Topic: The Game Awards 2023

@Moffo Do we know how many people actually voted in Player's Voice? I always see it in percentages. Sonic Frontiers only sold about 3 million copies so I can't imagine too many people voted (ignoring the bot claims). Just get some popular social media influencer to tell people to vote for Cassette Beasts and they will even though they haven't played it. 😝

@FishyS Looking back at the winners:

• 2019 - Fire Emblem Three Houses (Fire Emblem really took off again with this game and mostly got snubbed in the main awards)
• 2020 - Ghost of Tsushima (the other big Playstation Studios game of that year which was eligible, it got mostly snubbed in the main awards because of TLoU 2)
• 2021 - Halo Infinite (there was a real sense of "Halo is back" that year, awkward that it was eligible given the campaign hadn't been released yet and the multiplayer was still a beta though)
• 2022 - Genshin Impact (free ingame items for winning announced during the voting process)

Random thought, but I wonder if there's a chance Tears of the Kingdom ends up not winning any awards.

There's four major categories that it'll get nominated in:

• GOTY
• Best Family Game
• Best Game Direction
• Best Action/Adventure

BG3 is almost certainly winning GOTY, Mario Wonder will win Best Family Game (especially since there's a decent chance it gets snubbed for a GOTY nomination), and I reckon Best Game Direction goes to either Starfield or Alan Wake II. Best Action/Adventure seems like the game's best shot at winning an award I'd say.

@IceClimbers BotW wasn't nominated for Best Family Game in 2017 so I don't think TotK will be nominated for it this year. It Takes Two is the only nominated game for that category whose age rating is higher than E10+ so my guess for the nominees this year would be:

• SMB Wonder
• Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe
• Pikmin 4
• WarioWare Move It
• A 3rd party game (don't know which)

@Grumblevolcano Good point, and I'd say Sonic Superstars probably takes that last spot.

Point still stands, TotK's best shot at winning an award is Best Action/Adventure.

I think Baldur's Gate 3 will take GOTY. I haven't beaten TOTK yet but by everything I've seen and enough of what I've played, despite any improvements, for the most part it doesn't feel like the same type of new, fresh take on Zelda and open world games, and I don't think enough people are creative enough to take full advantage of everything it does add. So its just unable to be novel in the same way BOTW was. It doesn't have to be, but its also not necessary perfecting what BOTW did either, so its not a Twilight Princess either, which would at least to me justify it.

Though granted, I doubt I would like Baldur's Gate 3 as much as TOTK if I played it, but it at least feels like a more exciting, out there, bold, fresh type of game, so it winning just makes more sense to me.

I've played both TotK and BG3 and both would be a worthy winner. They're both a raised middle finger to the idea that games have to be live services, festooned with DLC, and bug-ridden to the point of being unplayable at launch because they were shoveled out the door to a deadline.

Personally, TotK edges it for me because of the amazing things it did with the physics engine. A lot of this might fly by the casual player, who might not get deep enough into it to see past what's been reused from BotW, but there's been an entire genre of crazy build videos on YouTube since the game came out and it's drawn much admiration from other developers. Plus, it's running on what's basically a potato next to the sort of hardware you'd need for any of the year's other contenders, Wonder excepted of course.

BG3, for its part, feels the opposite. Everything on the surface is really fresh but, deep down, it's a good old fashioned turn-based RPG. That's no bad thing, as it's seen as a bit of a stale genre that only rarely achieves crossover appeal, and it's going to be utterly reinvigorated now.

Larian also make for the perfect underdog story, coming from the comparatively niche success of Divinity, and lacking a lot of the undesirable baggage that most of the established publishers have accumulated over the years. Seeing more of the industry trying to emulate them, rather than chasing the coattails of the big three, would not be a bad outcome.

If sea of stars doesn't win best indie I've lost all hope

I’m still wondering if Future Redeemed will show up somehow

Spider-Man 2 would be the wild card winner, it is crazy enough that it might happen.

@Kermit1
I wouldn’t be to surprised, but I doubt Spider-Man 2 gets GOTY. Common sentiment among the fan base is that the game is worse than the original and it is to compete with BG3 and TOTK.

I think Cocoon could give it a run for its money. They're totally different kinds of game though, so who knows?

There's also Dave the Diver, I suppose, but even the developers don't consider that to be an indie game. They're just a small team at a big publisher.

@Matt_Barber yea, cocoon is nice too. Playing it currently.

@blindsquirrel cough Sony cough $$$ cough... my bets are on TOTK imo

I wonder if Starfield will be a Game Of The Year nominee?

@JONOFTHEJONS
Probably not, seems like it was quantity over quality in the worst way possible.

I feel like the action-adventure category might be a competition between Spiderman and TotK. My bet is TotK for that category but it may depend on what wins GotY.

If I were the game award judges I would have a major anti Nintendo bias due to the majority of people who watch it being older

It doesn’t matter what deserves to win what matters is what will make people come back an watch more adds next year,that said everyone present from the big 3 to indies to the people who ran the awards profit from the show so I will continue to watch it

Just realised I never put down who I think will be nominated for GOTY this year so uhhhhhhhhh

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
Baldur's Gate 3
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Hi-Fi Rush
Street Fighter 6

these choices definitely won't cause any controversy mhm no sirree