The New York Game Awards is an annual award show honoring video games by nonprofit New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC). The first awards were held in 2012, honoring previous year's contributions to the video game industry and showcases the group's education work with underserved communities. New York Videogame Critics Circle's stated goals are to promote awareness of, and education for, video games writing and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

area.

History

The New York Videogame Critics Circle (NYVGCC) was founded in 2011 by writer Harold Goldberg, along with inaugural members

Evan Narcisse Evan Narcisse is an American comic book writer, journalist, and video game narrative designer. Narcisse began his working career as a journalist who has reported on video games for several media outlets, such as ''The Atlantic'', ''The New Yor ...

, Tracey John, Russ Frushtick, and Andrew Yoon. Goldberg received more attention than expected from his book ''All Your Base Are Belong to Us'' (2011), including game and film offers. He decided to create an advocacy group in New York, a region he felt was disadvantaged due to its distance from the West Coast. The NYVGCC was created to advocate for its members, and provides classes and mentoring to underserved portions of the New York City community. Its stated goals are to promote awareness of, and education for, video games writing and

in the

area. Beginning in 2012, the NYVGCC has hosted an annual awards show that distributes trophies to game studios, individual game contributors, and game journalists. The first awards show was held in 2012 as a collaboration with New York University's Game Center. Since then, the NYVGCC has held annual award ceremonies and has incorporated live music, trailer premieres, and hosting by members of ''

The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night talk and news satire television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central in the United States, with extended episodes released shortly after on Paramount+ ...

'' writing staff. Work on the ceremonies begins in February, shortly after the preceding show, and escalates more after

Labor Day Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...

in September. In 2019, former Nintendo of America president

Reggie Fils-Aimé Reginald Fils-Aimé ( ; born March 25, 1961) is an American businessman best known for being the President (corporate title), president and chief operating officer of Nintendo of America, the North American branch of the Japanese video game co ...

joined the NYVGCC's board of directors to help Goldberg and the group continue its outreach to the DreamYard Prep School, and new initiatives such as classes in

Bronxworks BronxWorks is a human service organization and settlement house based in the Bronx, New York City that was founded as Citizens Advice Bureau in the Morris Heights section in 1972. The founders, social worker Mildred Zucker of the Federation o ...

network of homeless shelters. In July 2023, Ryan O'Callaghan replaced Goldberg as the board's executive director, while Goldberg remains president.

Ceremonies

Award winners

1st (2012)

The First Annual New York Games Awards took place on February 2, 2012, at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

's Cantor Film Center. 21 games journalists voted on the award winners, and about 250 guests attended. Logan Cunningham, narrator of ''

Bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

'', served as the host. The livestream received roughly 300 views.

2nd (2013)

The Second Annual New York Game Awards were held at NYU-Poly on February 5, 2013. Writer

Daniel Radosh Daniel Radosh (born 23 March 1969) is an American journalist and blogger. Radosh is a senior writer for '' The Daily Show with Trevor Noah''. Previously, he was a staff writer for ''The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and'' a contributing editor at ' ...

of ''The Daily Show'' hosted the event, and musical acts

MC Frontalot Damian Alexander Hess (born December 3, 1973), better known by his stage name MC Frontalot, is an American rapper and web designer. He is widely credited as a pioneer of the nerdcore hip hop genre, blending elements of hip hop with themes from ne ...

and Schäffer the Darklord performed.

3rd (2014)

The Third Annual New York Game Awards were hosted by Daniel Radosh for the second year in a row. Folk music group Future Folk performed, and

Irrational Games Irrational Games (known as 2K Boston between 2007 and 2009) was an American video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier. Take-Two Interactive acquired t ...

premiered a video about the second episode of '' BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea''.

4th (2015)

In 2015, the New York Game Awards switched venues and took place at Villain, an event space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The awards show routine was written and hosted by ''The Daily Show''s writing staff.

5th (2016)

In 2016, ''The Daily Show'' writer Owen Parsons took over writing and hosting the awards. Game studio The Molasses Flood premiered a trailer for ''

The Flame in the Flood ''The Flame in the Flood'' is a 2016 roguelike survival game, survival Adventure game, adventure video game developed by The Molasses Flood and published by Curve Digital. The game was developed for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Xbox One. A Pl ...

'', and

Wyclef Jean Nel Ust Wyclef Jean ( ; born October 17, 1969) is a Haitian rapper, singer, and record producer. Born in Haiti, Jean emigrated to the Northeastern United States, United States as a child. He gained fame as a founding member of the Fugees, a Ne ...

demoed music he contributed to rhythm game ''Lost in Harmony''.

6th (2017)

The Sixth Annual New York Game Awards were held at the Abron Arts Center and featured a musical performance by all-women accordion band The Main Squeeze.

7th (2018)

The 7th Annual New York Game Awards were hosted by Devin Delliquanti of ''The Daily Show''. Musician

Shilpa Ray Shilpa Ray (born ) is an American singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York with a DIY punk experimental sound. Her music has been compared to Blondie, The Cramps, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins and her singing has been compared to the style of Pa ...

performed.

8th (2019)

In 2019, the New York Game Awards moved to the SVA Theatre in Manhattan. The event, hosted again by Devin Delliquanti with appearances by ''The Daily Show''s Daniel Radosh, Josh Johnson and Kat Radley, featured a performance by guitarist and vocalist Maddie Rice, as well as trailer premieres for Inkle title '' Heaven's Vault'' and Shawn Alexander Allen's ''Treachery in Beatdown City''. The livestream received approximately 400,000 views, a significant increase from earlier ceremonies.

9th (2020)

The 9th Annual New York Game Awards were held on January 21, 2020. The recipient of the Andrew Yoon Legend award was the former

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi founded the company to p ...

president Reggie Fils-Aimé.

10th (2021)

The 10th Annual New York Game Awards were held on January 26, 2021. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the event was held virtually, co-hosted by Reggie Fils-Aimé. The nominees were announced on January 5, 2021. Immediately before the show, Fils-Aimé partook in a roundtable discussion with

Jack Tretton Jack Tretton is a member of the advisory boards for Genotaur, an artificial intelligence startup, and LifeApps Digital Media, a digital publisher of products and services focused on health, fitness, and sports topics. He is best known for being t ...

and

Robbie Bach Robert J. Bach (born December 31, 1961), commonly known as Robbie Bach, is an American businessman. He was the President of Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft. He led the division that was responsible for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune, Gam ...

, formerly of

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, respectively. ''

Hades Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea ...

'' won the Big Apple Award for Game of the Year. The Andrew Yoon Legend Award was given to

Hideo Kojima is a Japanese video game designer. Regarded as one of the pioneering auteurs of video games, he developed a strong passion for film and literature during his childhood and adolescence, which in turn has had a significant influence on his game ...

, Jerry Lawson, and

Brenda Brenda is a feminine given name in the English language. Origin The overall accepted origin for the female name Brenda is the Old Nordic male name ''Brandr'' meaning both ''torch'' and ''sword'': evidently the male name Brandr took root in areas ...

and

John Romero Alfonso John Romero (born October 28, 1967) is an American video game developer. He co-founded id Software and designed their early games, including ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992), ''Doom (1993 video game), Doom'' (1993), ''Doom II'' (1994), ''Hexen ...

11th (2022)

The 11th Annual New York Game Awards were held on February 1, 2022. The event was originally set to be held at the

SVA Theatre The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Sila ...

, but was held virtually for the second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nominees were announced on January 11, 2022.

12th (2023)

The 12th Annual New York Game Awards took place on January 17, 2023, returning to the SVA Theatre for the first in-person show since 2020. Fils-Aimé and Goldberg returned to host, alongside Makeda Byfield. Planning for the show had begun by August 2022, and the nominees were announced on January 4, 2023. Phil Spencer received the Andrew Yoon Legend Award.

13th (2024)

The 13th New York Game Awards took place at the SVA Theatre on January 23, 2024. The nominees were announced by Manon Gage and Makeda Byfield on January 9; ''

Baldur's Gate 3 ''Baldur's Gate 3'' is a 2023 role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios. It is the third main installment of the ''Baldur's Gate'' series, based on the tabletop fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons''. A partial ...

'' led with six nominations, followed by '' Alan Wake 2'' and '' Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty'' with five. At the ceremony, ''Baldur's Gate 3'' won two awards, including the Big Apple Award for Game of the Year.

Neil Druckmann Neil Druckmann (; born December5, 1978) is an Israeli–American writer, creative director, designer, and programmer. He is the studio head and head of creative of the video game developer Naughty Dog, and is best known for his work on the g ...

Naughty Dog Naughty Dog, LLC (formerly JAM Software, Inc.) is an American first-party video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin in 1984, the studio was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2001. G ...

received the Andrew Yoon Legend Award.

14th (2025)

The 14th New York Game Awards took place at the SVA Theatre on January 21, 2025, presented by Fils-Aimé, Goldberg, and Sherri L. Smith; it was streamed on the

Paley Center for Media The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York City with a branch office in Los Angeles. It is de ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel, among others. The nominees were announced on January 7; '' 1000xResist'', ''

Astro Bot is a 2024 Platformer, platform game developed and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 5 to coincide with PlayStation's 30th anniversary. Following ''Astro's Playroom'' (2020), it is the fifth overall installment in ...

'', and ''

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ''Indiana Jones and the Great Circle'' is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is based on the ''Indiana Jones'' franchise and features an original narrative that draws from the film ser ...

'' led with four nominations each. At the ceremony, ''Astro Bot'' won three awards, including the Big Apple Award for Game of the Year. Sam Lake of

Remedy Entertainment Remedy Entertainment Oyj, trading internationally as Remedy Entertainment Plc, is a Finnish video game developer based in Espoo. Notable games the studio has developed include the first two entries in the ''Max Payne'' franchise, '' Alan Wake' ...

received the Andrew Yoon Legend Award, and Mega Ran performed at the show.

References

External links

* * {{Official website, https://www.harold-goldberg.com/gamecriticscircle.html, Harold Goldberg (founder) website 2011 establishments in New York City Non-profit organizations based in New York City Video game awards Video game journalism