The last weeks of the year arrive and a custom that has been repeated for more than a decade is reactivated, namely the celebration of Game rewardsthe ceremony which has become a sort of Oscar for video games and which seems to be controversial in this 2024 edition, do you know why? Well, because it feels like a game not complete will be eligible for the Best Game of the Year award.
The fact is that it is not something that was announced by the organization, but that a media outlet found on the official website the typical FAQ where some questions that might arise around the prices are answered. And one of them, truth be told, left everyone a little frozen as it appears to be a tailor-made suit for one of the most anticipated launches of 2024, which was an extension of another one we we saw arriving in February 2022.
The best game of the year, an expansion? Oh really?
In this web page Game rewardsin 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 packsnew game seasons, DLC, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury believes that the new creative and technical work merits nomination. Factors such as the novelty of the content and its price/value ratio should be considered.
It goes without saying that everyone saw in these lines a sort of work of preparing the ground for Shadow of the Erdtreethe expansion of Ancient Ring arrived last June and whose main title has already won the award for best game of the year in Game rewards 2022. So yes, it looks like they are preparing things so that the work of From the software to be crowned the best of 2024 again.
It is obvious that from such a decision all the speculations are unleashed but, above all, it opens a dangerous precedent which we never know how to control. Because expansions will continue to appear, and lots of them, and it’s unclear what criteria they must meet to even be among the nominees for the best games of each year.
Nominations, starting this afternoon
It will be this afternoon, November 18, around 6:00 p.m. Spanish, when all the candidates for The Game Awards 2024 and there we can see if this prerogative included in the expansions within the category of the best game of the year has been used or not. What if we had thought about that Shadow of the Erdtree so that, as has already happened with Ancient Ringcan win the highest distinction.
Do you think they are doing the right thing by adding these contents as possible winners of the biggest prize or should they compete in a specific category of DLC, expansions, remakes, etc.? ? Tell us.
