Elden Ring Wins A Gamescom Award But We Didn't See Anything New

This year's Gamescom Opening Night Live was filled with a plethora of exciting reveals, from indies like Devolver Digital's Cult of the Lamb to confirmation that Splitgate has entered Season 0. But what was most surprising--or more aptly, confusing--about the two-hour-long presentation was Elden Ring winning an award.

Awards presenter Natascha Becker was sprinkled throughout to announce the winners for various categories, including Best Action Adventure, Indie, and Simulation Game. Elden Ring was nominated for five of the 22 categories, and it walked away with the award for Best Sony PlayStation Game--despite not revealing any new details or gameplay.

It's puzzling given how little we've seen of Elden Ring, though industry events often feature awards going to as-of-yet-unreleased games. And when the dust settled, the only glimpse we got of From Software's action-RPG was a brief five-second clip during each nomination. Even the two other titles nominated for Best Sony PlayStation Game, Tales of Arise and The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, had dedicated segments.

Yasuhiro Kitao, promotion, marketing and production head for From Software, videoed in to accept the award on behalf of the Elden Ring development team, thanking fans for their support.

"All of us on the development team are thrilled and deeply honored to receive this fantastic award," Kitao said. "As our latest title, Elden Ring represents a culmination of the knowledge we've gained over the last 10 or so years. Everyone here is working to ensure the game provides a fresh experience for all our players. We know those familiar with our games have high expectations of us, but we hope to give new players something to look forward to as well. Thank you so much for all your continued support."

Elden Ring is scheduled to launch on January 21, 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Hit up our Elden Ring preorder guide to learn about the various editions.