The Game Awards also allow players to vote each year on which title is chosen as Game of the Year. The list of nominees is a curious mix of popular but also controversial games.
What are the Game Awards? This is an annual awards ceremony that honors the best games of the year in various categories. Among them is the main award “Game of the Year”, as well as specific genre categories such as “Best Action Game”.
A list of all nominees in the regular categories can be found on MeinMMO. The announcement caused quite a stir. Many players miss certain titles on the list, while others raise eyebrows.
The community now has the opportunity to correct the omissions and “mistakes” of the official jury. A separate voting allows players to vote for which game was truly the best of the year.
Will Dragon Age: The Veilguard be the Community Game of the Year? Here you can see the trailer:
You have the choice of 30 games
Which titles are up for vote? While only 6 games are nominated in the jury voting, the community selected a total of 30 titles beforehand. From these, one can now be voted for, with the community voting going through three rounds.
Looking at the list, some games stand out particularly. In addition to critic favorite Astro Bot, popular games like Black Myth: Wukong, Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, or Dragon’s Dogma 2 are nominated. Also, Helldivers 2 or fan favorites like Fortnite or League of Legends are on the list.
However, there are some nominations that stand out particularly.
Which games are particularly interesting? On one hand, Palworld is nominated, while it was not selected by the official jury in any category. And this, despite being a very popular game this year and still receiving updates.
At the same time, the developers of Palworld, Pocket Pair, are embroiled in a legal dispute with Nintendo. Notably, no Pokémon game has yet won a Game Award for Game of the Year. Should Palworld triumph in the community voting, it would have the upper hand here.
The much-discussed Dragon Age: The Veilguard also appears among the nominees. In the jury voting, it was only nominated in the category “Innovation in Accessibility”. This category focuses on new features that make it easier for a broader audience of players to enjoy gaming.
Now, a large part of the community voted for a nomination of the game. This shows that a significant portion of the negative feedback likely came from a loud minority, and the majority actually enjoyed the game. The backlash that the title faced does not seem to represent the entire gaming community.
What else stands out? That the Elden Ring DLC and the remakes of Silent Hill 2 and Final Fantasy VII are even nominated by the community is somewhat surprising. Not because the games cannot compete qualitatively with others, but because players had only recently complained about the jury nomination of these very titles.
No matter how the vote turns out in the end, not all players are likely to be satisfied with the results. This year, there are several controversial candidates, which makes the race all the more exciting.
Whether an expansion like Shadow of the Erdtree is really justified to be chosen as Game of the Year was a point of contention among players. The fact that the DLC is now appearing on the list shows, in the end, a certain unity. Initially, they thought the Game Awards were cheating: Players believe that the gaming Oscars changed their rules so that Elden Ring can win again
