The Witcher 3, Splatoon win big at The Game Awards 2015

By Danny Cowan Published December 4, 2015

all ps4 pro 4k and hdr games the witcher 3 wild hunt 40 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

CD Projekt Red’s open-world RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt took home top honors at The Game Awards last night, edging out competition from high-profile titles like Bloodborne, Fallout 4, and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain and emerging as the industry event’s Game of the Year.

Other big winners at last night’s awards ceremony include Nintendo’s multiplayer shooter Splatoon, indie adventure game Her Story, and genre-melding sports sim Rocket League.

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The Witcher 3 dominated The Game Awards 2015, winning the event’s “Game of the Year” and “Best Role-Playing Game” categories. Studio CD Projekt Red was also named “Developer of the Year” for its achievements.

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Nintendo’s Splatoon earned surprise victories in two categories at this year’s show, winning 2015’s “Best Multiplayer Game” and “Best Shooter” awards. Nintendo’s territory-grabbing shooter faced tough competition, but was ultimately victorious over genre favorites like Halo 5, Destiny, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 and Star Wars Battlefront.

Nintendo additionally won the “Best Family Game” category with Super Mario Maker, a Wii U-exclusive platformer design toolkit with level-sharing capabilities. Super Mario Maker was also nominated for the event’s Game of the Year award.

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain won awards for “Best Action/Adventure Game” and “Best Score/Soundtrack” over the course of last night’s ceremony, while Psyonix’s vehicle-powered soccer sim Rocket League was named “Best Indie Game” and “Best Sports/Racing Game.”

Indie developer Sam Barlow’s adventure game Her Story topped The Game Awards’ “Best Narrative” category, and its starring actress Viva Seifert won “Best Performance.” Other award-winning indies at last night’s show include “Games for Change” champ Life is Strange and “Best Art Direction” honoree Ori and the Blind Forest.

The Game Awards additionally named Mortal Kombat X as “Best Fighting Game,” while Square Enix Montreal won “Best Mobile/Handheld Game” with its Tomb Raider series spinoff Lara Croft Go.

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Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…

Gaming

The ‘Indie’ label is losing its meaning, and that’s a big problem for gaming

Dave swimming near a dolphin confused.

"Indie" isn't a new or unique term exclusive to gaming. Music and film in particular have had decades of independent productions that occasionally break through into mainstream success. Indie games have, of course, been around since the advent of the medium itself, but only really came to prominence to the wider public in the late 2000s and early 2010s when digital distribution started becoming a major player. Just like in music and film, indie games drew attention based on that label which implied to the audience that what they were looking at was the work of a small, passionate team not beholden to the same corporate mandates as traditional games. What they lacked in budget and scope, they made up for in heart and fresh ideas.

In 2023, that term is losing its meaning. Indie is quickly becoming a loose word used to describe a type of game rather than the actual environment in which it was made -- something that's fueling a controversy at this year's Game Awards. With 'indie' being tossed around more loosely by players and gaming institutions alike, we're starting to lose what made the word meaningful in the first place: it helped provide a spotlight for games made by passionate teams without the means or money to get mainstream attention.
Fishing for attention
This indie debate picked up a lot of attention this week due to the recently released nominations for The Game Awards. Specifically, debates arose after Dave the Diver was nominated for Best Indie. Dave the Diver was developed by Mintrocket, which is owned entirely by Nexon, a multibillion-dollar South Korean publisher. That's hardly what one thinks of when they hear the term "indie," but it was an easy mistake to make on its surface. The creative, small-scale game features a pixel art style that's usually reserved for indies these days and is an experimental genre mash-up we expect from games like Slay the Spire.

Gaming

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 lead this year’s Game Awards nominations

Key art for The Game Awards 2023.

The nominees for The Game Awards 2023 are here following a livestream hosted by Geoff Keighley on Monday morning. It's been an excellent year for video games, and the nominations reflect that, at least in the AAA space. Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 garnered the most nominations, with eight each, but titles like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder also garnered several nominations.

In terms of indies, none got that much love in the show's biggest categories. However, games like Cocoon, Dredge, Viewfinder, and Terra Nil did pop up multiple times in the indie-friendly categories. We'll have a few weeks to think about all of these nominations ahead of The Game Awards 2023. This Keighley-hosted event is essentially the video game industry's version of the Oscars. It's one of the biggest stages where developers are awarded for their work and also doubles as a lengthy showcase featuring many game announcements and other gaming-related world premieres. This year is shaping up to be no different and might even go bigger as it's the 10th annual The Game Awards show.

Gaming

Everything announced at The Game Awards 2022

A mech carrying things overlooks a destroyed world in Armored Core 6's reveal trailer.

The Game Awards has rolled around once again, awarding developers who made some of the year’s best games and unveiling a bunch of new trailers and game announcements. Geoff Keighley’s annual event is equal parts award show and video game showcase, and The Game Awards 2022 was no different.
Games like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Final Fantasy XVI, and Tekken 8 made appearances, while Death Stranding 2 and Armored Core VI were revealed for the first time. There were a ton of game reveals to take in, so here's a roundup of every announcement from The Game Awards 2022.
THE GAME AWARDS 2022: Official 4K Livestream: Thursday, December 8 (7:30p ET/4:30p PT/12:30a GMT)
Hades II announced by Supergiant Games
Hades II - Reveal Trailer
Supergiant Games, the developer behind 2020's critically acclaimed Hades, revealed its next game will be a sequel to Hades. We got a look at some beautiful animation and roguelike gameplay starring the Princess of the Underworld, and we learned that the game, officially titled Hades II, will enter early access next year.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out on March 17
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - Official Reveal Trailer
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor got an awesome and intense trailer at the Game Awards 2022, and voice actor Cameron Monaghan came out afterward to hype up the game further. The game is launching on March 17, 2023.
Hideo Kojima unveils Death Stranding 2
DEATH STRANDING 2（Working Title）- TGA 2022 Teaser Trailer
It wouldn’t be a Geoff Keighley show without an appearance from Hideo Kojima, and thankfully Kojima had more to promote than a podcast this time around. We got the first trailer for the Death Stranding 2, a working title currently stylized as DS2, from Kojima Productions. This first teaser trailer is just as vague as Death Stranding's were, as it features Lea Seydoux's character traveling with al baby before talking with Norman Reedus' Sam.
Horizon Forbidden West will get an expansion set in LA next April
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores | Announce Trailer
Like The Frozen Wilds for Horizon Zero Dawn, Burning Shores is a massive expansion for this year's Horizon Forbidden West. The cinematic reveal trailer shows Aloy flying around a volcanic Los Angeles archipelago before a giant creature in the Hollywood sign attacks her. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will launch on April 19, 2023.
New The Super Mario Bros. Movie clip stars a ton of Toads
The Super Mario Bros. Movie | “Mushroom Kingdom” | Official Movie Clip
Keegan Michael-Key showed up during The Game Awards to show off a new clip from The Super Mario Bros. Movie. After joking about whether Toad has a hat or just a head, he showed off a clip of Mario walking through the Mushroom Kingdom amid ton of multicolored Toads. It's our longest uncut look at footage of this animated feature yet and it does a great job highlighting Illumination's interpretation of Mario's world. The Super Mario Bros. Movie comes to theaters on April 7.
Crash Team Rumble announced by Activision
Crash Team Rumble - Official Announcement Trailer | The Game Awards 2022
After two years of leaks and rumors regarding a new Crash Bandicoot multiplayer game, Activision finally revealed Crash Team Rumble at The Game Awards. Crash Bandicoot literally crashed the show to unveil the 4v4 multiplayer action game where players must shoot and jump around stages as classic Crash Bandicoot characters. Crash Team Rumble launches in 2023.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon coming from FromSoftware
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON　アナウンスメントトレーラー【The Game Awards 2022】
Hot off the heels of Elden Ring, FromSoftware was ready to tease its next game. "Feed the Fire. Let the Last Cinders Burn," the trailer says before it becomes clear that it's a new Armored Core game. We then see a lot of cinematic mech action that looks unlike anything FromSoftware has made in the last decade. Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon will launch in 2023 for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Final Fantasy XVI Revenge trailer gives us our best look at the game yet
Final Fantasy 16 - Revenge Trailer | The Game Awards 2022
Final Fantasy XVI Executive Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed a new Final Fantasy XVI trailer titled Revenge at The Game Awards. This showing gave us a deeper look at the story and themes of revenge that run throughout the whole game. We saw more of the Eikons that players will fight against and some new bits of exploration and combat gameplay. To cap things off, Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XVI would be released for PS5 on June 22, 2023.
Everything else

BioShock creator Ken Levine finally revealed his first title at Ghost Story Games: Judas.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, an isometric action-adventure game, was announced by PlatinumGames and launches on March 17, 2023.
Nintendo showed off a sizzle reel of its announced 2023 games.
Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord got a trailer.
Destiny 2's Lightfall expansion got a new gameplay trailer.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League got a new trailer revealing that an evil Batman is in the game, meaning that it will feature the late Kevin Conroy's final performance. It will be released on May 26, 2023.
Party Animals' trailer showed off its various playable animals, the outfits they can wear, and the stages they fight on.
The Last of Us Part 1 comes to PC on March 3, 2023.
Celeste follow-up Earthblade was announced and launches in 2024.
Dune Awakening got an in-engine trailer.
Forspoken is getting a demo on PS5.
Genshin Impact got a trailer teasing an upcoming character.
Ascendant Studios and EA Original revealed Immortals of Aveum.
Tekken 8 got a new trailer revealing lots of new fighters.
Nightingale got a new trailer.
An Xbox Game Pass trailer highlighted games available on the subscription service, as well as ones coming in 2023.
Colossal Cave's full 3D reimagining from Sierra Online founders Ken and Roberta Williams will be released on January 19, 2023.
Baldur's Gate 3 will finally leave early access and release in August 2023.
Airship Syndicate and Digital Extremes announced a fantasy online action RPG called Wayfinder, which will get a beta next week.
Fire Emblem: Engage got a new trailer confirming that a DLC starring Three Houses characters and more will launch throughout 2023.
Sky got a trailer highlighting an upcoming in-game concert.
Diablo IV's June 6, 2023, release date was confirmed after a musical performance from Halsey and a new trailer.
Amazon Games will publish Bandai Namco Studios' anime-style MMORPG Blue Protocol for PC and current-gen consoles in 2023.
Remnant II, a sequel to the sleeper hit multiplayer shooter Remnant: From the Ashes, was announced.
Transformers: Reactivate was announced with a cinematic teaser trailer.
Company of Heroes 3 got a live-action trailer
Meta Quest game Behemoth VR was revealed with a cinematic trailer.
Don't Nod and Focus Entertainment announced action RPG Banishers: Ghost of a New Eden.
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II received a new gameplay trailer.
Meet Your Maker's April 4, 2023 release date was confirmed in a cinematic trailer.
A gameplay overview trailer for Blood Bowl III was shown off.
The next-gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was highlighted in a launch trailer.
We got a first look at The Lords of the Fallen gameplay.
Epic Games and 505 Games announced Crime Boss: Rockay City, a first-person heist game game starring Michael Madsen and Kim Bassinger, Damion Poitier, Danny Trejo, Danny Glover, Michael Rooker, Vanilla Ice, and Chuck Norris. It will launch on March 28, 2023.
The first raid for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II received its debut trailer.
The Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion got a new trailer that reveals Idris Elba is in the game.
Rocket League: Frosty Fest begins December 14.
Wild Hearts got a new trailer unveiling some of the giant new Kemono that players will fight.

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