Elden Ring is game of year: Winners of Golden Joystick Awards are announced

Open-world fantasy action game Elden Ring became the game of the year at Golden Joystick Awards 2022. The game ran for awards in 5 of the 21 categories and won in 4 of them, including the most important one. FromSoftware, the studio that developed it, became the best studio of the year.  Golden Joystick Awards 2022 was held in the evening of November 22.

At this event, viewers and a professional jury choose the best games of the year. Viewers choose winners in 18 of 21 categories (with more than 3 million votes cast this year) and a jury selects the "Best Actor", "Breakthrough of the Year" and "Critics Choice Award" winners. Here is the complete list of Golden Joystick Awards 2022 winners:   

• Best Narrative: Horizon Forbidden West;
• Best Multiplayer Game: Elden Ring;
• Best Visual Design: Elden Ring;
• Best Sound: Metal: Hellsinger;
• Best Actor: Manon Gage for her role as Marissa Marcelle in Immortality;
• Best Game Community: Final Fantasy XIV;
• Best Add-on: The Delicious Last Course for Cuphead;
• Best Indie Game: Cult of the Lamb;
• Best Early Access launch (new nomination): Slime Rancher 2;
• Best Game Trailer (new nomination): Goat Simulator 3 announcement trailer;
• Breakthrough of the Year: Vampire Survivors;
• Still Playing: Genshin Impact;
• Best Gaming Hardware: Steam Deck;
• Best PC Game: Return to Monkey Island;
• Best PlayStation game: Stray;
• Best Game on Xbox: Grounded;
• Best Game on Nintendo: Pokemon Legends: Arceus;
• Most anticipated game: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom;
• Studio of the Year: FromSoftware;
• Critics' Choice Award: Elden Ring;
• Game of the Year: Elden Ring.

The game of the year Elden Ring also received awards for Best Multiplayer Game, Best Visual Design, and the Critics' Choice Award.  Hidetaka Miyazaki, president and director of FromSoftware, which developed Elden Ring, thanked the organizers of the event and said,

"We're committed to making more and more interesting games, so I hope you continue to have high hopes for us."

The Golden Joystick Awards celebrate their 40th anniversary in 2022. This year's show was hosted by actors Laura Bailey and Troy Baker, best known for their roles as Abby and Joel in The Last of Us Part II, among others.  Note that Elden Ring is one of the main favorites for another important event in the gaming industry - The Game Awards 2022. There, the game is up for 7 awards, including, again, Game of the Year and Best Role Playing Game. However, there its main rival is considered to be an action-adventure game God of War Ragnarok, claiming for 9 awards. It is curious that in the Golden Joystick Awards 2022 God of War Ragnarok attracted great attention from critics and players and didn't receive a single award.