The 3 Most Baffling Things About This Year’s Game Awards Nominees

One of my predictions was completely wrong

Official Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree marketing screenshot, sourced from: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2778580/ELDEN_RING_Shadow_of_the_Erdtree/

This morning, the Game Awards announced their 2024 nominees. A huge thank you to the folks at Video Games Chronicle for writing them up in a handy list.

I am frustrated, flummoxed, and at least one or two other words beginning with “F.”

Look, I know that these awards are meaningless. I know that all awards shows are meaningless. They’re just fun exercises that celebrate different types of media, and often serve as thinly-veiled excuses for big marketing campaigns for new products. The Game Awards is the most shameful example of the latter, devoting the vast majority of its run-time to trailers for upcoming titles rather than recognizing good game development.

In other words, I shouldn’t really care who or what is on this nominee list.

But wow, I didn’t see most of this coming.

Shadow of the Erdtree for Game of the Year?!

The show tried to get out ahead of any controversy on this one — by quietly dropping the news on Sunday afternoon that the rules have changed. Going forward, DLC, expansions, and other online content packs are now eligible in the “Game of the Year” category.