Today, the official nominations for the Game of the Year category at The Game Awards 2024 have been shared, and the biggest news is that Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was included. This is surprising because Shadow of the Erdtree is not a standalone game but a DLC that requires Elden Ring to be played.
Since this is unprecedented, The Game Awards organization clarified its stance on the topic with a newly added FAQ on the event's official website:
The Game Awards aims to recognize the best creative and technical work each year, irrespective of the format of that content’s release. Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work to be worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the newness of the content and its price/value should be taken into consideration.
It's fair game for everyone, then, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is the obvious favorite in an otherwise less-than-outstanding year. FromSoftware's admittedly large DLC (according to HowLongToBeat, it takes 25.5 hours for the main quest but over 50 hours for a completionist run) will have to beat Atlus's Metaphor: ReFantazio, Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong, Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Team Asobi's Astro Bot, and PlayStack's Balatro to repeat the 2022 win of the base game. It shouldn't be too hard, although on paper, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is tied with Astro Bot and Metaphor: ReFantazio when it comes to Metacritic score (94 for all three). However, FromSoftware's latest masterpiece is far more popular, as evidenced by the larger sales.
The DLC got a perfect score here on Wccftech from Francesco De Meo. Here's the summarized take from his review:
It did not take long to get back into the engaging adventuring loop of the Elden Ring experience, searching for map fragments to get a better look at the map, placing markers where points of interest are seemingly located, and getting amazed by beautiful vistas, immense castles, and sprawling haunting forests, unaware of the dangers that lurked inside of them. With open-world fatigue setting in earlier this year due to the many open-world games released in 2024—like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and the PC versions of Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima—Shadow of the Erdtree's open-world design stands out as a testament to how the Elden Ring experience still surpasses anything else on the market. As such, I believe a perfect score is justified, even with the evident lack of significant innovation and some technical hiccups.
You can vote for your favorite game on the official The Game Awards website. The ceremony will go live on December 12 at 5 PM Pacific.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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