The 11th Annual Game Awards, one of the most watched awards shows in the world, will take place on December 12th. Hosted and produced by video game journalist Geoff Keighley, the event, which bills itself as “the biggest night in gaming”, is growing in popularity.

More than 100 million people streamed the ceremony last year and about as many are expected to do so 10th anniversary show.

But the awards have also sparked controversy. Some have objected to Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s consideration for the night’s top honor. Unlike the other five Game of the Year nominees, Shadow of the Earth Tree is not a standalone game, but rather an expansion to the acclaimed 2022 game Elden Ring. As it is the first expansion ever nominated in this category its inclusion raised concerns that it might overshadow newer titles.

NPR’s James Mastromarino joined Morning edition to preview the awards and discuss what to expect tonight.

Editor’s note: NPR is one of more than 100 networks that submitted ballots for the Game Awards, where winners were selected based on those numbers and an open online voting system.

The most important nominees this year

It was a commercially mixed year for PlayStation, but critically a strong one. Two PS5 exclusive games top the list with seven nominations each, including Game of the Year.

AstroBot

Balatro

Black myth Wukong

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Elden Ring Shadow of the Earth Tree

Metaphor ReFantazio

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth: A big-budget RPG that’s part remake, part sequel to the popular 1997 RPG.

AstroBot: Pure joy of playing. It feels like PlayStation has finally created something that can compete with the best Mario platformers.

The other Game of the Year nominees are politically active people Metaphor: ReFantazio,Black Myth: Wukongan action game inspired by Chinese literature and mythology and Shadow of the Earth Treethe expansion to the game of the year 2022, Elden Ring.

And then there’s this little indie game, Balatro:

“You can think of it as a sort of single-player poker game – all the fun of gambling without any of the risk. And compared to these other games, Balatro had an incredibly small budget, but really came through and played all its cards, right, and could actually take home the big prize this year.”

Why the Game Awards continue to be controversial

“All awards shows exist to promote their respective industries, but the Game Awards are clearly a showcase. They show exclusive trailers and sell advertising space for hundreds of thousands of dollars. They broadcast from LA and get Hollywood stars to announce partnerships with them.” And presenter Geoff Keighley has downplayed some categories so quickly that the winners don’t get a chance to give acceptance speeches, and even if they do, they have often only about a minute to do it. So there are many heartfelt examples of speeches that are cut off prematurely. So I’m curious to see whether the awards won’t be quite so quick this year.

What to expect

“I’m expecting a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto VIwhich is due to appear next year. We also expect new information about the new one border areas game that is a huge gaming franchise, even if the Hollywood adaptation was a flop this year. We also know that we’ll get the reveal of the new game from the 2021 Game of the Year winner. It takes two. They will show what they have cooked. So there is always room for surprises. And I guess we’ll have completely different topics to discuss tomorrow morning.”

This story was edited for radio by Lindsay Totty and produced digitally by Majd Al-Waheidi.