In a nutshell: The 2021 Game Awards take place on Thursday, December 9, and will be hosted by Keighley from the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The show returns as an in-person event this year after going virtual last year due to the pandemic, but Activision Blizzard won’t have a role outside of its previously announced awards nominations.
Activision Blizzard’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2021 continues as The Game Awards producer and host Geoff Keighley has confirmed that the embattled video game company will not have a presence at this year’s awards ceremony outside of its nominations.
In follow-up tweets, Keighley said The Game Awards are a time of celebration for the industry, adding that there is no place for abuse, harassment or predatory practices in any company or any community.
Beyond its nominations, I can confirm that Activision|Blizzard will not be a part of this year’s #TheGameAwards
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 4, 2021
In a statement given to The Washington Post, Keighley said Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 won’t be shown at this year’s show. That’s no surprise considering Activision Blizzard said back in February that neither title was on track to launch in 2021. With the recent exit of Jen Oneal, the games might not arrive until sometime in 2023 at the earliest.
A quick check of the nominees reveals Activision is up for two awards: the best eSports game with Call of Duty and Best Ongoing, “awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time” for Call of Duty: Warzone.
It’s worth mentioning that Activision President Rob Kostich is on the advisory board for The Game Awards alongside other big names like AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su, Hideo Kojima, Nintendo President Doug Bowser and Microsoft’s Phil Spencer.