‘The Game Awards 2014′ Will Feature 12 World Premieres

With E3, Gamescom and TGS done and dusted for the year, it’s time for the video game industry to turn to the end of year celebrations. This year the celebratory games bash is called The Game Awards and it looks to replace the Spike Video Game Awards that have been a staple the past few years.

Rather than the Spike-led affair which was often filled with awkward comedy and celebrity cameos, The Game Awards look to be a little more serious. Journalist and producer Geoff Keighley is in charge of things, after having parted ways with Spike TV, and is working with Sony, Microsoft and several game publishers to put this new event together while Spike TV seems at a loss without Keighley spearheading their own awards program for 2014.

So far, not a great deal is known about the event. However, having taken to Twitch to describe The Game Awards ahead of its December 5th commencement, Keighley suggests that there will be plenty of exciting reveals to look out for.

At first he told fans that “You should set your expectations at nothing and you’ll be pleasantly surprised if anything happens” but he soon clarified that:

“I reviewed something today which is kind of a out of the left field announcement, which I wasn’t sure of how big it was gonna be, but i saw the assets and I’m like “wow, people are gonna go crazy for this.”

He further explained that although there will be over a dozen world premieres, not all of them will be “world level, megaton breaking announcements.” Instead, we can expect “cool announcements” and “really meaningful updates” about the games that are scheduled for release within the next year. That’s incredibly vague but thanks to recent industry murmurings we can at least speculate on what The Game Awards 2014 may have in store.

The most likely announcement goes to God of War. While ex-God of War game director David Jaffe’s recent trolling of fans was hilarious, there’s good reason to think that a new God of War is in development. As an integral part of the God of War team for so long, Jaffe could very well have insider knowledge although he is currently working on an indie title of his own that’ll debut during the PlayStation Experience event also in Vegas this week on December 6-7.

We last saw Kratos in God of War: Ascension early last year but the prequel did not sell as well as Sony would have liked. It also wasn’t as good as fans would have liked but with the power of the PS4, the dev team the chance to make a game that’s bigger and better than the God of War outings on PS3.

Kratos’ giant battles have always been famous for their sheer size and visual spectacle, and the new generation of home console gives them a chance to take that further. God of War developer Sony Santa Monica teased a godly announcement before E3 of this year, further adding to speculation.

Also as big (but perhaps a little less likely) is the long overdue announcement of Fallout 4. In April 2013, Bethesda confirmed that they had concluded development on Skyrim‘s DLC and would be moving onto their next project. We can only hope it’s a successor to their Fallout 3 (New Vegas aside) and if it is, they’ve had at least a year and a half to work on this unannounced project. Their current project could be a new IP altogether but with Keighley tweeting about a meeting with Bethesda and with the company having worked with Keighley on Award Show announcements (they announced Skyrim at the Spike VGAs in 2010), it’s entirely possible that we’ll get a reveal this Friday.

As for the more likely announcements and reveals, we have The Game Awards partners Sony and Microsoft to thank for that. Having been rather quiet for the latter half of the year, we can probably expect Rise of the Tomb Raider to show its Xbox-timed-exclusive face along with Halo 5 which plenty are excited about given this month’s arrival of the multiplayer beta. Uncharted 4 also seems like an obvious choice for the PlayStation crowd but we may also get an official showing Guerrilla Games’ leaked title too.

What is confirmed is that there will be an equal balance between game reveals and awards (see the nominees here). That’s a balance that Keighley will want to get right to establish The Game Awards as the gaming awards show of the year, even more so as Spike doesn’t seem willing (or able) to host an awards show without Keighley’s help or his industry contacts.

We’ll know more on December 5th when the inaugural show takes place.

Source: The Game Awards Twitch

‘The Game Awards 2014′ Will Feature 12 World Premieres