Elden Ring‘s list of accolades has grown, as it has won the title of Game of the Year at Japan Game Show 2022. The official title of the prize is Tokyo Game Show’s Grand Award, and Hidetaka Miyazaki was on hand to personally receive the award from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. A fan has shared a screenshot of Miyazaki receiving the award on Twitter.
This is now their greatest accolade, having previously received a nomination for Most Wanted Game in 2020’s Golden Joystick Awards, and then winning the same award in 2021, and also winning The Game Awards’ Most Anticipated Game for 2020 and 2021 respectively.
Given the unanimous critical acclaim it received upon launch, it’s likely that this is only a small taste of the total number of accolades Elden Ring before the year’s end.
Elden Ring was also an incredible sales success, catapulting developer FromSoftware from a very popular niche game studio to possibly one of the biggest breakout companies in the Japanese video game industry. From disclosed that Elden Ring has shipped 16.6 million copies in an investor’s call, and NPD staff Matt Piscatella has revealed that the game has reached the top ten best-selling games in the US of all time.
FromSofware definitely deserves credit for creating such a successful game. With that taken into account, what did Elden Ring do differently than From Software’s prior franchises that made it more successful than all of them? What held back already famous classics like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Armored Core? Elden Ring differentiates itself as a collaboration with Game of Thrones and Beauty and the Beast writer Georg R.R. Martin, the first such collaboration for both parties. In contrast to the obtuse storytelling of their previous Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, and Bloodborne games, Elden Ring featured a fully realized fantasy world, penned by one of the most famous and successful authors in the genre.
Subsequently, to cater to the interest among Martin fans, FromSoftware has made a debatably easier game. The verdict is actually mixed if Elden Ring is easier or harder than other From Software games at all. Part of this debate looks at elements of the game design that make that difficulty variable for the player. While FromSoftware has learned to refine their work and no longer make cheap bosses like they used to, Elden Ring is best described as an evolution of the game design direction they had initiated with Demon’s Souls, and for which the company is now best known.
While Elden Ring and FromSoftware games are still games that aren’t made for everyone, it’s harder now to argue that the interest in their games and this genre is limited.
Elden Ring is playable on Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Source: Twitter, JapanToday
