While The Game Awards is primarily focused on doling out awards to the top games in any given year, the event has also become known for its surprise announcements and reveals. Similar to E3, The Game Awards features a number of major "world premieres" where game developers announce their upcoming games, or showcase brand new trailers for some of their previously-announced projects.
The Game Awards 2020 featured a number of big and surprising announcements. This included the next DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, some of the new crossover content coming to Fortnite, some brand new gameplay reveals, and some surprising trailers.
Here are all the big announcements from The Game Awards 2020.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
The Game Awards 2020 set the tone right off the bat with the massive announcement that Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 will be joining the roster of playable characters. Sephiroth joins Cloud Strife as the second Final Fantasy 7 character for the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster, with his reveal trailer showing the villain going toe to toe with iconic Nintendo characters and showcasing his impressive abilities. Better yet, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fans don't have to wait long to try Sephiroth out for themselves, as the character is going to be added to the game at some point later this month.
The Initiative
Years ago, Microsoft put together a dream team of developers to make what was called an "AAAA" game. Rumors have swirled about what that game was for years, and now it's finally been confirmed. Microsoft's dream team studio, The Initiative, is working on a brand new Perfect Dark game, set in a futuristic world ravaged by ecological disasters. The cinematic trailer confirmed the game's title and the return of protagonist Joanna Dark, but fans will have to wait longer for a more substantial look at what the new Perfect Dark has to offer.
Back 4 Blood
While there wasn't any gameplay shown for Perfect Dark, Back 4 Blood did get its gameplay reveal at The Game Awards 2020. The spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead franchise, Back 4 Blood looks like the natural next step for the series. The gameplay shown was pre-alpha, but it's already looking very impressive from both a visual and gameplay standpoint. Needless to say, fans of Left 4 Dead should have a lot to look forward to when Back 4 Blood launches June 21, 2021 for current- and next-gen consoles, as well as PC.
The Callisto Protocol
Dead Space creator Glen Schofield's Striking Distance Studios unveiled one of the most promising-looking games at The Game Awards 2020 in the form of The Callisto Protocol. Clearly meant to be a spiritual successor to the beloved Dead Space franchise, The Callisto Protocol is set in the year 2320 on Jupiter's moon Callisto. The game is a single-player, third-person survival-horror game, and will apparently feature some rather grotesque monsters that players encounter. Schofield said that his goal is to make the scariest game ever made for PC and consoles, and horror fans will find out if he and his team succeed when the game launches in 2022.
Dragon Age 4
BioWare promised that it would be showing Dragon Age 4 at The Game Awards 2020, and it delivered on that promise. While no Dragon Age 4 gameplay was seen at the big show, fans were treated to another cinematic trailer, which concluded with the confirmation that Solas will be featured in the new game.
Crimson Desert
The Game Awards 2020 had many cinematic trailers, but it also included some gameplay presentations as well. One of the most memorable of these was Crimson Desert's gameplay, which looked like a medieval fantasy take on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with breathtakingly realistic graphics, dragons, and more. Crimson Desert's impressive gameplay trailer left the internet buzzing, and it will definitely be interesting to see more of the game next year.
Call of Duty: Warzone's Rebirth Island
Originally, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone Season 1 was meant to launch on December 10, coinciding with The Game Awards. However, Activision ended up pushing the Season 1 start date back to December 16 for unexplained reasons. Regardless, it seems as though Call of Duty fans have a ton of new content to look forward to come Season 1's start, including plenty of content for Black Ops Cold War as well as the Warzone battle royale.
Arguably the most exciting changes are coming to Call of Duty: Warzone with Season 1 on December 16. The Call of Duty: Warzone Gulag is getting a makeover, plus players will have a new map to battle it out on in the form of Rebirth Island. Rebirth Island will provide close quarters gameplay that should be a stark contrast with the standard Verdansk battle royale map, and fans will be able to explore it for themselves come next week.
Ark 2 With Vin Diesel
One of the more confusing moments of The Game Awards 2020 was when Ark 2 was announced, with the game apparently featuring film actor Vin Diesel in a starring role. The Ark 2 Vin Diesel announcement was plenty unexpected, but what was arguably even more unexpected was the Ark animated series announcement. The Ark animated series is due for release in 2022, and it is coming with an absolutely all-star voice cast, including Elliot Page, Gerard Butler, Michelle Yeoh, and many more.
Evil Dead
For quite some time now, Bruce Campbell has been rumored to be reprising his role as Ash from Evil Dead in Mortal Kombat 11. That has never come to pass, but that doesn't mean fans won't get to play as Ash in a video game. The Evil Dead video game looks to be a 4-player co-op game of some sort where players fight off hordes of the undead, with Ash serving as one of the playable characters.
Returnal
Housemarque is best-known for its smaller scale bullet hell games, but that will change with Returnal. Returnal looks to be the largest-scale project that Housemarque has tackled to date, combining sci-fi, horror, and action game elements to create something totally unique. The Game Awards viewers weren't just treated to a Returnal gameplay trailer, though, they also learned its release date. As it so happens, Returnal is launching sooner than expected, with the game launching March 19, 2021 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive.
Fortnite
Many of the big Fortnite announcements were leaked ahead of time, but not all of them. At The Game Awards 2020, it was confirmed that the previously-leaked Halo content would indeed be coming to the Fortnite battle royale, including Master Chief as a playable character and the Blood Gulch map for Creative Mode. Beyond that, players were also treated to a Red vs. Blue skit highlighting the Halo content coming to Fortnite that even featured a cameo from Ninja.
The Fortnite surprises didn't end there, though. It was also confirmed that the game would be crossing over with AMC's The Walking Dead TV series by making Daryl Dixon and Michonne playable characters. It seems Fortnite is crossing over with just about everything, and Epic Games teased that Season 5 is only getting started.
Mass Effect
There were plenty of rumored games for The Game Awards 2020, but it's safe to say no one expected to see anything from the new Mass Effect. While most assumed Dragon Age 4 would be BioWare's sole contribution to The Game Awards, the critically-acclaimed studio surprised everyone with the first look at the new Mass Effect game. Based on the trailer, it looks as though Liara T'Soni will play a central role in the game's plot, and could very well even be the player character, if some fan theories are to be believed. However, that's just speculation at this time, and Mass Effect fans likely have a long wait ahead of them before they'll get to learn more concrete details.