Game Awards

Maybe because DATV didn't make enthusiast enough of players at launch, I think it can be a factor. Some people are waiting for the sales.

Best RPG nominees

• Dragon’s Dogma 2 sold 2.5 million within 10 day
• Elden Ring : Shadow of the Erdtree has passed the 5 million units sold mark worldwide in just three days after its release.
• Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth generated approximately 2.5 million global unit sales during its opening weekend.
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth has sold a million copies in one week.
• Metaphor: ReFantazio sold one million copies globally on its first day

Note :

• DA: Inquisition (GOTY / Best RPG 2014 winner) sold 1.14 million copies in first week
• Fallout 4 (GOTY / Best RPG 2015 winner) sold 1.2 million units on Steam in its first 24 hours of release.
• Baldur's Gate 3 (GOTY / Best RPG 2023 winner) sold 2.5+ million in 2 weeks

Dragon Age The Veilguard is a little late compared to the previous BioWare games so it's hard to imagine this game being nominated in the Best RPG and Game of The Year categories.

• Mass Effect 2 (GOTY / Best RPG 2010) sold 2 million copies in week one.
• Mass Effect 3 (GOTY / Best RPG 2012) sold 1.85 million units in first week.
• Mass Effect Andromeda sold 2.7+ million copies in slightly over one week.
• Anthem had sold 2 million units during its first week.

I looked at some of the nominees. Of the main GOTY category, I have played two (FF7 Rebirth and Astro Bot). Both excellent games that deserve the praise. I'm hearing great things about Balatro as well and will hopefully play that soon. I haven't played enough games to be able to judge where I would put Veilguard.

Putting aside Veilguard and speaking of the Game Awards in general: I value game awards as much as the Grammys. Like music, Games are too diverse to reasonably compare them. Games also have the added difficulty of being a major time investment, which results in games without mainstream reach being overlooked for awards. (See for instance: Among Us not being recognized until streamers dragged it out of obscurity.) So in short: Regardless of whether I ever agree with the nominations or not, I never put a lot of stock in game awards because the focus is too narrow.

At least we're at a better spot than the days of the Spike VGAs, when the performer of the year nominees went to movie actors reprising their roles in video game tie-ins, like in 2009 when Megan Fox and Hugh Jackman won best female and male actor for Wolverine and Transformers respectively.

It will be interesting to see what awards DATV will get from GLAAD Media Awards and Gayming Awards.

I like the game too, but I don't see Veilguard as an rpg. I see it as an action/adventure game with rpg elements. An rpg should allow us to choose a role we want to play, and have variation in moral choices. Good, neutral, bad, or even more if possible. You literally cannot be evil at all in Veilguard. You not only have no real ability to make any dubious choices or **bleep** people off, but Rook feels very un-immersive as a character. You go to the lighthouse and visit a companion and they'll quip something AT you, but you cannot respond. You can only converse when the game says you can, and even then it's always brief. It's not like DAI where you can chat for ten minutes with Solas in detail about the Fade, or ask Cullen about the Templars or whatnot. We could really get to know our companions in the past games. We don't get that in DAV. 

I'll stop there because I think the game really suffers when it comes to companions relationships, interactions, and romances. 

NoahLGP wrote:

DA: Inquisition (GOTY / Best RPG 2014 winner) sold 1.14 million copies in first week

Do you have a source for this?

Here

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/252306/dragon-age-inquisition-sells-114m-units-worldwide-first-week-ps4-xbox-one-x360-ps3-pc/

Note : Retail store sales so it could be more than 2 million units with Origin

EA FY15 Q3 Results didn't provide numbers but Andrew Wilson said

"In particular, Dragon Age: Inquisition had by far the most successful launch in BioWare's history, exceeding our expectations."

I think The Veilguard case is similar to DmC Devil May Cry and Resident Evil 6, I mean the fan base didn't like these two games but as a new player I liked them more than the original franchises. 

They are good games but they targeted a new audience instead of the fan base, it's always risky to change the style of an old franchise.

RE: sales, this is a neutral and (I think) pretty spot-on analysis on how the game is probably doing sales-wise. Worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9_3oYc3-ao

Thanks for the link!

I don't know how reliable VGChartz is, but I do remember Mark Darrah (previously from BioWare) claiming it was their best selling game.