The Game Awards 2018
The Game Awards 2018 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2018. As with previous Game Awards, the event was hosted by Geoff Keighley at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 6, 2018. God of War won three awards, including for game of the year, while Red Dead Redemption 2 won the most overall awards with four. It was live streamed on over 40 platforms worldwide, with 26 million viewers in total. In addition to the awards, several new games were revealed during the event.
Presentation
the show was produced and hosted by Canadian games journalist Geoff Keighley and held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 6, 2018. The show was live streamed on more than 40 different services worldwide, with a total estimated viewership of 26.2 million; an increase of 126% over The Game Awards 2017.The ceremony began with a group speech by Microsoft's Phil Spencer, Nintendo of America's Reggie Fils-Aimé, and Sony's Shawn Layden. Various well-known film and gaming industry people presented awards at the show, including game directors Jeff Kaplan and Josef Fares, the film directing Russo and Duffer brothers, actors Christoph Waltz, Aisha Tyler, Rosa Salazar, and Jonah Hill, and livestreamers Jacksepticeye, Ninja, and Pokimane. In addition to a live musical performance of "Devil Trigger" from Devil May Cry 5, the show also featured an orchestra that included composers Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, and Harry Gregson-Williams which performed music from some of the nominated games.
The Industry Icon Award was given to Greg Thomas, president of Visual Concepts, the studio that has been behind a large number of licensed professional sports games, such as the NBA 2K series. The "Trending Gamer" award from previous shows was split into two separate categories. One part became the Content Creator of the Year to be given to those that espouse the positive benefits of gaming, which was awarded to Richard Tyler Blevins, aka "Ninja". The other part became Global Gaming Citizens awards, selected by Facebook Gaming to recognize those gamers and programmers that were attempting to make a difference in the global community. Being awarded these were Steven Spohn, who co-founded AbleGamers to help improve accessibility in video gaming; Sadia Bashir for promoting female interest in game programming within Pakistan; and Micheal Lual Mayen, a South Sudanese programmer using games to help promote peace in his region. The show ended with a trailer showing the protagonist from Persona 5, Joker, being revealed as a downloadable content fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
During the event, sales on some of the nominated and previously winning games were held on the PlayStation Store, Nintendo eShop, Steam, and Xbox Games Store. In addition, Epic Games launched its Epic Games Store during the presentation, offering some of the games shown at the event.
Game announcements
In addition to new games, updates for previously announced and released titles were also shown, including ', Anthem, Dauntless, Dead by Daylight, Devil May Cry 5, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, ', PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Psychonauts 2, Rage 2, and The Stanley Parable.Newly announced games were:
- Among Trees
- Atlas
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
- Untitled Dragon Age game
- Far Cry New Dawn
- Hades
- Journey to the Savage Planet
- The Last Campfire
- Mortal Kombat 11
- The Outer Worlds
- The Pathless
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Scavengers
- Stranger Things 3: The Game
- Survived By
Awards
Among changes in the awards was the addition of various new esport-related categories, as well as the renaming of the former Trending Gamer award into Content Creator of the Year for those helping to create new and innovative content around video games, such as live streamers and YouTubers.
Video games
Games and subjects in bold won their respective category.
| |
Esports/other
Honorary awards
Games with multiple nominations and awards
| Nominations | Game |
| 8 | God of War |
| 8 | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
| 7 | Marvel's Spider-Man |
| 4 | Celeste |
| 4 | Assassin's Creed Odyssey |
| 4 | Fortnite |
| 3 | ' |
| 3 | Destiny 2 |
| 3 | ' |
| 3 | Florence |
| 3 | ' |
| 3 | Octopath Traveler |
| 2 | Dead Cells |
| 2 | Donut County |
| 2 | Forza Horizon 4 |
| 2 | Into the Breach |
| 2 | Life Is Strange 2 |
| 2 | Mario Tennis Aces |
| 2 | The Messenger |
| 2 | Moss |
| 2 | ' |
| 2 | Return of the Obra Dinn |
| 2 | Overwatch |
| Awards | Game |
| 4 | Red Dead Redemption 2 |
| 3 | God of War |
| 2 | Celeste |
| 2 | Fortnite |