40th Golden Joystick Awards nominations announced, fan voting is live right now
Nominations for the 40th annual Golden Joystick Awards were announced yesterday.
Elden Ring has the most nominations with four, including Best Multiplayer Game and Best Visual Design. Popular indie titles such as Cult of the Lamb and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge have also earned major nominations.
This year sees the addition of two new categories: Best Early Access Launch and Best Game Trailer. Three additional categories (Best Performer, Breakthrough Award, and Critics’ Choice Award) will be voted on by a group of video game journalists.
Fans can vote for their favorite games here until Friday, November 4. The winners will be announced during the ceremony, which will take place digitally on Tuesday, November 22.
Daniel Dawkins, Content Director, Games and Film said this about this year’s nominees:
“With a few glorious exceptions, many of 2022’s hotly-anticipated blockbuster releases have shifted into 2023 - or the foggy horizon beyond - making this one of the most eclectic, unpredictable and hard-to-spell-check Golden Joystick Awards shortlists in recent memory. Indies, AAs and even a few solo devs diversify the field, with titles such as Immortality, Cult of the Lamb, Tunic, Vampire Survivors, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and Neon White - to name but a few - leading the ever-contentious debate among our shortlist judges.
Of course, some of 2022’s biggest games are 2021’s biggest games. Or even 2013’s biggest games. This shift to always-on ‘service’ gaming is reflected in our ‘Still Playing’ award, where franchise titans jostle to claim the Golden Joystick trophy. Equally, some of 2022’s best games won’t be officially released until 2023, and we recognise the importance of Early Access titles in our new award, ‘Best Early Access Launch’.
We’re also thrilled to announce a new category: Best Game Trailer, which recognises the most creative and impactful game trailers in this age of digital showcases. The Golden Joystick Awards own broadcast takes place on November 22, with last year’s event reaching over 5 million views across all post-show videos. We can’t wait to see which games have captured the world’s imagination, as the Golden Joystick Awards celebrates its landmark 40th birthday; the world’s longest running video-game awards show”.
40th Golden Joystick Awards nominations
Best Audio:
We Are OFK
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Metal: Hellsinger
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Gran Turismo 7
OlliOlli World
Best Storytelling:
IMMORTALITY
Return to Monkey Island
Horizon Forbidden West
NORCO
I Was A Teenage Exocolonist
Wayward Strand
Best Game Community:
Dreams
Final Fantasy XIV
GRID Legends
No Man’s Sky
Splatoon 3
Warframe
Best Game Expansion:
Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course
GTA Online: The Contract
Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons
Total War: Warhammer III - Immortal Empires
Best Gaming Hardware:
Playdate
Steam Deck
Analogue Pocket
Backbone One: PlayStation Edition
Roccat Kone XP
WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD for PS5
Best Indie Game:
Cult of the Lamb
Tunic
Rollerdrome
Dorfromantik
Neon White
Teardown
Best Multiplayer Game:
Elden Ring
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenue
MultiVersus
Splatoon 3
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Best Visual Design:
Elden Ring
Horizon Forbidden West
Cult of the Lamb
Ghostwire: Tokyo
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Lost in Play
Most Wanted Game:
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Final Fantasy XVI
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Dead Island 2
Forspoken
Street Fighter 6
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
Honkai: Star Rail
Starfield
Exoprimal
Redfall
Hogwarts Legacy
The Day Before
Mass Effect
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Kerbal Space Program 2
Dead Space
Nintendo Game of the Year:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Pokémon Legends: Arceus
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Live A Live
Splatoon 3
Nintendo Switch Sports
PC Game of the Year:
Neon White
Return to Monkey Island
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
Teardown
Total War: Warhammer 3
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
PlayStation Game of the Year:
Gran Turismo 7
Horizon Forbidden West
Stray
Elden Ring
The Last Of Us Part I
Sifu
Xbox Game of the Year:
Halo Infinite
Scorn
Grounded
As Dusk Falls
Sniper Elite 5
Dying Light 2: Stay Human
Still Playing:
Genshin Impact
The Sims 4
Destiny 2
Final Fantasy XIV
Minecraft
Fortnite
Pokémon GO
Apex Legends
Lost Ark
The Elder Scrolls Online
Studio of the Year:
Roll7
Terrible Toybox
Half Mermaid
FromSoftware Inc.
Interior / Night
Tribute Games
Best Early Access Launch:
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Slime Rancher 2
Dune: Spice Wars
Core Keeper
Vampire Survivors
Gloomwood
Best Game Trailer
The Callisto Protocol: The Truth of Black Iron Trailer
Goat Simulator 3 Announcement Trailer
Skate: Still Working On It
Bloody Hell Hotel Reveal Trailer
Time Flies
Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer