Control and The Outer Worlds headline The Game Awards 2019 nominees
By Jennifer Locke last updated
A lot of good nominations this year, and some snubs as always.

What you need to know
- The Game Awards take place on December 12th, 2019.
- Fur out of six Game of the Year nominees are new IP.
- You can now vote to see which games you'd like to win.
The Game Awards 2019 kick off next month on December 12th, and show creator and host Geoff Keighley has revealed this year's full list of nominees. It looks like Control and The Outer Worlds have been quite popular with a lot of people, as has Death Stranding, despite its divisive reception. Gears 5 nabbed three nominations for Best Audio Design, Best Performance, and Best Action Game.
You'll notice a couple of recent releases are notably left out, including Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Pokémon Sword and Shield. That's because the cutoff date for eligibility was November 15th, the day they all released. Unfortunately, the voting committee did not have enough hands-on time with any of them to be considered. You can read the full list of nominees below.
Game of the Year
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Resident Evil 2
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- The Outer Worlds
Best Game Direction
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Resident Evil 2
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Outer Wilds
Best Narrative
- A Plague Tale: Innocence
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Disco Elysium
- The Outer Worlds
Best Art Direction
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Gris
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
Best Score/Music
- Cadence of Hyrule
- Death Stranding
- Devil May Cry 5
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
Best Audio Design
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Gears 5
- Resident Evil 2
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Best Performance
- Ashly Burch as Parvati Holcomb, The Outer Worlds
- Courtney Hopeas Jesse Faden, Control
- Laura Bailey as Kait Diaz, Gears 5
- Mads Mikkelsen as Cliff, Death Stranding
- Matthew Porretta as Dr. Casper Darling, Control
- Norman Reedus as Sam Porter Bridges, Death Stranding
Games for Impact
- Concrete Genie
- Gris
- Kind Words
- Life Is Strange 2
- Sea of Solitude
Best Ongoing Game
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Fortnite
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Best Independent Game
- Baba Is You
- Disco Elysium
- Katana ZERO
- Outer Wilds
- Untitled Goose Game
Best Mobile Game
- Call of Duty: Mobile
- GRINDSTONE
- Sayonara Wild Hearts
- Sky: Children of Light
- What the Golf?
Best Community Support
- Apex Legends
- Destiny 2
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Fortnite
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
Best VR/AR Game
- Asgard's Wrath
- Blood & Truth
- Beat Saber
- No Man's Sky
- Trover Saves the Universe
Best Action Game
- Apex Legends
- Astral Chain
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Devil May Cry 5
- Gears 5
- Metro Exodus
Best Action/Adventure Game
- Borderlands 3
- Control
- Death Stranding
- Resident Evil 2
- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Best RPG
- Disco Elysium
- Final Fantasy XIV
- Kingdom Hearts III
- Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
- The Outer Worlds
Best Fighting Game
- Dead or Alive 6
- Jump Force
- Mortal Kombat 11
- Samurai Showdown
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Best Family Game
- Luigi's Mansion 3
- Ring Fit Adventure
- Super Mario Maker 2
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
- Yoshi's Crafted World
Best Strategy Game
- Age of Wonders: Planetfall
- Anno 1800
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Total War: Three Kingdoms
- Tropico 6
- Wargroove
Best Sports/Racing Game
- Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled
- DiRT Rally 2.0
- eFootball Pro Evolution Soccer 2020
- F1 2019
- FIFA 20
Best Multiplayer Game
- Apex Legends
- Borderlands 3
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
- Tetris 99
- Tom Clancy's The Division 2
Fresh Indie Game Presented by Subway
- ZA/UM for Disco Elysium
- Nomada Studio for Gris
- DeadToast Entertainment for My Friend Pedro
- Mobius Digital for Outer Wilds
- Mega Crit for Slay the Spire
- House House for Untitled Goose Game
Content Creator of the Year
- Courage - Jack Dunlop
- Dr. Lupo - Benjamin Lupo
- Ewok - Soleil Wheeler
- Grefg - David Martínez
- Shroud - Michael Grzesiek
ESPORTS AWARDS
Best Esports Game
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
- DOTA2
- Fortnite
- League of Legends
- Overwatch
Best Esports Player
- Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf
- Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok
- Luka "Perkz" Perkovic
- Oleksandr "S1mple" Kostyliev
- Jay "Sinatraa" Won
Best Esports Team
- Astralis
- G2 Esports
- OG
- San Francisco Shock
- Team Liquid
Best Esports Event
- 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals
- EVO 2019
- Fortnite World Cup
- IEM Katowice 2019
- League of Legends World Championship 2019
- The International 2019
Best Esports Coach
- Eric "adreN" Hoag
- Nu-ri "Cain" Jang
- Fabian "GrabbZ" Lohmann
- Kim "Kkoma" Jeong-gyun
- Titouan "Sockshka" Merloz
- Danny "Zonic" Sørensen
Best Esports Host
- Eefje "Sjokz" Depoortere
- Alex "Machine" Richardson
- Paul "Redeye" Chaloner
- Alex "Goldenboy" Mendez
- Duan "Candice" Yu-Shuang
Xbox (opens in new tab)
Main
Jennifer Locke has been playing video games nearly her entire life, and is very happy Xbox is growing a stronger first-party portfolio. You can find her obsessing over Star Wars and other geeky things on Twitter @JenLocke95.
-
Disco Elysium better win best narrative.
-
GoY goes to RE:2 for me. Sorry Outer Worlds I still love you.
-
Proof that these awards are biased. Gears 5 isn't in the list for Game Of The Year. But Death Stranding is? A gane critics and fans have expressed many mixed feelings about. Geoff has been mad for Kojima over the last 3 awards years. He's had him on stage twice. I'm going to bet straight up DS wins game of the year. Even though sales have dropped off a cliff. And alot of fans didn't like it. But it's Kojima. So he will win.
-
I'm actually glad that the GotY list is mostly new IP's, it shows that developers taking risks on new properties is actually paying off and should hopefully lead to more new games rather than just the same boring characters we deal with every year. As an aside, I can't speak for Death Stranding but I got bored of Gears 5 pretty quickly, I finished the campaign, and I tried getting back into Horde, and playing Escape but the new changes didn't grab me as much as what was brought into Gears of War 4. I haven't played the game since a couple weeks after it released. So yeah, in my mind it's definitely no GotY, Control is probably my choice in terms of level of enjoyment.
-
But that's not the metric. The metric is game if the year. Not new IP best game of the year. Gears 5 isn't even in thr best performance category. How is it not? Digital Foundry said it is the best overall rltechnical performance on console. And they also confirmed its thr best performer on PC. Going as far as to say Gears 5 on PC is the most comprehensive Performer across all its settings thr PC has ever had. It's all a bit of a joke.
Get the best of Windows Central in in your inbox, every day!
Thank you for signing up to Windows Central. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.