UPDATE: Final Fantasy 14 won Best Ongoing Game at The Game Awards 2021!
As the year comes to an end,The Game Awardsprepares to celebrate the best 2021 had to offer. Just like the shows before it, this year’sGame Awardsfeatures many categories with different nominees for each one. While each one deserves their spot and being nominated is an honor as it is, only one can end up the winner. Many fans might enjoy trying to figure out just which game wins before the show, and the Best Ongoing Game category has some stiff competition.
The Best Ongoing Game award focuses on games that constantly bring new updates and changes to their titles to keep players enjoying their growing experiences. Notably, almost all of these games offer themselves as a service, being either multiplayer online games or games that ask fans to pay for new characters to play in some way or another. These games areApex Legends,Final Fantasy XIV Online,Fortnite,Genshin Impact, andCall of Duty: Warzone.
RELATED:The Game Awards Players' Choice Voting Open Now
Apex Legends
Among the three battle-royale shooter games chosen for the Best Ongoing Game award this year,Apex Legendshas made a name for itself by being nominated not once, but twice at the Game Awards since its release in 2019. That very same year,Apex Legendswon players' hearts and took home the Best Multiplayer Game award. Now the free-to-play game has a chance to take home yet another award for its efforts.
ConsideringApex Legends’loyal player base, it makes sense that it has a shot at Best Ongoing Game this year. Taking the award may be a big boost toTitanfallfans' morale afterthe original game has been announced to be delistedsoon. Respawn Entertainment’s title is also in the middle of its 11th season, which has improved many different features and brought back some oldTitanfallparks as well.Apex Legendsis also facing off againstFortniteandCall of Duty: Warzonefor the award, which may help to settle the debate on which is the better battle royale experience.
Genshin Impact
MiHoYo’s free-to-play RPG stands out among the crowd for how it offers all of the exploration, world-building, and character exploration the genre is known for but makes it accessible for almost anyone to pick up and play with no monetary involvement required. The game uses a gacha system with microtransactions as a way for fans to obtain new characters to play as with certain buffs but still makes sure even those who are unlucky can still make it throughGenshin Impact’schallenges.
Through the game relying on the gacha mechanic, this allows for frequent character and weapon updates, which also give it ample opportunity to include all sorts of new events. MiHoYo’s RPG has had well over 50 different events this year, which also saw the return of events starring launch characters such as Venti. Unfortunately, through many players voicing theirdissatisfaction with Genshin Impact, the title and its parent company have been the subject of many controversies as of late.
RELATED:Genshin Impact 2.4 Beta Leak Reveals More Information About Enkanomiya
Call of Duty: Warzone
The second battle-royale free-to-play shooter on this list is none other thanCall of Duty: Warzone. Throughout all of the games in the same genre on this list,Warzonehas been praised by criticsfor being one of if not the number 1 battle royale on the market at the moment, though beyond the game’s loyal player base, reception seems to be mixed. With everythingCoD: Warzoneoffers, though, it has incredible promise with updates that have made sure to earn it a spot on this list alongside its competitors.
Warzoneis looking to have an update just before The Game Awards streams, whichFPS fans should look forward to this week. One of the maps is being revamped into a new Pacific map with plenty of tweaks and adjustments. However, how well those tweaks play out once added to the game might remain to be seen, as Activision has reportedly laid off some of its QA testers after promising pay raises. With these developments being recent, they may not changeWarzone’s place at The Game Awards too much.
Final Fantasy 14
Surprisingly the only MMO on this list has managed to be the critically acclaimedFinal Fantasy 14. The game is known by many to have a free trial thatincludes Heavenswardand has seen impressive growth in the wake of real-life events such as the Coronavirus pandemic andWorld of Warcraft’sparent company being hit with sexual harassment lawsuits. It also continues to add new expansions, such as the now in Early Access Endwalker, which adds the Sage class toFF14.
Final Fantasy 14has been nominated for plenty of awards during its tenure, taking a fair deal of them home.The Golden Joystick Awards has awardedit the Still Playing and Best Game Community titles. This isn’tFF14’sonly Game Awards nomination as well, as the game was nominated for Best Ongoing Game in 2019. It lost toFortnite, and this may be a chance for Square Enix’s hit MMO to take the achievement home at last.
Fortnite
It could most likely be said that many gamers would agree that leavingFortniteout of these nominees would be remiss. The third battle royale nominated this year has made itself iconic in the minds of gamers, whether they play or not. The game has seen events like incredible crossovers with series likeNarutoandArcane: League of Legends, as well asvirtual concerts that other games likePokemon GOhave been trying to emulate, yet none have done it on the same level and scale that Fortnite provides.
Certainly, the reach of the game can be seen no matter what fans' relationship with the game is, which makes it a great nominee.Fortnitehas even taken the award already in 2019, and its frequent and out-there updates have made sure to give it a strong contending chance for round two. The game’s future already looks to be as bright as it always has been withSeason 3 and a rumored new animal comingto change gameplay coming soon, there’s still plenty of content for fans to enjoy even now.
Best Ongoing Game Prediction: Final Fantasy 14
For loyalists to Square Enix’s smash hit MMO, this may feel rather overdue.Final Fantasy 14has kept itself on players' minds for years and shows no signs of stopping withEndwalker now in Early Access. The game has also done all it can to welcome new players in with open arms, including giving bonuses for higher-level players to come through and help newer members with the starting quests.
While Square Enix keeps giving to the players ofFF14, the players ensure to give back by creating a wonderful community that gets together to either celebrate with players or make the experience more enjoyable with things such asinfographics to understandFF14’s Limit Break system. This creates a wonderful cycle of the developers and the players giving back to one another, which helps build a game that definitely deserves the Ongoing Game award.
AsEndwalker gives plenty of new contentfor players to enjoy,Final Fantasy 14sets itself up to be a great game in the next few years, and there’s sure to be upcoming patches and events that will only heighten the experience. However, that could be said for all of the games on this list. Regardless of who wins atThe Game Awards, plenty of players will have tons of content from these games to enjoy for quite a while to come.
