The 2021 Game Awards are coming up fast. Geoff Keighley’s first in-person event since the beginning of the pandemic will soon be occurring on December 9 in the Microsoft Theater. Select audience members will be invited to the event, with an effort made to ensure that everyone involved is safe. In addition to the usual batch of awards, the show will also contain various exciting reveals and information on a wide variety of upcoming games. While The Game Awards may not have the same reputation for great announcements that E3 or a Nintendo Direct might, it's still more than enough to get the gaming community excited and united in watching the show play out.
It looks like the announcements made may also be stronger than usual this year. While Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has firmly bowed out of the show by introducing its last DLC character months in advance, there are still plenty of other games that could have major trailers and reveals at the 2021 Game Awards. The new generation of consoles is just going into its second year, after all, so Microsoft and Sony, as well as plenty of third-party publishers and developers, should have games ready to show. However, even if this is a particularly strong showing, little will be able to excite fans more than the next update on FromSoftware’s Elden Ring.
Why Elden Ring Will Be the Biggest Game at The Game Awards
When it comes down to it, the only other games releasing in the immediate future that have quite as much groundswell as Elden Ring are the yearly Call of Duty and Battlefield releases. FromSoftware fans are dying for a new Soulslike experience, and Elden Ring promises to deliver that on a scope never-before-seen. During the long silence between Elden Ring’s first and second official trailers, fans had to keep themselves hyped by creating a roster of bosses, NPCs, and lore. The amount of hype when Elden Ring showed up at the Summer Game Fest Kickoff this year was immense, and some even proclaimed that Elden Ring remained their game of the show throughout the next week's E3 festivities.
For his part, Geoff Keighley is well aware of the weight behind Elden Ring's name. Geoff made a point of introducing the game in a bombastic manner, using it as the final review of the Kickoff. While The Game Awards may not place it in such a pivotal position, it's likely that Geoff made a similar deal with Bandai Namco to show the game prominently. Apart from a private demo shown to certain influencers and a few scattered promotional images, little has been revealed for Elden Ring since then, so a major gameplay reveal trailer a couple of months before its release date is probably in order.
What Elden Ring Could Show At The Game Awards
Elden Ring still has plenty of secrets left to show. A detailed look at what multiplayer truly is has yet to be seen, though astute fans have noticed that the summons shown in the second trailer and what appeared to be other players in an October screenshot were different colors. More info on the spirits that players can gather and customize, as well as spells, weapons, weapons skills, and armor, can also be shown. Elden Ring seems to have the most content out of all of FromSoftware’s modern Soulslike offerings, so several-second glimpses of a wide variety of different features are likely in order for a future trailer.
That's not even getting into the world itself. Elden Ring takes place in The Lands Between, a mystical location filled with new lore written by George R.R. Martin. The different locales and factions that players will visit are still unknown to them, but it sounds like a brand-new cast is waiting to be revealed. There also seem to be many different regions of the world that players can visit, both in the major sense of the six Lords’ domains, and the many smaller areas within them. One particular feature that has not been expanded on yet is the subterranean tunnels, which supposedly have their own map according to reports from the private preview. This could mean that Elden Ring’s world is even larger than fans know, which will certainly bring them no end of joy and pain.
Other Games That Could Rival Elden Ring
With all that being said, Elden Ring is not the only exciting game that could feature at The Game Awards. Far from it in fact; the known lineup of upcoming games is incredibly stacked. Fans have been waiting for trailers on things like Final Fantasy 16, Dragon Age 4, and Mass Effect 4. Sonic the Hedgehog's next game also still needs a proper gameplay and title reveal. All that’s without considering the possibility of an exciting world premiere for an all-new game that will get viewers excited. Again, after serving as the climax for the 2021 Summer Games Fest opening ceremony, Elden Ring is not likely to receive the same pomp and circumstance when it shows up at The Game Awards, with such honor going to something else.
There are a number of other announced games coming in the more immediate future that could also have trailers at the show. Horizon Forbidden West is releasing early next year, as are the new Saint’s Row and Marvel's Midnight Suns. Halo Infinite also comes out one day before The Game Awards proper, so it will likely receive some kind of trailer there. Square Enix’s Forspoken is also without a firm release date, so it could also have another trailer at this event. That's not even getting into whatever Nintendo could bring to The Game Awards, which includes anything from Switch Pro news to a release window for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2. Elden Ring hopefully has plenty of competition when The Game Awards come around, which would delight fans and communities everywhere.
Elden Ring releases on January 21, 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.