The official nominee announcement on Monday, November 13, 2023, laid to rest the speculations on which games will be brawling it out for The Game of the Year. Six games were nominated for the Game of the Year 2023 namely Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
However, let’s rewind back to November 7 when Geoff Keighley, the founder of The Game Awards, announced the date for the nomination on his official X handle. Keighley asked, “Which games do you think are up for Game of the Year?” Well, I got four out of the six nominees—and that’s because I predicted four.
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With the list of the Game of the Year nominees now made public, I can easily pick the top three contenders from the list. I strongly think all the six games nominated in this category are great games. However, the game I believe will take home the ultimate price may not be the popular opinion. But, before I reveal my top three contenders, let’s look at interesting metrics.
The Game Awards winners based on Metacritic rating
Metacritic is a score aggregator site where reviewers rate games based on their experiences. These scores are aggregated and tallied from 1 to 100. The higher the score the better appreciation players have for the game. If The Game Award was based on Metacritic rating, the games that will win in the different categories are as follows:
- Game of the Year – Baldur’s Gate 3 / The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Independent Game – Dave the Diver (Metacritic score 90)
- Best Debut Indie Game – Pizza Tower (Metacritic score 89)
- Best VR / AR Game – Gran Turismo 7 (Metacritic score 87)
- Best Multiplayer – Baldur’s Gate 3 (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Mobile Game – Terra Nil (Metacritic score 84)
- Best Narrative – Baldur’s Gate 3 (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Art Direction – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Action Game – Hi-Fi Rush (Metacritic score 87)
- Best Action/Adventure Game – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Fighting Game – Street Fighter 6 (Metacritic score 92)
- Best RPG – Baldur’s Gate 3 (Metacritic score 96)
- Best Sim/Strategy Game – Pikmin 4 (Metacritic score 87)
- Best Sports/Racing Game – Forza Motorsport (Metacritic score 85)
- Best Family Game – Super Mario Bros Wonder (Metacritic score 92)
Well unlike Metacritic and Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards is not a popularity contest where the highest number of votes from fans solely determines the winners. The Game Awards has a tiered voting system where fan votes make up only 10% of the votes while a voting jury cut from global media publications has 90% of the votes.
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Therefore, the most popular game according to fan votes may not emerge as the winner and vice versa. While fans will vote based on features like story, graphics, and cinematics, the voting jury will analyze every element of the game to come to their conclusion.
That explains why uproars often follow when the winning game is not the most popular among players. In other words, the jury’s choice alone can crown the winner but the choice of the fans alone cannot crown a winner.
Regardless of whether you agree with the jury on the game that eventually becomes The Game of the Year 2023, you should respect the fact that it is always tough to decide when confronted with several good alternatives.
The likely Game of the Year winner
I believe the top three games at the end of the day would be Spider-Man 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, and Alan Wake II. Any of these games is a deserved winner of Game of the Year. Although Spider-Man 2 got one less nomination compared to Alan Wake II and Baldur’s Gate 3 (which got 8 each), I believe the Marvel sequel will swing to the top of the pack—and here are my reasons.
Spider-Man 2 took every lesson from the first game and Miles Morales’ spinoff and made it better. It is one of the best story-driven games released this year. It also had memorable villains. The fact that Venom at some point became a playable character was a wow moment for me.
These factors have been widely highlighted in reviews by different media houses (who will play a major role in deciding the Game of the Year winner). However, if Spider-Man 2 doesn’t take it, the award will most likely go to Baldur’s Gate 3 which has been one of 2023 biggest marvels—although I am not a fan of the computer role-playing games genre.
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By the way, Keighley announced on X on Tuesday, November 14 that tickets for The Game Awards are sold out. If you had plans to attend the event at the Peacock Theatre, you need to change that plan now.
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