Special Feature: The Game Awards 2018 — The Game Reveals

The Game Awards has become a big opportunity for developers and publishers to reveal or show off their upcoming games, and it’s only getting larger every year. It’s almost hard to remember the first show a mere four years ago, when it was a low-budget event that did its best to replicate the non-cringeworthy parts of the Spike TV Video Game Awards. That’s mostly what happened, and it’s only grown since then.

Let’s be honest: The reveals are the real reason why people watch this show. The awards often feel secondary, which goes double for those in categories won by indie games. There were several reveals to talk about, even if some teased by so-called insiders were no-shows.

Several titles were revealed during the pre-show. Journey to the Savage Planet from Typhoon Studios was shown, a first-person adventure game from a company started by Alex Hutchinson, who worked on several Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed games at Ubisoft. It will release for PS4, XB1, and PC in 2019. Survival adventure game Among Trees was also revealed, which will release initially through Steam Early Access next year. Comedic adventure title The Stanley Parable is coming to consoles next year, with extra content that will also release for the PC version. The “consoles” were notably not named.

The first big reveal of the night was for a big surprise that thankfully didn’t leak beforehand: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order. It’s not too surprising that another game in this franchise is coming, even though it’s been over nine years since the last installment. It is surprising that it’s coming exclusively to Switch, and will be published by Nintendo themselves. It’s also being developed by Team Ninja, of Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame. It will release sometime in 2019.

One game announcement that was leaked beforehand was Far Cry: New Dawn, just after Ubisoft teased the game on Wednesday. It will take place 17 years after the end of Far Cry 5 in the same fictional location of Hope County, Montana, which has been ravaged by a nuclear war. The box art for the game leaked shortly before the show started, which attracted attention by showing two black women front and center. They’re the villains, but it should mean interesting things for the rest of the characters. The game will be a standalone expansion for Far Cry 5 (which are popular these days), and will release on February 15th for PS4, XB1, and PC for $39.99.

Two Bioware projects were featured. A new Anthem trailer was shown, which should kick off the pre-release marketing campaign. This is a live service title, meaning will receive far more content after its initial release on February 22nd. As promised, a teaser for the next Dragon Age game with the words “The Dread Wolf Rises” was provided. And man, “teaser” is right, because nearly nothing was shown besides that. It was previously stated that the game is at least three years off, and given that it’s been four years since Dragon Age Inquisition released, hopefully fans are the patient type.

In another announcement leaked before the reveal, Crash Team Racing is being remade in the form of Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled. This version will be the same as the original PSOne classic title, except with a far prettier presentation. It will include all the modes from the original game with the addition of online play, and will release for PS4, XB1, and Switch on June 21st.

One of the biggest announcements was for The Outer Worlds, a new action RPG from Obsidian Entertainment. The game represents a fusion of the styles from the Fallout and Mass Effect games, with the Obsidian developers in attendance and the trailer hammering home how its development is headed by team members who started the Fallout series — a franchise going through a rough time recently. (They were certainly less subtle than Chris Avellone in taking shots at Bethesda.) The trailer briefly went through several gameplay features, enough to show the first-person shooting, exploration, and robust dialogue system. Obsidian was recently acquired by Microsoft, but this game was in development prior to that, and is being published by Take Two. It will release sometime in 2019 for PS4, XB1, and PC.

Rumors about Mortal Kombat 11’s announcement have swirled around for months, and it was finally announced at The Game Awards through a CG video. It featured Scorpion and Raiden battering each other gruesomely, further proving how a game can’t be too violent. Interestingly, there were two Scorpions in the trailer, the second of which was wearing his Mortal Kombat II outfit, showing how this game will have multiple variations. It will also include the customization system from Injustice 2, which appears to be taking the place of Mortal Kombat X’s style-switching system. The full reveal is being saved until January 17th, while the game will release for PS4, XB1, Switch (!!), and PC on April 23rd.

【本日発売】の『大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ SPECIAL』に #ペルソナ５ から、我らがジョーカーが参戦決定！　怪盗団のチカラ、とくと世界にお見せしよう！　#スマブラカウントダウン　#p5a　#PQ2 pic.twitter.com/RKGFlLMp1n

— モルガナ_ペルソナ広報 (@p_kouhou) December 7, 2018

Nintendo really brought the surprise announcements here, with another one being the announcement of the first DLC character that will come in the first Challenger Pack in today’s release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This will be Joker from Persona 5, revealed through a teaser video featuring the voices of several characters from the game. He wasn’t shown in action, and nor was he given a date, but several who watched this live were too shocked to worry about this. It was previously mentioned that all DLC characters will come with a stage and theme, which, yes, means Persona music is coming to Smash Bros. Joker should also receive an Amiibo.

The highlights of the show were the smaller games, since most AAA games are typically revealed at larger venues, or at events solely for the game. Hades from Supergiant Games was revealed, who previously developed hits like Bastion and Transistor. In a twist, the roguelike dungeon crawler is now available as an Early Access title on the newly-launched Epic Games Store for $19.99. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, a game whose development is headed by Assassin’s Creed’s Patrice Desilets, was also given a new trailer. It will release on PS4, XB1, and PC sometime next year.

Dauntless was shown again, a free-to-play Monster Hunter-like co-op game featured on the show in 2016. It will release for PS4, XB1, Switch, and PC on April 11th, and the developers at Phoenix Labs are hoping to have cross-play across all platforms.

Hello Games of No Man’s Sky revealed their next project, which thankfully isn’t as ambitious as their previous game: The Last Campfire. It’s an adventure game filled with puzzles, where the main characters stumble upon a larger journey than expected while searching for a way home. No platforms or release timeframe were confirmed.

Atlas was revealed from the developers behind Ark: Survival Evolved at Wildcard, an open world pirate-themed survival MMO game. Exploring environments and searching for treasure will be significant aspects of the title, combined with, interestingly, fighting monsters. It will release for PC first, and subsequently on Xbox One. Also shown was Scavengers, an Ice Age survival game with multiplayer shooter elements from new developer Midwinter Entertainment. A testing session will be held for the game sometime next year, but details about its release are scarce.

The Pathless was announced by ABZU developer Giant Squid Studios, a supernatural adventure game that appears to be entirely set in a forest. Not much of it was shown or revealed, but they’ll say more before it arrives on PS4 and PC in 2019. Survived By was also revealed by Human Head Studios, who was working on Prey 2 before it was cancelled, and assisted with hilariously bad Square Enix title The Quiet Man. It’s a free-to-play MMO bullet hell game where every time a player dies, they’re survived by (get it!?) someone else who carries their legacy. The game is now available through Steam Early Access.

The first trailer for the crowdfunded Psychonauts 2 from Double Fine Productions was shown, a game announced at The Game Awards in 2015, which looks to retain all the hallmarks of the first game. Several characters are returning from its predecessor, including protagonist Raz, who can still use his psychic powers. The game was originally due for release this year, but received a lengthy delay for polishing concerns.

Downloadable content was also announced for existing games. Rocket League received the McLaren 570S car pack, which released right after the show for $1.99. The Darkness Among Us DLC pack was announced for asymmetrical multiplayer game Dead by Daylight, which will include a new survivor, new killer, new map, and an exclusive item. It will arrive on December 11th.

There were a lot of reveals, but some attention was given to the awards and celebrations. The show started with an address featuring Shawn Layden, Phil Spencer, and Reggie Fils-Aimé from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, respectively. This was put together by organizer and presenter Geoff Keighley to celebrate gaming, and a way to tell the audience to grow out of console wars. The Industry Icon award was given to Visual Concepts president Greg Thomas, who develops the NBA 2K games. SonicFox accepting his award for Best eSports Player was also a thing of beauty.

It sure seemed like Red Dead Redemption 2 would sweep all the awards, but it received several of them due to the Game of the Year award being given to God of War. All the Game of the Year nominees had parts of their themes played by an orchestra, which was a treat to see and hear, especially for small games like Celeste.

The Game Reveals Awards didn’t provide the level of surprises many expected, as there’s disappointment about titles like Metroid Prime 4, a new Alien (or Aliens) game, and Square Enix’s Avengers game. (At least Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 was there to partially make up for the last one.) But it’s always good to not to have your expectations too high, and it might be a good idea to stop listening to some insiders. Despite that, it was a fun show that thankfully didn’t reach the lows that the Spike TV Video Game Awards hit during several broadcasts.

If you want to watch the entire long-as-all-hell thing, the archive is here. Clips of all the announcements and moments mentioned above are also available on The Game Awards’ YouTube channel.