What you need to know
- The nominees for the Game Awards 2024 have been revealed.
- In addition to games like Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is nominated for Game of the Year.
- This inclusion has caused a huge amount of angry discussions over what should and shouldn’t be available for nomination.
It’s a year starting in the number 2, which means people are complaining and engaging in discourse over the Game Awards again.
The nominees for the Game Awards 2024 are out and as always, there’s plenty of back-and-forth, but one of this year’s topics does actually highlight a fascinating debate. Alongside expected heavyweights like the massive Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the ever-addictive Balatro, one of the titles nominated for Game of the Year isn’t technically its own game. I’m referring to Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, the massive DLC for FromSoftware’s 2022 epic that arrived back in June.
It’s a first for the annual show hosted by Geoff Keighley, which has been growing strong for a decade now, but it’s not a new rule. Indeed, the Game Awards FAQ was updated with a clarification a few days before the nominees were announced that “Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters” were all eligible in all categories.
The fact that an expansion pack or DLC is up for Game of the Year has seen furor erupt across social media, with discussions and people replying to Keighley about what should or should not be nominated. Many people feel that it’s not fair, that a DLC is fundamentally different from an entirely new game, no matter how much praise it garners.
As someone who was not at all involved in voting on these awards, I personally feel that it’s complicated. No, I’m not trying to cop out here, but let’s think about it for a bit.
At the end of the day, if this many people voting across different outlets feel that Shadow of the Erdtree was one of the highlights of their gaming experience in 2024, then this expansion’s inclusion accurately reflects at least some kind of critical consensus. The issue then is not so much the very nature of why Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is included, but the fact that by being included, it takes a possible spot away from a full standalone game that also released this year.
For my part, I mostly cosign our review, which awarded Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree a 5/5 score and praised it as a “…game-sized masterpiece of an expansion,” but I also consider it just that, an expansion.
I wouldn’t consider it one of my favorite games of the year, as it relies upon the foundation provided by Elden Ring in an inextricable way, but I can’t bring myself to get angry at someone who feels differently, especially if the experience just resonated with them that strongly. Heck, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was one of the best things I played last year, even if it was merely a meaty DLC. Would I have felt different if it was packaged separately as its own small, standalone game? I don’t know.
For my money, if you’re going to complain about the Game Awards, there are a number of other unaddressed issues far, far, far more worthy of bringing up.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.
