The nominations for this year’s edition of The Game Awards, which has been proclaimed ‘gaming’s biggest night of the year’, have been revealed, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Astro Bot leading the total nominations, with seven each, and Metaphor: ReFantazio just behind them with six. The big award that everyone’s focused on is of course the Game of the Year, and the nominees for it this year are Astro Bot, Balatro, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio.

The nomination of Shadow of the Erdtree has caused some controversy, as some people do not believe that DLC/Expansions should not be classified as a standalone game, as you do need to beat Elden Ring first in order to actually play it. In fact, some are even calling for The Game Awards to start a ‘Best Expansion’ category, with IGN stating in an article, “Still, some remain skeptical, calling for The Game Awards to add a “Best Expansion” category to account for highly rated releases like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Plenty of others feel that other well-received releases such as Animal Well have been snubbed to make room for Shadow of the Erdtree” (Bailey, Nov. 18).

There are other awards that could tell us who could tell us who could potentially win, like Best Game Direction, which has the exact same nominees as Game of the Year and also typically has the same winner for both awards as well.

Some of the other big awards up for grabs are Best Score/Music, Best Art Direction, Best Narrative, and Best Performance, which goes to the best voice acting performance from this year. We’ll find out who wins on December 12th, when the Game Awards take place at 7:30 P.M EST. You can find all of the nominees at thegameawards.com, as well as vote for who you think should win each category.