The Game Awards is the most significant video game award ceremony, and it will be happening next month, so a complete list of nominees has been announced—and just like every year, there are some nominations that didn't sit well with the gaming community.
One of the games in question this year is Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, which was nominated for nine awards this year, including the Game of the Year award.
Should Death Stranding be Nominated?
According to Bleeding Cool, people raised questions for its nominations, since it has been released very recently—just ten days before the release of the nominees, and that the Game Awards producer, Geoff Keighley, is a close friend of Death Stranding's creator, Kojima.
Most notably, Keighley had a special cameo on the game, which depicts his close friendship with Kojima.
That's why fans and critics alike have been questioning the Game Awards nods Kojima's work received on forum site ResetEra, and the discussions got pretty heated with the audience split on both sides.
Keighley Answers
While Keighley has already spent time on Twitter and explaining he did not vote on the awards, some fans were still not convinced Death Stranding should have been nominated.
After all, even the reviews were split in the middle—with many loving it and many others on the other end of the spectrum.
"In my role as show producer, I work closely with game publishers and developers on a number of levels, so [I] leave the judging to media outlets that provide a wide critical assessment," Keighley said in an interview with Kotaku.
The Game Awards nominees are selected solely by the jury, which consists of around 80 media outlets such as IGN and Polygon.
Once the nominees are out, both the jury and the viewers will vote for their favorite games on each category.
The Game Awards Nominees
Speaking of category, the full list of nominees for this year's The Game Awards have already been announced, and here are some of the awards and games nominated under each category, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter:
Game of the Year
Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian Entertainment/Private Division)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Bandai-Namco/Sora/Nintendo)
Resident Evil 2 Remake (Capcom/Capcom)
Best Game Direction
Control (Remedy/505 Games)
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/SIE)
Resident Evil 2 Remake (Capcom/Capcom)
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)
Best Ongoing Game
Apex Legends (Respawn)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix)
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
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Best Independent Game
Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)
Katana ZERO (Askiisoft/Devoler)
Baba Is You (Hempuli)
Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna)
Other categories include Best Mobile Game, Games for Impact, Best Performance, Best Audio Design, Best Score/Music, and more.
The Game Awards will be held on Dec. 12, along with the World Premieres of Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Gear Tactics. So far, only two games have been officially announced, as per GameRant.
