Shortly after the Game Awards nominations were announced on Monday, we at Polygon noticed something interesting happening with web traffic. Readers clicked from articles about the nominations to reviews of some of the games that were rated. And a surprising number of readers did. Our review of the Game of the Year nominated indie card game Baratro was read by more people on Monday than in the entire first week of publication in February. Reviews of fellow GOTY nominees Metaphor: ReFantazio and Astro Bot, as well as indie nominee Neva, also saw significant readership increases. People seemed more interested in this year’s nominated films than in previous years and wanted to know more.
That’s a bonus in a year with a somewhat sparse release schedule and no consensus on game of the year candidates. If you’ve been following the awards race closely, there should have been few surprises in the Game Awards’ voting judges’ choices. But if you haven’t, or if you haven’t been paying close attention to video games in general this year, there were plenty of unfamiliar names on the list of nominations, and tons of great games to discover. Probably.
That was the main takeaway from Monday’s list of nominees. The TGA’s voting jury is large and internationally diverse, and in the past, that group’s preferences have tended to fall somewhere fairly conservative. However, due to a down year for the industry, the jury selected a diverse, high quality and culturally rich set of nominees.
Take a look at the six games nominated for Game of the Year. There’s only one sequel to the big series (Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth). There’s a candy-colored all-ages platformer (Astro Bot). There are original role-playing blockbusters from studios operating deep within their niches (metaphor: ReFantazio). There’s an abstract indie card game made by an independent developer (Balatro). There is a game from China that received the first GOTY nomination in history (Black Myth: Wukong). And, controversially, there is an expansion pack (Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree).
Astro robot. Image: Team Asobi/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Metaphor: Rifantasio. Image: Studio Zero/Atlas
Baratoro. Image: LocalThunk/Playstack
Black Myth: Goku. Image: Game Science
Putting the controversy over downloadable content aside for now, it’s encouraging to see the prevalence of original games in the GOTY lineup. And there is no problem with the quality. 2021 was the last year the field of candidates was this wide and the race felt this open. It was also the only year in which all GOTY nominees received a score of 90 or less on Metacritic. This year, all but one score is above 90. Regardless of how you set your store to Metacritic’s review aggregation method, there’s no denying that these are truly great games. While the financial health and stability of the gaming industry is questionable, if these nominations are in fact the case, its creative health is strong.
Things have gotten a little less adventurous as a result of the vote, but there are still signs that the voting jury is broadening its horizons. Two of my favorite games this year are Kunitu-Gami: Path of the Goddess and Pacific Drive. Both are very unusual and slightly awkward genre hybrids. Neither of us expected to be nominated for The Game Awards, but both won (Best Sim/Strategy and Best Debut Indie, respectively).
There are several other trends worth noting. Perhaps most notably, while 2024 is the year of role-playing games, action-adventures are on the decline. These two genre categories have historically been the strongest in terms of GOTY nominations and wins at The Game Awards. In previous years, at least half of the GOTY nominees are in the Best Action/Adventure Game category, but this year only one (Astro Bot, which is also nominated for Best Family Game). Meanwhile, three RPGs are represented. The RPG category itself is so deep that even a big name like Dragon Age: The Veilguard failed to garner a nomination. However, in the Best Action/Adventure category, there may be room for Ubisoft’s underperforming Star Wars Outlaws, even with a Metascore of 75.
Despite Balatro’s breakthrough Game of the Year and Game Direction nominations, the siloing of indie games remains an issue at The Game Awards. There’s a lot of room for smaller games to be recognized in the two indie categories and indie-biased Games for Impact overall, but you can count the indie nominations in every other genre and craft category on one hand. Neva in Art direction, No Man’s Sky for community support, The Plucky Squire for family games, and Frostpunk 2 and Manor Lords for sim/strategy. Great and highly acclaimed games such as Arco, Tactical Breach Wizards, Mousewashing, 1000xResist, and Satisfactory were not shortlisted. Given the incredible quantity and quality of indie releases this year and every year, it feels as if the jury’s indie blinkers are still lit.
Arco. Image: Image: Franek, Max Cahill, Bibiki, Fáyer/Panic
1000 x resistance. Image: Fellow Traveler
Tactical Breach Wizards. Image: Suspicious Developments Inc.
Mouth wash. Image: Wrong organ/critical reflex
Perhaps it was a surprise to see Sony Interactive Entertainment once again lead the nominations with 15 nominations, most of which went to Astrobots and Helldivers 2. The company downplayed its 2024 schedule and probably didn’t fully evaluate its content. These two games are pre-release. However, Microsoft’s Xbox Game Studios, Activision, and Blizzard aren’t far behind with a total of 12 nominations. This was also a year with no eligible Bethesda releases. Next year, Microsoft’s stacked slate includes Fable, Avowed, and Doom: The Dark Ages, while Sony has Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yorei coming first. Competition between these two giant studios is heating up.
Nintendo’s relatively poor performance (six nominations) was to be expected, considering the Switch 2 is reportedly being delayed until next year. However, as far as the voting judges are concerned, the health of the Japanese industry as a whole is very poor, with Square Enix, Sega, and Bandai Namco all boasting large nomination numbers, while Ubisoft, EA, 2K, etc. They are left behind. Are Japanese publishers better able than their Western counterparts to adapt to the current challenges that are rapidly making AAA development impossible? At least creatively, it seems like they might be.
Regarding the nomination for Shadow of the Erdtree: This seems to have blindsided the public and caused a lot of angry reactions. It seems like the 11th hour explanation from The Game Awards about eligibility didn’t help. There’s a legitimate debate to be had about the creative merits of expansions versus original games and iterative sequels. There are also legitimate questions about the extent to which The Game Awards is entrusting such difficult portrayals to a large and diverse panel of judges who likely don’t all see the same thing.
But The Game Awards have at least consistently conveyed the message to both the judges and the general public that no matter what the rapper is, what matters is “creative and technical excellence.” That stance is well suited to a medium as multifaceted and constantly evolving as video. game. It also allows a pixelated card game created by a single person to earn a place of honor alongside big-budget blockbusters, reaching a crowd of curious new players in the process. It will be. Perhaps some confusion and controversy is worth the price.
