London, Tuesday, October 19: Voting opens today in the 39th Golden Joystick Awards presented by GamesRadar+, the world's largest public-voted games awards show, attracting millions of votes every year. Players from all over the world will decide which games, developers, publishers and personalities will take home this year’s Golden Joystick Awards.
Fans are invited to vote in 20 categories including ‘Best Storytelling’, ‘Best Studio’, ‘Most Wanted’ and the coveted ‘Ultimate Game of the Year’. Voting closes at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT / 11pm GMT on Friday, November 5.
This year the awards are also celebrating ‘50 Years of Games’* with two special awards - ‘Ultimate Game of All Time' and 'Best Gaming Hardware of All Time'. These two special awards will open for voting once the main voting categories close in early November.
All the winners will be revealed in a virtual celebration of games on Tuesday, November 23 with an all-digital awards show across all major streaming platforms.
Daniel Dawkins, Content Director, Games explains more: “Last year’s Golden Joystick Awards was our first all-digital show - and our most-viewed awards ever, reaching over 12 million total views. For 2021, we’re streamlining the viewing experience by trimming the number of categories and nominees in each shortlist, allowing us to focus on key awards and the brilliant people who drive the games industry forward.
"Trimming the shortlists has made judging even more hotly-debated than ever, but we’re thrilled at the diversity of this year’s nominees, which reflect the importance of indie games and long-running service games during 2021 where a number of high-profile titles have faced unavoidable delays. We’re thrilled to see Wildermyth and Psychonauts 2 leading the shortlist with four nominations each, alongside huge titles such as Call of Duty: Warzone, Resident Evil Village and Ratchet and Clank.
"This year’s Golden Joystick Awards is really special, since we’ll be celebrating 50 Years of Games, and the launch of the world’s first commercially available coin-op, Computer Space in November 1971. You can look forward to a sweeping retrospective of the industry we love so much - including some of its most-loved games and faces - plus an evolution of our virtual-stage from last year’s show. To cap it all, we’ll be inviting people to vote for their Ultimate Game of All Time and Best Gaming Hardware of All Time - which I’m sure won’t be contentious at all.”
The 2021 Golden Joystick Awards public voted categories are:
- Best Storytelling
- Best Multiplayer Game
- Best Visual Design
- Best Game Expansion
- Best Audio
- Best Performer
- Best Indie Game
- Still Playing
- Studio of the Year
- Best Gaming Community
- PC Game of the Year
- Best Gaming Hardware
- Mobile Game of the Year
- PlayStation Game of the Year
- Xbox Game of the Year
- Nintendo Game of the Year
- Ultimate Game of the Year
- Most Wanted Game
- Ultimate Game of All Time voting opens in November
- Best Gaming Hardware of All Time voting opens in November
Two additional category winners will be selected by a panel of journalists from brands including gamesradar.com, pcgamer.com, Edge magazine, Retro Gamer, and Play, plus Future’s trusted network of freelance writers. These winners will be revealed on the night.
- Breakthrough Award
- Critics Choice Award
Voting opens today and closes at 4pm PDT / 7pm EDT / 11pm GMT on Friday, November 5.
For more information visit Golden Joystick Awards 2021 or follow The Golden Joysticks Awards on Twitter and Facebook #GoldenJoysticks
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Contact:
Helen Jones / Eva Field
E: hels@noisycommunications.com or eva@noisycommunications.com.
Notes to Editors
* The world’s first commercially available video game, Computer Space, released in November 1971. As the first coin-operated arcade machine, it represented the birth of videogames as a commercial industry.
About The Golden Joystick Awards
The Golden Joystick Awards honour the people and products that have transformed the games industry in 2021. The event features over 20 categories, the majority of which are voted for by the global gaming public. The event was first held in 1983 and since then it has grown to become the world’s largest public voted gaming awards brand. For more information visit Golden Joystick Awards 2021 or follow us on twitter.com/goldenjoysticks, facebook.com/goldenjoysticks/.
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