The Game Awards 2021 recap — all the big winners and game reveals as they happened

Good afternoon, faithful readers. I'm Marshall Honorof, a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering all things gaming. The Game Awards are just a few hours away, and we'll be providing constant updates on our live blog until the big show is ready to start.

First things first: If you want to know more about The Game Awards' categories and nominees, check out the official Game Awards Nominees list. There are 30 different categories with five nominees in each one, meaning that there are dozens of different games and personalities who could earn an award tonight.

Just be aware that voting in each category has already closed. If you didn't get your votes in early, all you can do is wait and see how the show shakes out. Complaining about the nominees on Twitter, however, has no expiration date.

If you're looking for something to do while you wait for The Game Awards to begin, you could check out The Game Awards Rewind. This part of the official Game Awards website tracks viewership, winners and announcements from every past TGA show, dating all the way back to the very first event in 2014. This is where you can relive everything from the Breath of the Wild gameplay premiere to The Last of Us Part II sweeping a whopping seven awards.

What will we see during The Game Awards 2021? The exact reveals are anyone's guess, and developers have been keeping their mouths shut on social media. However, we can take a few educated guesses, based on past shows.

First and foremost, Sega has hinted that we'll see Sonic the Hedgehog in some way, shape, or form. We'll definitely see a trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 film, according to Sega's official Twitter account. Does this mean that we'll get a new game announcement as well? It wouldn't be that far-fetched.

It's also been a while since we heard anything about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. The Game Awards have a long history of premiering Breath of the Wild content, from its original gameplay trailer to revealing its DLC. If Breath of the Wild 2 is really slated for a 2022 launch, then this would be the perfect time to give us an official title — or a solid release date.

One other rumor is that Hideo Kojima, the idiosyncratic developer behind games such as Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding, will show up to reveal his new project. Kojima and Keighley have a friendly relationship, so this one is not impossible. On the other hand, the past few years have wreaked havoc on game development schedules, so we may also have to wait a bit longer. 

One fun aspect of The Game Awards is how many musicians and celebrities they bring in to participate. At The Game Awards 2021, we can expect to see some high-profile musical acts, as well as some famous presenters.

First and foremost, the musical guests this year will include Imagine Dragons and Sting. The Game Awards Orchestra will also be on hand to play some beloved video game tunes.

In terms of presenters, Jim Carrey, Giancarlo Esposito, Reggie Fils-Aimé, Simu Liu, Keanu Reeves and Laura Bailey, among others, will all take turns at the mic. Surprise guests are par for the course at awards shows, so we may even see an unexpected face or two.

Stay tuned over the next few hours as we stay current with all The Game Awards 2021 news.

We now have a timeline for tonight's Game Awards show. Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to proclaim that the whole event will run for three hours, plus a 30-minute pre-show. That means the event will unofficially kick of at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET / 12:30 AM BST, and run until approximately 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET / 4 AM BST.

It's a long show, which could mean we're going to get a ton of announcements. On the other hand, if past years are any indication, it could also mean that we're going to get a lot of advertisements and filler. Time will tell.

Within the last half-hour, Geoff Keighley took to Twitter to talk about tonight's musical guests. Earlier, he discussed a rehearsal with Imagine Dragons, and expressed his excitement over some special guests. Now, he's outside of Sting's dressing room, and memorialized the moment with a tweet.

One interesting thing we'll see tonight is the Intel Arc, which represents Intel's entry into the discrete GPU space. While Intel announced its Arc technology back in August, we've never actually seen it in action before. But a Game Awards tweet that went live within the last hour suggests that now might be the time.

Geoff Keighley's most recent tweet shows off the Game Awards Orchestra led by Lorne Balfe, who composed the score for the recent Black Widow film. Keighley did not go into detail about which game scores the orchestra will be performing tonight, but we imagine there'll be a few familiar favorites, as well as an exciting new debut or two.

Geoff Keighley spoke with Spotify (opens in new tab) to discuss his predictions for The Game Awards 2021, as well as to talk about the future of video game music in general. It's a fascinating read, if you're looking for something to do until the pre-show starts.

Speaking of which, the pre-show will begin in just about 45 minutes, at 4:30 PM PT / 7:30 PM ET / 12:30 AM BST. We'll have live coverage the second it begins, so please stay tuned for all the latest news.

With just half-an-hour to go until the preshow begins, it may be worth checking out a promotion from The Game Awards Twitter account. If you order food via Grubhub and use the code ENDWALKER, in honor of the new Final Fantasy XIV expansion, you can get free delivery on any order that costs more than $15. You'll also get a pizza emote to use in-game.

This isn't precisely what we expected to cover while writing about the game awards, but if you were going to order a meal anyway, you might as well save some money on it.

We are one minute away from the start of The Game Awards 2021 pre-show! Let's see what's in store.

Sydnee Goodman is hosting the pre-show, and she's promised exclusive content for "completionists" who want to stick around for the entire show.

The first game up is Tunic, a Zelda-like adventure about a charming little fox. It will be available for Xbox consoles on March 16.

The first award is Games for Impact, which has gone to Life Is Strange: True Colors

We seem to be in an ad break right now. This probably won't be the last commercial of the evening, so hang tight until the Game Awards coverage resumes. In the meantime, they're advertising Risk of Rain 2, Tribes of Midgard and Godfall.

Resident Evil Village won Reddit's award for the Game of the Year. It's not an official Game Awards category, but it's interesting to hear what Reddit thinks.

King of Fighters XV will be out on February 17 for PS4, PS5 and PC.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is also getting made into a video game.

Homeworld 3 is coming in Q4 2022 for PC, courtesy of Gearbox. 

Simple has won best esports athlete.

Natus Vincere has won best esports team.

Kkoma has won best esports coach.

2021 League of Legends World Championship has won best esports event.

Telltale Games is back, and it looks like the first game from the revived studio is based on beloved TV series The Expanse. This game will focus on Camina Drummer.

From Square Enix, we can expect to see Babylon's Fall on March 3, 2022.

Chivalry II is available for a free weekend right now. There will also be a new expansion House Aberfell in early 2022.

Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak, a big expansion for the popular action/RPG, will be available in summer 2022.

Thirsty Suitors looks like a story-driven adventure game where cooking might play a big role. It seems to be kind of a gender-swapped Scott Pilgrim.

We got a gameplay trailer for Evil West, which shows off the title's action/fantasy gameplay. The game will be out in 2022.

Have a Nice Death is a side-scrolling action game with a darkly comic art style, You play as Death and fight off any underling that gets in your way with a scythe and special skills. Early access will start in 2022.

Forza Horizon 5 has won for Best Audio Design.

Composer Takeshi Furukawa joined The Game Awards via livestream to show off a game he's been working on: Planet of Lana: An Off-Earth Odyssey. The game will be out in 2022.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax will be available on March 17 for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Steam.

The full Game Awards Show is about to begin, so stay tuned!

Here's our first musical performance of the night! Who doesn't love Sting?

We're kicking things off with a sizzle reel, highlighting some of our favorite games from 2021. Ratchet & Clank, Resident Evil, Deathloop, Far Cry — you know the drill.

The Game Awards 2021 are officially underway! Our host Geoff Keighley is here.

Keighley is taking a moment to speak out against harassment and predatory practices. This feels timely, given that Activision Blizzard employees are staging huge protests against their employer due to unfair labor practices, misogyny, and other types of bigotry.

Giancarlo Esposito is presenting the first award for Best Independent Game. The winner is Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which also wins Best Debut Indie Game.

Looks like we've finally got a new trailer for Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga. This one appears to have some gameplay in it, showcasing Senua moving through aterrifying environment, encountering mythological creatures, and reckoning with the demeaning voices in her head.

Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga will be out for PC and Xbox consoles, but there's no solid release date yet. Next up is a new game announcement.

Looks like we're getting a new Star Wars game. This one will apparently take place during the High Republic, and deal with some of that era's greatest battles. It's called Star Wars: Eclipse, and it comes courtesy of adventure game developer Quantic Dream.

Now, we've got a few shorter announcements.

Global Gaming Citizen is highlighting drag queens who have become streamers, and channeled their love of gaming into a way to build communities.

Indie World highlighted the Nintendo Switch as a great place to play independent games.

AMD put out a quick ad for its Ryzen chips, which power a variety of gaming systems.

Bethesda is giving away a whole bunch of game codes, scrolling through the screen very quickly. We've got a screenshot above, so try one and see what happens.

Lost Ark will come from Amazon games in February.

There's a new Wonder Woman game coming courtesy of Warner Bros. and Monolith.

The next award is Best Performance, which goes to Maggie Robertson from Resident Evil Village.

Here's a big announcement! Alan Wake II will come out in 2023. Remedy's Sam Lake came all the way from Finland to discuss why now is the right time for this highly requested sequel.

Unlike the first game, Alan Wake II will be a survival/horror game rather than an action game with horror elements. Remedy will provide more information next year, but we won't hear much about it before Summer 2022.

Ben Schwartz, the voice of Sonic: The Hedgehog in the feature film, is here to discuss the sequel. We're about to see the trailer, but first, Jim Carrey will appear via prerecorded video.