The Golden Joystick Awards is the world’s longest-running video game award event, organised by games media publisher Future. It is a People’s Choice award ceremony, meaning it determines category winners entirely by public voting. For the 2022 Golden Joystick Awards, two Australian games have been nominated: Wayward Strand, the narrative game set on a floating airship, and Cult of the Lamb, the hybrid dungeon-crawling, colony-building game.
Wayward Strand (Ghost Pattern) is nominated for Best Storytelling, alongside titles both big (Horizon Forbidden West) and small (Immortality, NORCO, Return to Monkey Island).
Cult of the Lamb (Massive Monster) is nominated for Best Indie against games like Tunic, Rollerdrome, and Neon White, as well as Best Visual Design, against games like Elden Ring and Ghostwire: Tokyo.
In addition, Hollow Knight: Silksong (Team Cherry) is nominated for Most Wanted Game.
It’s heartening to see Australian-made games included in the frankly staggering amount of international, big-budget titles leading the nominations. If you’d like to support them, consider casting a vote.
How to vote in the Golden Joystick Awards 2022
Casting your vote in the 2022 Golden Joystick Awards can be done by visiting the voting page hosted on GamesRadar, which will prompt you to cast a vote in all categories.
Voting for the awards closed on 4 November 2022.
Full list of finalists for the Golden Joystick Awards 2022
The full list of Golden Joystick Awards finalists comes courtesy of GamesRadar:
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 Trailer
- Bloody Hell Hotel Reveal Trailer
- Time Flies Announcement Trailer
- Alan Wake 2 Reveal Trailer
