The final weeks of the year arrive and a custom that has been repeated for more than a decade is reactivated, and that is the celebration of The Game Awardsthe ceremony that has become a kind of Oscars for video games and that seems to have some controversy in this 2024 edition, do you know why? Well, because it gives the impression that a game not complete will be eligible for the award for best game of the year.
The fact is that it is not something that has been announced by the organization, but that a media outlet has found the typical FAQ on the official website where some questions that could arise around the awards are answered. And one of them, the truth is, has left everyone a little frozen because it seems like a tailor-made suit for one of the most anticipated launches of 2024, which was an expansion of another that we saw arrive in February 2022.
Best game of the year an expansion? Oh really?
Within that web page The Game Awardsin the FAQ, you can read that «The Game Awards aim to recognize the best creative and technical work each year, regardless of the release format of that content. The expansion packsthe new game seasons, the DLC, the remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the novelty of the content and its price/value must be taken into account.”
It goes without saying that everyone has seen in these lines a kind of work of preparing the ground for Shadow of the Erdtreethe expansion of Elden Ring which arrived last June and whose main title has already won the award for best game of the year in The Game Awards 2022. So yes, it looks like they are preparing things so that the work of FromSoftware be crowned the best of 2024 again.
It is obvious that from a decision like this all speculation is unleashed but, above all, it opens a dangerous precedent that one never knows how it can be controlled. Because expansions are going to continue appearing, and many of them, and it is not clear what criteria it must meet for it to even appear among the nominees for best games of each year.
The nominations, starting this afternoon
It will be this afternoon, November 18, at around 6:00 p.m. Spanish, when all the nominees for The Game Awards 2024 and there we can see if this prerogative included in the expansions within the category for best game of the year has been used or not. And if it had been thought for Shadow of the Erdtree so that, as already happened with Elden Ringcan take the highest award.
Do you think they are doing the right thing by adding these contents as possible winners of the most important prize or should they compete in a specific category of DLC, expansions, remakes, etc.? Tell us.
