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Just like that the 2023 gaming season has come to end with the 9th annual The Game Awards. What a year for gamers and the industry as a whole, from the small indie developers to the large triple A game studios, they had an utter perfect year and set up some world premieres and sneak peaks that seem to set up the next 2 years of wonderful and epic games.
Congratulations to Larion Studios, the developers of Baldur’s Gate 3 taking home 6 awards including the coveted Game of The Year Award and their own Neil Newbon taking home the award for Best Performance which was presented by last year’s winner Christopher Judge who played everyone’s favorite god slaying spartan Kratos. Like I said This year’s line up for games was amazing and every developer should be proud for the work they put into making 2023 the year of the gamer. Lets hop into some of the announcements made and awards given out this year.
As I mentioned, Christopher Judge was a presenter at this year’s award ceremony and along with him, brought a new free DLC for God of War: Ragnorok which from the trailer seems to be a rogue like fight going through a lot of Kratos past enemies, that drops for all platforms Dec 12th! Final Fantasy XVI along with winning Best Music Score announced 2 brand new DLC’S the first which dropped as they were announced, for all the fans who were confused as to why we didn’t see Leviathan in XVI buckle up because we do indeed get to fight her and it looks SICK!
SEGA didn’t come to play, pun intended, when they announced 6 come back titles coming next year, and Dragon Ball fans everywhere lost their collective minds at the announcement of Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi which is being called Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero. My mind was thoroughly blown when not only did one of the “authors” of video games, Kojima Hideo announce a new project titled OD but, hes also working with Jordan Peele on this project and from the small trailer alone I know I’m going to need to bill them for my therapist once that game comes out, that game is going to be terrifying and I cannot wait.
Bethesda and Arkane Lyon announced Marvel’s Blade which was “in honor of Blade’s 50th anniversary” and what a way to celebrate such a beloved comic book character. All of this and so much more was announced during the show to set up the next 2 years of gaming and I cannot wait to see how these titles preform on their releases.
This wasn’t just a big year for console and pc gaming but a huge year for the mobile gaming scene as well with Hoyoverse’s own Honkai: Star Rail bringing home Best Mobile Game this year as well as announcing their newest expansion of the game and we got a sneak peak at another Hoyoverse title Zenless Zone Zero releasing later next year.
Mobile gaming has gotten very big in recent years bringing even more gamers into our vast community and it’s also proven that its not just the mindless little tap games on our phone, its full on beautiful immersive masterpieces that can come from these phone and tablet app developers and they have defiantly earned their seat at the ever growing table.
Along side its mobile gaming sibling, virtual gaming was extremally popular this year, with Resident Evil VR mode taking home the award and Asgard’s Wrath 2 being announced by the game’s own antagonist Loki, voiced by the very talented Mathew Mercer.
We also can never forget our indie game devs, those who are working with either a small group or one person to give us gamers something new and amazing, Sea of Stars by Sabotage Studios took home Best Indie Game and Cocoon took Home Best Debut Indie Game, both beautiful and just mind boggling games that are in my game library yelling at me to be completed.
To no one’s real surprise Nintendo’s own Mario Bros. Wonder took home Best Family Game and it was well deserved and a shoe-in,’ Mario has been a long standing family game title and Nintendo has always been a staple in most family’s homes for years. Speaking of Nintendo, their own Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, like Mario Wonder getting a nominee for GotY also took home Best Action/ Adventure game and I personally couldn’t have thought of a better category for the Zelda franchise to win.
Alan Wake 2 was another nominee for GotY and like Baldur’s Gate 3 dominated the competition, taking home 3 awards including: Best Art Direction, Best Narrative, and Best Game Direction, which Creative Director Sam Lake accepted all with grace. We also got a beautiful live performance by Poet’s of the Fall’s video game alter ego God’s of Asgard. They alongside Matthew Porretta, Ilkka Villi and Sam Lake himself recreated the beautiful musical section of the game, man Creative director, triple triumph game AND he can sing, Sam Lake his own threat for sure.
A lot of us as gamers have been hard at work either, playing games on twitch or competing in Esports tournaments and The Game Awards gave recognition for that this year as well, and it was really amazing again to see just how much the industry has grown and recognized that we as fans and players love their works as much as they do, if not more. Twitch streamer IronMouse took home Content Creator of The Year and her live reaction was funny, she freaked out and was truly honored as for Esports, they had 4 categories and here are the winners:
Best Esports Game: Valorant
Best Esports Athlete: League Of Legends’ Faker
Best Esports Team: League of Legends’ JD Gamming
Best Esports Coach: Valorant’s Evil Geniuses, Potter
Best Esports Event: The 2023 League of Legends Championship
31 awards given out that to titles and people who worked their hardest to be just give us wonderful masterpieces and beautiful stories. Sure there were some games that lost and there are definitely people upset by the loss, but do not let that invalidate your playing experience, at the end of the day all that matters is if you loved the game and enjoyed playing it. All the games released this year were phenomenal in their own right and helped make this year one of the best years for gaming to date, no one truly lost….well except maybe Call of Duty did after being dragged by Kartos himself but hey that’s just the way the war is won. Anyway See ya later Nerds!
For more information, check out TheGameAwards.com
