The Game Awards 2016 To Become Widest Distributed Digital Event in History

The Game Awards 2016 is less than a month away from celebrating the world of video games, and on December 1st, it will take the celebration to an entirely new level as it’s said to become one of the widest (not wildest, although it could be that too!) distributed digital events in history.

The Game Awards is hosted and produced by media entrepreneur Geoff Keighley and will once again bring together a big crowd to celebrate gaming by handing out awards to the best games of 2016. The event will bring together industry creators, eSports champions, influencers and Hollywood names, as well as exclusive video game premieres and musical performances.

The Game Awards 2016 will air live from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 1st, and has the potential to reach a record audience through digital distribution on many different platforms such as Steam, Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Twitch, and YouTube. This includes many firsts as well, not only for the show, but for awards ceremonies in general. This will be the first awards show to air live on Twitter, and it’s also the first awards show to be broadcasted in Virtual Reality with the help of NextVR.

Oh, but there’s more! The Game Awards 2016 will air on Facebook Live as well and has partnered with Facebook to create a unique Backstage Facebook Live Room that nominees and digital influencers can use to interact with fans in real time. Furthermore, The Game Awards will air a live localized version of the show through Tencent’s integrated internet platform in China.

“Video games have the power to unite communities from all over the world, and this year we will share the power of gaming with more people than ever before,” said Geoff Keighley, creator/producer of The Game Awards. “For 2016 we will expand our all-digital, no-friction path to global distribution through partnerships that include the first live awards show broadcast on Twitter, an initiative with Tencent to bring The Game Awards live to China, and our innovative, first-of-its-kind live VR broadcast with Next VR.”

It’s shaping up to be one heck of a celebration for the video game industry and it’s exciting to see that fans and enthusiasts have so many ways of connecting to the event through several different digital platforms. However, don’t forget about the in-person opportunity for those who will be in the Los Angeles area on December 1st as tickets can be purchased through axs.com.

Additional details below:

• Snapchat will once again cover The Game Awards, partnering to produce a “Live Story” that curates highlights from the awards for the platform.
• Viewers on Xbox Live won’t just watch The Game Awards – they will also compete against their friends with an interactive overlay experience to guess the winners in top categories. A real-time leaderboard will track the top Xbox Live players.
• On Twitch, The Game Awards 2016 will once again be open for co-streaming, allowing broadcasters to add their own live commentary over the show from their channels at home. In addition, for the first time Twitch and The Game Awards will partner to offer live on-site co-streaming, allowing select Twitch streamers to broadcast from inside the Microsoft Theater.

Returning for 2016 is “The Game Awards Sale,” an opportunity for fans watching on PlayStation Network, Steam, and Xbox Live to purchase select nominated games at a discount.

Details on nominees, world premieres, presenters and musical performances for The Game Awards 2016 will be released in the coming weeks.

For more information and to stay up to date on the latest announcements, please visit www.thegameawards.com