The Game Awards 2021: Every result, winner, announcement, trailer and more

After a show of many moments and many more trailers, it's time for the big moment. The Game of the Year nominees are Deathloop, It Takes Two, Metroid Dread, Psychonauts 2, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Resident Evil Village. The award is presented by Neill Druckmann, who presented last year's winner The Last of Us Part 2.

The Game of the Year for 2021 is It Takes Two!

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss appeared via video to introduce a trailer for their upcoming Matrix: Resurrections flick.

That wasn't all the duo came with though, as we also got another look at The Matrix Awakens, an "interactive experience" set in The Matrix. It was the final world premiere from The Game Awards, but it showed very little in the way of gameplay. But there's good news! You can download and play it right now if you own a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S. 

Arc Raiders is a new IP from Swedish developers Embark, and it looks pretty darn sweet. We've seen a lot, a lot, a lot of trailers by this point, but Arc Raiders managed to stand out.

It's practically Master Chief week. After Halo Infinite's campaign launched on Wednesday, The Game Awards presented the first trailer for the live-action Halo origina series, which will stream on Paramount+. It was a short and sweet trailer, though it was revealed that the show would launch in 2022.

Deathloop then picked up yet another award as it won Best Game Direction. It won the distinction over Returnal, It Takes Two, Psychonauts 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. 

A flurry of award announcements were then made:

• League of Legends won Best Esports Game.
• It Takes Two won Best Family Game.
• Guilty Gear Strive won Best Fighting Game.
• Age of Empires IV won Best Strategy Game.
• Resident Evil 4 VR won Best AR/VR Game.
• Elden Ring won Most Anticipated Game. 

Elden Ring winning Most Anticipated Game was fortuitous, because next up was a new trailer for the upcoming epic. 

Imagine Dragons hit the stage next in a performance that celebrated the 10 year anniversary of Supergiant Games, the company behind Bastion, Hades and Transistor. 

Following the little ditty, the Game Awards award for Innovation in Accessibility went to Forza Horizon 5. 

It's time to boldly go where no man has gone before. Star Trek is coming to Xbox and Playstation in the form of Resurgence, a game from Dramatic Labs, which features writers formerly from Telltale Games.

Reggie Fils-Aime came out next to reveal the winner of Best Ongoing Game. Final Fantasy 14 won the award, beating out Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, Fortnite and Genshin Impact. 

Iron Galaxy and Epic Games are teaming up for what looks like a battle royale brawler in Rumbleverse. It'll be free to play, with early access beginning Feb. 8. 

A Plague Tale: Innocence is getting a sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem. You can check out a trailer for the game, which comes to Game Pass next year, below.

Crossfire X, an Xbox exclusive, is coming February 10, as revealed in this new trailer. 

Metroid Dread won the award for Best Action Adventure game, beating out Psychonauts 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Resident Evil Village.

The big win was followed by a surprise: Spice Wars, a Dune real-time strategy game. We didn't get to see gameplay, but it is coming next year.   

Will Arnett and Ashly Burch came out next to present a trailer to Tiny Tina's Wonderland, which also features Andy Samburg and looks dope. 

A quick little announcement came next: Among Us is hitting VR. That was followed by a new metal rhythm action game, Metal: Hellsinger. 

Trailers, trailers, trailers. Following the exciting look into Suicide Squad, we got another trio of trailers.

First up was for Forspoken, the game formerly known as Project Athia. We got an announce date for the title: May 24, 2022. Second was Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, and finally was a look into Saints Row. We got a release date for that, too: August 22, 2022.

The Mandalorian's Ming-Na Wen took the stage next to announce the winner of Best Narrative. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy won the category, beating out Deathloop, It Takes Two, Life is Strange: True Colors and Psychonauts 2. 

Next up was a trailer for brand new and extremely chill-looking game Tchia, which is coming next year. 

Following the Best Narrative victory of Marvel's Guardian squad, it was DC's gang of baddies' time to shine. We got to see the long-awaited Suicide Squad game in greater detail than ever before, with a trailer showing its combat, platforming and a clash between the Suicide Squad and The Flash. 

The original battle royale game is losing its pricetag. Following its popular successor Fortnite, PUBG will be free to play from January 12 and will be integrating skins and weapons from other IPs, although none have yet been announced. 

Our old friend Hideo Kojima appeared by video to introduce Nightmare Alley, a flick made by his old friend Guillermo del Toro. Del Toro then appeared via video himself to announce the Best Art Direction category, which was won by Deathloop.

Keighley returned to the stage to reveal the winners of the Player's Voice categories, which are the ones voted on exclusively by the public. Winners were:

• Halo Infinite for Game of the Year.
• Tales of Arise for Best RPG.
• Nier Replicant for Best Score and Music.
• Dream for Content Creator of the Year.
• It Takes Two for Best Multiplayer Game. 

WNBA player and streamer Aerial Powers presented Best Mobile Game, which was won by Genshin Impact.

What a trio of trailers this was. 

Lord of the Rings: Gollum was announced in 2019, but we've seen relatively little of it since then. The little rascal Gollum appeared in a new trailer at the Game Awards, though sadly we didn't get to see any new gameplay. The game is scheduled to launch next year, which will mix well with Amazon's Lord of the Rings series.

After the brief trip to the depths of Middle Earth, we were treated to a retro performance tied to Cuphead. That led us right to new Cuphead: Delicious Last Course coming June 30th 2022.

And Sonic The Hedgehog 2 wasn't our blue bud's only appearance on The Game Awards, as he's featuring in a new game called Sonic Frontiers. From the looks of the teaser trailer, it looks to be open world, or at least much bigger than previous Sonic titles.

Shang-Chi's leading man Simu Liu came out next to present the Game Award for Best Action Game (amid watching Halo Infinite streams on his phone). The category was won by Returnal.

Next up was a trailer for Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, an upcoming expansion due to hit in February, that looked so good it tempted me to actually start playing Destiny 2 again. 

Silent Hill director Keiichiro Toyama has a new game, and it was announced as a world first at The Game Awards. The early Silent Hill games were renowned for their suspensful horror, but this game, called Slitterhead, looks a little more on the nose. Whatever it is, it looks extremely wild, a little like Resident Evil mixed with The Last of Us. 

From survival horror to fantasy, Inflexion Games unveiled Nightingale, a "survivor crafting" game. It's late in its development cycle, with early access to PC players coming next year. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a PlayStation exclusive no more. The long-awaited 2020 RPG is coming to PC via the Epic Store next week. The package includes the original game as well as the Intergrade expansion including Yuffie. 

Have you ever thought that you needed to see an orchestral performance of the Horizon Forbidden West score, replete with an enthusiastic flutist? Well, you're in luck. The Game Awards brought us a new trailer for the upcoming blockbuster, due in February, and added a pretty dope musical performance on top of that.

Ben Schwartz, the infamous Jean Ralphio from Parks and Recreation, came on stage to warm up the crowd for Sonic the Hedgehog 2. He briefly threw to Jim Carrey, who sent a comedy bit in via selfie video, and then we got the film's debut trailer. It'll hit cinemas in April, and feature Idris Alba as Knuckles. Hell yeah. 

Here's some good news: We got a big surprise in the form of a brand new Wonder Woman game! The bad news? We got a little teaser trailer, showing off a Wonder Woman model, but nothing else. No release date, or even consoles. Hey, I'll take it.

Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey, aka Ellie and Abby from The Last of Us Part 2, came out next to present the Best Performance category award. Taking home the gold is Maggie Robertson, who played Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village.

It's a happy day for Alan Wake fans, as next was an announcement and teaser trailer for Alan Wake 2. It's been long-rumored but never confirmed -- until now. It's coming 2023 and will be more survivor horror than survivor action, as the first game was. 

Hellblade 2 was announced at The Game Awards in 2020, and this year the team at Ninja Theory followed up with a gameplay trailer showing off protagonist Senua taking down a giant with the help of her tribe. It's a followup to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which found critical acclaim upon its 2017 release.

Next up was the announcement of a brand new Star Wars game developed by Quantic Dream. Called Star Wars: Eclipse, it's set in the High Republic era. No release window was given, but Keighley mentioned that it was in "early development", which means probably not anytime super soon. 

After a trailer-heavy preshow, The Game Awards 2021's main show kicks off with a performance by Sting. The song is What Could Have Been, which features in the League of Legends TV show Arcane (which is very good, by the way!)

Show host Geoff Keighley took the stage and welcomed everyone to the in-person show, a nice change from last year's virtual event. He then spoke out about some of the toxicity in the industry, a reference to Activision Blizzard though he didn't actually name the company.

"Before we get to any of the news or announcements or awards," he said, "we should not or will not tolerate any abuse, harrassment and predatory practices by anyone, including our online communities."

Keighley then brought out Far Cry 6's Giancarlo Esposito to announce Best Independent Game, the first award on the main show. It was won by Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Forza Horizon 5 beat out Deathloop, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil Village and Returnal to win Best Audio Design. 

We then got a new trailer for Planet of Lana, a game that was announced back in June.  

The final announcement on the preshow for the Game Awards 2021 is that Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, first released in 2013, is coming to PC, PS4 and Switch.

This is one trailer-heavy preshow! Upcoming games from Telltale and Square Enix were the next to get highlighted. The Expanse is a new Telltale Games series adapted from the Sci-Fi show of the same name, while Babylon Fall is developed by Platinum Games and will launch on March 3. 

Monster Hunter Rise is getting a new expansion called Sunbreak, which looks sufficiently epic. It's coming to the Switch in Summer 2022, according to a new trailer. There was also a charming reveal from Outerloop Games called Thirsty Suitors, the summary of which reads: "Battle your exes, Disappoint your parents, Find yourself." I'm in.

So many trailers, not enough time. Next is Evil West, a gnarly-looking third person action game due for 2022 release. And Have a Nice Death is a new 2D rogue-lite, which are very hot right now.

Next we got three new trailers. The first is for King of Fighters XV, which has a beta coming to PS4 and PS5 featuring eight playable characters starting Dec. 17. Full game release comes Feb. 17, the trailer tell us. The second is for a Texas Chainsaw Massacre game, something chill for your 2022. It's described as a "mutlitplayer horror game based on true events." Lucky last is Homeworld 3, a belated sequel to 2003's Homeworld 2.

Esports was up next for the award festivities. Best Esports Athlete went to S1mple, Nactus Vincere won Best Esports Team, Best Esports Coach went to KK0MA, and 2021 League of Legends Championships scored Best Esports Event.

Sydnee Goodman welcomed us to the Game Awards 2021 preshow and -- surprise! -- we've got ourselves a cheeky world premiere. Goodman introduces Tunic, a cute, Legend of Zelda-esque title coming to Xbox on March 16. (It's actually not a world premiere, as we've seen this game prior.) 

We then get our first award of the evening, Games for Impact. And the winner is Square Enix's Life is Strange: True Colors.