Technologies

Game Awards 2022: Start Times and How to Watch

This year’s award show is expected to be shorter than in the past.

The Game Awards is the annual award show bringing together the biggest companies in gaming and honoring the year’s best titles. The ceremony, hosted by Geoff Keighleylater this week, showcases plenty of trailers and announcements for upcoming titles, keeping the show from being a stodgy suit-and-tie affair. This year’s award show will also be «significantly shorter» than in the past.

Game of the Year nominees include God of War: Ragnarök, Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Stray and A Plague Tale: Requiem. We also know that we’ll get more information on Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, Tekken 8, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Sky: Children of the Light, a new game from Jenova Chen, the mind behind 2012’s Journey. Presenters will include HBO’s The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey, Final Fantasy VXI producer Naoki «Yoshi-P» Yoshida and Animal from The Muppets.

How to watch The Game Awards 2022 on YouTube, Twitch and everywhere else

The 2022 Game Awards will be broadcast from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday starting at 4:30 p.m. PT / 7:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 a.m. GMT. It will stream live on every major platform, including:

YouTube in 4K
Twitch
Twitter
Facebook Live
Steam
Oculus Venues
IGN
GameSpot
TikTok Live
Trovo
Instagram Live.

Select IMAX theaters will also showcase The Game Awards, giving fans not in Los Angeles a premium experience. Those in Los Angeles who want to go see the show live are out of luck as tickets are no longer available for purchase.

What announcements to expect at The Game Awards 2022

Past Game Awards have given us glimpses at The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Death Stranding and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. This year, fans can expect a new game from publisher 505 Games and Fortnite maker Epic Games. A teaser site is live that showcases the fictional beach side town of Rockay City.

Other than that, not much more has been teased. But if previous years are any indication, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see at least one heavy-hitter from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. A new trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom would surely get people excited, as would Alan Wake II, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Dead Space and the new Korean title Stellar Blade.

The Game Awards 2022 Nominees

This year’s nominees can be found throughout 31 categories, with everything from best game direction to best esports event. Obviously, game of the year is the most anticipated award, but best narrative, art direction, score and music, character performance, and indie will surely get lots of attention. Below is a list of every game nominated.

Game of the Year

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Best Game Direction

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Narrative

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)

Best Art Direction

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Score and Music

Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Audio Design

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)

Best Performance

Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök
Manon Gage, Immortality
Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök

Games for Impact

A Memoir Blue (Cloisters Interactive/Annapurna)
As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
Endling – Extinction is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
Hindsight (Team Hindsight/Annapurna)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)

Best Ongoing Game

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Best Indie

Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

Best Debut Indie

Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
NORCO (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)
Vampire Survivors (poncle)

Best Community Support

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
FINAL FANTASY XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Mobile

Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed & Quantum/Respawn/EA)
Diablo Immortal (Blizzard/NetEase)
Genshin Impact (HoYovese)
MARVEL SNAP (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse)
Tower of Fantasy (Hotta Studio/Perfect World/Level Infinite)

Best VR/AR

After the Fall (Vertigo Games)
Among Us VR (Schell Games/InnerSloth)
BONELAB (Stress Level Zero)
Moss: Book II (Polyarc)
Red Matter 2 (Vertical Robot)

Best Action

Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

Best Action/Adventure

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
TUNIC (TUNIC Team/Finji)

Best Role Playing

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Live a Live (Square Enix/Nintendo)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCI)
Triangle Strategy (Artdink/Square Enix)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Best Fighting

DNF Duel (Arc System Works/EIGHTING/NEOPLE/NEXON)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (CyberConnect 2 Co. Ltd/Bandai Namco)
The King of Fighters XV (SNK/Plaion)
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
Sifu (Sloclap)

Best Family

Kirby and the Forgotten Land (HAL Laboratory / Nintendo)
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Traveller’s Tales/WB Games)
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Sim/Strategy

Dune: Spice Wars (Shiro Games/Funcom)
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Ubisoft Milan/Paris/Ubisoft)
Total War: WARHAMMER III (Creative Assembly/Sega)
Two Point Campus (Two Point Studios/Sega)
Victoria 3 (Paradox Development Studio/Paradox Interactive)

Best Sports/Racing

F1 22 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver/Romania/EA Sports)
NBA 2K23 (Visual Concepts/2K Sports)
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital/SIE)
OlliOlli World (Roll 7/Private Division)

Best Multiplayer

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
Overwatch 2 (Blizzard)
Splatoon 3 (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

Most Anticipated

FINAL FANTASY XVI (Square Enix)
Hogwarts Legacy (Avalanche Software/WB Games)
Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Content Creator of the Year

Karl Jacobs
Ludwig
Nibellion
Nobru
QTCinderella

Best Adaptation

Arcane: League of Legends (Fortiche/Riot Games/Netflix)
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Studio Trigger/CD Projekt, Netflix)
The Cuphead Show! (Studio MDHR/King Features Syndicate/Netflix)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sega Sammy Group/Paramount Pictures)
Uncharted (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)

Innovation in Accessibility

As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
The Last Of Us Part I (Naughty Dog/SIE)
The Quarry (Supermassive Games/2K)

Best Esports Game

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (Valve)
DOTA 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Rocket League (Psyonix)
VALORANT (Riot Games)

Best Esports Athlete

Jeong «Chovy» Ji-hoon (Gen.G, LOL)
Lee «Faker» Sang-hyeok (T1, LOL)
Finn «karrigan» Andersen (FaZe Clan – CS:GO)
Oleksandr «s1mple» Kostyliev (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
Jacob «Yay» Whiteaker (Cloud9, Valorant)

Best Esports Team

DarkZero Esports (Apex Legends)
FaZe Clan (CS:GO)
Gen.G (League of Legends)
LA Thieves (Call of Duty)
LOUD (Valorant)

Best Esports Coach

Andrii «B1ad3» Horodenskyi (Natus Vincere, CS:GO)
Matheus «bzkA» Tarasconi (LOUD, VALORANT)
Erik «d00mbr0s» Sandgren (FPX, VALORANT)
Robert «RobbaN» Dahlström (FaZe Clan, CS:GO)
Go «Score» Dong-bin (Gen.G, LOL)

Best Esports Event

EVO 2022
2022 League of Legends World Championship
PGL Major Antwerp 2022
The 2022 Mid-Season Invitational
VALORANT Champions 2022

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.

Technologies

You Can Now Buy Nike’s $900 Workout Shoes for Compression and Heating

The Nike Hyperboots, designed to help you warm up and recover from workouts, launched Saturday.

Those workout shoes with compression and heating that Nike and Hyperice showed off at CES 2025 earlier this year weren’t just a concept. The Hyperboot is now available to buy online in North America, so they’re within reach, as long as you’re willing to spend $899.

The high-tops, which Nike and Hyperice call a wearable much like your smartwatch, help your feet warm up before a workout, and then recover after it. The shoes do this with heating and air-compression massage technology, taking the idea of heating pads and compression socks and making them mobile.

«You can definitely feel the heat in here,» CNET former mobile senior writer Lisa Eadicicco said when she had the chance to try these workout shoes on in January. She walked across a demo room in Las Vegas wearing the fancy footwear to test out the compression and heating features.

The boots massage and compress your ankles and feet, and in CNET’s test, we could especially feel the heat around the ankles. Buttons on the shoes let you adjust compression and the amount of heat with multiple settings for each.

«The Hyperboot contains a system of dual-air bladders that deliver sequential compression patterns and are bonded to thermally efficient heating elements that evenly distribute heat throughout the shoe’s entire upper,» Nike said.

The battery lasts for 1 to 1.5 hours on max heat and compression settings, or 8 hours if you’re only using the massage setting. It takes 5 to 6 hours to charge via USB-C cable. The boots come in five sizes: S, M, L, XL and XXL.