The Game Awards 2020 Are Tonight—Where to Watch, and What to Expect

The time has come, once again, for a night of world premieres and celebration. The 2020 edition of The Game Awards airs tonight, as indie hopefuls and prestige powerhouses alike will be competing across various categories for a “Keighley.”

Hosted by Geoff Keighley, the Game Awards start this evening at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT, with a pre-show starting 30 minutes before the main event. You can watch it all via the YouTube embed below, or on other video streaming platforms like Twitch. You can find a full list of streamers here, and the Awards will also be open to co-streaming.

The list of nominees this year stretches over a pretty decent number of games, though two games in particular lead the pack: Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part 2 and Supergiant Games’ Hades. Here’s the full list of who’s up for the big Game of the Year prize:

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• Doom Eternal
• Final Fantasy 7 Remake
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Hades
• The Last of Us Part 2

Other award categories include Best Game Direction, Best Performance, and Best Narrative. It’s a pretty standard lineup for the awards, but this year’s awards will be noticeably different. Everything is taking place remotely from three different locations, to keep everyone safe and healthy. This means less glitz and glamour as there won’t be an in-person audience of well-dressed games industry folks, but the celeb count has been boosted too; Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam will be performing, and presenters include Keanu Reeves, Gal Gadot, Brie Larson, Stephen A. Smith, and more.

Of course, the actual awards are just one part of The Game Awards. The other part is all about world premieres and new looks at upcoming video games, and there are sure to be at least a few.

What We Can Expect to See

Reveals for The Game Awards are often kept fairly secret, to be big surprise announcements for the main stage. Considering there was no E3 this year and most announcements rolled out in the long summer months, The Game Awards seem like a good venue for announcing any plans you’d like before the new year.

Some companies have already confirmed that they’ll have something to show for this year. BioWare has announced we’ll get a new look at the upcoming Dragon Age project, following the departure of two higher-ups at the studio. Nintendo also confirmed today that the next fighter joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be revealed tonight.

Keighley has also tweeted out a number of the other upcoming reveals as well, including the next bounty hunter joining Fortnite, the reveal of a new map for Among Us and the next season of Fall Guys, and a new look at Nier Replicant. “12+ new games,” according to Keighley. That sounds like a pretty packed night.

The Game Awards Festival is also ongoing, as a number of studios are showcasing projects slated for next year via limited-time demos on Steam, Xbox, and Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming platform. There will also likely be some new games added to the Festival tonight, so if you don’t have a shiny new game to play already, there are at least some demos to check out.

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The Game Awards are an annual pageant put on, likely always to stir controversy over which games should win or who got snubbed in the nominations. It’s always packed to the brim with trailers and content, and it will likely run for longer than you’d anticipate it to.

At the same time, this year has been a lot. With an end finally in sight, it’s actually a little comforting to me to have The Game Awards around. They are often goofy and a ripe target for snarky tweets, but it’s an event we can all gather around, celebrating community in our own way. I’m somehow anticipating how they use the Swedish Chef, following last year’s extremely good Untitled Goose Game bit. It’s a little touch of bizarre normalcy to help us sail into the holidays.