The Game Awards 2024’s biggest game of the year snubs and surprises

The Game Awards aren’t known for big surprises, and that was evident in the 2024 nominees – a fairly comprehensive list in which most of the year’s top-rated and most popular games received some recognition.

The Game Awards voting jury has rejected BioWare’s latest game in a number of key categories in which it could have competed. There was only one nomination for Innovation in Accessibility, which was decided by an expert jury.

Admittedly, the reception The Veil Guardian was mixed – and with the Metacritic score settling at 82, a Game of the Year nomination seemed out of reach (although that’s one point higher than Black Myth: Wukong

who made it).

What is more significant, however, is that The Veil Guardian received no nominations for Best Narrative or Best Performance, two areas in which BioWare games tend to excel and are less reliant on reviews. It was also not rated in the “Best Role Playing Game” category. This was an exceptionally strong category this year: three of the five nominees (Metaphor: ReFantasia, Final Fantasy 7 RebirthAnd Elden Ring: Shadow of the Earth Tree) also secured nominations for Game of the Year, and the other two (Dragon’s Dogma 2 And Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth) are unconventionally awarded. Still, failing to join this company is certainly not the outcome that BioWare or publisher EA wanted after a decade of development.

Were there any other snubs? Maybe a few smaller ones. It was a surprise not to see the much loved one EA Sports College Football 25

achieved a nomination in the “Sports/Racing Game” category, although this may be due to the broad international composition of the jury. In the “Sim/Strategy Games” category, two games with passionate fan bases and high rating scores are missing – Satisfactory And Tactical Breach Wizards – either of them could have taken the place of Age of mythology Remake for example. But this was a strong category this year. Personally, I would have liked to see it The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom nominated for his fantastic music.

As always, the highly competitive indie categories can’t satisfy everyone. But with 15 games nominated in Independent Game, Debut Indie Game and Games for Impact, you have to be prepared for some pretty deep cuts like: Arco or 1000xResist before you find something to get upset about.

More surprises? I don’t think anyone expected four nominations Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2a game that has all but disappeared from discussion since its release in May. Four nominations – including Game of the Year – for DLC in the form of Shadow of the Earth Treeis unprecedented. Black Myth: Wukong The breakthrough in the “Game of the Year” category despite its comparatively weak critical reputation is definitely noteworthy, as are the five nominations for the one-man band card game Balatro.

Ultimately, though, there’s not much to get excited about in this group of nominees – outside of BioWare’s offices, that is.