What you need to know
- The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley opened the 2021 TGA show with a condemnation of the game industry’s problems with abuse and harassment. This followed the state of California’s lawsuits and damning investigative reports against the game’s publisher, Activision, and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, for perpetuating a toxic work culture and covering up sexual harassment claims from employees.
- The Game Awards nominated Modern Warfare 2 (2022) in three categories for that year’s awards ceremony before announcing the title would not have any additional presence at the show in light of the continued Activision controversies and lawsuits.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2023) was completely snubbed at the 2023 The Game Awards show, earning 0 nominations, and was even mocked for its campaign run time by God of War voice actor, Christopher Judge.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, now under the Xbox umbrella following the acquisition of Activision, has received a total of 4 nominations: Best Action Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Innovations in Accessibility, and Best Audio Design.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has picked up four nominations for 2024’s The Game Awards, hosted by Geoff Keighley and set to air on December 12. Black Ops 6, developed by Treyarch and Raven Software and published by Activision under Xbox, has been nominated for Best Audio Design, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Action Game, and Innovation in Accessibility. Black Ops 6 and Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga racked up the most nominations for Xbox and were seated squarely among the top nominees overall, but the publisher was ultimately unable to secure any Game of the Year nominations.
Here are the most nominated games for #TheGameAwards on December 12: pic.twitter.com/jF0IJvKtZLNovember 18, 2024
A history of controversy and snubs
The Game Awards and Call of Duty have a contentious relationship. The game continues to break records as one of the top-selling multiplatform franchises, earning billions of revenue annually. However, the Call of Duty brand is still recovering from the stains of labor violation lawsuits and investigative reports that uncovered claims of sexual abuse, harassment, and a generally toxic work culture that dominated the headlines in late 2021. Keighley opened 2021’s The Game Awards ceremony by condemning the problems plaguing the gaming industry, though he stopped short of naming Activision and then CEO Bobby Kotick outright in his speech.
As the controversy surrounding Activision grew, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) was released. Modern Warfare 2 was nominated for three awards for the 2022 The Game Awards ceremony. The Game Awards faced backlash for nominating Modern Warfare 2 for any category, with some detractors claiming that doing so could incentivize Activision to continue operating in a damaging capacity to its employees.
Keighley spoke out again on the controversy, this time before the show’s opening night, by stating that while Modern Warfare 2 was nominated, The Game Awards ceremony would not be engaging with the title in any other capacity. By this time, Xbox had announced its plans to acquire Call of Duty’s publisher, Activision. The deal would continue to go through litigation and regulatory scrutiny before coming to a close ahead of the launch of Sledgehammer Game’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Developers from Activision’s numerous studios—more than a dozen of which were working on the Call of Duty franchise at the time—took to social media to express frustration with The Game Awards. They claimed the show punished the developers for the actions of their employers at a show that was meant to highlight and celebrate the people behind the games. Salt was further rubbed into the wound of Modern Warfare 3 developers when Christopher Judge, the voice actor behind Kratos in the PlayStation-exclusive title God of War, made a joke at the game’s expense during the 2023 The Game Awards opening ceremonies.
Judge took the stage to announce the winner for Best Performance. Known for his previously lengthy speeches at the awards show, Judge quipped, “Fun fact: My speech was actually longer than this year’s Call of Duty campaign.” This was followed by even more ridicule from Call of Duty team members from multiple studios who worked on the title, and even earned condemnation from the actor behind Modern Warfare’s own Captain Price, Barry Sloane.
Can Black Ops 6 take home the crown?
Even without the snubs, Call of Duty’s trophy shelf has been largely neglected by The Game Awards. Only one title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) has won a category from The Game Awards showcase, taking home Best Audio Design for that year. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has a chance to change the tide for the franchise’s interactions with Keighley’s annual ceremony. The blockbuster has been nominated for Best Action Game, Best Audio Design, Innovation in Accessibility, and Best Multiplayer.
For the Best Action category, Black Ops 6 is pitted against PlayStation exclusives Helldivers 2, Stellar Blade, and Black Myth: Wukong, as well as fellow Xbox Game Pass contender, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2. CoD faces off against Helldivers 2, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and Tekken 8 for the best multiplayer category.
@CallofDuty @Activision Congratulations on your Best Multiplayer Game nomination! #TheGameAwardsVote now at https://t.co/ExP93r9Pcq pic.twitter.com/JlT4YMby0iNovember 18, 2024
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is joined in the Innovations in Accessibility category by fellow Xbox-owned, Activision-published title Diablo IV, as well as Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and Star Wars Outlaws. Black Ops 6 has made massive leaps for the Call of Duty franchise, which already had a standing commitment to accessibility. Black Ops 6 introduced Intelligent Movement mechanics to compliment the new Omnimovement, allowing a feature that could’ve greatly increased player skill gaps by requiring frantic button inputs to be adjusted down to more simple input patterns.
While Intelligent Movement levels the playing field for players struggling with low motor function, additional features like enemy outlines, high contrast settings, and adjustable audio compensation for asymmetrical hearing impairments. These features push Black Ops 6 ahead in innovative ways to balance the battlefield for all players in a competitive game environment.
Black Ops 6 battles it out against PlayStation’s Astrobot, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth from Square Enix, Silent Hill 2 from Bloober Team, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 from Ninja Theory. While Black Ops 6 has made great strides in improving Call of Duty’s audio offerings, and even has a previous win in the category, Ninja Theory’s audio design for Hellblade 2 certainly puts up a tough fight.
Despite Black Ops 6 taking in a record number of nominations, Call of Duty: Warzone received a surprising snub in the Best Ongoing Game category. Warzone was just recently integrated with Black Ops 6 for Season 1, but the launch has been messy, to say the least.
Destiny 2 continues to hang in there thanks to its release of The Final Shape earlier this year, but the Bungie team behind the game has been hit hard with layoffs and the player base continues to dwindle to record lows. Xbox can still bring home a hit in Best Ongoing if Diablo IV can seal the deal against Fortnite, Helldivers 2, and Final Fantasy 14, however.
If any recently released Call of Duty title stood a chance as a Game of the Year contender, it was probably Black Ops 6 that could’ve secured the bag. Yet it didn’t even manage to garner a nomination. 2024 has undoubtedly been a strange year for game releases, where no one AAA title has really managed to capture the zeitgeist for more than a brief moment. Even with that, Black Ops 6 has managed to reinvigorate a multiplayer fan base that had otherwise grown weary. Still, taking home any awards will surely be an uphill battle, no matter how deserved the victory may be.
