The Game Awards: an expansion as Game of the Year? It doesn’t make sense

The Game Awards take place every December. It’s the biggest awards ceremony in the industry. The winners are always the subject of controversial discussions in the gaming community. This year, the nominations are already causing a stir. A lot of fans are particularly upset by the selection of games in the running for Game of the Year. The nominees are:

• Astro Bot
• Balatro
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Metaphor: ReFantazio

The inclusion of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is problematic for many. This is because it’s not a new game; it’s just the expansion for Elden Ring, originally released in 2022.

Until now, the awards have expressly excluded expansions of old games. However, for this year’s edition, «expansion games, new seasons, DLCs […] and remasters are now permitted in all categories […]». I think this is a huge mistake and total nonsense.

Expansions push out new games

I can understand the criticism of Shadow of the Erdtree’s inclusion. One important role of the Game Awards is to give new games the chance to be in the spotlight and win awards. The studios aren’t only rewarded for their hard work, they also get the opportunity to present their new works to a wide audience. Last year, the show reached a record 118 million live streams.

I fondly remember the 2021 Game Awards, where It Takes Two by small Swedish studio Hazelight won big. The brilliant co-op game has since sold over 20 million copies. I’m not saying the Game Awards alone are responsible for this immense success – but winning Game of the Year certainly didn’t hurt.

With the decision to allow expansions this year, the show loses some of that spotlighting role. For me, it also loses value.

Elden Ring was already rightly recognised at the Game Awards in 2022. The open-world soulslike won four awards: Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction and Best Role Playing Game.

This year, the expansion Shadow of the Erdtree is nominated again in these four categories. This means a two-year-old game is taking the place of new, fresh works in several categories that it’s already won.

That’s unfair. It’s nonsense.

Shadow of the Erdtree’s nomination’s leaves a particularly bad taste in the mouth when you look at which new games could be on the list instead. Silent Hill 2, Helldivers II, Stellar Blade, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth… Many of them would’ve had a chance in the other categories occupied by Shadow of the Erdtree. My gamer heart bleeds.

And who knows whether It Takes Two would’ve been nominated at all in 2021 if expansions had been allowed back then. Numerous high-quality DLCs were released that year, including for Ghost of Tsushima, Final Fantasy XIV Online, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Doom Eternal.

Expansions should be rewarded – but not like this

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that I called Silent Hill 2 a «new» game, even though it’s a remake of an old PS2 game. Is this a case of double standards? Do I have a personal vendetta against Elden Ring and just want to get one over on it? Not at all.

I think there’s a huge difference between a remake like Silent Hill 2 and Shadow of the Erdtree. Silent Hill 2 is a reinterpretation of a classic work that creates something completely new by repurposing the original. You can play the remake of Silent Hill 2 without ever having touched the PS2 original. It’s a similar story to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which is also nominated for Game of the Year.

However, in order to play «Shadow of the Erdtree» and unlock the DLC, you have to own «Elden Ring» and have invested many hours in the game. One can’t exist and function without the other, so it shouldn’t compete as a standalone title against new standalones.

Despite my criticism, I think expansions like Shadow of the Erdtree should definitely be recognised at shows such as the Game Awards – but in their own category.

The event already does something similar with live service games via the Best Ongoing Game category, avoiding any overlap with new games. So, why not do the same with DLCs?

A questionable process

In addition to the main discussion about including expansions, the way the change was communicated is also frustrating. It was included in an inconspicuous FAQ section on the Game Awards website a few days before the nominations were announced. Almost as if they wanted to sweep the whole thing under the carpet.

This in turn fuels conspiracy theories. Did Keighley just wave through this change so that his friend and director of Elden Ring, Hidetaka Miyazaki, could win a second award for the same game? Suggestions like this are damaging for the reputation of the Game Awards and the gaming industry as a whole.

Another problem is that, besides the seemingly arbitrary change in the admission criteria, the Game Awards have already proven in the past that they don’t give their jury enough guidelines when selecting nominations. The jury is made up of over 100 media outlets and content creators who have a say in the nomination and selection of the winners.

Last year, for example, Dave the Diver was nominated in the Best Indie Game category, even though the developer studio Mintrocket is anything but indie and belongs to megacorporation Nexon. When decisions like this are made, many fans question the jury’s expertise.

If the rules regarding «expansions, new seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters» are relaxed, there’s a risk of complete chaos in the nomination process in the future. This also threatens the Game Awards’ reputation. I want the Game Awards to celebrate new, fresh ideas instead of heaping praise on the same games and studios over and over again.