The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony that brings talented game developers, players and other noteworthy figures within pop culture to recognize and celebrate gaming. Founded in 2014 by Geoff Keighley, this year’s event marks the eighth year of recognizing the top performers in the gaming industry. Awards are given in categories including best game direction, best narrative, best score and music, alongside many others. However, the Game of the Year award is the most recognizable and coveted award the ceremony has to offer. This year, it is being hosted at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) Dec. 8 at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Before a game is eligible for an award, it must first be nominated. Currently, there are 26 different categories of nominees. For a game to be nominated, it must be chosen by an international jury of more than 100 global media and influencer outlets. Each of these outlets fills out a ballot that lists their top five picks for each category. Once all of the ballots are completed and reviewed, the five games that appear most frequently on the ballots are nominated.  Once this process is completed, winners are then determined based on a mixed vote between public fan voting and the international jury.

According to The Game Awards website, the Game of the Year recognizes “a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.” This year, six games have been nominated for the award: A Plague Tale: Requiem, Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Stray and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. The standouts among this list are Fromsoft’s Elden Ring and Santa Monica’s God of War, as these titles have garnered the most nominations of all the entrants, with seven going to Elden Ring and 10 to God of War. 

Elden Ring takes the player on a journey through the Lands Between, a world created by Fromsoft’s Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is best known for his work on the Dark Souls series, and George R.R. Martin, author of the book series A Song of Fire and Ice. Players explore the aftermath of the Elden Ring’s destruction by Queen Marika’s hands and must reclaim the shards of the Elden Ring from her Demigod offspring, who have warred relentlessly. Guided by the grace of gold, the Tarnished must stand before the Elden Ring and become Elden Lord.

God of War: Ragnarok is the sequel to 2018’s Game of the Year God of War. The story follows Kratos and his son Atreus as they journey through the Nine Realms as the Asgardians prepare for the prophesied end of the world: Ragnarok. Along this journey, they must fight through fierce enemies of Norse monsters and gods alike, all while having to choose between their own safety and the safety of the Realms.

Both developers are no strangers to The Game Awards as both have won a Game of the Year in the past: Fromsoft’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in 2019 and Santa Monica’s God of War in 2018. The Game of the Year and other award winners will be announced at the Dec. 8 event during The Game Awards live stream.

For more information on where to purchase tickets for the event and how to vote for your favorite games, go to thegameawards.com.