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The Game Awards 2024 — how to watch and what to expect

It's the big 10th anniversary show from Markham, Ontario's own Geoff Keighley

Bradly Shankar
Dec 11, 20243:40 PM EST 2 comments
The Game Awards 2024 key art

On Thursday, December 12th, The Game Awards’ annual ceremony will once again be held live from Los Angeles at 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET.

Hosted by Markham, Ontario’s Geoff Keighley, the show will feature a variety of new game trailers alongside the titular awards. Notably, 2024 marks the TGA’s 10th anniversary after Keighley broke off from Spike to produce his own show. As a result, Keighley is teasing a particularly big event this year to celebrate the milestone.

Here’s everything you need to know about The Game Awards 2024.

How to watch

Outside of a small in-person audience, The Game Awards is a digital-first show, so it streams worldwide on a variety of platforms.

In Canada, the main ways to tune in are:

However, there are several other options, including through The Roku Channel and sites like IGN, if you prefer.

The main show begins at 5pm PT/8pm ET, although a half-hour pre-show containing some awards and announcements will take place at 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET.

What’s nominated

In total, there are a few dozen categories, so you can peruse them all here if interested.

But for now, here are the six games up for the coveted Game of the Year:

  • Astro Bot (Team Asobi/PlayStation)
  • Balatro (LocalThunk)
  • Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
  • Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
  • Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
  • Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus)

Notably, Balatro, the sole indie game on that list, is Canadian, hailing from an anonymous developer somewhere in the country who goes by the name of ‘LocalThunk.’ Balatro is also up for Best Independent Game, Best Debut Independent Game, Best Game Direction and Best Mobile Game.

Meanwhile, Star Wars Outlaws, which was co-developed by Ubisoft Toronto and stars Venezuelan-Canadian Humberly González, is nominated for Best Performance for González, Best Action-Adventure Game and Innovation in Accessibility. Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the latest game from iconic Canadian developer BioWare Edmonton, also received a nod for Innovation in Accessibility. And finally, EA Sports FC25, which hails from EA Vancouver, is up for Best Sports Game.

It’s worth noting that a few other nominees had co-development Canadian teams:

  • Baldur’s Gate 3 (lead developer Larian Studios in Belgium has an office in Quebec City) — Best Community Support
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Quebec City’s Beenox assisted lead developer Treyarch) — Best Action, Best Multiplayer, Best Audio and Innovation in Accessibility

Until December 11th at 6pm PT, fans can also vote on their favourite games. The public accounts for 10 percent of the total votes, with the remaining 90 percent coming from a jury of global media outlets. (Note: MobileSyrup is a member of this jury.)

What will be announced

So far, a handful of things have been teased for the show, including:

  • Borderlands 4
  • Hazelight (the Josef Fares-led studio behind It Takes Two will reveal its next game)
  • Mafia: The Old Country
  • Tekken 8 (new DLC fighter reveal)
  • Warframe 1999 (Rebecca Ford from London, Ontario’s Digital Extremes will reveal more on the hotly anticipated expansion)

In general, a few insiders are teasing a “very big” show, which seems appropriate for the 10th anniversary.

Performances

Every year, a number of musical guests take the stage to perform. So far, Keighley has confirmed Snoop Dogg will be there to premiere “new music,” while Twenty One Pilots, d4vd and Royal and the Serpent will perform their music from Netflix’s acclaimed Arcane series (which is also nominated for Best Adaptation).

On top of that, renowned Hollywood composer Lorne Balfe (Mission: Impossible) will once again conduct The Game Awards orchestra through a special medley that mixes musical themes from all six Game of the Year nominees. (Honestly, it’s always very well done and one of the highlights every year — check out last year’s for reference.)

Who else will be there

Of course, it wouldn’t be The Game Awards without some big name people taking the stage from both the gaming industry and Hollywood in general.


Some of the confirmed presenters include:

  • Todd Howard (Starfield)
  • Hideo Kojima (Death Stranding 2)
  • Sam Lake (Alan Wake 2)
  • Isabela Merced (The Last of Us Season 2)
  • Ella Purnell (Fallout, Arcane)
  • Shannon Woodward (The Last of Us Part II)

Given that The Game Awards came under fire last year for prioritizing stage time for celebrities instead of game developers (excluding Kojima), it will be interesting to see how this year’s show will address those criticisms.

Everything else

With much of the industry concentrated in one place this week, there are a bunch of other events happening this week to coincide with The Game Awards.

Here are some of the other public ones worth keeping an eye on:

  • Black Voices in Gaming — December 9th (YouTube)
  • Wholesome Games’ Wholesome Snack: The Game Awards Edition — December 10th (YouTube)
  • Latin American Game Showcase — December 10th (YouTube)
  • Day of the Devs: The Game Awards Edition — December 11th (Twitch)
  • Women-Led Games: The Game Awards Edition — December 11th (YouTube)

On top of that, I’ll be in LA for The Game Awards, so stay tuned for some exciting interviews and features I have planned.

Which games are you hoping to see take home hardware? What announcements would get you the most excited? Let us know in the comments.

Image credit: The Game Awards

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