Key nominees and what to expect: NPR

A photo of the trophy from the Game Awards.

The Game Awards.

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The Game Awards.

The 11th annual Game Awards, one of the world’s most watched awards ceremonies, will take place on 12 Dec. Hosted and produced by video games journalist Geoff Keighley, the event has grown in popularity – self-described as “the biggest night in gaming”.

more than 100 million people streamed last year’s ceremony and about as many are expected to tune into this 10 year anniversary show.

But the prices have also caused controversy. Some have objected to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s consideration for the night’s top honor. Unlike the other five “Game of the Year” nominees, Shadow of the Erdtree is not a stand-alone game – it’s an expansion to the acclaimed 2022 game Elden Ring. As the first expansion ever to be nominated in this category, its inclusion has raised concerns that it may eclipse newer titles.

NPR’s James Mastromarino joined Morning edition to see the prices and discuss what to expect tonight.

Editor’s note: NPR is one of more than 100 outlets that contributed ballots to The Game Awards, which selected winners based on those numbers and an open online voting system.

Key nominees this year

It has been a mixed year commercially for PlayStation, but a strong critical one. Two PS5 exclusives top the list with seven nominations each, including Game of the Year.

Astro Bot

Balatro

Black Myth Wukong

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree

Metaphor ReFantazio

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: A big budget RPG that is part remake, part sequel to the beloved 1997 RPG.

Astro Bot: Pure pleasure to play. It feels like PlayStation has finally created something that can compete with the best Mario platformers.

The other nominated games of the year are the politically charged ones Metaphor: ReFantazio,Black Myth: Wukongan action game inspired by Chinese literature and mythology and The Shadow of the Erdtreethe expansion to the Games of the Year 2022, Fire Ring.

And then there’s also this little indie game, Balatro:

“You can think of it as a single player poker game – all the fun of playing without the risk. And compared to these other games, Balatro had an incredibly small budget, but has really blown up and played all his cards, hasn’t he, and can actually take home the big prize this year.”

Why the Game Awards continue to be controversial

“All award shows exist to promote their respective industries, but the Game Awards is very much a showcase. It debuts exclusive trailers and sells advertising slots for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It broadcasts out of LA and brings out Hollywood celebrities to announce partnerships with game companies. And host Geoff Keighley rattles off some categories so quickly that the winners don’t have a chance to give acceptance speeches, and even when they do, they often only have about a minute to do so that. So there are a lot of examples of heartfelt speeches being cut off before their time. So I’m curious to see if the awards aren’t going to be as quick years.”

What can you expect

“I expect a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto VIwhich is expected to be published next year. We also expect new information about the new Border areas game, which is a massive game franchise, although the Hollywood adaptation of it flopped this year. We also know that we will get the reveal of the new game of 2021, the Game of the Year winner, It takes two. They want to show what they have done. So there is always room for surprises. And my guess is, come tomorrow morning, we’ll have a whole different set of topics to discuss.”

This story was edited for radio by Lindsay Totty and produced for digital by Majd Al-Waheidi.