Where everything is made up and the awards don't matter.

The nominees for The Game Awards 2024 were revealed today and boy is it ever a list of games and apparently DLC expansion. Just last week, word was shared by Polygon that expansions and downloadable content would be eligible for any category at The Game Awards.

While this isn't exactly a policy change so much as it is a policy clarification, it did beg the question as to why Geoff Keighley and company waited until this year to make that clarification. Why not make that clarification, oh, say 10 years ago when The Game Awards debuted?

Well, now we know why. Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree came out this year and what do you know? It's included in the list of nominees for categories such as Best Art Direction, Best Game Direction, Best RPG, and yes, Game of the Year.

Yes, an expansion for a game that came out in 2022 is one of the nominees in the Game of the Year category. It's certainly a fine expansion but it's not its own game.

Hey Keighley? What the fuck?

It's also baffling what the point is of "Best Game Direction" when the games nominated for that are the exact same as the ones nominated for Game of the Year. Why even bother with the Best Game Direction category when the idea behind it is already incredibly nebulous and it simply includes the same games listed again?

Here are all of the nominees in each category for The Game Awards. You'll be able to see the winners announced in the 15 seconds before and after commercial ad breaks that break up the 3 hours of new game trailers.

Public voting for each category is now also open through The Game Awards website. The public vote counts for 10% while the voting jury vote accounts for 90%.