The Last of Us Part II wins Game of the Year, sweeps major categories at 2020 Game Awards
Naughty Dog, Sony Interactive Entertainment
In a year when many of us were hunkered down in our homes playing videogames because of a global pandemic and there wasn't much else to do, it's the game set in a post-apocalyptic pandemic hellscape that wins Game of the Year.
The Last of Us Part II, unsurprisingly, won top honors at the 2020 Game Awards, held Thursday night, as well as sweeping many of the major categories. Those include wins for Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Audio Design, Best Performance (for Laura Baily as Abby), Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Action/Adventure.
Tenet director Christopher Nolan presented the award during the virtual event, hosted and produced by Geoff Knightley. "Everyone at Naughty Dog, I can't wait to hug and high five and get drunk with each and every one of you. That's gonna have to wait until next year," Neil Druckmann, the creative director on The Last of Us Part II and now co-president of game developer Naughty Dog Studios, said in accepting the award.
"More than anything, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say this, we'd like to thank our friends and family who stood by us and supported us throughout us making this game," he added. "You inspire us not only to make better, more meaningful games, but to improve how we make games."
Final Fantasy VII Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and Hades also took home prominent awards, as presented by a roster of celebrities that included Captain Marvel's Brie Larson, Wonder Woman 1984's Gal Gadot, Tenet's John David Washington, John Wick's Keanu Reeves, Uncharted voice actor Nolan North, Spider-Man and now Uncharted movie star Tom Holland, and veteran videogame voice actor Troy Baker.
See the list of winners below.
Game of the Year
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)Hades (Supergiant Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)—WINNER
Best Game Direction
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)—WINNER
Best Narrative
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (George Kamitani)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Kazushige Nojima, Motomu Toriyama, Hiroki Iwaki, Sachie Hirano)
Ghost of Tsushima (Ian Ryan, Liz Albl, Patrick Downs, Jordan Lemos)
Hades (Greg Kasavin)
The Last of Us Part II (Neil Druckmann, Halley Gross)—WINNER
Best Art Direction
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)—WINNER
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)
Best Score and Music
DOOM Eternal (Mick Gordon)
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Nobuo Uematsu, Masahi Hamauzu, Mitsuto Suzuki)—WINNER
Hades (Darren Korb)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Gareth Coker)
The Last of Us Part II (Gustavo Santaolala, Mac Quale)
Best Audio Design
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
Resident Evil 3 (Capcom)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)—WINNER
Best Performance
Ashley Johnson as Ellie, The Last of Us Part II
Laura Bailey as Abby, The Last of Us Part II—WINNER
Daisuke Tsuji as Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima
Logan Cunningham as Hades, Hades
Nadji Jeter as Miles Morales, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
Games for Impact
If Found… (DREAMFELL/Annapurna)
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition (Cardboad Computer/Annapurna)
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
Tell Me Why (Dontnod Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)—WINNER
Through the Darkest of Times (Paintbucket Games)
Best Ongoing
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Call of Duty Warzone (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)—WINNER
Best Indie
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Hades (Supergiant Games)—WINNER
Spelunky 2 (Mossmouth)
Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games)
Best Mobile, Presented by LG WING, Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon
Among Us (InnerSloth)—WINNER
Call of Duty Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
Legends of Runeterra (Riot Games)
Pokémon Café Mix (Genius Sonority)
Best Community Support
Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Fall Guys (Mediatonic/Devolver)—WINNER
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)Valorant (Riot Games)
Innovation in Accessibility
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Grounded (Obsidian/Xbox Game Studios)
HyperDot (Tribe Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)—WINNER
Watch Dogs Legion (Ubisoft Toronto/Ubisoft)
Best VR/AR
Dreams (Media Molecule/SIE)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)—WINNER
MARVEL’s Iron Man VR (Camoflaj/SIE)
STAR WARS: Squadrons (Motive Studios/EA)
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Skydance Interactive)
Best Action
DOOM Eternal (id Software/Bethesda)
Hades (Supergiant Games)—WINNER
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Nioh 2 (Team Ninja)
Streets of Rage 4 (DotEmu)
Best Action/Adventure
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch/SIE)
MARVEL’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games/SIE)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios/Xbox Game Studios)
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Respawn/EA)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog/SIE)—WINNER
Best Role Playing
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Square Enix)—WINNER
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
Persona 5 Royal (Atlus, P Studios)
Wasteland 3 (inXile Entertainment/Koch)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Best Fighting
Granblue Fantasy: Versus (Arc System Works/Cygames)
Mortal Kombat 11/Ultimate (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)—WINNER
Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (Dimps/Capcom)
One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai-Namco)
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe: Late[cl-r] (French Bread/Arc System Works)
Best Family
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)—WINNER
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (Toys for Bob/Activision)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (Velan Studios/Nintendo)
Minecraft Dungeons (Mojang/Double Eleven/Xbox Game Studios)
Paper Mario: The Origami King (Intelligent Systems/Nintendo)
Best Sim/Strategy
Crusader Kings III (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox)
Desperados III (Mimimi Games/THQN)
Gears Tactics (Splash Damage/The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo/Xbox Game Studios)—WINNER
XCOM: Chimera Squad (Firaxis/2K)
Best Sports/Racing
Dirt 5 (Codemasters Cheshire/Codemasters)
F1 2020 (Codemasters Birmingham /Codemasters)
FIFA 21 (EA Vancouver/EA Sports)
NBA 2K21 (Visual Concepts/2K)
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 (Vicarious Visions/Activision)—WINNER
Best Multiplayer
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo)
Among Us (InnerSloth)—WINNER
Call of Duty: Warzone (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic/Devolver)
Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Debut Game
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio/Devolver)
Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry/Playstack)
Raji: An Ancient Epic (Nodding Heads Games)
Röki (Polygon Treehouse/CI Games)
Phasmophobia (Kinetic Games)—WINNER
Content Creator of the Year, Presented by Adobe
Alanah Pearce
NickMercs
TimtheTatman
Jay Ann Lopez
Valkyrae—WINNER
Best Esports Game
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Raven/Activision)
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
League of Legends (Riot Games)—WINNER
Valorant (Riot Games)
Best Esports Athlete
Ian “Crimsix” Porter / Call of Duty
Heo “Showmaker” Su / League of Legends
Kim “Canyon” Geon-bu / League of Legends—WINNER
Anthony “Shotzzy” Cuevas-Castro / Call of Duty
Matthieu “ZywOo” Herbaut / CS:GO
Best Esports Team
DAMWON Gaming / League of Legends
Dallas Empire / Call of Duty
San Francisco Shock / Overwatch League
G2 Esports / League of Legends—WINNER
Team Secret / DOTA2
Best Esports Event
BLAST Premier: Spring E2020 European Finals (CS:GO)
Call of Duty League Championship 2020
IEM Katowice 2020 (CS:GO)
League of Legends World Championship 2020—WINNER
Overwatch League Grand Finals 2020
Best Esports Host
Eefje “Sjokz” Depoortere—WINNER
Alex “Machine” Richardson
Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez
James “Dash” Patterson
Jorien “Sheever” van der Heijden
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