I love Elden Ring and the SotE DLC, but Elden Ring should not be elligible for GOTY again. The only reason I can see this is that Geoff wants a redo for Miyazaki after the "reformed Jewish Rabi Joe Biden" fiasco. So if this is the case the SotE will probably get awarded GotY, despite my feeling that it should not qualify for that.
SOTE adds pretty much 100% more game that if Bandai-Namco was more evil, they could have sold it as a stand alone game for $60 and it probably wouldn't have been that upsetting. So I think it could stand to be nominated and possibly win GOTY. Just so long as other massive DLCs are also considered. From what people were telling me when I found out about Factorio: Space Age recently, it's also like getting a second game and then some. It should get nominated, too.
The Game Awards aims to recognize the best creative and technical work each year, irrespective of the format of that content’s release. Expansion packs, new game seasons, DLCs, remakes and remasters are eligible in all categories, if the jury deems the new creative and technical work to be worthy of a nomination. Factors such as the newness of the content and its price/value should be taken into consideration.
Its a bit weird but I can understand their starting argument that they are reviewing works on their creative and technical merits (the actual format is incidental) but then they shoot it all down by saying price/value is taken into consideration.
Bad monetization and excessively high pricing change the experience for gamers. There's not a lot of chance they're willing to say "microtransactions make a game ineligible" like they should, but cash grubbing microtransactions change what a game is, and they can't just not acknowledge that at all.
Unfortunate. No one asked me but I don't think dlc or even remakes of games should be able to win. If they want to give recognition to them make a new category for dlc or remakes. Making a dlc or a remake is different than a 'new' game.