Next Monday, Geoff Keighley’s annual hype festival known as The Game Awards(TM) will announce all of its 2024 nominees in some kind of livestream event.
For fun, I’m going to guess what I think will win the big prize at this year’s show — and because this is my article, I’m giving myself two chances.
I have no inside track into this. I’m not one of the hundreds of journalists and influencers inside the gaming industry that gets to vote on these awards. I used to write for a regional computer magazine in Oregon, but these days that credential would get me a “what?” if I showed up to try and play with the other gaming writers out there. I’m just a guy online on Medium making some guesses on a Thursday afternoon.
Having said that, I’ve seen a pattern emerge in the last couple of winners, and more broadly across time. The Game Awards isn’t supposed to be biased towards big popular games — but it almost always is. It’s rare that a critical darling like It Takes Two sneaks through the gates, but most of the time, the show picks something relatively safe and mainstream. I guess that’s not surprising considering that there’s a big overlap between the critical consensus and the people actually doing the voting.
