This year’s Game Awards will accept DLC, new game seasons, expansions, and presumably Kojima’s MS Paint doodles

According to a recent update to their FAQ page, The Game Awards have confirmed that DLCs, new game seasons for live service games, and other similar releases are eligible for their Game of the Year award.

The FAQ itself – which appears to have been accessible this weekend but now links to a ‘coming soon’ page – says the following. Thanks Neowin for quoting it in full:

Are DLCs, expansion packs and remakes/remasters eligible?

The Game Awards aim to reward the best creative and technical work each year, regardless of the format in which the content is released. Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the novelty of the content and its price/value should be taken into account.

For this year, this means that releases such as The Silent Hill 2 remake or Shadow Of The Erdtree would qualify for the GOTY category. A win for both would mean The Game Awards’ GOTY went to something other than a full release for the first time. Previously, things like much-loved expansions have led to Cyberpunk 2077 winning ‘Best Ongoing Game’ last year, no doubt in part thanks to the excellent Phantom Liberty DLC. The remake of Resident Evil 4 was also nominated in the GOTY category last year.

Whether you think this is an understandable decision given the quality of some of the expansions, or a change that only benefits a few obvious favorites at the expense of more interesting titles, I’ll leave that up to you. No matter who wins, I still lose: Tactical Breach Wizards and Mechabellum will undoubtedly get no love. Plus, Alice Bell (RPS at peace) already summarized the Games Awards better than anyone else, imo. Hey ho! At least reveals are fun! The nominees themselves will be announced later today at 9am PT/12pm ET/5pm GMT.