Mario and ‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ dominate The Game Awards nominations

By Gabe Gurwin November 14, 2017

The Game Awards 2017 Nominee Announcement!

The nominees for The Game Awards 2017 have been revealed, and they highlight what was one of the strongest years for gaming in recent memory. Geoff Keighley’s awards show will take place on December 7, and we’re sure to see plenty of awards for Horizon Zero Dawn, and for several different games starring Mario.

The show’s biggest category, “game of the year,” has five nominees — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It’s a list that shows off the diversity of game experiences we’ve seen this year, with family-friendly choices as well as more adult-oriented games. We imagine Super Mario Odyssey is the frontrunner, but Battlegrounds is an absolute phenomenon and shouldn’t be ignored, even though the game hasn’t officially released yet.

One of the toughest categories to decide this year will be “best game narrative.” In addition to Horizon, nominees include Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Nier: Automata. In a normal year, any of these games would have been a shoe-in for the award, but Hellblade and Nier seem like the most likely winners.

With the rise of the “games as a service” model, this year there is also a “best ongoing game” award, which is for a game that has continued to evolve and improve since its official launch. Warframe, Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch, Grand Theft Auto Online, Destiny 2, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are all up for the award.

In the “best family game” category, Nintendo and Mario reign supreme, as Sonic Mania is the only nominee not developed by or containing Nintendo characters. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario Odyssey, and Splatoon 2 are all nominees, and you really can’t go wrong with any of them, provided you’ve managed to track down a Nintendo Switch.

For a full list of the nominees this year — and to vote on them — check out the official The Game Awards page. We highly encourage you to vote for Nier: Automata for every category in which it is nominated, as well as all the categories in which it is not.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

The Game Awards 2023: how to watch and what to expect

Key art for The Game Awards 2023.

Ten years ago, Geoff Keighley's The Game Awards began, and it's once again returning later today to celebreate the hard work of developers in one of the best years for quality video games ever. Plus, it will feature trailers for games coming out soon and reveal some titles we haven't heard about before. We know all the category nominees now, so you might wonder where and when you'll need to tune in to get the full The Game Awards 2023 experience later today. We've rounded up all that information right here so you can set aside time to watch and set your expectations for The Game Awards 2023.
When is The Game Awards 2023
The Game Awards 2023 starts with a 30-minute pre-show at 4:30 p.m. PT today, December 7. The main show is then expected to begin at around 5:00 p.m. PT. The Game Awards tend to last anywhere from three to four hours, depending on the length of the award acceptance speech and developer conversations, which are done live. In a recent live stream, Geoff Keighley said he hopes this year's event is a bit shorter.
How to watch The Game Awards 2023
THE GAME AWARDS 2023: Official 4K Livestream (TODAY at 7:30p ET/4:30p PT/12:30a GMT)

The Game Awards 2023 will be streaming on lots of platforms today. Official channels will host the event livestream for free across YouTube, Twitch, X, Facebook, Steam, TikTok, Instagram, and even Kick. We've embedded the YouTube version of the livestream above so you can watch it right from this article. You can also expect co-streams and reaction streams from websites like IGN and GameSpot as well as content creators. If you can't tune in while the awards show is airing, a VOD of the event is always posted to YouTube afterward, as are individual segments and trailers. If you're in China, India, South Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, or Germany, alternate streaming options are also outlined on The Game Awards' website.
What to expect from The Game Awards 2023
As is typically the case with this show, The Game Awards 2023 will mix in lots of game reveals and trailers between all of the awards. When it comes to Game of the Year, we're wondering if Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will win. As for the announcements happening at the show, below is a list of every game confirmed to be at The Game Awards 2023. We'll continue to update it as more titles are teased:

Gaming

The best Mario games of all time, ranked

Mario twirls his cap in front of New Donk City in Super Mario Odyssey.

Nintendo’s Super Mario series is so monumental to the medium of video games that you might even think of the mustachioed plumber when you hear “video games” mentioned at all. From his earliest days when he battled Donkey Kong as “Jumpman.” to his latest adventures on the Nintendo Switch, to his latest movie appearance in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Mario has consistently been one of the greatest characters in video games. He’s such an iconic character that countless video games have had him as the star, and here we have ranked them.

For our list, we had two main criteria. First, the games have to be platformers -- either 2D or 3D. This eliminates Mario sports games, the Mario Kart series, role-playing games, and all the Mario Parties. Secondly, the games have to have Mario himself as the lead character. This eliminated Super Mario Land 3 and Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. In the end, we were left with 22 games. None of them are bad, but we did have to name a loser. We also chose to omit The Lost Levels and instead considered Super Mario Bros. 2 as the definitive second game in the series.

Gaming

The Game Awards could use some new categories, so we made them ourselves

1K looks at a cliff in The Talos Principle 2.

The Game Awards features 24 game-related categories -- and even that doesn't feel like enough every time nominees are announced. Indies and more experimental games are often overlooked as the current categories reward the biggest AAA action-focused titles. Geoff Keighley has stated that he constantly assesses which award categories should be present at The Game Awards, but the only major addition recently was Best Game Adaptation in 2022.

There are entire genres and types of games that can feel ignored every year during The Game Awards. This year, we decided to come up with a few new categories of our own, highlight some potential nominees that we think would be worth nominating for these categories if they were to have existed this year, and explain why each category deserves to be added to the Game Awards.
Best Puzzle Game