The show was kicked off with the triumvirate of Phil Spencer from Xbox, Shawn Layden from Sony and Reggie Fils-Aime from Nintendo, on stage together to discuss the importance of gamers coming together as one to celebrate the industry. This was the first time ever that all three have appeared on stage together and will hopefully lead to a happy co-existence of all consoles and systems – and hopefully more cross-save and cross-paly!
God of War was, unsurprisingly the biggest winner of the night, taking home Game of the Year and Best Game Direction, however Red Dead Redemption 2 was the winner of more awards, with wins for Best Narrative, Best Score, Best Audio Design and Roger Clark also won Best Performance for his portrayal of Arthur Morgan.
Celeste was a double winner, taking home Best Independent Game and the Game for Impact Award. Obviously Fortnite won for Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game. Action Game of the Year which went to one of my favourite games of 2018 – Dead Cells. It was great to see a small independent studio in Motion Twin picking up such a prestigious award.
Other award winners were;
- Best RPG – Monster Hunter World
- Best Sports/Racing game – Forza Horizon 4
- Best Debut Indie Game – The Messenger
- Best Fighting Game – Dragon Ball FighterZ
- Best Family Game – Overcooked 2
- Best Strategy Game – Into The Breach
- Best Student Game – Combat 2018.
- Best Art Direction – Return of the Obra Dinn.
- Best Mobile Game – Florence.
- Best VR/AR Game – AstroBot Rescue Mission.
- Industry Icon – Greg Thomas from Visual Concepts.
- Content Creator of the Year – Ninja
- eSports Team of the Year – Cloud9
- eSports Player of the Year – SonicFox
- eSports Game of the Year – Overwatch
- eSports Event of the Year – League of Legends World Championship
- eSports Coach of the Year – Reapered
- eSports Host of the Year – Shockz
- eSports Moment of the Year – C9 comeback win in triple OT vs Faze
