The Game Awards used to be considered the video game industry's Oscars. Now, the event, in its fifth year and set to be streamed live around the globe Thursday night, is becoming more like the Emmys.

That's because games are changing, says the show's creator and executive producer, Geoff Keighley.

Just as the Emmys awards seasons of TV shows, "we almost have seasons of games now. With 'Fortnite,' even though it came out last year, it’s still nominated this year because they keep updating it," Keighley said.

"That’s a general shift, which is good, because there are more types of games out there, and 'Fortnite' is free to play, so you don’t have to buy it and download it," he said. "That’s another thing I think is a great trend. Games are becoming more accessible to more people."

Keighley, 39, has been immersed in the game industry since he was a teen. When he was 15, Keighley helped write the scripts for the first televised video game awards show "Cybermania ’94: The Ultimate Gamer Awards" on TBS, hosted by actor Leslie Nielsen ("Airplane!") and Jonathan Taylor Thomas ("Home Improvement").

Ever since, he's sought to develop an awards show that the video game industry deserved. After working on awards shows and other live events at the G4 and Spike TV networks, "I decided to go off and do my own thing called The Game Awards, owned by me independently, but certainly building off of the momentum of what Spike had done," he said.

"My big pivot was we don’t need to be on TV anymore, we can actually do this all digital streaming," Keighley said.

The first production of The Game Awards in 2014 was streamed on YouTube and Twitch and gaming consoles. Last year, its audience more than tripled to more than 11.5 million live streams worldwide, up from 3.8 million in 2016, and reached more than 18 million viewers.

This year, the awards will also be streamed on Facebook, Twitter, Mixer, Steam TV, IGN, GameSpot, Polygon, MLG, Caffeine.tv, as well as PlayStation and Xbox. Beyond the U.S., the event will be live-streamed on platforms in China, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, Japan, Brazil and Russia, having expanded to 45 distribution partners worldwide.

"The idea was let’s do a show that looks as good as a television show, but stream it exclusively," Keighley said. "Look, most of the gaming audience, they are streaming Netflix," he said. "They are not watching cable. So we can stream in 4K via YouTube to your television set and it looks just like a television show, but it’s actually all digital."

When you tune into The Game Awards, you'll get more than a typical awards show. In addition to seeing famous game designers, you will likely see celebrities, musicians and athletes – and e-sports athletes.

Last year, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro ("The Shape of Water") and actor Norman Reedus ("The Walking Dead") were among the celebrities who presented awards and made appearances, and the band Phoenix performed.

For this year's event, Keighley has enlisted Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of the upcoming Avengers film, Jonah Hill ("Maniac"), Christoph Waltz ("Spectre") and prominent content creators Ninja and JackSepticEye. "Mission: Impossible – Fallout" composer Lorne Balfe, who is conducting The Game Awards orchestra, will be joined by Hans Zimmer ("Blade Runner 2049"). Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo will be on hand, too.

"It's a mix of the big names in gaming, Hollywood and music all coming together to celebrate games," Keighley said.

You will also get a look at what's coming in video games, including a "Fortnite" update from creative director Donald Mustard, and reveals and previews of upcoming games from Electronic Arts and Obsidian Entertainment.

Speaking of awards, the numerous categories include best narrative, game direction, art direction, best performance, score, audio design, mobile game and independent game best sports player.

Nominees for the coveted Game of the Year award are "Assassin’s Creed Odyssey," "Celeste," "Marvel’s Spider-Man," "God of War," "Monster Hunter: World" and "Red Dead Redemption 2."

For the Best Ongoing Game Award, "Fortnite" faces off against against "Overwatch," "Destiny 2: Forsaken," "No Man’s Sky" and "Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege."

For a complete list of the nominees, go to the awards site or watch the video below.

You can still vote for the awards, too. Winners are determined by a combination of the voting jury (90 percent) and public fan votes (10 percent), which can be cast until midnight PT Wednesday on TheGameAwards.com and The Game Awards Discord server in all categories, and also via Twitter DM, Facebook Messenger, as well as using voice on Alexa and Google Assistant in select categories. Voters can also boost their vote on TheGameAwards.com by sharing their vote to social media.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

