Voting is now open for The Game Awards 2022, which will take place at 00:30 am December 9th GMT (4.30 pm PST, 7.30 pm EST). The Game Awards was founded in 2024 by games media veteran Geoff Keighley, who has been involved in games awards shows since the early 2000s. Keighley currently produces and hosts the annual awards show.
The Game Awards, which has been described as “the Academy Awards for video games”, spans over thirty categories of accolades. Nominees for each category are selected by an international jury of over 100 media and influencer outlets. They are selected for their history of critical video game evaluation. There are also specialised juries for certain categories that need it, such as accessibility, esports, and adaptation.
The selected outlets submit their collective top five votes for each category and the full set of ballots is tabulated to create the lists of nominees. The Game Awards states that this approach allows for the widest possible critical assessment of the games released in a year, and other approaches are impractical due to the sheer quantity of games and the time taken to properly evaluate them.
The winners are selected via a blended vote, with 90% of the result weighted towards the voting jury and 10% towards the public vote. The Game Awards says that this blended model allows them to ensure there is no unfairness for single-platform games, and that there is no social engineering of votes by organised groups.
This method of generating nominees and votes ensures that no games are excluded by time-consuming or expensive application processes – any game that has caught the attention of media outlets is in with a chance of nomination.
This year, the games that have caught the eye of media outlets and gained the coveted nomination places are in many ways unsurprising, with God of War: Ragnarök leading the show with 10 nominations. The nominees for Game of the Year are:
A Plague Tale: Requiem – 5 Nominations
A Plague Tale: Requiem is an action-adventure game with elements of survival horror and stealth. It’s the sequel to A Plague Tale: Innocence and was developed by Asobo Studio, and published by Focus Entertainment. Set 6 months after the end of the first game, you embark upon a heartrending journey, doing anything you can to save your brother from a supernatural curse. As well as its nomination for Game of the Year, A Plague Tale: Requiem has been nominated for Best Narrative, Best Score and Music, Best Action/Adventure, and voice actor Charlotte McBurney received a nomination for Best Performance for her portrayal of Amicia in the game.
Image Credit: A Plague Tale: Requiem / Focus Entertainment
Elden Ring – 7 Nominations
Elden Ring, the latest epic fantasy game from FromSoftware and follows in the footsteps of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro in its mode of epic worlds and tough fights. Elden Ring was developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco. You are a Tarnished and find yourself in The Lands Between, following the Guidance of Grace through a world and story co-created by George R. R. Martin. As well as the inevitable Game of the Year nomination, Elden Ring has been nominated for Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Roleplaying Game.
Image Credit: Elden Ring / FromSoftware Inc. & Bandai Namco
God of War: Ragnarök – 10 Nominations
God of War: Ragnarök is the newest game in the acclaimed God of War series, developed by Santa Monica Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It’s a fast-paced action-adventure game where the player takes control of the gruff father Kratos, a versatile killing machine on a mission to the end of the world. Alongside its Game of the Year nomination, God of War: Ragnarök has been nominated for Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design, Innovation in Accessibility, Best Action/Adventure, and both Christopher Judge and Sunny Suljic have received Best Performance nominations for their portrayals of Kratos and Atreus respectively.
Image Credit: God of War: Ragnarök / Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – 8 Nominations
In Horizon Forbidden West, follow Aloy in her journey across the continent as she ventures into the midst of a civil war to find potentially world-saving technology. Horizon Forbidden West is the action-adventure sequel for Horizon Zero Dawn and was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Horizon Forbidden West has been nominated for Game of the Year as well as Best Game Direction, Best Narrative, Best Art Direction, Best Score and Music, Best Audio Design, Best Action/Adventure, and Ashly Burch received a nomination for Best Performance for her portrayal of Aloy.
Image Credit: Horizon Forbidden West / Sony Interactive Entertainment
Stray – 6 Nominations
Long-anticipated Stray didn’t disappoint. It is a third-person cat game in which you explore a cyberpunk post-apocalyptic city inhabited by robots. To escape back to the safety of your family and the outskirts, you must solve an ancient mystery with your robotic sidekick. This indie game was developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive. On top of its Game of the Year nomination, Stray has been nominated for Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, Best Indie, Best Action/Adventure, and Best Debut Indie.
Image Credit: Stray / Annapurna Interactive
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 – 3 Nominations
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a massive open-world action-roleplaying game, and despite the name, is the fourth part of the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Traverse epic landscapes with a wide cast of characters to save your beloved land from crisis. Developed by Monolith Soft and published by Nintendo, in true Nintendo fashion Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is only available on the Switch. As well as being nominated for Game of the Year, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has been nominated for Best Score and Music, and Best Roleplaying Game.
Image Credit: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 / Nintendo
Check out all the categories and cast your vote before December 7th over at www.thegameawards.com.
Featured Image Credit: Game Publishers / The Game Awards / Ali Rees
Student journalist & freelance writer
[…] Game of the Year and Critics’ Choice from the Golden Joystick Awards, and four of its seven nominations at The Game Awards 2022 – Game of the Year, Best Game Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Roleplaying […]