The Game Awards 2022 – winners predictions & all nominees

The nominees and the winners.

Table of Contents Table of Contents

With The Game Awards nearly upon us, let’s have a final look at the nominees for this year, and our predictions as well. The Game Awards is taking place tonight, livestreaming on YouTube from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. You can find out how to watch it here. This is our winners predictions & all nominees for The Game Awards extensive list of categories.

The Game Awards 2022 category winner predictions

We’ll be dissecting each category and their nominees and predicting which ones we consider to be the most likely of securing the award. The highlighted nominee will be the one we predict.

Here’s the 2022 nominee list:

GAME OF THE YEAR

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) – There’s only two real options: Raganrok and Elden Ring. Whilst I believe Ragnarok has the potential, fresh in minds, to sway opinions, you surely cannot forget what a monumental game Elden Ring is.
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

BEST GAME DIRECTION

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) – God of War: Raganrok should win on all accounts. When a story such as this brings you so intimately to characters and fleshes out the story so well, you can only give it to one option.
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

BEST NARRATIVE

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) – Lore is of course, Elden Ring’s territory. However, when it comes to narrative, it as to be this.
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Immortality (Half Mermaid)

BEST ART DIRECTION

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) – There’s no doubt in my mind with a close second to GOW:R, this is by far the best looking game this year. From characters to setting, it has it all.
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

BEST SCORE AND MUSIC

• Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring – This could be close in the votes, but my word, what a score.
• Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
• Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
• Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

BEST AUDIO DESIGN

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision) – The sound design will always be incredible to me, and MW2 thoroughly deserves this top spot in my opinion.
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)

BEST PERFORMANCE

• Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
• Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök – Unless I’m surprised, Judge should win. This is an incredible depth to Kratos, the likes we’ve not seen before, even from 2018.
• Manon Gage, Immortality
• Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök

BEST ONGOING GAME

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA) – Apex Legends is at the very pinnacle of success at the moment at there’s no real wonder why.
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

BEST INDIE

• Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Sifu (Sloclap)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

BEST DEBUT INDIE

• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
• NORCO (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna) – Being nominated so many times, Stray has to win this one at the very least.
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)
• Vampire Survivors (poncle) 

BEST COMMUNITY SUPPORT, PRESENTED BY DISCORD

• Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix) 
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

BEST MOBILE

• Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed & Quantum/Respawn/EA)
• Diablo Immortal (Blizzard/NetEase)
• Genshin Impact (HoYovese) – Crazy hype and as far as I’m aware, it delivers.
• MARVEL SNAP (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse)
• Tower of Fantasy (Hotta Studio/Perfect World/Level Infinite)

BEST VR/AR

• After the Fall (Vertigo Games) – If Among Us wins we know what age rating actually votes for these things. After the Fall is fun, responsive and creatively uses the VR format.
• Among Us VR (Schell Games/InnerSloth)
• BONELAB (Stress Level Zero)
• Moss: Book II (Polyarc)
• Red Matter 2 (Vertical Robot)

BEST ACTION

• Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo) – Fan favourite with pretty amazing reviews.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
• Sifu (Sloclap)
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

BEST ACTION/ADVENTURE

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) – God of War: Raganrök really could be up for winning a whole bunch this evening. Visit all nine realms of Norse Mythology. It doesn’t get much more of an adventure than that.
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

BEST ROLE PLAYING

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco) – This is slightly a no brainer.
• Live a Live (Square Enix/Nintendo)
• Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCI)
• Triangle Strategy (Artdink/Square Enix)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

BEST FIGHTING

• DNF Duel (Arc System Works/EIGHTING/NEOPLE/NEXON)
• JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (CyberConnect 2 Co. Ltd/Bandai Namco)
• The King of Fighters XV (SNK/Plaion)
• MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
• Sifu (Sloclap) – The Sifu hype has slowed, but I firmly believe this game made its mark.

BEST FAMILY

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land (HAL Laboratory / Nintendo)
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Traveller’s Tales/WB Games) – Anyone who knows anything about Kirby knows it is not as family friendly as he would appear. Nostalgia and Lego; fairly elementary.
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
• Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

BEST SIM/STRATEGY

• Dune: Spice Wars (Shiro Games/Funcom)
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
• Total War: WARHAMMER III (Creative Assembly/Sega) – Amazing lore, incredibly interactive and engaging.
• Two Point Campus (Two Point Studios/Sega)
• Victoria 3 (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox Interactive)

BEST SPORTS/RACING

• F1 22 (Codemasters/EA Sports) – F1 is just simply massive as a sport at the moment. I would be incredibly surprised if this doesn’t win.
• FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver/Romania/EA Sports)
• NBA 2K23 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
• OlliOlli World (Roll 7/Private Division)

BEST MULTIPLAYER

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision) – With all its faults, I still believe IW/Activision could have pulled it out the bag with this one.
• MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
• Overwatch 2 (Blizzard)
• Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo) 
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

MOST ANTICIPATED

• FINAL FANTASY XVI (Square Enix)
• Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software/WB Games)
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo) – I don’t think there’s any doubt about this one. Nintendo fans will always raise hype, no matter what.

CONTENT CREATOR OF THE YEAR

• Karl Jacobs
• Ludwig – GIVE IT TO JERMA INSTEAD.
• Nibellion
• Nobru
• QTCinderella

BEST ADAPTATION

• Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix).
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger/CD Projekt, Netflix) – whilst Arcane: League of Legends was impressive, I want to give it to Edgerunners here for stellar involvement from Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagaan, Dead Leaves) as director and animator.
• The Cuphead Show! (Studio MDHR/King Features Syndicate/Netflix)
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group/Paramount Pictures)
• Uncharted (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)

INNOVATION IN ACCESSIBILITY

• As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE) – To me, the most impressive features of this year were PlayStation 5’s Dualsense 2 Wireless Controller settings (adaptive, haptic)
• Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
• The Last Of Us Part I (Naughty Dog/SIE)
• The Quarry (Supermassive Games/2K)

So, there you have it: These are the nominees for each category and our selections for the winners predictions. I look forward to tuning in to see that at least one of them (hopefully) is right.