2018 Game Awards Predictions Scored

I didn’t get to watch the event, but by all accounts, there were meme-worthy moments aplenty at the 2018 Game Awards and a lot of cool, exciting, and unexpected announcements. But as I’ve mentioned before, I’m kind of more interested in the actual awards part of the…awards show. Therefore, when nominations for the ceremony were first announced, I made my predictions for each of the categories. I’ll bold my choice and mark with an * my choice now that we know who has actually won. By my predictions, RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 took home the most awards with five, amid a tie between it and GOD OF WAR for the real nominations with eight. But RED DEAD REDEMPTION ended up with four wins and GOD OF WAR with three at the end of the night, although you’ll see soon who took home the biggest awards…See below for how I fared!

Game of the Year

• ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY — Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft
• CELESTE — Matt Makes Games
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — Insomniac Games/Sony
• MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD — Capcom
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games*

Best Game Direction

• A WAY OUT — Hazelight Studios/EA
• DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN — Quantic Dream/Sony
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony*
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — Insomniac Games/Sony
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games

Best Ongoing Game

• DESTINY 2: FORSAKEN — Bungie/Activision
• FORTNITE — Epic Games*
• NO MAN’S SKY — Hello Games
• OVERWATCH — Blizzard Entertainment
• TOM CLANCY’S RAINBOW SIX SIEGE — Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft

Best Narrative

• DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN — Quantic Dream/Sony
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony*
• LIFE IS STRANGE 2 — Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — Insomniac Games/Sony
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games

Best Art Direction

• ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY — Ubisoft Quebec
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games*
• RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN — 3909 LLC
• OCTOPATH TRAVELER — Acquire/Square Enix/Nintendo

Best Score/Music

• CELESTE — Lena Raine
• GOD OF WAR — Bear McCreary*
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — John Paesano
• NI NO KUNI II: REVENANT KINGDOM — Joe Hisaishi
• OCTOPATH TRAVELER — Yasunori Nishiki
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Woody Jackson

Best Audio Design

• CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 — Treyarch/Activision
• FORZA HORIZON 4 — Playground Games/Microsoft
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — Insomniac Games/Sony
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games*

Best Performance

• Bryan Dechart as Connor — DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN
• Christopher Judge as Kratos — GOD OF WAR
• Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra — ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY
• Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan — RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2*
• Yuri Lowenthal as Spider-Man — MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN

Games for Impact

• 11–11 MEMORIES RETOLD — Digixart/Aardman Animations/Bandai Namco Entertainment
• CELESTE — Matt Makes Games*
• FLORENCE — Mountains
• LIFE IS STRANGE 2 — Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix
• THE MISSING: JJ MACFIELD AND THE ISLAND OF MEMORIES — White Owls/Arc System Works

Best Independent Game

• CELESTE — Matt Makes Games*
• DEAD CELLS — Motion Twin
• INTO THE BREACH — Subset Games
• RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN — 3909 LLC
• THE MESSENGER — Sabotage Studio

Best Mobile Game

• DONUT COUNTY — Ben Esposito/Annapurna Interactive
• FLORENCE — Mountains
• FORTNITE — Epic Games*
• PUBG MOBILE — Lightspeed & Quantum/Tencent Games
• REIGNS: GAME OF THRONES — Nerial/Devolver Digital

Best VR/AR Game

• ASTRO BOT RESCUE MISSION — SIE Japan Studio/Sony
• BEAT SABER — Beat Games
• FIREWALL: ZERO HOUR — First Contact Entertainment/Sony
• MOSS — Polyarc Games
• TETRIS EFFECT — Resonair/Enchance, Inc.*

Best Action Game

• CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 — Treyarch/Activision*
• DEAD CELLS — Motion Twin
• DESTINY 2: FORSAKEN — Bungie/Activision
• FAR CRY 5 — Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
• MEGA MAN 11 — Capcom

Best Action/Adventure Game

• ASSASSIN’S CREED ODYSSEY — Ubisoft Quebec/Ubisoft
• GOD OF WAR — SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony
• MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN — Insomniac Games/Sony
• RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 — Rockstar Games*
• SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER — Eidos Montreal/Square Enix

Best Role Playing Game

• DRAGON QUEST XI — Square Enix
• MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD — Capcom*
• NI NO KUNI II: REVENANT KINGDOM — Level-5/Bandai Namco Entertainment
• OCTOPATH TRAVELER — Acquire/Square Enix/Nintendo
• PILLARS OF ETERNITY II: DEADFIRE — Obsidian Entertainment

Best Fighting Game

• BLAZBLUE: CROSS TAG BATTLE — Arc System Works
• DRAGON BALL FIGHTERZ — Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment*
• SOULCALIBUR VI — Bandai Namco Entertainment
• STREET FIGHTER V — Capcom

Best Family Game

• MARIO TENNIS ACES — Camelot Software Planning/Nintendo
• NINTENDO LABO — Nintendo
• OVERCOOKED 2 — Ghost Town Games/Team17
• STARLINK: BATTLE FOR ATLAS — Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft
• SUPER MARIO PARTY — NDcube/Nintendo*

Best Strategy Game

• THE BANNER SAGA 3 — Stoic Studio/Versus Evil
• BATTLETECH — Harebrained Schems/Paradox Interactive
• FROSTPUNK — 11 bit studios
• INTO THE BREACH — Subset Games*
• VALKYRIA CHRONICLES 4 — Sega

Best Sports/Racing Game

• FIFA 19 — EA Vancouver/EA
• FORZA HORIZON 4 — Playground Games/Microsoft*
• MARIO TENNIS ACES — Camelot Software Planning/Nintendo
• NBA 2K19 — Visual Concepts/2K Sports
• PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2019 — PES Productions/Konami

Best Multiplayer Game

• CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 4 — Treyarch/Activision
• DESTINY 2: FORSAKEN — Bungie/Activision
• FORTNITE — Epic Games*
• MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD — Capcom
• SEA OF THIEVES — Rare/Microsoft

Best Student Game

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• COMBAT 2018 — Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
• DASH QUASAR — UC Santa Cruz
• JERA — DigiPen Bilbao, Spain*
• LIFF — ISTART Digital, France
• RE: CHARGE — MIT

Best Debut Indie Game

• DONUT COUNTY — Ben Esposito/Annapurna Interactive
• FLORENCE — Mountains
• MOSS — POLYARC GAMES
• THE MESSENGER — Sabotage Studio*
• YOKU’S ISLAND EXPRESS — Villa Gorilla

[I won’t even try to understand the esports nominations (although in hindsight I’m really glad SonicFox won and I loved his acceptance speech), but I did pick for…]

Content Creator of the Year

• Dr. Lupo
• Myth
• Ninja*
• Pokimane
• Willyrex

Wow, who knew I would be better at guessing video game stuff than awards shows for other media. But still, of the 23 categories I predicted for, I only got 13 of them right…It’s really cool that GOD OF WAR won game of the year, but I also haven’t played a single video game this year. I still like them though!