As if we haven’t stressed this point enough, 2017 has been a phenomenal year for gaming, irrespective of which platform you’re looking at.
The year has started off strong with releases like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Horizon Dawn Zero and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and will most likely end with a bang with the recent launch of the Xbox One X and the upcoming anticipated release, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. We’ve had seen gems of gaming with Tacoma, Cuphead and Nier: Automata despite the mid-year slump. But the time has arrived to acknowledge the best of the best that this year had to offer at the annual Game Awards 2017 taking place on December 7 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
The awards show isn’t just any video game award ceremony as the show is well-known for announcing new trailers, exclusive premieres and first looks. The show, this year, welcomes two new categories: one for live games and one for mobile gaming. This decision was made “more reflective of games being ongoing services instead of one-time releases“.
The nominees have been announced but we’ll name the nominees of the three major categories. For the full nominee list, visit the Game Awards website.
Game of the Year:
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Super Mario Odessey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG Corp.)
- Persona 5 (Atlus)
- Horizon Dawn Zero (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Game Direction:
- Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (MachineGames/Bethesda)
- Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (Capcom)
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Super Mario Odessey (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
- Horizon Dawn Zero (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Independent Game:
- Pyre (Supergiant Games)
- Night in the Woods (Infinite Fall)
- Cuphead (Studio MDHR)
- What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow/Annapurna Interactive)
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (Ninja Theory)
Who will win on the big night? The annual Game Awards can be livestreamed on YouTube in 4K, Twitter, Twitch and on Mixer just to name a few on December 8 at 3:30am (early Friday morning) South African time.
