Check Out The Nominees For The 40th Golden Joystick Awards

The 2022 Golden Joystick Awards marks the 40th anniversary of the event where fans can vote for their favourite games across 17 categories.

Top game this year is FromSoft’s epic Elden Ring which is leading the charge with four nominations — Best Multiplayer Game, Best Visual Design, PlayStation Game of the Year, and Studio of the Year for the developer themselves.

Horizon Forbidden West is hot on Elden Ring’s heels with three nominations — Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design and PlayStation Game of the Year — while the Final Fantasy franchise earned a slew of nods too with Final Fantasy 14 featuring in the Still Playing and Best Community categories, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 go head-to-head in the Most Wanted category.

The Joystick Awards also features a new category celebrating the best early access games which is filled with games that aren’t necessarily from the major studios, including Disney Dreamlight Valley, Slime Rancher 2, Dune: Spice Wars, Core Keeper, Vampire Survivors and Gloomwood.

Voting is open until November 4 and those hoping to vote in the Ultimate Game of the Year category can do so when it openes on November 7.

The 40th Anniversary of the Golden Joystick Awards takes place on November 22 and you can vote here.

Check out the nominees for the 2022 Golden Joystick Awards

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

Horizon Forbidden West Pic: Sony

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

Cult of the Lamb Pic: Massive Monsters

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
• Mass Effect
• Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
• Hollow Knight: Silksong
• Kerbal Space Program 2
• Dead Space

Final Fantasy 16 Pic: Square Enix

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

Gran Turismo 7 Pic: Sony

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 Trailer
• Bloody Hell Hotel Reveal Trailer
• Time Flies Announcement Trailer
• Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer