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The Game Awards will return, Keighley confirms
Following a year-end debut that attracted 1.93 million viewers, producer Geoff Keighley has confirmed that The Game Awards will return again in 2015. "As I announced this morning at PAX, I'm excited to already be working on @thegameawards for 2015," Keighley recently tweeted. "Will share more later this Spring." Keighley makes no mention of when the next show will take place, nor does he mention any changes he might have in mind. For those unfamiliar, think of The Game Awards as long-time industry journalist and presenter Geoff Keighley's attempt to capture the gravitas and importance of an event like The Academy Awards, but for gaming instead of films. While his previous gig as host of Spike's superficially similar VGX Awards lacked a certain maturity and refinement, we were pleasantly surprised by the "classy" Game Awards. [Image: The Game Awards]
The Game Awards reach 2 million classy viewers
The Game Awards were a downright classy affair (seriously, we handed out Classy Points during the show) – especially compared with last year's Spike-sponsored VGX show, which we can summarize with a line from our liveblog: "Thank you guys so much for joining us. Misery truly loves company." This year, longtime industry journalist and presenter Geoff Keighley produced The Game Awards himself, separately from Spike, and it was a finely dressed, musical night. Watch along with us in our live commentary stream. The Game Awards reached 1.93 million viewers, up from the VGX's 1.1 million last year. "I am absolutely stunned by the results," Keighley told Polygon. "We didn't have any marketing budget or TV spots for the show. I'm used to having a lot of support resources – a promotional team, a digital media team, a PR team. All we had was the support of the game publishers and fans to spread the word and on social media. It's empowering that we as a community can get the word out virally about a show like this. I always knew the show would get a better critical response from the community, but in many ways I was making a more serious show that risked not having as much mainstream appeal." Keighley is planning for the future of The Game Awards – this round was an "investment" and he didn't make any money on it, he said. The Game Awards didn't sell out the venue in Las Vegas: Of 4,000 seats, 3,000 were filled, and only half of those were paid, $45 tickets, the site reports. "If I'm going to invest in anything, it's going to be to support the industry which has given me my whole career," Keighley said, classy as always. [Image: The Game Awards]
Here's that teaser from Brothers dev's new studio, Hazelight
EA revealed this weekend at The Game Awards that it will publish the next game from Josef Fares, the writer and director of Starbreeze Studios' Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Fares founded a new independent studio, Hazelight, which happens to include four other designers that worked on Brothers as well. Per the studio's website, the as-yet-unannounced game's team includes Claes Engdal (Art Director), Emil Claeson (Lead Animator), Anders Olsson (Lead Programmer) and Filip Coulianos (Lead Level Designer), each having served similar roles on Brothers. What's more, Executive VP of EA Studios Patrick Soderlund said the publisher "shared some space at our DICE studio in Stockholm so [Hazelight] could get to work right away" on the game. No platforms or release dates are known about the studio's upcoming game, though you can head past the break to check out Hazelight's teaser from this past weekend's awards ceremony. [Image: Hazelight]
Bloodborne is less scary with friends
What's better than slaughtering juicy, demonic beasts? Slaughtering juicy, demonic beasts with friends. The Bloodborne trailer shown at The Game Awards on Friday features some co-op dicing and slicing action. Relive the gory glory. [Image: From Software]
Thank the Mario Maker for including SMB 3, World themes
As revealed at The Game Awards, Nintendo's pumped some new features into Mario Maker since we last saw it at E3. The Wii U's DIY outfit lets you switch between Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World themes, in addition to old-school SMB1 and new-school NSMBU. Also, check out that flying spiny-shell bullet hell at 1:42 (the vid's below the break). And then, coins! The Mario Maker descends from the heavens and comes to the West in 2015.
Dungeon Defenders 2 exclusive to PS4 in 2015
Dungeon Defenders 2 is coming to PlayStation 4 in 2015, developers Trendy Entertainment announced at The Game Awards tonight. Just announced at #TheGameAwards: Dungeon Defenders II is coming exclusively to the PS4! https://t.co/tLcLWN3S7w pic.twitter.com/SqoGOTifS2 - Trendy Entertainment (@TrendyEnt) December 6, 2014 Dungeon Defenders 2 is out on Steam Early Access today. "We still have a ton of work to do, but we're excited to finally be bringing Dungeon Defenders back to a console," Trendy writes. "We've just completed our first controller pass (it needs a bunch of work!) and are exciting to dig into some other features, like local co-op and a controller-based UI. And yes, all of those features will also be coming to the PC version!" [Image: Trendy Entertainment]
Before, the next game from Rust studio Facepunch
After there was Rust and Garry's Mod, there was Before. Before is the next game from Facepunch Studios, the outfit headed by Garry's Mod creator Garry Newman. The game is a 3D, cel-shaded journey through lands before civilization. Facepunch showed off a trailer at tonight's The Game Awards. The development blog for Before can be found here. [Image: Facepunch Studios]
Code Name: STEAM hits 3DS on March 13, 2015
Nintendo revealed that its 3DS tactical strategy game Code Name: STEAM will premiere on March 13, 2015 in North America. Boasting gameplay similar to Sega's Valkyria Chronicles, Code Name: STEAM features an alternate-history steampunk aesthetic and boasts a competitive head-to-head multiplayer mode. It also, uh, stars Abe Lincoln. Cool.
Adrift is oxygen-deprived, due out for Oculus, PS4, Xbox One
Adrift is a new space-based game from Three One Zero, and it's coming to Oculus Rift, PS4, Xbox One and Steam in summer 2015, the developer announced tonight at The Game Awards. The first trailer for the game aired during the ceremony, showing a first-person astronaut with a strangely elongated helmet silhouette floating through a damaged space station, attempting to reach a bottle of oxygen before the astronaut's tank ran empty. It was slow and tense, and fairly beautiful. The game's description on its site reads, "ADR1FT is an immersive First Person Experience (FPX) that tells the story of an astronaut in peril. Floating silently amongst the wreckage of a destroyed space station with no memory and a severely damaged EVA suit, the only survivor struggles to determine the cause of the catastrophic event that took the lives of everyone on board. The player fights to stay alive by exploring the wreckage for precious resources, and overcomes the challenges of an unforgiving environment to repair the damaged emergency escape vehicle and safely return home." 505 Games is publishing Adrift.
The Banner Saga 2 exists
The Banner Saga developer Stoic Studio is developing The Banner Saga 2, the studio announced during tonight's The Game Awards in Las Vegas. No other details were announced, but this is indeed a welcome surprise – in our review of The Banner Saga, we said, "The Banner Saga is a human story told with inhuman flair, and that somehow makes it all the more relatable. [...] I'm a warrior now, and a leader, and I feel empowered." [Image: Stoic Studio]
Tacoma, the next game from Gone Home developers
The next game from Gone Home developer Fullbright is called Tacoma, and it's a decidedly sci-fi, Rapture-esque journey due out in 2016. Fullbright debuted the game and fresh teaser trailer at The Game Awards tonight. The game has a site and a Twitter account. The YouTube description reads, "What mysteries await you, 200,000 miles from Earth?" Welcome to Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma, everyone :-) - Tacoma (@TacomaGame) December 6, 2014
Kojima to show new Metal Gear Online at The Game Awards
Just because legendary super spy Solid Snake tends to fly solo doesn't mean you have to: Metal Gear Online is coming back, reintroducing the deadly game of cats-and-also-cats to the Metal Gear series. To go along with this revelation, there's some good news and bad news. The bad news is we don't know anything else about this new version of MGO yet. The good news is we won't have to wait long to find out more, as series creator Hideo Kojima will premiere Metal Gear Online at The Game Awards, which will air December 5. We assume there will be plenty of ! in the audience. [Image: Konami]
The Game Awards 2014 debuts December 5
The Game Awards 2014, a new independent video game awards show, will take the stage in December. Produced by former Video Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, the show will debut on December 5, airing live from the AXIS Theater in Las Vegas. The Game Awards 2014 will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET (6:00 p.m. PT) and will be livestreamed globally "across a record number of gaming devices, platforms, media partners and services." The ceremony will include "world premieres, musical performances, and appearances by game developers, eSports players and online content creators" in addition to shiny awards for some of the year's finest works in the gaming world. The Game Awards' advisory board includes Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, EA COO Peter Moore, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden and Head of Xbox Phil Spencer. Tickets to The Game Awards 2014 start at $45 and will go on sale through Ticketmaster at 12:00 p.m. ET (9:00 a.m. PT) tomorrow. [Image: The Game Awards]
