that sounds excellent to be fair.
10 seconds 'til Geoff.
Here we go!
Ah. Okayyyyy. It's an "opening act". A 30 minute pre-show?
We're starting with a quick look at what's next for Dead Cells. I love these animated trailers.
Good lord it's a Castlevania crossover! That's... unexpected but an extremely good fit?
AND DRACULA IS SUPER HOT????
Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania. Coming in early 2023.
Guess they're starting the awards as well? I guess? Guys this is literally just the show.
Marvel Snap wins Best Mobile Game. That's nice for them. Less nice for Diablo Immortal, which got booed on its nomination being read out.
Vampire Survivors is available now on mobile.
Oh no.
This is going to ruin my life.
Returnal is coming to PC (act suprised). This AAA rogue-like by Housemarque was highly recieved on PlayStation 5, so it's nice to see it making the jump. Launching in 2023.
Quick look at Valiant Hearts: Coming Home, a WW1 tale for mobile.
Anyone want a distintegrating elephant plushie from It Takes Two?
Another award now. The winner of best fighting game goes to...
Multiversus!
Good question, Raymond!
Another premiere trailer. Looks like...Hellboy?
Yes, it's Hellboy! And he's fighting a big ol' wolf boy in third person. That's Hellboy: Web of Wyrd.
My Dad genuinely loved that naff Hellboy PC game that came out in the mid-2000s.
Best esports game goes to Valorant.
Yay wins Best Esports Athlete. Yay indeed.
Bzka (pronounced Bazooka) wins Best Esports Coach oh my word awards show SLOW DOWN
Best esports event goes to the 2022 League of Legends World Championship. I had to rewind the stream and pause it. Why was that so fast.
Time for a fresh look at PSVR's Horizon: Call of the Wild. And it's over before I can say anything interesting about it. Oh well, PC site innit.
There was a Shellback? Love those guys in Zero Dawn/Forbidden West.
A moody looking survival horror game from the folks over at Red Soul Games is up next. I think I spot tank controls? And a wall of mannequins? Looks creepy! Post Trauma is coming to PC and consoles.
Ooh, Atomic Heart. Been waiting for this one, me. Looks as gleefully mad as ever.
A fresh look at Scars Above, next. It looks to be a cross between Returnal and Tomb Raider, which I like. A lot. Big fan of the waddling yeti with a bunch of boils on its back.
Relic Hunters Legend, the cartoony top-down co-op shooter from Rogue Snail, has a closed beta coming. You can sign up on Steam. Looks cute!
Fresh Among Us news, for all you loyal crewmates out there. The game is getting a hide and seek mode where the imposter is now a full-blown monster that hunts other players. Looks fun!
Another premiere: After Us, a post-apocalyptic-ish action adventure where you play a tiny lady leaving freshly spouted plants in her footsteps. And she can free the spirits of dead animals, which they seem to appreciate. Coming to PC in Sprint 2023.
A new trailer for Replaced is up next. Its blend of 2D pixel sprites and 3D environments continues to look absolutely stunning. The lighting in paticularly is really impressive.
Shame there wasn't a game before the last two called Before Us.
Street Fighter 6 time...
Best Family Game goes to Kirby and the Forgotten Land, which isn't on PC, so I can't legally make any jokes about the little pink lad going full mouthful mode on a car. Sorry!
OK so we've wrapped up 30 minutes of world premieres and awards, so now it's time for some world premieres and more awards.
Wait what.
Tonight, Geoff is sporting a velvet suit with pristine white trainers.
Exceptional.
After a little globetrotting tour of SF6 locations, it's time for a look at some of the new fighters: Dee Jay, Manon, Marisa, and JP. My fave is big (literally) reggae fan Dee Jay.
Geoff's intro is done and it's time for the first award. Presented by Al Pacino, of all people. "So cool!" he says.
RaymondQSmuckles says: Animal is listed on the YouTube page as a featured star. I don't understand...Wouldn't be the Game Awards without a random muppet appearance, I suppose.
Al's got some speech time, eh?
The award is for Best Performance, btw. Two nominations out of five for God of War: Ragnarok!
Aaaaand it goes to Kratos himself, Christopher Judge.
Judge is a little lost for words, but thanks his mum. Seems like a nice chap.
This is very sweet.
It's easy to be be snarky about these awards - fun, too - but this acceptance speech is real easy on the ear. Nice to take a break from the machine gun pace of trailer releases and listen to a performer tell stories.
A gentle twinkling of piano rises in the background. Playing him off?
And that's that, one 'main' award down.
OK, time for our first proper world premiere.
It's the next game by Supergiant! Two figures (a witch and some kind of rogue?) face off against one another in a desperate duel.
Wait, is this Hades DLC?
Oh damn, not even DLC!
Wait, scratch that. This is a full blown sequel! Hades 2!
Next: the first effort from Ken Levine's Ghost Story Games...
It's called Judas! Still looks a bit BioShocky, with some kind of Plasmid equivalent, but modern and sci-fi.
Still a bit of grimmness to Judas, with some humour too. Instead of a a turret being hacked, someone...jumps on it, jams a pipe into it, and just redirects it at an enemy. What japes.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon transforms the series into an isometric dungeon crawler that looks like an animated story book.
SHAME IT WON'T COME TO PC.
JudgeDreadlock says: Pfff.... Spoke too soonHahaha
Ad break time. Anyone won a Steam Deck yet?
Bonaparte says: Stream keeps falling over in Steam, I think they may have underestimated the popularity of their steam deck promo.Just checked, it's not working on my end either. Half a million people trying to watch it on Steam alone, apparently! People really want those Decks!
Strong coat game here from Hozier. Big fan.
That's Bear McCreary onstage too, wielding a crank-operated instrument neither Liam nor myself can identify.
Pastell says: The instrument is a hurdy gurdyThank you!
Pastell says: The instrument is a hurdy gurdy
Dave L. says: It's a hurdy gurdy, James and LiamThanks both! Good pub quiz answer that.
No, NO, Daniel Craig is NOT promoting Among Us
The award for Best Indie Game goes to... Stray!
RaymondQSmuckles says: Stray over Vampire Survivors? Hmm....Vampire Survivors would have been my choice as well, but the people have spoken and have chosen: The Cat Game.
Rian Johnson was also there. Apparently there's an Among Us reference in Glass Onion? It was only in the cinema for five minutes so I cannot confirm.
Now Destiny 2: Lightfall.
Not a Destiny fan but this does look fun, all this neon swingin' and chargin' about.
You probably already knew the release date for Lightfall, but it's still February 28th.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, next!
Rocksteady are returning to Arkham Asylum, only this time YOU'RE the ones being hunted by Batman.
A Batman that kills!
A Batman voiced by the late, great Kevin Conroy.
Coming May 26th 2023. Gotham Knights left me cold earlier this year, so I have high hopes for this one.
Oh hey, it's the TGA Future Class thing that started absolutely no Twitter discourse in the slighest.
And now another ad break. Any highlights so far, Liam?
@james Ooh good question. Hades 2! Hellboy! Geoff's velvet suit! You?
Joey Balliro says: just hades 2 or me so far :)Excellent choice
Bonaparte says: Free xbox controller with 2022 Samsung TVs? Pretty good promo.I'm so tired I missed this. That IS a good promo.
The Last Of Us: Part One is coming to PC on March 3rd 2023! Looking forward to checking that one out on the Steam Deck.
After Us looks neat. And I have a pretty high BioShock tolerance so I'm at least willing to give Judas a fair shake.
A new award, Best Adaptation, is up next.
Arcane wins it. Guess not *everybody* wants to be your enemy, HUH Riot
Another world premiere, hot out of Geoff's oven and popped straight onto his kitchen windowsill so we can all have a sniff.
It's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor!
It looks very similar to the original, but that's no bad thing to be honest. You can wield two lightsabers now and Cal has a lovely beard.
Coming to PC on March 17th.
Our Hayden will be pleased.
I'm not convinced that's a real lightsaber.
Next! From Maddy Makes Games, of Celeste fame, another 2D platformer with big fantasy vibes.
Bonaparte says: Too many sequels to games that are still high up in my backlog!Yeah I never finished the first one, but I did really enjoy what I played at the time. I'll probably get back on it. Eventually. Maybe.
Earthblade, it's called. Looks a bit more fighty than Celeste.
Which makes sense. Ain't called Earthcuddle.
Sand planet? Tight fitting space suits? Is this Dune?
Yep, it's Dune. Which raises only a single question:
WHERE'S THE WORM?
DUNC Awakening. No release date yet, but there's a beta coming.
Here be Forspoken. There's a demo out now, but only on PS5? Bah.
I'll try the Forspoken demo tomorrow, I reckon. I'm cautiously optimistic.
Next game by a visionary studio? This has got to be Geoff's bestie Kojma, right?
It is indeed! The next title by Kojima Productions, which looks suspiciously like a straight up sequel to Death Stranding.
The baby is free from the jar. I repeat: the baby is free from the jar.
First dead baby of TGA 2022, check.
Norman Reedus returns. Will someone please find the poor lad a shirt.
Looks like it'll be PS5 only for now, but it'll come to PC eventually I imagine.
Kojima is on stage to talk Death Stranding 2. He gave Geoff a lovely cuddle. We love to see it.
When asked how the sequel will differ from the original, Kojima told fans to rewatch the trailer. Iconic.
Kojima wrote the script before the pandemic, but after experiencing the last few years, rewrote it entirely. Disappointed to hear he didn't just spend two years eating biscuits in his pyjamas like the rest of us, to be honest.
The award for Best Narrative goes to... God Of War: Ragnarok!
Following DS2: Immortals of Aveum, a "magic shooter" from new dev outfit Ascendent Studio. There are Dead Space and BioShock veterans on board, so expect Immortals of Aveum - which had a brief, fully CG trailer showing a sorcery war reaching the gates of a palace - to look pretty monied.
Dave L. says: Steam Deck giveaway has now broken in that it is just showing long strings of numbers instead of Steam usernames for the winners.Looks okay for me?
Liam, maybe you should be gunning for one of these free Steam Decks to replace your broken one.
Tekken 8 now. Looks properly apocalyptic.
Geoff now tearing through awards like the person at McDonalds reading out order numbers. And with about as much enthusiasm.
More awards!
Best Art Direction goes to Elden Ring.
Best VR/AR Game goes to Moss: Book II.
Best Sim/Strategy Game goes to Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope.
Best Community Support goes to Final Fantas XIV.
Why do they read these out so fast oh my days.
Now for another look at survival crafter Nightingale. Quite like the juxtaposition here of utterly fucked up fantasy monsters with Victorian fashion and... Mary Poppins umbrella traversal?
No date on Nightingale, but it looks like a PC exclusive.
Oh great, there's finally a hardware thing (about the Samsung 990 Pro SSD) and it's a straight ad.
Ken and Roberta Williams of Sierra fame have taken to the stage to announce the winner of the next award: Games For Impact.
The winner is... As Dusk Falls!
Eulrich says: hardware just isn´t sexy enough (unless it´s a steam deck apparently)I know, but it's all I have.
I spent a rather lovely weekend playing As Dusk Falls with my partner earlier in the year. It's canny! On Game Pass, too.
RaymondQSmuckles says: As Dusk Falls at 50% off on Steam for the Game Awards.Worth it if you have a Telltale shaped hole in your life!
Helloe again to Baldur's Gate 3. A new trailer first, then a release date, it sounds like?
August 2023, then.
Fire Emblem Engage. It has a battle pass. On Switch. January 20th.
Next up we have the first trailer for Wayfinder.
It's a multiplayer hack-and-slash looter co-developed by Warframe studio Digital Extremes. You can play it next week, but that may just be on PS5?
Sky: Children of Light, the latest game by Journey creators thatgamecompany is recieving an in-game concert later today. Available on mobile, Switch and Xbox but not PC unfortunately.
Joey Balliro says: liam, wayfinder has a steam page so yeah :D not ps5 onlyOoh well spotted! Hopefully that'll be playable on PC next week as well.
Diablo IV has arrived, introduced by a surprisingly short musical performance by Halsey. Are things getting cut for length after Christopher Judge's speech?
RaymondQSmuckles says: All of that stage setup for such a short musical performance? Odd.Limiting a Halsey performance to only 30 seconds is an actual crime.
Diablo IV is out on 6th June 2023, it is.
Not much I can say about the trailer, if I'm honest - lotsa CG demons getting skewered by lotsa CG spearmen, no in-game stuff.
More awards! How quick can I type? Let's find out!
Best Sports/Racing Game goes to... Gran Turismo 7.
Best Multiplayer Game goes to... Splatoon 3.
Best Audio Design goes to... God of War: Ragnarok.
Content Creator Of The Year goes to... Ludwig.
Most Anticipated Game goes to... The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom.
Ooh, is this Horizon Forbidden West DLC?
It is! Burning Shores, set in Hollywood. And the first time we see an activated Horus/Metal Devil, if I'm not mistaken. And it's not coming to PC (yet) but is out on April 19th.
The cast from HBO's The Last Of Us adaptation have taken to the stage. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey are joined by Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson. Double Joel! Double Ellie!
They're here to present the award for Best Action Game.
And the winner is... Bayonetta 3!
Dave L. says: Forbidden West PC when? I want to fly a robo-pteradactyl around my neighbourhoodGotta be next year, right? Surely.
In light of Diablo IV recieving a release date, I do want to point out a piece Graham published earlier about the game's allegedly troubled development.
We're looking at Blue Protocol now, the anime-styled MMORPG from Bandai Namco. It's getting a worldwide release next year, partly via Amazon Games.
Guessing that means I can't call my character Jeff Bezos in this either.
Oh hello, what's this? A third-person fantasy shooter where you can shoot massive monsters with steampunk weaponry? I'm into this.
It's Remnant 2. You can wishlist it now.
Something new from Splash Damage next: Transformers Reactivate. Interesting! Don't actually see any Autobots/Decepticons in the trailer but it looks like you'll play a freshly mended 'former helping humans fight a squishier kind of alien invasion.
We're being shown a live action trailer for Company of Heroes 3, now. It was certainly a video showing a bunch of soldiers fighting a tank!
Trailers coming thick and fast now. Here's Behemoth, which looks to combine Chivalry-style medieval melee combat with Shadow of the Colossus-style giant slaying.
Fall Guys has a Christmas event. Want to dress up like a nutcracker? Or SpongeBob? Well, you can. So there.
God I'm tired. So very very tired. Keegan-Michael Key is here to discuss Toad's head.
Not just in the Mario film he's in, as far as I can tell. Just the head in general.
So tired.
It's a clip of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and I can't think of anything interesting to write about it I'M SO TIRED
It was quite fun how they canonised the floating platforms in Mario as blatantly dangerous failures of civil engineering.
It took me 11 hours to get back home from Brighton today. I can't tell if this is real or if I'm hallucinating.
Anyway. Another award now, this time for Best Score & Music.
The award goes to... God of War: Ragnarok.
Got enough awards, Ragnarok? Grow up.
Don't Nod are making an action game. Here's a prerendered trailer of its hero, a gruff ghost hunter, sitting around being gruff.
Ah, we have a name - Banishers: Ghost of Eden - and an extremely brief snippet on in-game footage. Looks like it could be a bit Witcher-esque.
Another Focus game up next.
It's Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2! Looks like we'll be fighting Tyranids this time around. It's looking grand. Coming 2023.
LEANDROS IN SHAMBLES.
I only played Space Marine this year on the Steam Deck and it's aged quite well. Fun little thing, and always dirt cheap on Steam.
A quick trailer for Blood Bowl 3, a series I've always been aware of but have never played. Orc football? Coming February 23rd.
Here's Meet Your Maker: players build bases stuffed with traps and henchmen, other players try to breach it FPS-style. Not out until November 4th 2023, but there'll be an open beta before then.
Profoundly awkward man-in-a-Crash-Bandicoot-fursuit comedy skit time.
Fortunately it's over quickly, in favour of the rumoured team-based Crash brawler: Crash Team Rumble.
Wait. That wasn't a brawler. That looked like... a MOBA?
The next award is for Innovation and Accessibility. Nice to see this one given a substantial amount of time.
The winner is... God of War: Ragnarok!
RaymondQSmuckles says: Glad they cut Halsey short so we could watch this live action Crash routine.I hadn't considered this, and now I am in physical pain.
Plot twist via a press release we've just received: "Today, KOJIMA PRODUCTIONS has announced that DEATH STRANDING 2 (Working Title)."
Working title?!
I can't wait to go to bed. I'm so excited for the void.
Speaking of the void, here's that horror-tinged dark fantasy RPG Lords of the Fallen.
No release date or other key details to share, but there's some decently icky monster and environment designs in there. Good use of bones.
Michael "Mr Michael" Madsen (why did they introduce him like that) is here to showcase the first trailer for Crime Boss Rockay City.
It's a multiplayer shooter with an all-star cast, including Danny Glover, Kim Basinger and... Vanilla Ice.
Coming March 28th 2023.
Dave L. says: Pretty stacked cast for that Crime Boss game, but apparently they missed the memo about Chuck Norris being a horrible right wing nutjob.Yeah I was just thinking that. Big Yikes.
Another awards blast:
Best Role Playing Game - Elden Ring
Player's Voice (the entirely fan-voted one) - Genshin Impact
Best Independent Game - Stray
Best Action/Adventure Game - God of War: Ragnarok
Best Ongoing Game - Final Fantasy XIV
How are we all doing? We holding up OK? Surely we're nearly done, right?
Right????
New raid episodes are on their way to COD:MW2. It looks like you're going to be infiltrating a sewer? Wild to see that game become even bigger than it already is.
A fun little trailer for Marvel Snap is up next, showcasing the various art styles featured in the game.
Marvel Snap is the perfect toilet game. That is my stone cold take about Marvel Snap. Cheers.
Reggie Fils-Aimé, of Reggie Fils-Aimé memes, is presenting the Best Game Direction award.
I passed Reggie on an escalator at PAX West earlier this year.
That's my Reggie anecdote. I normally save that for fancy dinner parties to impress people. I hope you all enjoyed it.
Elden Ring wins it! A rare loss for God of War Ragnarok.
The Stray and Forbidden West teams are going to be getting sloshed at the bar later, silently sharing sympathetic looks.
That sounds like Keanu, so I assume this is the first trailer for upcoming Cyberpunk DLC Phantom Liberty?
Huh! Idris Elba stars in Phantom Liberty, coming 2023.
New Armoured Core, from From!
Armoured Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, to be exact. Out next year.
Rocket League is doing a crossover with Lo-Fi beats. From December 14th you can unlock a picture of the Lo-Fi woman to pop on your tires, I guess?
I don't hate it??
Getting close to the end now methinks. Here's an in-game trailer for Final Fantasy XVI.
You can pet the dog in Final Fantasy XVI.
Out on June 22, 2023.
It Takes Two director Josef Fares is back to present Game Of The Year.
Eulrich says: 5am. well, we made it.Absolutely fair play for staying up so late!
I genuinely can't remember the last time I stayed up until 4am.
Correction! That FFXIV release date is for the PS5 - Katharine's spotted a "Not available on other platforms until 12/31/2023" note. Soz, PC, you'll be waiting a while.
We're building up to the award with a beautiful musical arrangement by a live orchestra. Shout out to the one performer going absolutely hog wild on a recorder.
And the 2022 Game Of The Year award goes to...
Elden Ring!
Nice of The Game Awards to warm everyone up for the second half of the RPS Advent Calendar.
Thanks to Bill Clinton! Apparently!
That was a stage invasion, right?
Accepting the award, Miyazaki seemingly just hinted that they're not done with Elden Ring just yet. Interesting.
No wait he was on stage the whole time. What the fuck.
Well. That was. Certainly one way to end the show, I guess.
Thanks so much for tuning in, folks! It was great to see you all chatting in the comments. See you all next time!
Yep, cheers all! Thanks for sticking with us, and congrats again to Bill.