The Game Awards 2014 Nominees Announced

Forget the VGAs and last year's VGX. The Game Awards is a new event to honor the year's best games and developers. Today, producer Geoff Keighley announced the nominees for the inaugural year.

Today in an informal Twitch announcement, Keighley shared the nomination process involving 28 publications (of which Game Informer is one) from the United States, Canada, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and more. This year's event, which is not affiliated with the programming of past years produced by Viacom, includes a number of new categories. Here are the nominees:

Best Shooter

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Sledgehammer/Activision
• Destiny - Bungie/Activision
• Far Cry 4 - Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
• Titanfall - Respawn/EA
• Wolfenstein: The New Order - MachineGames/Bethesda

Best Action/Adventure

• Alien: Isolation - Creative Assembly/Sega
• Assassin’s Creed Unity - Ubisoft
• Bayonetta 2 - Platinum Games/Nintendo
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Monolith/Warner Bros.
• Sunset Overdrive - Insomniac/Microsoft

Best Role Playing Game 

• Bravely Default - Square Enix
• Dark Souls II - From Software/Bandai Namco
• Divinity: Original Sin - Larian Studios
• Dragon Age: Inquisition - Bioware/EA
• South Park: The Stick of Truth - Obsidian/Ubisoft

Best Fighting Game

• Killer Instinct: Season Two - Iron Galaxy Studios/Microsoft
• Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - Arc System Works/Atlus
• Super Smash Bros. 3DS - Nintendo
• Super Smash Bros. Wii U - Nintendo
• Ultimate Street Fighter IV - Capcom

Best Family Game

• Disney Infinity 2.0 - Avalanche Software/Disney Interactive Studios
• Fantasia: Music Evolved - Harmonix/Disney Interactive Studios
• Mario Kart 8 - Nintendo
• Skylanders: Trap Team - Toys for Bob/Activision
• Tomodachi Life - Nintendo

Best Sports/Racing Game

• FIFA 15 - EA Canada/EA Sports
• Forza Horizon 2 - Playground Games/Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft
• Mario Kart 8 - Nintendo
• NBA 2K15 - Visual Concepts/2K Sports
• Trials Fusion - RedLynx/Ubisoft

Best Online Experience

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Sledgehammer Games/Activision
• Dark Souls II - From Software/Bandai Namco
• Destiny - Bungie/Activision
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - Blizzard
• Titanfall - Respawn/EA

Best Mobile/Handheld

• Bravely Default - Square Enix
• Monument Valley - Ustwo
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - Blizzard
• Super Smash Bros. for 3DS - Nintendo
• Threes - Asher Vollmer, illustrator Greg Wohlwend, and composer Jimmy Hinson

Best Remaster

• Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection - 343 Industries/Microsoft
• Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire - Game Freak/Nintendo
• The Last of Us - Naughty Dog/Sony
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix

Best Narrative

• South Park: The Stick of Truth - Obsidian/Ubisoft
• The Walking Dead Season 2 - Telltale Games
• The Wolf Among Us - Telltale Games
• Valiant Hearts - Ubisoft
• Wolfenstein: The New Order - Machine Games/Bethesda

Best Score/Soundtrack

• Alien: Isolation - Christian Henson, Joe Henson, and Alexis Smith, The Creative Assembly/Sega
• Child of Light - Coeur de pirate, Ubisoft Montreal 
• Destiny - Marty O’Donnell, Bungie/Activision
• Sunset Overdrive - Boris Salchow, Insomniac Games/Microsoft
• Transistor - Darren Korb, Supergiant Games

Best Independent Game

• Broken Age Part 1 - Double Fine
• Monument Valley - Ustwo
• Shovel Knight - Cellar Door
• Transistor - Supergiant Games
• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - The Astronauts

Games for Change

• Mountain - David O'Reilly/Double Fine Presents
• Never Alone - Upper One Games
• The Last of Us: Left Behind - Naughty Dog/Sony
• This War of Mine - 11bit Studios
• Valiant Hearts: The Great War - Ubisoft

eSports Player of the Year - (To be voted on by fans)

• Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larsson - League of Legends
• Xu “Fy” Linsen - Dota 2 
• James “Firebat” Kostesich - Hearthstone
• Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund - Counter-Strike: GO
• Matt “NaDeSHoT” Haag - Call of Duty

eSports Team of the Year - (To be voted on by fans)

• Samsung White - League of Legends
• Evil Geniuses - Dota 2
• Edward Gaming - League of Legends
• Newbee - Dota 2
• Ninjas in Pajamas - Counter-Strike: GO

Trending Gamer - (To be voted on by fans)

• Evan “Vanoss” Fong
• Jeff Gerstmann
• PewDiePie
• StampyLongHead
• TotalBiscuit

Best Fan Creation - (To be voted on by fans)

• BEST Zelda Rap EVER!! By Egoraptor
• Luigi Death Stare by CZBwoi and Rizupicorr
• Mine the Diamond (Minecraft Song) by Tobuscus
• Minecraft – TITAN City by Colonial Puppet
• Twitch Plays Pokemon by Anonymous

Developer of the Year

• Blizzard
• Monolith
• Nintendo
• Telltale Games
• Ubisoft Montreal

Best Performance

• Adam Harrington as Bigby Wolf, The Wolf Among Us - Telltale Games
• Kevin Spacey as Jonathan Irons, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare - Sledgehammer Games/Activision
• Melissa Hutchison as Clementine, The Walking Dead: Season Two - Telltale Games
• Trey Parker as Various Voices, South Park: The Stick of Truth - Obsidian/Ubisoft
• Troy Baker as Talion, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Monolith/Warner Bros.

Most Anticipated Game - (To be voted on by fans)

• Batman: Arkham Knight - Rocksteady/Warner Bros.
• Bloodborne - FROM Software/Sony
• Evolve - Turtle Rock/2K Games
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - CD Projekt
• Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End - Naughty Dog/Sony

Game of the Year

• Bayonetta 2 - Platinum Games/Nintendo
• Dark Souls 2 - FROM Software/Bandai Namco
• Dragon Age: Inquisition - BioWare/EA
• Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft - Blizzard
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Monolith/Warner Bros.

The Video Game Awards will be held on December 5 at 6 p.m. Pacific / 9 p.m. Eastern. You can read more details about viewing or attending here.