Out of the nine BAFTA nominations that Elden Ring was in dispute for, it takes away the most surprising triumph of the evening.
Elden Ring saw one of the most surprising wins at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, earning the award for multiplayer, which might be considered a significant upset by a lot of people. Elden Ring was nominated nine times, second behind God of War Ragnarok and attached with Stray. Multiplayer has been a staple of FromSoftware’s list for a really long time, and Devil’s Souls pioneered the invasion recipe that the studio has been iterating on from that point onward. Indeed, even Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, a solely single-player title, saw asynchronous multiplayer features added to the game after release.
Yet, as consistent as FromSoftware’s obligation to multiplayer components is the criticism that they often get. Compared to numerous modern multiplayer and helpful experiences, Elden Ring lacks certain accessibility, has been known to struggle with stability, and has disapproved of equilibrium. All things considered, thousands have completely partaken in the remarkable moments that arise from Elden Ring’s invasions and helpful play, and it is a long way from inconceivable to understand the reason why it was nominated for a Best Multiplayer class.
Nonetheless, Elden Ring won Best Multiplayer at this year’s BAFTAs, beating out individual nominees Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, FIFA 23, Overwatch 2, Splatoon 3, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. Elden Ring’s inclusion as a multiplayer game might confuse some individuals, however, the way that it won will presumably raise eyebrows, especially when the single-player aspect of FromSoftware’s perfect work of art is its focus. For the vast majority, the expected fun of Elden Ring’s multiplayer does not best the way that most of the other nominated titles were worked for and work better as a multiplayer experience.
The situation is somewhat reminiscent of when Sifu was nominated for Best Fighting at The Game Awards 2022, despite not really being customarily referred to as a fighting game. That is a moniker usually reserved for titles such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Sifu includes exacting fighting, however, that does not make it a fighting game. In any case, Sifu didn’t win the award that year and was beaten by MultiVersus.
BAFTA is known for going against the grain. Breath of the Wild was beaten by What Remains of Edith Finch for the Best Game award in 2017 for instance.
This year is certainly aiming to be much more shocking than that, especially as God of War Ragnarok’s six wins caused it to seem inevitable that it would bring back home the main award. In any case, Elden Ring’s second and final award was for Original Property, meaning it excessively lost out on Best Game. In the end, the two gaming behemoths of 2022 were beaten for the BAFTA’s Best Game award by indie darling Vampire Survivors.
Elden Ring is accessible for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.