MANILA, Philippines – The Game Awards announced its nominees for its 2024 edition on Tuesday, November 19, Philippine time.
This year’s top titles are the PS5 platformer ASTRO BOT, and the continuation of the Final Fantasy VII remake series, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, both of which received 7 nominations apiece, including Game of the Year (GOTY).
A total of 96 different games, game makers, personalities, and teams made it to the nominees this year.
Rappler is part of The Game Awards voting jury for the fifth straight year since 2020, when it became the first Filipino voting outlet in the prestigious awards.
The most awaited award category, Game of the Year, sees 6 nominees:
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was an early candidate and early favorite among gamers, releasing in February 2024. If it wins, it will be similar to Game of the Year 2022 winner, Elden Ring, which was also released in February of that awards year.
Balatro, a novel, poker-themed deck-building game from indie developer LocalThunk, is a favorite among critics and reviewers this year. Despite not being the most popular title among gamers, and despite not being a high-profile triple-A title, it garnered a 90 aggregate score on Metacritic. A “triple-A” designation is given to games with a huge development budget and often long development times.
Black Myth: Wukong, on the other hand, is among the most popular titles this year — a massive commercial success for a game that is considered to be the first Chinese-developed triple-A title, selling 20 million units on the Steam platform alone a month after release, or equivalent to a revenue of $961 million.
The huge numbers helped propel China’s gaming market to reach a record high in the third quarter, according to South China Morning Post.
Despite the commercial success, Wukong is among the lowest-rated Game of the Year nominees in the 10-year history of The Game Awards, with a score of 81 on Metacritic.
Polygon reports that other games that have been nominated for the award with a score below 85 include 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, 2018’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, 2019’s Control and Death Stranding, 2020’s Ghost of Tsushima, 2021’s Resident Evil Village, and 2022’s Stray, with none taking the trophy home.
The site also reported that 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, with an 85 score, was the lowest-rated game to win the award.
ASTRO BOT, along with the RPG Metaphor ReFantazio and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, are the 3 most highly rated games this year on Metacritic, with a 94 score.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is unique for being an expansion DLC (downloadable content) for the aforementioned 2022 Game of the Year titlist Elden Ring. That it is a DLC and not a full game has drawn some criticism from some gamers.
While Erdtree‘s quality is unquestionable among critics, the debate lies in whether DLCs should have a separate category instead of being put under the Game of the Year award.
One content creator, cited by gaming site Dexerto, said: “I don’t think a single person alive with any credibility is questioning the quality of Shadow of the Erdtree, but this really does feel like an excuse to give Elden Ring GOTY twice.”
ASTRO BOT is somewhat a surprise hit, going under the radar for some, until its release when it turned out to be “gaming in its purest form” as Siliconera puts it.
The last entry, Metaphor ReFantazio, is an RPG made by Studio Zero, comprised of developers behind a 2017 Game of the Year nominee, Persona 5.
Persona 5 was beat out by a mega-franchise action-RPG that year — and that year’s frontrunner — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This year’s ReFantazio goes against another mega-franchise action-RPG, which is also somewhat the frontrunner as well, FFVII Rebirth. How will fate turn out this year for the studio?
From today through December 11 at 6 pm, US Pacific time, fans will also be able to help choose the winners in all categories via authenticated online voting on www.thegameawards.com. Fans in China can also vote on a variety of platforms including Bilibili, WeChat, Douyin, Weibo, Huya, HeyBox, and Xiaohongshu.
Here’s the full list of nominees:
Game of the Year
Best Game Direction
Best Narrative
Best Art Direction
Best Score and Music
Best Audio Design
Best Performance
Innovation in Accessibility
Games for Impact
Best Ongoing Game
Best Community Support
Best Independent Game
Best Debut Indie Game
Best Mobile Game
Best VR/AR Game
Best Action Game
Best Action/Adventure Game
Best RPG
Best Fighting Game
Best Family Game
Best Sim/Strategy Game
Best Sports/Racing Game
Best Multiplayer Game
Best Adaptation
Most Anticipated Game
Content Creator of the Year
Best Esports Game
From The Game Awards: “This year’s show will once again stream for free across more than 30 digital video platforms including Twitch, YouTube, Steam, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, TikTok Live and many more. The Game Awards 2023 delivered a record-setting 118 million global livestreams, up 15% over 2022’s record-setting showcase. In addition, more than 17,000 individual content creators and online influencers co-streamed the show to their audiences, helping make The Game Awards one of the largest livestream events in the world.”
The Game Awards will air live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 12, 2024, with awards, world premiere new game announcements, and musical performances by The Game Awards Orchestra, conducted by Lorne Balfe.
The Game Awards is executive produced by Geoff Keighley and Kimmie Kim. LeRoy Bennett is creative director, and Richard Preuss is director. – Rappler.com
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