The Game Awards 2017 - An Overview

Today saw 2017's edition of The Game Awards take place, starting at the convenient time of 1:30am over here in the UK. If you were busy during the proceedings, want a refresher, or just like to sleep at night, then here's a run-down of everything that happened, and when. Also included are URLs to all the relevant trailers (and other highlights), should anything pique your interest.

The Pre-Show

01:38 - Let the games begin! The show starts off with The Game Award's creator and lead organiser, Geoff Keighley, being interviewed about stuff including what's to come, what The Game Awards is all about, and how the soon-to-be winners are chosen. Pre-filmed promo stuff, basically.

01:45 - The actual live ceremony begins, live from The Microsoft Theatre in LA. Keighley's introducing the show, talking about all of the platforms the show is being hosted on.

01:47 - The first announcement, and world premiere, of the night is a World War Z game, developed by Saber.

01:49 - The Trending Gamer award goes to Dr. DisRepect. I'm not entirely sure who this is, but he looks spiffing and he's very enthusiastic.

01:51 - The second pre-show game announcement is Vacation Simulator, a VR game by Owlchemy Labs, developer of Job Simulator. Speaking of their motivation behind making the title, "You job, then you vacation", apparently on an island with robots.

01:54 - The second award of the night, Best Score/Music, goes to Nier: Automata (Platinum Games). A special message from Yosuke Saito, a producer on the game, plays. He thanks the fans, and his peers whom worked on Automata.

01:56 - The third world premiere of the pre-show comes in the form of Accounting Plus, for PSVR, developed by Crows Crows Crows. Justin Roiland, creator and voice of Rick and Morty, does voicework for the game, and is talking about the game on stage alongside William the dev team. Out December 19th.

01:59 - Some quickfire awards are announced. Best Mobile Game goes to Monument Valley 2 (ustwo games). Best Racing Game goes to Forza Motorsport 7 (Turn 10 Studios). Best VR Game goes to Resident Evil 7 (Capcom). Best Handheld Game is Metroid: Samus Returns (Nintendo), and the "Favourite Game voted by China" award goes to JX3 HD (Kingsoft).

02:00 - The final world premiere of the pre-show is the next title from FromSoftware, shown in the form of a short teaser, during which the words "Shadows Die Twice" appear on-screen. "That's all you get", quips Keighley.

The Main Event

02:01 - The main event starts with an orchestra (which includes the guitarist from Avenged Sevenfold, for some reason) performing a medley of various tracks from the OSTs of various games, including Persona 5, Super Mario Odyssey, DOOM, and Skryim. It's pretty sick. Honestly, two hours of this would be fine.

02:05 - Keighley walks out on stage to introduce the main event. Reps the orchestra, the show tonight, and of course, the art form of video games itself.

02:06 - The first big award of the night, Best Narrative, goes to What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow).

02:11 - The first world premiere of the main event is the next game from Campo Santo, developers of Firewatch. It is In the Valley of Gods, set in Ancient Egypt. The trailer shows some ancient tomb raiding with a distinctively Firewatch-looking spin.

02:14 - Zachary Levi is on stage to present the Best Action Game award. He jokes about needing to pay a microtransaction to open the envelope, and then does so with his credit card. Topical humour is best humour. The award goes to Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames).

02:18 - A community-made trailer for Warframe, one of the nominees for the new award of 'Best Ongoing Game', is shown. Multiple fan-made trailers for the game will be shown throughout the night.

02:22 - A trailer is shown for Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water. Following this, Del Toro and his ol' buddy Hideo Kojima walk on stage to a mountain of applause. "We'll keep coming", Kojima states. They fist bump, it's wholesome af. They're presenting the award for Best Art Direction, which goes to Cuphead (Studio MDHR).

02:28 - After a cool light show echoing Breath of the Wild's final dungeon, BoTW producer Eiji Aonuma is revealed on stage, and wearing Link's blue tunic, pulls a Master Sword from a stone. After this, the premiere trailer for the second BoTW, DLC, The Champions' Ballad, is shown. Link now has a dirt bike. Oh, and it's out tonight.

02:35 - SCHICK HYDRO IS BACK. NO

02:36 - A humourous Bethesda ad for a sale on their single-player titles plays, presented by Lynda Carter (the original live-action Wonder Woman), in the form of a PSA concerning "the need to save singleplayer gamers". No doubt inspired by the recent controversy surrounding the state of single-player gaming.

02:39 - Felicia Day is on stage to present the Industry Icon Award, which goes to "the first woman to get her name on a game box", Carol Shaw. She was one of the first female game designers, and worked at Atari in its prime, working on games for the Atari 2600, such as Polo, and River Raid. After a video feature focusing on her work, Shaw walks on stage to accept the award, to thunderous applause and a standing ovation. She talks about how games have progressed in the 35 years since she worked on them. "Graphics have gotten a lot better", she admits, but notes, as shown from re-releases, "that the classic games are still fun to play".

02:46 - Katshuhiro Harada and Motohiro Okubo from Bandai Namco are on stage. "Do your souls still burn?", Okubo asks, and a trailer for SoulCalibur VI plays. Badass. It's out in 2018.

02:49 - Another quickfire round. Best RPG is Persona 5 (Atlus). Best Strategy Game is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft). Most Anticipated is The Last of Us: Part II (Naughty Dog), and the Best Family Game is Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Game). The Best eSports team award goes to Cloud9, for the second year in a row.

02:50 - Aisha Tyler is on stage to present the award for Best Debut Indie Game. It goes to Cuphead (Studio MDHR), marking its second win for the night.

02:59 - Donald Mustard from Epic Games is talking about Fortnite and its success. There's a new 50v50 mode out now. He talks about EpicGames' commitment to make crossplay between platforms a reality. "But not tonight", Keighley quips.

03:01 - Casey Hudson from Bioware is on stage to present the award for Best Ongoing Game, another new award. Judging by the level of cheering received by each nominee listed, Overwatch (Blizzard Entertainment) is gonna get it.

03:02 - Yup.

03:04 - Conan O'Brien talks shit about the nominees for the Game of the Year award. It is funny. His pick for GOTY is Yahtzee.

03:06 - The next world premiere is a snowy survival post-apocalypse title, Fade to Silence, from Black Forest Games, coming out on early access for PC next week, and consoles next year.

03:09 - A football ad is playing. Man, I'm tired.

03:09 - Nevermind, it's Rocket League.

03:10 - Gran Turismo ad. You guys seen the Jurassic World trailer?

03:13 - Bayonetta 2 revealed for Switch. The first is included with it, and it releases February 16, 2018. Reggie Fills-Aime is here. "You think I came up here for only one announcement?", he teases. He clicks his fingers, and a reveal trailer for Bayonetta 3 is shown. No release date given. It's in development as a Nintendo Switch exclusive.

03:17 - Best eSports Player award goes to Lee "Faker" Sang-Hyeok.

03:19 - DEATH STRANDING HOLY FU-There's some Death Stranding footage being shown.

03:27 - I'm not at all sure what I just watched, but it was fucking sick. Hype levels remain massive. "Aw yeah", as Reedus put it so well.

03:28 - Reedus and Kojima walk on stage to 0's 'I'll Keep Coming', and big cheers. "We're back together", Kojima says. Reedus thanks Kojima, shares our confusion with what we just watched. Info wise, that cutscene is all we get for now.

03:29 - Keighley desperately tries to promote Final Fantasy XIV as people continue to cheer for Kojima and Reedus as they walk off stage.

03:31 - A Sea of Thieves ad reveals the release date as March 20th.

03:32 - Jason Schwartzmann is on stage, and he introduces French band Phoenix, who then give a retro-gaming inspired live performance.

03:37 - iJustine and Lance Reddick (voice of Zavala from Destiny 2) are on stage to present Best Student Game, yet another new award, judged by industry veterans including Hideo Kojima, Kim Swift, and Todd Howard. The winner is Level Squared developed by students at The Swinburne University of Technology, in Australia. "I'm graduating in a week, somebody hire me, please", the accepting student begs.

03:41 - A new game from some of the devs behind The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Painkiller, and Bulletstorm, is Witchfire, the debut title from new team The Astronauts.

03:42 - Josef Fares, lead developer on A Way Out, is talking to Keighley. "The Oscars should fuck themselves up, this is the shit!", he shouts to applause. He's very excited, swears up a storm, calls out EA on their recent antics. Geoff has to cut him off to get to the game footage.

03:45 - A new trailer for A Way Out is shown, it's out March 23, 2018. All those rumours about a delay and a 2019 release were apparently horseshit.

03:48 - An ad for Jumanji with The Rock, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black is playing. They're talking about their gaming history, Black mentioning Brutal Legend, and letting slip that he's in the upcoming Psychonauts 2, The Rock talking about Spy Hunter and the 3/10 it got from Game Informer. Pretty funny ad, admittedly.

03:52 - A trailer for Media Molecule's Dreams is shown. In terms of creative potential, looks like it could easily best LittleBigPlanet. It's out in 2018. More to be shown at PSX this weekend.

03:54 - A video tribute focusing on former head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Andrew House is playing. House had worked with the PlayStation brand from its inception up to when he stepped down earlier this year. The tribute ends with a simple 'Thank you Andy'. He's talking about how the industry has progressed, he thanks the fans and his co-workers. "I treasure the friends and camaraderie that makes our industry so special." House is presenting the Games for Impact award, which goes to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Ninja Theory). Hellblade also wins the award for Best Audio Design.

04:02 - Keighley is talking to C.H. Kim, a developer of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. They talk of PUBG's success. PUBG will be leaving Early Access soon, and the 1.0 version will release. The second PUBG map, Miramar, will be available to play on PC test servers in around four hours. The full 1.0 release is coming to PC on December 20th, and on console next year. PUBG will be in early access on Xbox Game Preview from December 12th.

04:09 - Andy Serkis is on stage to present the award for Best Performance. It goes to Melina Juergens for her performance as Senua in Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. "I'm actually Ninja Theory's video editor, I'm not an actress, at all...I feel so honoured that I had the opportunity to give a voice to people that are suffering from mental health issues, and it's been such a great journey for me."

04:13 - A new 4-player co-op survival title from Ten Chambers, and the game designer of Payday and Payday 2, is revealed. It's called GTFO.

04:19 - Ed Boon is on stage to present the award for Best Game Direction. It goes to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo), marking its second award of the night. Hidemaro Fujibayashi, a designer on BoTW, accepts the award. "To everyone who stood toe to toe against a Lionel, or discovered a hidden shrine, collected a few Korok seeds: we say thank you."

04:23 - A new trailer for Metro: Exodus is shown. It's out Fall 2018.

04: 26 - The Game Awards Orchestra is playing a cool Overwatch medley.

04:31 - Some guy in the audience screamed when a 34" LG Monitor was mentioned as being on offer from eBay.

04:32 - The Game Awards Orchestra is playing one last time, this time a medley of the OSTs for the Game of the Year nominees. It ends with a live performance (read: lip-sync) of 'Let's Go, Super Star!' from the Mario Odyssey soundtrack (still pretty cool).

04:37 - Geoff takes the stage to present the award for Game of the Year 2017. It goes to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Well goddamn deserved. "Thank you, America!", says Eiji Aonuma, looking absolutely delighted. "On behalf of all the staff that worked on the game, thank you so very much for this award". "I'm really happy that I ended up making games", says Fujibayashi.

04:41 - Keighley wraps up the show. "Games are great, we had a great year for our industry, and we can't wait to see what happens in 2018...We'll see you next year at The Game Awards 2018. Goodnight. " That's it for this year.

Thanks for checking out my write-up of 2017's The Game Awards. What did you think of the show? Happy with the award winners? What premiere had you most excited?

Distract in the comments below.