The Game Awards rewarded the best games of the year during a colorful ceremony at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. A ceremony that crowned Elden Ring, Nintendo, but also the French video game.
[Mis à jour le 09 décembre 2022 à 10h46] After two years marked by the coronavirus, the video game industry is beginning to raise its head. Although there are still so many release date postponements, it’s also for the best since the studios have seen their “crunch” practices unanimously condemned by the public and their peers. Release schedules are more flexible, the industry takes longer, and the finished products are of an overall impressive quality. The Game Awards 2022 yesterday rewarded the biggest successes of the year in terms of video games, a ceremony which concluded with the undeniable coronation of Elden Ring, the masterpiece from From Software which took the geek culture. But that’s not all, Nintendo, God of War and even some more modest French titles have seen their efforts hailed during these “Oscars” of video games. We take stock just below.
If you (logically) missed the Game Awards 2022 ceremony, which was held between 1:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the night of Thursday December 8 to Friday December 9, you can always watch the live broadcast just below . You will be able to see some of the biggest stars of the industry gathered at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and relive the coronation of Elden Ring, the many awards of God of War: Ragnarök, but also the many trailers and announcements about next releases still unexpected a few hours ago.
Elden Ring and God of War at the top
With 7 and 10 nominations respectively, we expected a fairly significant spoliation of the evening’s awards from Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarök. If the two games pulled the plug for the title of game of the year, it is logically the open world of From Software which won the precious laurels. Elden Ring still peaks amidst the highest-rated games of all time, and remains utterly unique in its punishing gameplay, compelling open-world, and mystical, gripping storyline. The Japanese game developed in collaboration with Georges RR Martin (Game of Thrones) won the titles of GOTY (Game of the Year), Best Art Direction, Best Role Playing and Best Direction. Just that.
For God of War: Ragnarök, although the title of GOTY has escaped the hands of Sony Santa Monica, it is still no less than six awards out of nine nominations that have been granted to it. The game won Best Narrative, Best Action Adventure Game, Best Performance with Christopher Judge as Kratos, Best Original Soundtrack, Best Audio Design, and Best Accessibility Innovations.
The French game in the spotlight
Two games from independent French studios made a lot of noise during the Game Awards 2022. We can first mention one of the big disappointments of the evening, A Plague Tale: Requiem, which although nominated several times in prestigious categories (including that of GOTY), had to leave empty-handed after the ceremony. But Asobo Studios can be proud of the journey made by its game, which will have definitely marked the year 2022. If we take a look at Montpellier and the BlueTwelve studio, the Game Awards 2022 were rather placed under the sign of consecration, with two titles won in the categories of Best Independent Game and Best First Independent Game. It must be said that the feline adventures of this little PS5 title had something to charm the whole world last summer.
Nintendo makes the show
Nintendo also had its share of awards yesterday, presenting a plethora of its new creations in different categories. We can notably notice that Bayonetta 3 was logically rewarded as Best Action Game of the year, while Kirby and the Forgotten World won the prize in the category of Best Family Game. Splatoon 3 also received the coveted Best Multiplayer Game award.
The Game Awards are not only an opportunity to reward the major players in the video game industry, but also to discover the next releases that will mark the months to come. This year, the ceremony was punctuated with major announcements, with the undisputed star of the show Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, the next title from Respawn Entertainment. But that’s not all, we also finally had news of Dune Awakening, the open-world survival MMO which will be released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 which makes us reconnect with Titus in full Tyrannide invasion.
But that’s not all, other highly anticipated titles greeted us on the evening of the Game Awards, including two new takes on the dark fantasy genre: Remnant from the Ashes 2 and Lords of the Fallen. Two titles freely inspired by Souls games and which we hope live up to their promises. On the Blizzard side, Diablo 4 also showed the tip of its nose, in a once again impressive CGI trailer (we are used to Blizzard) which also finally gave us a release date, the June 6, 2023 next.
As you will have understood, the Game Awards 2022 were an evening event, a new stage in the history of the video game world, rewarding the audacity of certain publishers, and teasing the next big projects to come.