Unsurprisingly, God of War: Ragnarok and Elden Ring lead the nominations, and are both favorites to win Game of the Year. The former, with 10 nominations, is a critically-acclaimed sequel to what is Santa Monica Studio’s action-adventure masterpiece, which also happened to win GOTY in 2018. The other is the latest Soulsborne title from FromSoftware, who most recently won GOTY in 2019 with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Both have massive studios and names attached, with Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin lending his storytelling talents to Elden Ring, which has been nominated in seven categories, including Best Narrative. Joining those two massive titles on the list of GOTY nominees this year are Horizon Forbidden West (another PlayStation exclusive) and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 from Nintendo. But it’s the indie titles tapped for nomination that provide the biggest revelation about the state of gaming in 2022. For the first time in the show’s history, two smaller-budget indie titles have been nominated in the category: cat-themed dystopian adventure game Stray, from BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna, and A Plague Tale: Requiem, Asobo and Focus Entertainment’s dark survival horror game set during the French Inquisition. Best of all, these nominations come on the heels of another indie title being named last year’s GOTY, Hazelight Studios’ cooperative action-adventure It Takes Two, which beat out big AAAs like Metroid Dread, Resident Evil Village, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for the award. It’s a clear sign of how indie games continue to break through at The Game Awards, a show that was once better known for lauding big-name studios and big-budget hits. Some would even argue that a third indie title deserved to be nominated in the category, Sam Barlow’s brilliant interactive game Immortality, showing just how strong the year was in indie offerings. Here is the complete list of nominees for The Game Awards 2022:
