It’s almost December again, and The Game Awards is set to reveal its list of nominees for the year this Monday. The selections will as usual be drawn from ballots submitted by various pre selected video game publications. But this time around, there have been a significant change to the eligibility criteria of nominees for different categories. Ahead of the announcement for the nominee list reveal date, producer and host of the event Geoff Keighley and his team have released an important update, posted to the FAQ section of The Game Awards website, that explicitly includes downloadable content (DLCs) and expansions of games to be eligible for consideration in all categories including ‘Game Of The Year’.
The clarification was made in response to a new question added to the website’s FAQ section that asked: “Are DLCs, expansion packs, and remakes/remasters eligible?” And the answer provided is as follows:
“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 worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the newness of the content and its price/value should be considered.”
This clarification has now set a precedent for how DLCs and expansions will be regarded in the nomination process, by being a direct acknowledgement to such content as opposed to previous instances of either it being overlooked or only being considered to be eligible in specific categories, such as “Best Ongoing Game”, which was only an indirect acknowledgement of the value added by DLCs or new seasons to a game.
And now, as a result of this clarification, recently released notable DLC, like ‘Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’ can be included for nomination and perhaps even selected for GOTY alongside complete games. So, when the nominations are announced audiences might see their favourite titles and DLCs get surprise nominations in various categories, making The Game Awards this year more exciting and reflective of wider fandom sentiments.
