The Game Awards 2022: all the announcements and trailers

Tonight’s Game Awards was probably one of the more entertaining showcases in the event’s 10-year history and it has nothing to do with any of the games that swept the awards and everything to do with a guy and his flute.

Al Pacino started the show, not with a bang but with a poorly legible whimper as the celebrated actor struggled to read the no-doubt tiny words of the teleprompter. Then Christopher Judge, in accepting the award for Best Performance for his incredible, soulful, and heartening performance as Kratos, rambled for a good handful of minutes longer than he should have. Though his speech was a bit awkward and long-winded, I firmly believe Mr. Keighley let Judge go on for as long as he did in order to keep the rest of the show blessedly brief and to potentially cut off Josef Fares if he decided to get all curse-y again.

It’s that time of the year when we all gather ‘round Twitch to watch three hours of video game announcements punctuated by some awards. Yes, it’s The Game Awards 2022. As always, this year’s edition of the annual event was full of big reveals and lots and lots of trailers (there were a few awards as well). If you didn’t manage to sit through the whole thing, don’t worry, we have you covered. Here are the biggest things you might’ve missed.

The trailers for Final Fantasy XVI keep on coming, and the latest — as always — is full of gigantic monster battles and political intrigue. We even got a proper release date: the game will hit the PS5 on June 22nd, 2023. But because of all the blood, you’ll have to go to YouTube to watch it.

FromSoftware only just released Elden Ring in February of this year, in a trailer at The Game Awards, the famed developer’s revealed that its next big project is Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. It’s set to be released in 2023.

It’s difficult to know exactly what to expect based on the Armored Core VI’s esoteric trailer, which featured a lot of lingering shots of giant mechs. But the trailer definitely creates an awesome mood that I hope captures what it’s like to play the game itself. Armored Core VI will be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam when it’s released next year.

To cap-off the barrage of announcements and trailers unleashed during The Game Awards was a new trailer and release date for the latest single-player installment of the Final Fantasy series. Game director Naoki Yoshida made his first ever appearance at The Game Awards to present Final Fantasy XVI’s newest trailer and shared the game’s release date — June 22nd.

The Revenge trailer was very short but very bloody, revisiting one of the first moments of Final Fantasy XVI fans got to see. Because of all the blood, the trailer’s been slapped with a content warning meaning you’ll have to go to YouTube to watch.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting a major expansion next year, and it will include a major addition to the cast: Idris Elba. His appearance was confirmed as part of a new Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty trailer released during The Game Awards 2022 on Thursday.

Elba will play a character named Solomon Reed, as noted in a tweet from developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR). That tweet also included a few details about the new content in Phantom Liberty: it will take place in an “all new district” of the game’s Night City setting, and it will be a “spy-thriller expansion.” And don’t worry, the new trailer also featured the voice of Keanu Reeves, who will be back to play Johnny Silverhand.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie was once a mystery, with no more information except the handful of Hollywood hottest stars — and Chris Pratt — who landed a role. But after a new trailer reveal just last week, we’re getting yet another extended look at the movie, this time courtesy of The Game Awards. Keegan-Michael Key came out to introduce the brief clip with an extended bit about Toad’s white and red cap. It was a bit awkward, underscored by the sudden cut to Game Awards audience members who looked bewildered and confused. Funny, but for what feels like the wrong reasons.

In the previous trailer, Anya Taylor-Joy made her first appearance voicing Princess Peach and we got a very interesting look at an interaction between Charlie Day’s Luigi and Jack Black’s Bowser. This time we got a brief glimpse of Toad and Mario walking through the Mushroom Kingdom before arriving at Peach’s Castle. We still didn’t get any more of Pratt’s performance and it seems like Nintendo and Illumination are intentionally ensuring we don’t hear more than a couple of seconds of Pratt speaking at any time to preserve some of the illusion.

The next major release from Amazon Games is an anime-style online title called Blue Protocol. Developed by Bandai Namco, the game is slated to launch on the PS5, Xbox Series X / S, and PC in the second half of 2023 — and you can check out the debut trailer above, which debuted at The Game Awards.

The game is described as a multiplayer action RPG, where players can take on various roles and play either with others or experience the story as a single-player-style campaign. Here’s the basic premise, according to Amazon:

Horizon Forbidden West, one of PlayStation’s biggest games of the year, is getting its first major expansion, Burning Shores, as revealed The Game Awards 2022 on Thursday. The expansion hits on April 19th, 2023, but you’ll only be able to play it on PlayStation 5, Sony said in a blog post.

The new trailer showed off some beautiful-looking landscapes — including the Hollywood sign in Los Angeles — and revealed that some areas will be filled with flowing lava. But it won’t be playable within Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4. “To achieve this grand vision technically and creatively, we’ve made the difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console,” Mathijs de Jonge, game director at developer Guerrilla, said in Sony’s post.

Days after the first impressions of Diablo IV hit the internet, Activision Blizzard has announced the game will release on June 6th. The game also got a brand new trailer premiering during tonight’s Game Awards broadcast featuring a brief performance by Halsey. Unfortunately, because of all the blood and demons, you’re only going to be able to watch the trailer directly on YouTube.

The June 6th date was leaked prior to tonight’s announcement in a report by The Washington Post that also covered Blizzard employees’ concerns that they would have to crunch in order to meet that deadline. Diablo IV, along with Overwatch 2, was one of the most anticipated games in Blizzard’s pipeline. And like Overwatch 2, its release was delayed in part by employee attrition as developers left or were let go from the company amidst lawsuits alleging discrimination and sexual harassment.

Among the many surprises of the early minutes of The Game Awards, was a new trailer for the delayed Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. The short trailer featured Captain Boomerang yelling at the propped up body of a dead Flash while Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and King Shark look on the shadows in horror as Batman kills a hapless police officer. The screen then cuts to black as the late Kevin Conroy shouts his most famous line as Batman, “I am vengeance, I am the night, I am Batman.”

The trailer ends on a touching tribute thanking Conroy for his iconic performance of the caped crusader. Conroy, who passed away earlier this month, will voice Batman one final time in Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League which finally has a release date of May 26th, 2023.

Death Stranding is back. Hideo Kojima revealed his next game at the Game Awards this evening — and yes, it still has creepy babies. Death Stranding 2 will once again star Norman Reedus and Lea Seydoux and it looks just as strange as its predecessor, at least based on the debut trailer. It also appears that DS2 is a working title right now. The game doesn’t have a release date but it’s coming to the PS5.

The enigmatic director had been teasing the reveal in the lead up to this evening’s event, going so far as to reveal key cast members like Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna. This will be Kojima Productions’ second major release, following the original Death Stranding, which debuted on the PS4 before expanding to other platforms. The sequel was first leaked by Reedus earlier this year.

Extremely OK Games, the makers of the beloved indie platformer Celeste, shared a first trailer for the studio’s next game, Earthblade, at The Game Awards 2022 on Thursday.

In Earthblade, you play as a character named Nevoa as you explore a “free-roaming, dynamically-loading map,” according to an email sent shortly after the trailer debuted. The game has 2D pixel graphics to Celeste, but Earthblade looks to take place in a more fantasy-inspired world.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to 2019’s Jedi: Fallen Order, will be released on March 17th, 2023, as revealed at The Game Awards on Thursday. The next game starring Cal Kestis and the adorable droid BD-1 got its first trailer in May, and on Thursday, we got our first look at what it will be like to actually play the game thanks to a new trailer at Geoff Keighley’s big awards show.

This new game takes place five years after the events of Jedi: Fallen Order. It looks to be a continuation of everything that made the first game better than expected, and that’s a good thing, in my mind. (You’ll be able to wield two lightsabers!) Jedi: Survivor will be available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.

Nestled in the pre-show, ahead of the Game Awards’ regular broadcast, Capcom announced the release date for Street Fighter 6 — coming June 2nd. While the date was formally announced during Geoff Keighley’s Winter E3 extravaganza, the date for SF6 leaked early, appearing on Amazon for pre-order with the official date.

In addition to sharing when players can expect to get their hands on what is possibly the most colorful entry in the seminal fighting game series, Capcom also debuted new characters. In addition to the old boxer Dee Jay, Street Fighter 6 will welcome the tres chic Manon, the stately looking JP, and the fierce muscle woman Marisa.

The first title from Ghost Story Games, a new studio led by BioShock creative lead Ken Levine, has finally been revealed. It’s called Judas, and based on the first trailer, it looks an awful lot like, well, BioShock. There’s no release date yet, but Judas is listed as coming to the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, and is described as a “single player, narrative first person shooter.”

Here’s the basic story description:

Supergiant Games, the makers of Hades and Bastion, revealed their next game at The Game Awards 2022: a direct sequel to Hades called Hades II. This one seems to focus around witches and magic, and the game’s Steam page mentions that it’s “rooted in the Underworld of Greek myth.” You play as a character named Melinoë, the Underworld Princess, which is pretty metal. (She is the sister of Zagreus, the protagonist of the first game, according to Supergiant’s website.)

But a lot of what you might know from Hades looks to be back: the same perspective, similar action-focused gameplay, voiced conversations with a lot of different characters, and Darren Korb’s excellent music were all featured in the trailer.

Among Us’ Hide ‘n Seek mode finally has a release date, and it’s coming really soon. You’ll be able to play the new mode beginning December 9th, developer Innersloth announced at The Game Awards 2022. Innersloth first announced the mode in 2021, and it seems like a delightful new reason to jump back into Among Us if you haven’t played in awhile.

The new update won’t just have Hide ‘n Seek; Innersloth also says it will add new “surprises to survive from,” new cosmetics, the ability to pet your pets, and... screaming? The new additions mean I’ll probably be jumping back in with my friends and family over the holidays.

It’s almost time for gaming’s annual end-of-year awards and announcements extravaganza. The 2022 edition of The Game Awards takes place on Thursday, December 8th, and the opening act kicks off at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT. While the show itself takes place live at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, you can stream the event for free on platforms like YouTube and Twitch. For a more detailed list of where to stream the show, check The Game Awards website.

We don’t know exactly how long The Game Awards will be, but host Geoff Keighley said in a Twitch stream that the main show will last about two and a half hours. That’s a good thing, if you ask me; the 2021 Game Awards, including pre-show, was a nearly four-hour event.