The Game Awards is one of the biggest award ceremonies celebrating the gaming scene each year. With 29 overall categories, Team ASOBI’s “ASTRO BOT” and Square Enix’s “Final Fantasy VII Rebirth” lead with seven nominations each, including the Game of the Year.

The 2024 show will be hosted by the ceremony’s creator, Geoff Keighley, and streamed live on Twitch from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

Among this year’s nominations is an outlier in the form of FromSoftware’s downloadable content add-on, “Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.” It has been nominated for Game of the Year. 

This addition comes from a new rule for the ceremony that allows any expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters to be eligible in all categories — if the jury deems it to be “worthy of a nomination.”

Fans have expressed their disappointment with this decision, considering how downloadable content is often nothing but an expansion to its base game and remembering that “Elden Ring” already won the Game of the Year award during the 2022 ceremony.

The show began in 2014 with around 1.9 million viewers and has since become one of the biggest events in gaming each year, with last year’s show reaching an all-time high of 118 million viewers.

Alongside the awards, the show has various surprise trailers and world premieres for the industry. For example, in previous years, there have been major reveals, including new games such as “Hades II,” new downloadable content for games such as “God of War: Ragnarök” and new looks into hardware such as the reveal of the Xbox Series X. 

A complete list of nominations can be found below.

 

Game of the Year

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)

Best Game Direction

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)

Best Narrative

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Metaphor: ReFantanzio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (Ninja Theory/Xbox Game Studios)
Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team/Konami)

Best Art Direction

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)
Neva (Nomada Studio/Devolver)

Best Score and Music

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)
Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team/Konami)
Stellar Blade (Shift Up/SIE)

Best Audio Design

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 (Ninja Theory/Xbox Game Studios)
Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team/Konami)

Best Performance

Briana White, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Hannah Telle, Life is Strange: Double Exposure
Humberly González, Star Wars Outlaws
Luke Roberts, Silent Hill 2
Melina Juergens, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

Innovation in Accessibility

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Diablo IV (Blizzard/Xbox)
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare/EA)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft)
Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)

Games for Impact

Closer the Distance (Osmotic Studios/Skybound Games)
Indika (Odd Meter/11 Bit Studios)
Neva (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
Life is Strange: Double Exposure (Deck Nine/Square Enix)
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II (Ninja Theory/Xbox Game Studios)
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (Surgent Studios/EA)

Best Ongoing Game

Destiny 2 (Bungie/SIE)
Diablo IV (Blizzard/Xbox)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/SIE)

Best Community Support

Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian)
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/SIE)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Independent Game

Animal Well (Shared Memory/Bigmode)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (Simogo/Annapurna Interactive)
Neva (Nomada Studio/Devolver)
UFO 50 (Mossmouth)

Best Debut Indie Game

Animal Well (Shared Memory/Bigmode)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Manor Lords (Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse)
Pacific Drive (Ironwood Studios/Kepler Interactive)
The Plucky Squire (All Possible Futures/Devolver)

Best Mobile Game

AFK Journey (FARLIGHT/Lilith Games)
Balatro (LocalThunk/Playstack)
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (Creatures Inc/TPCI)
Wuthering Waves (Kuro Games)
Zenless Zone Zero (miHoYo)

Best VR/AR Game

Arizona Sunshine Remake (Vertigo Games)
Asgard’s Wrath 2 (Sanzaru Games/Oculus Studios)
Batman: Arkham Shadow (Camouflaj/Oculus Studios)
Metal: Hellsinger VR (Lab 42/The Outsiders/Funcom)
Metro Awakening (Vertigo Games)

Best Action Game

Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios/SIE)
Stellar Blade (Shift Up/SIE)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment)

Best Action/Adventure Game

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft)
Silent Hill 2 (Bloober Team/Konami)
Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Grezzo/Nintendo)

Best RPG

Dragon’s Dogma 2 (Capcom)
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/Sega)
Metaphor: ReFantazio (Studio Zero/Atlus/Sega)

Best Fighting Game

Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO (Spike Chunsoft/Bandai Namco)
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising (Arc System Works/Cygames)
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (Capcom)
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco)

Best Family Game

ASTRO BOT (Team Asobi/SIE)
Princess Peach: Showtime! (Good-Feel/Nintendo)
Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Cube/Nintendo)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Grezzo/Nintendo)
The Plucky Squire (All Possible Futures/Devolver)

Best Sim/Strategy Game

Age of Mythology: Retold (World’s Edge/Forgotten Empires/Xbox Game Studios)
Frostpunk 2 (11 Bit Studios)
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess (Capcom)
Manor Lords (Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse)
Unicorn Overlord (Vanillaware/Sega/Atlus)

Best Sports/Racing

F1 24 (Codemasters/EA Sports)
EA Sports FC 25 (EA Vancouver/EA Romania/EA Sports)  
NBA 2K25 (Visual Concepts/2K)
Top Spin 2K25 (Hangar 13/2K)
WWE 2K24 (Visual Concepts/2K)

Best Multiplayer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Helldivers 2 (Arrow Game Studios/SIE)
Super Mario Party Jamboree (Nintendo Cube/Nintendo)
Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive/Focus Entertainment)

Best Adaptation

Arcane (Riot/Fortiche/Netflix) 
Fallout (Bethesda/Kilter Films/Amazon MGM Studios)
Knuckles (Sega/Paramount)
Like a Dragon: Yakuza (Sega/Amazon MGM Studios)
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft (Crystal Dynamics/Legendary/Netflix)

Most Anticipated Game

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Ghost of Yōtei (Sucker Punch Productions/SIE)
Grand Theft Auto VI (Rockstar Games)
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (Retro Studios/Nintendo)
Monster Hunter Wilds (Capcom)

Content Creator of the Year

CaseOh
IlloJuan 
Techno Gamerz
TypicalGamer
Usada Pekora

Best Esports Game

Counter-Strike 2 (Valve)
DOTA 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Moonton)
Valorant (Riot Games)

Best Esports Athlete

33 – Neta Shapira
Aleksib – Aleksi Virolainen
Chovy – Jeong Ji-hoon
Faker – Lee Sang-hyeok
ZyWoO – Mathieu Herbaut
ZmjjKk – Zheng Yongkang

Best Esports Team

Bilibili Gaming (League of Legends)
Gen.G (League of Legends)
NAVI (Counter-Strike)
T1 (League of Legends)
Team Liquid (DOTA 2)

 

nroacho2@dailyillini.com