The Game Awards 2023: Hideo Kojima’s OD, Monster Hunter Wilds, Blade, More Announced

08.12.2023 - 17:01 / gadgets.ndtv.com / Geoff Keighley / Sophia Lillis / Udo Kier

The Game Awards 2023 wrapped earlier today, marking an epic conclusion to this year's video game season and celebrating the best games released in the past year. The lengthy ceremony was once again hosted by Geoff Keighley, live from Los Angeles, with Baldur's Gate 3 taking home the coveted Game of the Year award. As usual, there were a few exciting new announcements, and while some expectations were crushed, there's still a bunch to look forward to. Standout reveals this year include a collaboration between Hideo Kojima and filmmaker Jordan Peele, a free DLC for God of War Ragnarök, yet another Skull and Bones release date, and more surprises.

The Game Awards 2023 Winners: The Full List

Without further ado, here's a list of the biggest announcements at The Game Awards 2023:

Hideo Kojima's presence at The Game Awards is always met with the utmost elation, though this time, he didn't come on stage to show off more Death Stranding 2. Instead, he's partnering with acclaimed film director Jordan Peele (Nope) to create an immersive horror experience, which the former assures is still a video game, despite its cinematic influences. It's called OD and the teaser simply shows some facial capture tests of known actors — Sophia Lillis (Sharp Objects), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), and Udo Kier (Melancholia) — spouting some tongue twister about a hungry purple dinosaur, as a Geiger counter ticks away in the background. As previously reported, it is being developed for Xbox Game Studios and leverages cloud gaming technology.

Arkane Lyon — best known for the Dishonored franchise — is creating a ‘mature' single-player narrative on Marvel's Blade aka Daywalker, the superhuman vampire hunter wielding a sharp titanium sword. Set in a quarantined zone in Paris, players are tasked with hunting down bloodthirsty fiends at night and preventing the spread of infection. This marks the second vampire-based video game attempt from Arkane, having previously worked on the disappointing Redfall, and marks their first third-person experience. I just hope it maintains the comic-book art style riddled with Ben-Day dots, as shown in the announcement trailer.

Release date: February 16, 2024
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X

Assuring this isn't the same old dance, Ubisoft has set a fixed release date for Skull and Bones, the naval combat game that has you climb the ranks from a rookie pirate to a kingpin, whilst besting traitors and menacing foes tucked away in the waves. The studio has also planned another closed beta event, running between December 15–18. Ubisoft+ subscribers can play it three days early, too.

Ninja Theory dropped a ghastly trailer for Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, showcasing its realistic cinematics that almost feels