NME | Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News
The inaugural Gayming Awards premiered exclusively on Twitch last night (February 24), and revealed the winners across nine categories.
Hades, Tell Me Why, and If Found… were the big winners of the night, with two awards each.
Most of the winners were chosen by an international judging panel of LGBTQ+ video game industry professionals. The LGBTQ Streamer of the Year Award and the Readersâ Award were decided by public vote.
Game developer Robert Yang was also presented with the Gayming Icon Award, in recognition of his contribution towards furthering the status and increasing the visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in the gaming industry.
The awards show, presented by EA, was hosted by comedian Suzi Ruffell. The award categories were sponsored by major brands across the games industry, including PlayStation, Xbox, and Square Enix.
Watched by over 110,000 unique viewers, the Gayming Awards is the world’s first award show dedicated to celebrating LGBTQ+ inclusion and representation in video games.
The Gayming Awards is presented by Gayming Magazine, an online magazine founded in 2019, which focuses on the LGBTQ+ community in video games.
“I am so proud to be able to say we have held the world’s first LGBTQ video game award show,” Gayming Magazine founding editor Robin Gray said in a statement.
“2020 was truly a watershed moment for LGBTQ inclusion in games and to be able to celebrate it with everyone, although virtually, was amazing!”
The full list of winners of the Gayming Awards 2021 is as follows:
- Game of the Year: Hades
- Gayming Icon Award: Robert Yang
- Gayming Magazine Readers’ Award: Hades
- Best LGBTQ Indie Game Award: If Found…
- Industry Diversity Award: I Need Diverse Games
- LGBTQ Streamer of the Year: DEERE
- Best LGBTQ Character Award: Tyler Ronan – Tell Me Why
- Authentic Representation Award: Tell Me Why
- Best LGBTQ Narrative Award: If Found…
Elsewhere, an annual report from GLAAD showed that LGBTQ representation on TV has fallen for the first time in five years.
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