So it begins: Elden Ring bags its first GOTY award
I bet everything on Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
Elden Ring developer FromSoftware took home the Grand Award at the Japanese Game Awards 2022, part of this week's Tokyo Game Show. FromSoft president Hidetaka Miyazaki also received the wordier, presumably also prestigious Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Award.
Elden Ring is a veritable Skyrim-level phenomenon, and remained at the top of Steam's sales charts for months on end after it released in February. PC Gamer's Tyler Colp awarded it a 90% in our review, and despite some misgivings around its similarity to previous FromSoft games, said that it was just as intoxicating as the Souls games.
We were all braced for this then: the deluge of accolades, the "Winner of over 80 Game of the Year awards" badge on future reprints. The Japan Game Awards Grand Award is truly only the first of many. Gird your loins.
There were other notable winners at the JGA as well. Card puzzler Inscryption won a Game Designers Award from a panel of veteran Japanese game devs, while Resident Evil Village, Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker, Lost Judgment, and others earned Awards For Excellence. Call of Duty: Vanguard secured a Global Award Foreign Product, in a move that can't help but remind me of the American dude in every anime who has a US Flag durag and leather vest.
Between Elden Ring's victory and the personal award given to Mr. Miyazaki, it's been a good day for FromSoft. Less so for parent company Kadokawa, whose president has been arrested in connection to an ongoing Tokyo Olympics bribery scandal. Truly a Gufus and Gallant situation.