God of War: Ragnarok and Elden Ring lead The Game Awards 2022 nominees

^{Image: The Game Awards}

Arcane is up for Best Game Adaptation and Worlds 2022 has been nominated for Best Esports Event.

Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards returns for another go this December, awarding astounding achievements in the games industry across multiple categories. The event has just announced its 2022 nominees, and God of War: Ragnarok is currently in a strong lead with nominations in the Best Narrative, Best Performance and highly-coveted Game of the Year categories.

Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West follow God of War: Ragnarok with seven nominations each, while the indie cat game Stray comes in with six nominations. A Plague Tale: Requiem also managed to pick up a surprising amount of nominations, with five in total. On the publisher side of things, Riot Games has a number of nominations this year across categories like Best Esports Event, Best Esports Game and Best Adaptation - the last of which is surely going to Arcane unless Cyberpunk: Edgerunners manages to come out on top.

A lot of 2022’s biggest games were nominated in all the places you’d expect. God of War: Ragnarok and A Plague Tale: Requiem earned nominations for their jaw-dropping scores. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 got a surprising but well-deserved nod for Best RPG. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Arcane and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 were nominated for Best Adaptation.

There were also some strange nominee choices. Elden Ring was nominated for Best Narrative, which is funny considering how labyrinthine and purposefully aimless the game’s story is. Overwatch 2 was nominated for Best Multiplayer Game, seemingly as a result of it coming out this year rather than being any indication of its quality. Diablo Immortal was nominated for Best Mobile Game - here's an article on why I disagree with that. MSI 2022 and Worlds 2022 earned Best Esport Event nominations, but The International 2022 was snubbed for the first time in years. Despite having won Worlds 2022 with a compelling underdog story, DRX was snubbed from Best Esports Team in favour of Gen.G.

Pointless debates like these are part of the charm of The Game Awards, and on December 8 at 4.30pm PT/7.30pm ET, we’ll get to have them all over again when the winners are announced. The event will be livestreamed with Geoff Keighley playing host, handing out awards and showcasing new looks at upcoming games in 2023 and beyond. You can vote for your favourite nominees via the website here.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Game of the Year

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Best Game Direction

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Narrative

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Immortality (Half Mermaid)

Best Art Direction

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Scorn (Ebb Software/Kepler Interactive)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)

Best Score and Music

Olivier Deriviere, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Tsukasa Saitoh, Elden Ring
Bear McCreary, God of War Ragnarök
Two Feathers, Metal: Hellsinger
Yasunori Mitsuda, Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Best Audio Design

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)

Best Performance

Ashly Burch, Horizon Forbidden West
Charlotte McBurney, A Plague Tale: Requiem
Christopher Judge, God of War Ragnarök
Manon Gage, Immortality
Sunny Suljic, God of War Ragnarök

Games for Impact

A Memoir Blue (Cloisters Interactive/Annapurna)
As Dusk Falls (Interior Night/Xbox Game Studios)
Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
Endling - Extinction is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
Hindsight (Team Hindsight/Annapurna)
I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)

Best Ongoing Game

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy 14 (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Best Indie Game

Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster / Devolver Digital)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)

Best Debut Indie Game

Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
Norco (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Vampire Survivors (poncle)

Best Community Support, Presented By Discord

Apex Legends (Respawn/EA)
Destiny 2 (Bungie)
Final Fantasy 14 (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)

Best Mobile Game

Apex Legends Mobile (Lightspeed & Quantum/Respawn/EA)
Diablo Immortal (Blizzard/NetEase)
Genshin Impact (HoYovese)
Marvel Snap (Second Dinner Studios/Nuverse)
Tower of Fantasy (Hotta Studio/Perfect World/Level Infinite)

Best VR/AR Game

After the Fall (Vertigo Games)
Among Us VR (Schell Games/InnerSloth)
Bonelab (Stress Level Zero)
Moss: Book II (Polyarc)
Red Matter 2 (Vertical Robot)

Best Action Game

Bayonetta 3 (Platinum Games/Nintendo)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward/Activision)
Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna)
Sifu (Sloclap)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Tribute Games/Dotemu)

Best Action/Adventure Game

A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)

Best Role Playing Game

Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
Live a Live (Square Enix/Nintendo)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Game Freak/Nintendo/TPCI)
Triangle Strategy (Artdink/Square Enix)
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

Best Fighting Game

DNF Duel (Arc System Works/EIGHTING/NEOPLE/NEXON)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle R (CyberConnect 2 Co. Ltd/Bandai Namco)
The King of Fighters XV (SNK/Plaion)
MultiVersus (Player First Games/WB Games)
Sifu (Sloclap)