Elden Ring fans are divided about the popular FromSoftware title getting a major nomination at the upcoming The Game Awards ceremony.

Earlier this week, the nominations were announced for The Game Awards 2024 taking place next month. The two games that received the most nominations were Astro Bot and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, each with seven.

Elsewhere, Metaphor: ReFantazio received six nominations, while Balatro and Silent Hill 2 remake each received five.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Black Myth: Wukong, Helldivers II, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree all received four nominations.

However, some gamers have taken issue with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree receiving a Game of the Year nomination, despite garnering critical acclaim.

As we’re all aware, Shadow of the Erdtree is an expansion to the 2022 base game Elden Ring which has brought forth a debate over whether DLCs are deserving of the accolade.

It recently started doing the rounds that The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley had “changed” the nomination rules so that DLC could be considered for Game of the Year alongside remasters and remakes.

In truth though, this isn’t a change at all. In fact, it’s a rule that’s been in place for quite a number of years, with The Witcher 3‘s Blood and Wine garnering a Best RPG nomination as far back as 2016.

Even if the rule has been around for a while though, Shadow of the Erdtree is the first DLC to actually nab the GOTY nod.

Shadow of the Erdtree can take anything from 25 to 50 hours to complete according to HowLongToBeat.com, which is longer than most fully-fledged single-player games, so perhaps if Shadow of the Erdtree was released as a standalone product, many may not have questioned its inclusion.

But, of course, that’s not possible and you must own the base game.

If there was a new category for DLC/expansions, Shadow of the Erdtree would be fair game, but to put it against full games for Game of the Year is what many take issue with.

“I guess it’d probably be better to have a ‘Best DLC’ category,” suggested Reddit user Sabetha1183.

“You can’t play the DLC without the main game, so it shouldn’t be eligible,” said ZXD319.

“Admittedly, the DLC was big enough to be a full-length game. That said, it still feels odd to be in the GOTY category, especially when we had plenty of other decent options,” Kamakaziturtle explained.

“I finished four out of the six GOTY nominations, and I like Shadow of the Erdtree the most, so I can’t say it doesn’t deserve it. But I doubt it will win,” suggested Zard91

The Game Awards will stream across social media platforms on 12 December, or at 12:30am in the UK on 13 December 2024.