Spike Video Game Awards
The Spike Video Game Awards was an annual award show hosted by American television network Spike from 2003 that recognized the best computer and video games of the year. Produced by GameTrailers TV's Geoff Keighley, the show featured preview trailers for upcoming games, live music performances and appearances by popular performers in music, movies, and television.
The VGAs was held at various locations in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. Spike's only [|Video Game Hall of Fame] award, given to The Legend of Zelda, was awarded at the 2011 awards show.
On November 15, 2013, Spike announced a new format under the name VGX, calling it "The next generation of the VGAs". The last award show, carrying this name, aired on December 7. Changes from the previous format included "in-depth extended demos of the next generation of games and interactive one-on-one interviews and panels in an intimate studio setting."
On November 10, 2014, Keighley announced a new awards show, the Game Awards, dropping the support from Spike.
VGX
2013 awards
The 2013 awards, the final awards show, was rebranded as VGX and held on December 7, 2013, and was hosted by Joel McHale. The show featured a different format from previous years. It featured extended demos of next-generation games, one-on-one interviews, and "a more intimate studio setting." Rather than airing live on Spike TV, the show was livestreamed online on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Twitch, Steam, iOS, and Android devices, as well as on GameTrailers.com and the websites of Spike, Comedy Central, MTV, MTV2, and BET. As with previous years, the show featured exclusive world premieres of game demos and trailers. The 2013 VGX premieres included Telltale Games' and Gearbox Software's collaboration Tales from the Borderlands, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, Remedy Entertainment's Agents of Storm for iOS, Telltale Games' Game of Thrones, and independent developer Hello Games' No Man's Sky. The 2013 show also featured reveals of Titanfall, Thief, Quantum Break, South Park: The Stick of Truth, Broken Age, Dying Light, Tom Clancy's The Division, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé demoed an upcoming Wii U game, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Rockstar Games worked with the production team to produce a musical performance of the music of Grand Theft Auto V.| Award | Winner | Nominees |
| Game of the Year | Grand Theft Auto V |
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| Studio of the Year | Naughty Dog, The Last of Us |
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| Character of the Year | The Lutece Twins, BioShock Infinite |
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| Best Shooter | BioShock Infinite |
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| Best Action-Adventure Game | Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag |
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| Best Sports Game | NBA 2K14 |
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| Best Independent Game | Gone Home |
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| Best RPG | Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch |
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| Best Fighting Game | Injustice: Gods Among Us |
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| Best Driving Game | Forza Motorsport 5 |
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| Best DLC | Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon |
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| Best Xbox Game | Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons |
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| Best PlayStation Game | The Last of Us |
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| Best Nintendo Game | Super Mario 3D World |
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| Best PC Game | Gone Home |
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| Best Handheld Game | The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds |
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| Best Casual Game | Animal Crossing: New Leaf |
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| Best Mobile Game | Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time |
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| Best Voice Actor | Troy Baker as Joel, The Last of Us |
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| Best Voice Actress | Ashley Johnson as Ellie, The Last of Us |
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| Best Soundtrack | Grand Theft Auto V |
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| Best Song in a Game | "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" performed by Courtnee Draper and Troy Baker, BioShock Infinite |
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| Most Anticipated Game | Titanfall |
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Spike Video Game Awards
2012 awards
The 2012 VGAs was held on December 7, 2012, at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City, California. Samuel L. Jackson returned to host for a fourth time. This was the last year under the name "Spike Video Game Awards". For the first time, the awards were broadcast on Xbox Live. Live users could "play" the show as it aired live. Responses to poll questions were tabulated in real time on screen for the Xbox Live audience and users with Xbox SmartGlass devices got a unique second-screen experience that updated in real time alongside the show content. Additionally, Spike TV and Entertainment Weekly partnered to create the first-ever "Entertainment Weekly and Spike VGA Best Game of the Decade" award. Exclusive world premieres that debuted at VGA 10 include Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, Epic Games' Gears of War: Judgment, Obsidian Entertainment's South Park: The Stick of Truth, Konami's Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, Irrational Games' BioShock Infinite, Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington, and 343 Industries' Halo 4: Spartan Ops. Two new games were announced, including Dark Souls II by FromSoftware, and a new game called The Phantom Pain. The event also had appearances from all past hosts of the VGAs except David Spade. The event featured musical performances by Linkin Park, Tenacious D, Gustavo Santaolalla and Wolfgang Gartner.| Award | Winner | Nominees |
| Game of the Year | The Walking Dead |
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| Studio of the Year | Telltale Games, The Walking Dead: The Game |
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| Best Xbox 360 Game | Halo 4 |
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| Best PS3 Game | Journey |
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| Best Wii/Wii U Game | New Super Mario Bros. U |
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| Best PC Game | XCOM: Enemy Unknown |
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| Best Handheld/Mobile Game | Sound Shapes |
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| Best Shooter | Borderlands 2 |
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| Best Action Adventure Game | Dishonored |
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| Best RPG | Mass Effect 3 |
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| Best Multi-player Game | Borderlands 2 |
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| Best Individual Sports Game | SSX |
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| Best Team Sports Game | NBA 2K13 |
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| Best Driving Game | Need for Speed: Most Wanted |
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| Best Fighting Game | Persona 4 Arena |
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| Best Independent Game | Journey |
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| Best Adapted Video Game | The Walking Dead: The Game |
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| Best Song in a Game | "Cities" by Beck, Sound Shapes |
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| Best Original Score | Journey |
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| Best Graphics | Halo 4 |
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| Best Performance by a Human Male | Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack, Borderlands 2 |
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| Best Performance by a Human Female | Melissa Hutchison as Clementine, The Walking Dead: The Game |
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| Best Downloadable Game | The Walking Dead: The Game |
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| Best Social Game | You Don't Know Jack |
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| Best DLC | The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Dawnguard |
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| Most Anticipated Game | Grand Theft Auto V |
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| Character of the Year | Claptrap, Borderlands 2 |
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| Best Game of the Decade | Half-Life 2 |
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