TGA2017: Breath of the Wild takes Game of the Year

The Game Awards 2017 has just concluded to the usual mix of fanfare, disappointment, excitement, and outright hilarity. While it ran well over three hours, like most award shows these days not all winners were given stage time or an acceptance speech. In their place were musical performances, gaming ads, and also touching video tributes — which this year includes one of the industry’s first female programmers, Carol Shaw, and exiting Sony Interactive Entertainment boss Andrew House.

Definite talking points this year are the new mind-boggling trailer for Death Stranding (with stage appearances by Hideo Kojima buddies Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus) and Hazelight’s Josef Fares making TGA showrunner Geoff Keighley extremely uncomfortable.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild unsurprisingly stole The Game Awards by taking Game of the Year as well as Best Game Direction and Best Action/Adventure. Nonetheless, we saw other titles such as Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice and Cuphead also taking multiple, well-deserved wins.

Here are all the awards that were presented live on stage:

Trending Gamer

• Steven Spohn
• Shroud
• Dr. Disrespect
• Clint Lexa
• Andrea Rene

Best Score/Music

• Cuphead
• Destiny 2
• Nier: Automata
• Persona 5
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Best Narrative

• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Nier: Automata
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Best Action Game

• Cuphead
• Destiny 2
• Nioh
• Prey
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Best Art Direction

• Cuphead
• Destiny 2
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Persona 5
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Industry Icon

• Carol Shaw

Best Debut Indie Game

• Cuphead
• Golf Story
• Hollow Knight
• Mr. Shifty
• Slime Rancher

Best Ongoing Game

• Destiny 2
• Grand Theft Auto: Online
• Overwatch
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
• Rainbow Six Siege
• Warframe

Best eSports Player

• Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (LoL)
• Marcelo “coldzera” David (CS:GO)
• Nikola “NiKo” Kovač (CS:GO)
• Je-hong “ryujehong” Ryu (Overwatch)
• Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi (DOTA 2)

Best Student Game

• Hollowed
• Meaning
• Level Squared
• From Light
• Falling Sky
• Impulsion

Games for Impact

• Bury Me, My Love
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm
• Night in the Woods
• Please Knock on My Door
• What Remains of Edith Finch

Best Performance

• Ashly Burch (Aloy, Horizon: Zero Dawn)
• Brian Bloom (BJ Blazkowicz, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus)
• Claudia Black (Chloe Frazer, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy)
• Laura Bailey (Nadine Ross, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy)
• Melina Juergens (Senua, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice)

Best Game Direction

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Game of the Year

• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Persona 5
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

And here are the rest of the winners. It’s truly puzzling how some of these categories were completely shafted to a brief, off-stage mentions.

Best Audio Design — Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Best Mobile Game — Monument Valley 2
Best Handheld Game — Metroid: Samus Returns
Best VR/AR Game — Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
Best Action/Adventure Game — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Best Role Playing Game — Persona 5
Best Fighting Game — Injustice 2
Best Family Game — Super Mario Odyssey
Best Strategy Game — Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle
Best Sports/Racing Game — GT Sport
Best Anticipated Game — The Last of Us Part II
Best Independent Game — Cuphead
Best Esports Game — Overwatch
Best Esports Team — Cloud9
Best Chinese Game — jx3HD

Congratulations to all! We’ll have coverage on the new announcements and trailers shortly.

Screen Captures: The Game Awards / YouTube