The Game Awards 2021: It Takes Two wins Game of the Year (GOTY) | Full list of winners

Full list of winners

That was all! The Game Awards 2021 comes to an end. It was a time to showcase new titles and to celebrate some of the best from 2021. An edition where the protagonist was, mostly, the announcements of upcoming games. A longer ceremony where the award segment (supposedly the main protagonists) felt a bit rushed sometimes. Although enjoyable and with plenty of exciting moments, sometimes it felt more like an E3 rather than an award event.

It Takes Two became the big winner of the night achieving 3 awards including the Game of the Year 2021 (GOTY), Best Family Game and Best Multiplayer Game.

Game of the Year - It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) 

Best Game Direction - Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)

Best Ongoing - Final Fantasy XIV Online (Square Enix)

Best Narrative - Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos Montreal/Square Enix) 

Best Indie - Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab) 

Best Mobile Game - Genshin Impact (MiHoYo) 

Best VR/AR - Resident Evil 4 (Armature Studio/Capcom/Oculus Studios)

Best Action - Returnal (Housemarque/SIE) 

Best Action/Adventure - Metroid Dread (Mercury Steam/Nintendo) 

Best RPG - Tales of Arise (Bandai Namco)

Best Fighting - Guilty Gear -Strive- (Arc System Works)

Best Debut Indie - Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)

Best Family - It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) 

Best Sports/Racing - Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios) 

Best Sim/Strategy - Age of Empires IV (Relic Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)

Best Multiplayer - It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA) 

Most Anticipated Game - Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)

Best Art Direction - Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda) 

Best Score and Music - NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 (Keiichi Okabe, Composer) 

Best Audio Design - Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios)

Best Performance - Maggie Robertson as Lady Dimitrescu, Resident Evil Village

Games for Impact - Life is Strange: True Colors (Deck Nine/SQUARE ENIX)

Best Community Support - Final Fantasy XIV Online (Square Enix)

Innovation in Accessibility - Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios) 

Content Creator of the Year - Dream

Best Esports Game - League of Legends (Riot Games) 

Best Esports Athlete - Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev 

Best Esports Team - Natus Vincere (CS:GO)

Best Esports Coach - Kim “kkOma” Jeong-gyun

Best Esports Event - 2021 League of Legends World Championship

And the Game of the Year 2021 is... It Takes Two! What a surprise! Josef Fares and Hazelight Studios did it. A great success for what it almost is an indie game (despite being under the umbrella of EA). A co-op experience that makes the gameplay mechanics the protagonist, the vehicle to drive the story through them. A well-deserved award.

Neil Druckmann is presenting the winner of the GOTY 2021...

Time for Neil Druckman, director of The Last of Us and winner last year of the Game of the Year award.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are present as expected to promote the launching of The Matrix Resurrection with an exclusive trailer for The Game Awards 2021. And a new trailer from Matrix Awakens, the interactive experience developed in Unreal Engine 5 and already playable in PS5 and XSX.

Well, Elden Ring can keep showing new footage that any From Software fan is going to keep feeling amazed and hyped. The new trailer offers some insights into its lore, its enemies and its world. Looking forward to February 2022

That's a way of introducing a new world premiere trailer from Elden Ring. The Pot Bot players could see in Elden Ring's Beta gave Geoff Keighley a letter explaining there is a new trailer

New round of awards (once again):

Best Esports Game: League of Legends

Best Family Game: It Takes Two

Best Fighting Game: Guilty Gear Strive

Best Sim/Strategy Game: Age of Empires IV

Best VR/AR: Resident Evil 4 VR

Most Anticipated Game: Elden Ring

Donald Mustard, Chief Creative Officer at Epic Games, is announcing Best Game Direction. And Deathloop wins once again an important award that could help it get closer to the victory in the main category of the night: the Game of the Year.

According to what Geoff Keighley announced before the start of the event, The Game Awards should be finishing in less than 30 minutes. Let's see what final announcements there will be. For those who just arrived, the big award of the night is the Game of the Year (GOTY) and the six nominees are:

Deathloop (Arkane Studios/Bethesda)

It Takes Two (Hazelight Studios/EA)

Metroid Dread (Mercury Steam/Nintendo)

Psychonauts 2 (Double Fine/Xbox Game Studios)

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (Insomniac Games/SIE)

Resident Evil Village (Capcom)

Forza Horizon 5 gets another award: Best Innovation in Accessibility. A feature sometimes underrated but necessary so everyone can enjoy their favorite games.

Reggie Fils-Aimé, former president of Nintendo of America returns to The Game Awards (his presence in the event have been constant over the last years) to award Final Fantasy XIV as Best Ongoing Game and Best Community Support. A truly deserved award. A game whose community hasn't stopped growing and whose expansions have been huge. For those who haven't tried yet the wonderful game, we wrote about how to get its 30-day free trial.

Did you imagine playing Among Us in VR? Now you don't need to imagine it. It's happening. 

World Premiere: an upcoming game based on Dune! Dune: Spice Wars and will be a real-time strategy game. 

NBA star Paul George comes to the stage to present Best Action/Adventure Game. And Metroid Dread is the winner!. An outstanding title for any gamer willing to experience an action-packed game that will make you shudder when the terrifying E.M.M.I appear.

There is finally a release date for Forspoken: May 24, 2022 coming out in PlayStation 5 and PC

Finally, the first look at the Suicide Squat: Kill the Justice League gameplay is here. It has the wild vibes you could expect from this gang. And you can control King Shark shooting a machine gun. That's bonkers.

Ming-Na Wen known for her role as Fennec Shand in The Mandalorian and the upcoming The Book of Bobba Fett just announced the winner of the Best Narrative award: Marvel's Guardian of the Galaxy.

Geoff Keighley is off and running with a new round of awards given so fast:

Player's voice award goes to: Halo Infinite

Best RPG: Tales of Arise

Best Score & Music: Nier Replicant

Content Creator of the year: Dream

Best Multiplayer Game: It Takes Two

Best Mobile Game: Genshin Impact

Film director, Guillermo Del Toro, announcing Best Art Direction. One of the most important awards. And it goes to Deathloop. Definetely, there is a creative vision on its title as usual in every Arkane Studios production.

Sonic Frontiers - reveal trailer

And another of the big reveals of the nights. One of those world premieres that everyone was expecting. A new Sonic 3D adventure! Sonic Frontiers that will even feature an open world. Coming out on Holiday 2022.

Cuphead got a charming trailer combining stop motion and mockups to present its D.L.C. island or what is the same: a new DLC for the game: Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course coming out on June 30, 2022

New trailer of Lord of the Rings: Gollum

New trailer of Lord of the Rings: Gollum! The adventure where we will control the corrupted hobbit.

Slitterhead: a new horror game developed by Bokeh Game Studio and Keiichiro Toyama, creator of Silent Hill, the Siren and Gravity Rush series. And it will count with Akira Yamaoka's music.

Simu Liu, the actor who portrayed Shang-Chi in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is announcing the winner of the Best Action Game. And the winner is Returnal! What a surprise since there was a tough competitor like Deathloop

Final Fantasy VII Remake is coming to PC on December 16. That's it. That's the news. And it's great news for those who haven't tried it yet.

New look at Horizon: Forbidden West. The game, expected for 2022, seems to have a wide variety of environments and it keeps looking stunning.

And the first trailer for Sonic The Movie 2 is out! Finally, Tails and Knuckles are there to meet Sonic. It will be in theatres April 8, 2022. And that Knuckles portrayed by Idris Elba looks amazing.

Barely 40 min of main event and we have had huge announcements and reveals: Alan Wake 2, Star Wars Eclipse, Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Wonder Woman...What a year for The Game Awards

Alan Wake is back with a sequel! Coming out in 2023. Another surprise with a teaser trailer that I am sure caused goosebumps on many viewers. "It's gonna be the first survival horror game of Remedy" says Sam Lake on stage.

Best Performance award goes to Maggie Robertson! Her role as Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village was truly fascinating. Her character was one of the best characters of 2021 and it couldn't have been without her performance

"A game announcement that no one had in their bingo card" Keighley claims. And it's certainly true. An upcoming game of Wonder Woman developed by Monolith

And check out Star Wars Eclipse reveal trailer 

Star Wars Eclipse! new Star Wars game developed by Quantic Dream. The first trailer was completely cinematic but it looks thrilling. It will be set in the High Republic. Just take a look at this picture.

Here it is the full gameplay reveal from Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

The first gameplay reveal from Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, developed by Ninja Theory. Two years after its announcement. Graphically, it looks impressive and the sound makes the game feel terrifying.

One of the most expected awards for the fans of the indie scene. Best Independent Game goes to...Kena: Bridges of Spirits! it was a tough category with strong contenders like Inscryption or Loop Hero.

Geoff Keighley starts with a strong speech against harassment in the video games industry. "Companies have to support their developers". Can it be a message against the recent news on Activision Blizzard?

Time for the main event to start! Who would have said it after this beginning? And it starts with Sting performing What Could Have Been from Arcane.

Aesthetically beautiful. Planet of Lana, a sci-fi game that seems to have a deep narrative side set in a desertic planet.

A new award has been given.

Best Audio Design: Forza Horizon 5

First of the night for Forza Horizon 5, an impressive game which many lamented that it wasn't in the Game of the Year category.

Have a nice death: it's not a wish, it's the title of a new game that looks refreshing and stylish

Evil West, the game where we will play as a cowboy fighting all kinds of demons and creatures showed some new gameplay footage. And it's coming out in 2022.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, the new massive expansion for the Capcom's title got the spotlight and showed some new images and announced it releasing date

The Game Awards' pre-show has started with a lot of action. Everyone expected this part just to include some musical performances but it is actually showcasing some unexpected announcements.

Ok. This is a big surprise. Another world premiere. Telltale Games (The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us and many others) is back with The Expanse: A Telltale Series.

And now a round of award winners regarding the eSports scene:

Best eSports Athlete - Simple

Best eSports Team - Natus Vincere

Best eSports Coach - Kkoma

Best eSports Event: 2021 League of Legends World Championship

And another surprise in form of an announcement. A new multiplayer online game that will be based on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Le'ts go with world premiere of the night: King of Fighter XV is coming out on February 2022

The pre-show has just started giving awards! The first of the night: Games for Impact. And the winner is Life is Strange: True Colors 

Hideo Kojima creating the hype? The legendary developer creator of the Metal Gear franchise and the recent Death Stranding has published a cryptic image on Twitter just a few minutes ago. His friendship with The Game Awards' creator, Geoff Keighley, is well known. Will he present a new title?

Alert for Sonic fans: an example of the movie announcements we will be watching tonight is the first Sonic 2 movie trailer and the two protagonists of the movie, Ben Schwartz (Sonic) and Jim Carrey (Eggman) will be presenting it. Additionally, Keighley promised "a double header" on Sonic which means we could have a look at an untitled Sonic Game. The rumors say that Sonic Frontiers might be the name since this title was recently trademarked.

Time will also be dedicated to some epic movies. Keighley has announced that The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth installment of the famous sci-fi franchise, will reveal a new trailer during the event. The new Sonic movie will also drop its first trailer as a world premiere during the event.

Prepare yourselves for a long show. Keighley has announced that The Game Awards will have a duration of approximately 3 hours and 30 min including the pre-show. Grab your snacks, relax and get comfy to watch all the upcoming announcements and awards. It's gonna be a long night!

Among the special guest there are several that have already been confirmed. Reggie Fils-Aime, former Nintendo of America president, will be back as usual and this year there will be many famous faces from cinema and TV such as: Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Jim Carrey and Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog movie), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Giancarlo Esposito (Far Cry 6 and Breaking Bad) and Guillermo Del Toro among many others. Geoff Keighley shared today via Twitter the lineup of some of the guests:

What to expect from The Game Awards 2021?

Much like the previous years, The Game Awards is not only about awarding games. The event created, organized and hosted by journalist Geoff Keighley intends to be the biggest celebration of the gaming culture. To do that, the ceremony will also showcase world-premier announcements and invite several celebrities. As Keighley stated, this year it will feature 40 to 50 new games and he has promised that 4 or 5 of them will have Elden Ring level reveal. All gaming fans know how big the hype has been over Elden Ringer these last years, so this is a big statement.

The event is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT. with a 30 min pre-show. Then, the ceremony will take off. Last year, it just took a few minutes for the organization to start giving awards. That was actually one major critique of the event. People referenced how fast some 'minor' awards were given and the fact that some were even given during commercial breaks.

The moment every spectator is waiting for is the Game of the Year (GOTY) award. As mentioned before, there isn't a clear favorite as was the case in 2020 with The Last of Us Part II was. However, the six standout finalists for the award are the following:

- Deathloop

- It Takes Two

- Psychonauts 2

- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

- Metroid Dread

- Resident Evil Village

Hello and welcome for the second year in a row to our live coverage of The Game Awards. Last year, The Last of Us Part II, became the big winner. In fact, on that night it got 6 awards, including Game of the Year (GOTY), Best Game Direction and Best Narrative. In 2021 it seems like there isn't an overarching favorite as was the case in 2020 with The Last of Us Part II. Yet, 2021 has been a great year for video games and The Game Awards is the event that aims to celebrate them and their culture.

This year, there have been great titles that deserve to be mentioned, nominated and awarded. Throughout 2021, players have witnessed notable AAA titles like Deathloop, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Forza Horizon 5, Metroid Dread and Guardians of the Galaxy, among others. The indie scene in particular has proven to be in one of its biggest moments with games like It Takes Two and Inscryption, which have been considered two of the best and most original titles of the year. Other outstanding games that will have the chance to win awards in different categories are Age of Empires IV, Loop Hero, Returnal... These names confirm how good 2021 has been in terms of new releases.