The nominees for The Game Awards 2024 are here, and there's already a controversy brewing. Alongside the five excellent games tipped for Game of the Year that actually released in 2024 sits Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, an expansion to a game that released in 2022. An undeniably excellent piece of DLC, its inclusion in a list of the best games of the year feels misplaced, and even borderline disrespectful.
Geoff Keighley laid the groundwork for this decision last week, when he confirmed that expansions and re-releases would be eligible at The Game Awards. That's not necessarily new – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was a leading nominee at last year's show, despite the base game releasing in 2020. But of its five nods (including community support and best performer for Idris Elba), only one – Best Narrative – was in a traditional 'Best' category. That's perhaps not a nomination I would have made myself, but there's a rationale behind it that I'm prepared to accept – putting a narrative-heavy, somewhat-standalone expansion forward for a narrative award makes sense.
