Nominations for the 40th annual Golden Joystick Awards were announced yesterday.

Elden Ring has the most nominations with four, including Best Multiplayer Game and Best Visual Design. Popular indie titles such as Cult of the Lamb and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge have also earned major nominations.

This year sees the addition of two new categories: Best Early Access Launch and Best Game Trailer. Three additional categories (Best Performer, Breakthrough Award, and Critics’ Choice Award) will be voted on by a group of video game journalists.

Fans can vote for their favorite games here until Friday, November 4. The winners will be announced during the ceremony, which will take place digitally on Tuesday, November 22.

Daniel Dawkins, Content Director, Games and Film said this about this year’s nominees:

“With a few glorious exceptions, many of 2022’s hotly-anticipated blockbuster releases have shifted into 2023 - or the foggy horizon beyond - making this one of the most eclectic, unpredictable and hard-to-spell-check Golden Joystick Awards shortlists in recent memory. Indies, AAs and even a few solo devs diversify the field, with titles such as Immortality, Cult of the Lamb, Tunic, Vampire Survivors, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist and Neon White - to name but a few - leading the ever-contentious debate among our shortlist judges.

Of course, some of 2022’s biggest games are 2021’s biggest games. Or even 2013’s biggest games. This shift to always-on ‘service’ gaming is reflected in our ‘Still Playing’ award, where franchise titans jostle to claim the Golden Joystick trophy. Equally, some of 2022’s best games won’t be officially released until 2023, and we recognise the importance of Early Access titles in our new award, ‘Best Early Access Launch’.

We’re also thrilled to announce a new category: Best Game Trailer, which recognises the most creative and impactful game trailers in this age of digital showcases. The Golden Joystick Awards own broadcast takes place on November 22, with last year’s event reaching over 5 million views across all post-show videos. We can’t wait to see which games have captured the world’s imagination, as the Golden Joystick Awards celebrates its landmark 40th birthday; the world’s longest running video-game awards show”.

40th Golden Joystick Awards nominations

Best Audio:

• We Are OFK

• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

• Metal: Hellsinger

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

• Gran Turismo 7

• OlliOlli World

Best Storytelling:

• IMMORTALITY

• Return to Monkey Island

• Horizon Forbidden West

• NORCO

• I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

• Wayward Strand

Best Game Community:

• Dreams

• Final Fantasy XIV

• GRID Legends

• No Man’s Sky

• Splatoon 3

• Warframe

Best Game Expansion:

• Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

• Destiny 2: The Witch Queen

• Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

• GTA Online: The Contract

• Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons

• Total War: Warhammer III - Immortal Empires

Best Gaming Hardware:

• Playdate

• Steam Deck

• Analogue Pocket

• Backbone One: PlayStation Edition

• Roccat Kone XP

• WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD for PS5

Best Indie Game:

• Cult of the Lamb

• Tunic

• Rollerdrome

• Dorfromantik

• Neon White

• Teardown

Best Multiplayer Game:

• Elden Ring

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenue

• MultiVersus

• Splatoon 3

• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Best Visual Design:

• Elden Ring

• Horizon Forbidden West

• Cult of the Lamb

• Ghostwire: Tokyo

• A Plague Tale: Requiem

• Lost in Play

Most Wanted Game:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

• Final Fantasy XVI

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage

• Dead Island 2

• Forspoken

• Street Fighter 6

• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

• Honkai: Star Rail

• Starfield

• Exoprimal

• Redfall

• Hogwarts Legacy

• The Day Before

• Mass Effect

• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

• Hollow Knight: Silksong

• Kerbal Space Program 2

• Dead Space

Nintendo Game of the Year:

• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

• Pokémon Legends: Arceus

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land

• Live A Live

• Splatoon 3

• Nintendo Switch Sports

PC Game of the Year:

• Neon White

• Return to Monkey Island

• Hardspace: Shipbreaker

• Teardown

• Total War: Warhammer 3

• Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters

PlayStation Game of the Year:

• Gran Turismo 7

• Horizon Forbidden West

• Stray

• Elden Ring

• The Last Of Us Part I

• Sifu

Xbox Game of the Year:

• Halo Infinite

• Scorn

• Grounded

• As Dusk Falls

• Sniper Elite 5

• Dying Light 2: Stay Human

Still Playing:

• Genshin Impact

• The Sims 4

• Destiny 2

• Final Fantasy XIV

• Minecraft

• Fortnite

• Pokémon GO

• Apex Legends

• Lost Ark

• The Elder Scrolls Online

Studio of the Year:

• Roll7

• Terrible Toybox

• Half Mermaid

• FromSoftware Inc.

• Interior / Night

• Tribute Games

Best Early Access Launch:

• Disney Dreamlight Valley

• Slime Rancher 2

• Dune: Spice Wars

• Core Keeper

• Vampire Survivors

• Gloomwood

Best Game Trailer

• The Callisto Protocol: The Truth of Black Iron Trailer

• Goat Simulator 3 Announcement Trailer

• Skate: Still Working On It

• Bloody Hell Hotel Reveal Trailer

• Time Flies

• Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer