Yeah, as Zerubbabel pointed out, it does matter, and it matters a lot. It's not just an acknowledgement of the creativity and sacrifice that a dev team put into a game but also a nod of approval to games being made in a way that creates a conversation around - literally how games are made.
It mattered that Elden Ring won GOTY and not God of War because God of War was more an Interactive Experience with a massive budget that didn't deliver anything particularly memorable and was restricted to a single console* - PS4.
Elden Ring however is an incredibly well-crafted experience that allows the player to experience challenges in multiple tiers and was available to all major systems and it caused a lot of discussion about the industry itself. It upset people, and people need to be upset about stuff happening in the gaming world. It opened a lot of people's eyes to what they have been missing in the gaming experience. It raised the bar.
*Frankly, single system games shouldn't even be in the running for GOTY - but there may be value in sending the message of "we acknowledge this is a great game but you lose points for not making it cross-platform"
So I don't see Zelda winning. It was innovative in some ways but didn't open a dialogue, and it's single system. Do better Nintendorks.
