Another game has been overlooked—how should we view the TGA?

On Tuesday (the 18th), the TGA announced the nominees for this year’s game industry awards. As in previous years, the list sparked controversy in the gaming community as soon as it was released.

The highly anticipated *Shadowlands* and *Soul of Mount Sheep* were not nominated for Game of the Year; the critically and commercially successful *Escape from Duckov* was missing from the indie game nominations; and there was no trace of Mi Games in the mobile game nominations…

Fans of their favorite games are voicing their frustration: "I know it might be tough for Game XXX to win an award, but how come it didn't even make the shortlist?" The forums are rife with heated debates.

Of course, devoted fans used AI tools to award their favorite games with "Awards of the Year," expressing their disappointment in a different way.

Players used AI to create a video that won the Duckoff award

Could it be that these games really aren't up to par?

01

He really deserves the nomination

In my opinion, the aforementioned overlooked games—regardless of whether you look at critical acclaim or sales figures—truly deserve to have been nominated.

*Dual Worlds* is the latest title from the studio behind *It Takes Two*, the result of years of meticulous development. It employs a meta-narrative structure featuring two parallel worlds, making it even more innovative than its predecessor.

Since its release, *Shadow of the Colossus* has received widespread acclaim from critics and players alike. On Metacritic, it holds an average score of 91, ranking fourth among this year’s new releases alongside *Donkey Kong: Banana Brawl*, surpassing *Death Stranding 2*, *Song of Silk*, and *Heaven: Salvation 2*, all of which were nominated for Game of the Year.

In the MC rankings, *Shadow of the Colossus* came in fourth among new releases (excluding the *Zelda* game for the Nintendo Switch 2).

No matter how you look at it, *Shadow of the Colossus* shouldn’t have received only four nominations. As things stand, it seems most likely that *Shadow of the Colossus* will win a less prestigious award such as “Best Multiplayer Game” or “Best Family Game,” which is truly a shame.

If the TGA places a premium on innovation, *Shadow of the Colossus*’s gameplay—which is similar to that of its predecessor—makes it unlikely to receive a Game of the Year nomination; yet the list of nominees is not without its sequels.

I can’t help but feel that *Shadowlands* was left off the list because the judging panel wanted to strike a balance between AAA titles and smaller-scale games. Since three indie games made it to the Game of the Year shortlist this year, there was no need to nominate another smaller-scale title.

The same logic applies to *Souls of Yama-Tate*. *Souls of Yama-Tate* received a total of seven TGA nominations this year, second only to the frontrunner for Game of the Year, *Expedition 33*. We’ll just have to make do with this AAA blockbuster, which has sold 3.3 million copies.

Next, let’s take a look at the overlooked Chinese film *Escape from Yakov*.

*Escape from Yakov* features a "radically reimagined" beat-'em-up gameplay style; its streamlined design and support for mods have expanded its player base. Less than a month after its release, the game has sold over 3 million copies.

"Escape from Yakov" has not only sold well but also boasts high player engagement.

According to SteamDB, *Escape from Yakov* has surpassed 300,000 concurrent players, ranking eighth on this year’s list of games with the highest concurrent player counts on Steam. It is one of the few purely single-player games in the top ten.

At the same time, *Escape from Yakov* continues the strong reputation established by its developer, Carbonate Squad. The game boasts a 96% positive rating on Steam and has received widespread acclaim from the player community.

It is worth noting that *Escape from Yakov* is not a game limited to the Chinese market. Judging by the language distribution of Steam reviews, approximately 40% of the game’s sales come from overseas markets, which is a clear indication of its global reach. Content related to *Escape from Yakov* is also frequently found on YouTube and Twitch.

Whether judged by word of mouth, sales figures, or innovation, *Escape from Duckov* is fully deserving of a nomination for Best Independent Game. The only reason I can think of—and it’s a bit of a stretch—is that *Escape from Duckov* was released in early October, which was a bit late.

When titles that have received both strong market performance and positive player feedback repeatedly fail to secure major nominations, the authority and representativeness of the awards inevitably come under scrutiny.

02

The TGA nomination process tends to favor Western narratives

Since the game clearly had what it took to be nominated, what went wrong along the way that caused it to be left off the final list of nominees?

After giving it a lot of thought, I still believe that the TGA nomination process is too heavily biased toward Western narratives. That is the root cause of players' dissatisfaction.

According to reports, the TGA Organizing Committee has established a judging panel comprising more than 110 media outlets from around the world. These outlets submit nominations for awards in various subcategories, and typically, the top five games with the most votes in each category are selected as finalists.

Although there are more than 110 media outlets spanning five continents worldwide, including many well-known and established gaming publications, the majority—over 80—are actually based in Europe and the United States. Familiar names such as IGN, GameSpot, PC Gamer, and Polygon are all members of the judging panel.

European and American media also includes many non-gaming outlets

Among domestic media outlets, only A9VG, Youmin Xingkong, Campfire, and Jike have voting rights. It goes without saying, then, that the entire nomination process is bound to be biased toward Western narratives and cater primarily to the tastes of Western media.

Although Tencent is a member of the TGA Organizing Committee’s advisory board, its advisors do not have the authority to influence nominations or cast votes; their role is primarily to assist with TGA marketing efforts.

As has become evident from experience over the past few years, Western media outlets are inherently unfamiliar with Chinese game developers and generally lack enthusiasm for domestic games, so they naturally don’t think of them first when considering nominations.

Last year, Screen Rant gave *Black Myth: Wukong* a low score of 6, citing reasons such as its “lack of diversity and absence of female NPCs”; this year, IGN described *Infinite Soldier* as a “soulless Souls-like” and gave it a poor rating of 5.

A Review That's a Total Joke

This serves as further proof that these critiques miss the mark entirely and are nothing but a laughingstock.

Even in the mobile gaming sector—an area where domestic developers excel—the nominations put forward by the TGA clearly cater to Western tastes, failing to fully reflect the evolving trends of the Asian market and thus failing to gain recognition from domestic players.

Even within the Western gaming community, there are streamers who have been voicing their dissatisfaction for years over the fact that multiplayer games have consistently failed to win the Game of the Year award.

Gaming streamer Shroud is upset that multiplayer games didn't win the Game of the Year award

If the TGA evaluation system remains unchanged in the coming years without any reforms, and given the rising trend in game development capabilities in China and South Korea, I can confidently predict that there will likely be more regrettable omissions in the future.

03

These outstanding domestic productions deserve to be seen by the world

We should recognize that the TGA is essentially a commercial spectacle, where the entertainment value of the show even outweighs the seriousness of the awards ceremony.

Just because a game wasn’t nominated doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any less impressive than the winners. Players should take the TGA awards with a grain of salt.

By comparison, the TGA strikes a balance between commercial appeal and critical integrity, earning recognition from the European and American gaming industries and wielding significant influence overseas. From the perspective of Chinese developers, creating a game intended for the global market naturally leads to active participation in the TGA awards—a great opportunity to enhance their reputation.

The reason we’re not entirely satisfied with the TGA nominations is, ultimately, that we believe these outstanding domestic titles deserve to be seen by gamers around the world.