The Game Awards 2021: Announcement Predictions
Up top, I just want to clarify that this article will cover the games that I expect we could see get an official announcement at The Game Awards 2021. This is not an article predicting the results of each category, because who really cares which game wins GOTY? It is certainly not something that I have put much stock into in recent years. Instead, I am far more interested in the potential reveals of upcoming games that we could get during the show.
I Need Games, Lots Of Games
With not too long left to go until the 2021 Game Awards, (the event will take place on Thursday, the 9th of December,) Geoff Keighley, – host and producer of The Game Awards, – has teased that we can expect to see even more revealed during his show than normal. Keighley gave an interview to the Epic Games website ahead of this year’s show, where he described the reasons for 2021’s event to be bigger than ever before.
The 8th annual videogame awards show will take place on 9/12/21 as a live, in-person event at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. While last year’s show was an online-only virtual livestream, due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, this show will once again be a live production. The return to a live environment is probably the first reason that Keighley anticipates that this year’s show will be huge.
Another reason for the growth in anticipation for games to be announced, is the exponential growth in viewership over the last few years. Last year’s broadcast was watched by around 83 million people, which was double the amount of viewers from the previous year according to Keighley. That is a vast audience that most publishers and developers would likely value the chance to show their game off to.
Thankfully, there will be a slew of games shown to appease that vast audience. “There’ll be a lot of content for 2022 and 2023 that will be showing us our kind of biggest lineup yet of world premieres and announcements,” was what Keighley said when teasing the larger output of fresh announcements. “It’s definitely a very busy year in terms of the number of games we’re being pitched. We’re blessed that pretty much every developer and publisher wants to have some degree of content on the show.”
Keighley believes that the increase in the amount of upcoming game announcements doesn’t just come from the show becoming more of a significant industry event in recent years. He also believes that it is partially due to the recent Coronavirus pandemic. His reasoning being; “Because many games have been delayed and there have been limited amounts of places for games to be seen and the ability to travel, it primes The 2021 Game Awards to be the place where video game developers want to show off their game as they head into 2022.”
Predictions
So, with all of that said and the hype-train hitting full pelt, it is time to discuss what we could actually see be revealed at the show. Whilst Geoff mentions elsewhere in the interview that the show will feature, “40 to 50,” games, with the amount of newly announced games being somewhere, “in the double digits,” I am going to hone in on five reveals that I would love to see. I will follow my five proper predictions with one shot-in-the-dark prediction that could have a slim chance of coming true.
The main reason for me only doing five predictions is that the other 5+ games that are revealed will likely be smaller indie titles, or projects that I just don’t care all that much about. We will likely see something Mass Effect-related and something from Fortnite. Frankly, I could not care less about either of those titles. The same thing goes for the recent rumblings of a Fable reveal taking place during the show. I am sure there are some folks out there that would be mind-blown to get that trailer, but I am not one of them.
Bloodborne Definitive Edition Is Revealed
We have known about this one for a while. Although I have heard the idea mentioned multiple times over the past year, the most recent rumour regarding this project came as recently as October. This followed the confirmation that Sony were acquiring the popular remake studio, Bluepoint Games, just a month before in September of this year.
That rumour claimed that Bluepoint would head up development on a ground-up remake of 2015’s Bloodborne. This was sparked by a Tweet that was put out by industry veteran Colin Moriarty stating; “I’m hearing through the grapevine Bluepoint may be on a journey to Yharnam.”
This would make sense, as Bluepoint have to be working on something following the Demon Souls Remake that they dropped at the end of last year. Since they already have a pedigree for remaking From Software titles, then why not have them head up development on the long-rumoured Bloodborne Remake?
This along with the above ‘leaked,’ poster is leading me to believe that this project could get an official reveal at The 2021 Game Awards.
The Release Date For Avowed Is Announced
Avowed was first teased as far back as July 2020, when we got the above trailer. Since then, we have learned more about the game. The most enticing piece of information revealed so far is that Avowed is intended to be Obsidian’s Skyrim-killer. It will be an open world RPG that will borrow elements from both Skyrim and the brilliant Outer Worlds.
It was reported last month in October, that the game is, “deep into pre-production,” and is still in a pre-alpha state, therefore it is still not playable. Apparently, the current goal is to have the game be in a playable state by E3 2022. We have also previously heard about a release window of late 2022 or early 2023.
The Game Awards in December of this year would be the perfect time to show off a brand new CG story trailer and drop a release date for this widely-anticipated title. Obviously we won’t see a gameplay trailer until next year’s E3 at the earliest, but a CG trailer could keep this title in the forefront of gamer’s minds and could keep the hype-train rolling.
Injustice 3 Is Confirmed
It is hard to believe that it has been almost 3 years since Injustice 2 was released, but we are due a new Injustice title very soon. Back in September, we reported on an NVIDIA GeForceNOW leak that brought with it a plethora of leaked upcoming titles. This slew of leaked games included something called, “Injustice 3: Gods Will Fall.”
Could we see the superhero fighting game sequel officially revealed during The 2021 Game Awards? The timing would make sense, as we already know it is on its way due to the leak and we also recently got the animated Injustice movie. We did hear a rumour a few months back that NetherRealm are reportedly working on a Marvel fighting game, but I reckon there is much more of a chance of seeing Injustice 3 revealed at this year’s Game Awards show.
I believe we will see a CG trailer along with a release date and a confirmation of the, “Gods Will Fall,” subtitle.
A New Star Wars Game Is Shown
Although we recently got an announcement of an upcoming Star Wars game at this year’s PlayStation Showcase event, when the KOTR Remake was unveiled, we know that there is the possibility of at least two more major Star Wars games in development. One being the open-world Star Wars title being developed by Ubisoft, which was announced back in January. The other being Project Ragtag.
Project Ragtag has a long and complicated history that spans as far back as 2012. The original idea was called Star Wars 1313, which was a Uncharted-esque title that would follow a young Boba Fett fighting his way through the seedy underworld of the Star Wars universe. There was a trailer for the game shown at E3 2012 and it looked awesome. Sadly, 1313 was cancelled after Disney purchased the Star Wars licence in late 2012.
Though, all was not lost! After EA acquired the exclusive contract to develop Star Wars games, Uncharted creator Amy Hennig and the team at Visceral Games were tasked with reviving 1313. Although it would now have a different title and possibly follow a different plot, the game would have had the same feel and this time, the Uncharted creator herself would be working on it! More unfortunate news followed though after Visceral Games were shut down by EA in 2017 and the game was quietly shelved once again.
Since then though, following the release of Jedi: Fallen Order, the demand for a game in this vein has been prevalent in the echo-chamber of Star Wars gamers. Could The Game Awards 2021 possibly be the ideal time to announce the glorious revival of this highly sought-after title? Although we can rule out Amy Hennig’s involvement as she is working on a Marvel game, I’d still love to experience Star Wars 1313 in some shape or form.
Regardless, it is my belief that at least one Star Wars game will be shown off during the show. The open-world Ubisoft project being the more likely candidate.
The Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake Is Unveiled
In October, we reported on a fairly solid rumour that Virtuos, (the studio who helped develop the Nintendo Switch port of Dark Souls Remastered,) are working on a ground-up remake of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. There was an additional rumour that claimed Hideo Kojima would also be involved in an advisory role.
Although Kojima’s involvement is questionable, given the previous bad blood between him and the publisher, an MGS remake is looking more and more likely. Also, if Kojima is involved with the project, we know that he and The 2021 Game Awards host Geoff Keighley are firm friends. Therefore, it would make sense for Geoff to give Hideo a prime time spot during his show.
If this is in fact announced, I think it will be what closes the show. It would be a great, “one last thing,” moment to end on. I don’t see a release window being announced and we might not even see gameplay, but I expect a CG trailer at the very least.
Outside Chance Prediction: Something To Do With The Last Of Us Is Shown
This is my shot-in-the-dark prediction that I mentioned above and the reason I feel that there is a slim chance of it coming true is because I don’t see Sony giving up a trailer for a project related to one of their flagship franchises to another show. Sony would most likely want to keep this one for one of their own events.
That said, the timing would just line up perfectly. We got news just the other day that the upcoming HBO Last Of Us TV show has wrapped filming. What better time to get Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsay to make an onstage guest appearance in front 80 million+ viewers to promote the show and maybe drop a first-look trailer?
Failing that, Naughty Dog are allegedly currently developing a complete remake of the first TLOU game, which was first released in 2013. Whilst many fans of the series feel that this remake seems somewhat unnecessary as not even a decade has passed since the original release, it could be interested to see what we are in for. Perhaps it could be a way to win over some more sceptical fans?
Finally, it was revealed by Neil Druckmann back in April of this year that an outline for the script to The Last Of Us Part 3 has been written. Although, it does seem like it would be pretty premature for this to be unveiled as soon as December of this year. My point is more that there are obviously multiple projects related to TLOU currently in development, meaning we could see one of them shown off.
And there you have it. Five predictions and one left-field, shot-in-the-dark prediction for The Game Awards 2021. Which of my predictions do you think has a chance of coming true? Are there any additional predictions you have that I didn’t mention? Let us know down in the comments section below.
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