It's that wonderful time of year when Big Geoff's Trailer Extravaganza starts gearing up to dole out awards to the year's biggest games—which also means that it's time for a lot of people with no dog in the race to get extremely upset about certain games not getting a nod.
This year, Palworld—which launched in January—is among the notable omissions from the list of nominees, and yeah, that is quite surprising. For a significant chunk of the year, it was a vast, all-consuming game that generated plenty of discourse and many, many hours played. But The Game Awards is not based on player numbers or articles written. It's all vibes, folks. Just a bunch of folks saying "I like this game". And this year, there weren't enough of them to secure Palworld a nomination.
