- The game’s worldbuilding and notorious difficulty have landed it the award
- Elden Ring had tough competition in the face of GoW: Ragnarök, Xenoblade Chronicles 3
- A curious incident happened at the awarding ceremony
For months, fans have been debating on the internet and IRL what game will be awarded the Game of the Year, and at long last, the wait is over and a winner was announced – Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is 2022’s GOTY
Each December marks the time when the gaming community takes stock of what’s been released during the year to decide on which title would be awarded the Game of the Year award. Many popular titles were put forwards as candidates for it, including A Plague Tale: Requiem, God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. However, only one game could be the winner, and that was none other than Elden Ring.
The action RPG developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment swept away the strong competition it had. Not only did the title receive widespread critical acclaim during the ten months since it’s been released, but it also became the studio’s best-selling game in the span of a year. It surpassed FromSoft’s other popular titles, including Bloodborne, Dark Souls I, II, and III, Demon’s Souls, and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Elden Ring arguably owns its success on two main things. The first one is its worldbuilding. FromSoft brought along George R. R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, to play a crucial role in developing the world of the game.
Speaking of the world, it was a lot more open than FromSoft’s previous titles, which was the second major reason Elden Ring won the award. Although previous Souls-like games from the studio have different endings and ways to go about beating the game, FromSoft put their notorious difficulty formula into an open-world setting.
It was somewhat of a risk as it took away previous FromSoft titles’ rogue-like elements but in the end, it seemed like this was the right choice. The thrill of exploring and discovering new locations and enemies in the Lands Between played a crucial part in the game winning the GOTY award.
Curiously, the awarding ceremony did not go as smoothly as it could have, as a young fan invaded the stage and told some jokes about Bill Clinton, as Hidetaka Miyazaki was receiving the award. The young fan was promptly escorted from the stage.
Nevertheless, FromSoft marked yet another GOTY win, the first one being for Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which won the 2019 award.
