Expect The Game Awards to be big this year: here’s what’s confirmed to show up

This year is the 10th anniversary of Geoff Keighley’s annual The Game Awards show and it sure feels like he may be ramping up to some big surprises. At other points this year Geoff has had to reel in expectations for his other shows—warning fans in June that Summer Game Fest would be more about announced games than big surprises and squashing hopes in August for a Silksong reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live.

We’ve gotten no such tempering of the hype this time around and in fact Geoff already told viewers over the summer that The Game Awards are more of a place for big announcements and surprises than SGF is: past announcements have included Hades 2, Armored Core 6, Alan Wake 2, and Death Stranding. For several years I always anticipated a new Dagon Age trailer at the show, but with Dragon Age: The Veilguard now out I need some new regular attendees to hang my hopes on.

I’m not at liberty to discuss what PC Gamer may or may not know about the show without my keyboard getting snatched away, but it feels fair to expect some exciting reveals this year for the 10th anniversary. We’ll go over what’s been revealed for the show down below along with when you can watch it and some of our suspicions about what could turn up.

When is The Game Awards 2024?

The Game Awards 2024 premiers at 4:30 pm Pacific on Thursday, December 12 live from Los Angeles. The show’s official calendar invite lists it as a three and a half hour show which sure lends some likelihood to the idea that there’s a lot getting crammed in this year. You’ll be able to watch The Game Awards on YouTube, Twitch, Steam, TikTok Live, and a few other social media platforms.

Here’s when The Game Awards airs near you:

• 4:30 pm PDT, December 12 (Los Angeles)
• 7:30 pm EDT, December 12 (New York)
• 9:30 pm BRT, December 12 ( São Paulo)
• 12:30 am GMT, December 13 (London)
• 1:30 am CEST, December 13 (Berlin)
• 11:30 am AEDT, December 13 (Sydney)
• 1:30 pm NZDT, December 13 (Auckland)

What’s going to be shown at The Game Awards this year?

As usual, Geoff has been posting teasers and confirmations online ahead of the show. And in some cases developers themselves have blown the surprise—looking at you, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. One thing we’ll definitely see are all the awards, of course. You can check out the Game Awards 2024 nominees to see who’s likely to get handed some trophies.

Here’s what else we know will definitely be turning up to the show based on Geoff’s social posts:

• Hazelight Studio – Developers of It Takes Two will reveal their next game
• Borderlands 4 – A new trailer, including gameplay, for the next game
• Palworld – Will be making an appearance of some kind, likely to talk about the next game update
• Dying Light – Likely new info about Dying Light: The Beast
• Mafia: The Old Country – A “global reveal” for the prequel Mafia series game
• Warframe – An update on the Warframe 1999 update

As usual for Geoff’s events, rumors and alleged leaks are flying but none that are really substantiated. It’s true that Hideo Kojima is showing up as an award presenter, but we shouldn’t necessarily expect a new Death Stranding 2 trailer—it could happen though.

A recently spotted Resident Evil 9 page on Metacritic has fans of the series anticipating an incoming announcement as well. It does seem like Capcom is pretty focused on Monster Hunter: Wilds right now though.

Fans who are more lost in the sauce are asking whether there’s a chance to see a new GTA 6 or Silksong trailer but neither of those seem likely. Rockstar tends to be rather happy to do things on its own without turning up to Geoff’s shows and the Silksong copium is just the usual pre-showcase jitters. Other unlikely—but possible—predictions include a new game from Naughty Dog or God of War studio Sony Santa Monica, or a first proper look at Insomniac’s Wolverine or Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts 4.

If you want some totally unconfirmed guesses and requests from me, I think it’s about time for IO Interactive to show us something about that James Bond game it’s working on and for Limbo and Inside developer Playdead Games to properly announce that third game it’s allegedly been working on for years. But those are just shots in the dark.