The event was held yesterday in which Geoff Keighley presented the nomination for the annual The Game Awards event: the most important media celebration for video games released during the year. And as usual there is no shortage of problems within the various categories: between strange mixtures of genres and the increasingly enigmatic interpretation of the concept of “independent video game”.
As is now consolidated, the “specialist press” together with Geoff Keighley, demonstrate their cultural and analytical shortcomings to no end, with categorizations that lack logical sense. But the title that is receiving completely senseless treatment this year is none other than ARC Raiders. The Embark Studios video game is not present in the section Audio Design e Action Games. In the first category, in its place, there are Death Stranding 2: On the beach and Ghost of Yotei; in the second, however, we find the usual mixture created by those who follow the market with a certain superficiality, putting together all those video games considered “dynamic”, ending up putting together Battlefield 6, DOOM: The Dark Ages, Hades 2, Ninja Gaiden 4 and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance. This double lack almost makes you smile, given that Those responsible for ARC Raiders are the same ones who brought the Battlefield franchise to successall while Battlefield Studios is well aware of the audio issues present in the game.
Some questions would also be asked for the section dedicated to independent video games, with the presence of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: published by an important publisher like Kepler Interactive and with almost 400 people behind it (of which around 30 are from Sandfall Interactive). Added to this is another fact: NetEase as a minority shareholder company in Kepler. This makes us reflect on the consideration we have of the “video game produced by an independent studio” and seeing the other titles in the category, we have the perception that it is a sort of “Indie Premium”, as in the case of Absolum by Dotemu (which boasts a collaboration with Marvel for the creation of the Cosmic Invasion video game). In short, in the face of “indie video games”.
A reflection cannot be missed for the Game of the Year category, which presents the usual lack of multiplayer video games: Where is ARC Raiders? This behavior has been repeated for several years. After the victory achieved by Overwatch in 2016, the latest video games to have been nominated for the award GOTH they were: It Takes Two which won the 2021 edition; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate nominated in 2019; finally PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds nominated in the 2017 edition. In short, it has been about 4 years since any multiplayer video game has been nominated in The Game Awards as possible video game of the year. The 2021 edition also caused discussion for the absence of Forza Horizon 5 among the nominations for best multiplayer video game, in addition to GOTH. And how can we not mention last year’s edition, 2024, where among the GOTH was the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring listed, while in previous years no expansion for Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft was ever mentioned?
It’s clear that The Game Awards are now turning into a celebratory showcase of more exciting video games, for the editorial staff who choose the nominations. A showcase that, as it progresses, could be renamed with the name of The Singleplayer Game Awardscarrying on the terrible rhetoric that the best video games must be singleplayer. This direction leads to constantly underestimating the goodness of multiplayer productions. The lack of successful video games like Helldivers 2 last year in favor of the presence of an expansion is truly astounding. The same goes for the situation this year, with an ARC Raiders simply unstoppable.
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