The Game Awards 2023 Winners List & Event Discussion Thread

Here are all of the major categories from the 2023 Game Awards with the winners bolded and starred!

Game of the Year

• Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment Ltd.)
• * Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) *
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games)
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD)

Best Game Direction

• * Alan Wake II *
• Baldur's Gate 3
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Adaption Of Video Game Media

• Castlevania: Nocturne (Powerhouse Animation/Netflix)
• Gran Turismo (PlayStation Productions/Sony Pictures)
• * The Last of Us (PlayStation Productions/HBO) *
• The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Illumination/Nintendo/Universal Pictures)
• Twisted Metal (PlayStation Productions/Peacock)

Best Narrative

• * Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing) *
• Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
• Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red)
• Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)

Best Art Direction

• * Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing) *
• Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks)
• Lies of P (Round8 Studio/Neowiz Games)
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Score & Music

• Alan Wake II, Composer Petri Alanko
• Baldur's Gate 3, Composer Borislav Slavov
• * Final Fantasy XVI, Composer Masayoshi Soken *
• Hi-Fi Rush, Audio Director Shuichi Kobori
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Composed by Nintendo Sound Team

Best Audio Design

• Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment/Epic Games Publishing)
• Dead Space (Motive Studio/EA)
• * Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks) *
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)

Best Performance

• Ben Starr, Final Fantasy XVI
• Cameron Monaghan, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
• Idris Elba, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
• Melanie Liburd, Alan Wake 2
• * Neil Newbon, Baldur’s Gate 3 *
• Yuri Lowenthal, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Innovation In Accessibility

• Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment)
• * Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios) *
• Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks)
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
• Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
• Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)

Games for Impact

• A Space For The Unbound (Mojiken Studio/Toge Productions/Chorus)
• Chants Of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
• Goodbye Volcano High (KO_OP)
• * Tchia (Awaceb/Kepler Interactive) *
• Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver Digital/Netflix)
• Venba (Visai Games)

Best Ongoing Game

• Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment/EA)
• * Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red) *
• Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (Square Enix)
• Fortnite (Epic Games)
• Genshin Impact (miHoYo)

Best Community Support

• * Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) *
• Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red)
• Destiny 2 (Bungie)
• Final Fantasy XIV Online: A Realm Reborn (Square Enix)
• No Man's Sky (Hello Games)

Best Independent Game

• Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
• Dave the Diver (Mintrocket)
• Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
• * Sea of Stars (Sabotage) *
• Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)

Best Debut Indie Game

• * Cocoon (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive) *
• Dredge (Black Salt Games/Team 17)
• Pizza Tower (Tour De Pizza)
• Venba (Visai Games)
• Viewfinder (Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing)

Best Mobile Game

• Final Fantasy VII: Ever Crisis (Applibot/Square Enix)
• * Honkai: Star Rail (miHoYo) *
• Hello Kitty Island Adventure (Sunblink Entertainment)
• Monster Hunter Now (Niantic/Capcom)
• Terra Nil (Free Lives/Devolver Digital/Netflix)

Best VR/AR Game

• Gran Turismo 7 (Polyphony Digital Inc./SIE)
• Humanity (tha LTD/Enhance Games)
• Horizon Call of the Mountain (Guerrilla Games/Firesprite/SIE)
• * Resident Evil Village VR Mode (Capcom) *
• Synapse (nDreams)

Best Action Game

• * Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (FromSoftware, Inc./Bandai Namco) *
• Dead Island 2 (Deep Silver Dambuster Studios/Deep Silver)
• Ghostrunner 2 (One More Level/505 Games)
• Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks)
• Remnant II (Gunfire Games/Gearbox Publishing)

Best Action Adventure Game

• Alan Wake II (Remedy Entertainment Ltd./Epic Games Publishing)
• Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (Insomniac Games/SIE)
• Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (Respawn Entertainment/EA)
• * The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo) *

Best RPG

• * Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) *
• Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
• Lies of P (Round 8 Studios/NeoWiz)
• Sea of Stars (Sabotage)
• Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios)

Best Fighting Game

• God of Rock (Modus Studios Brazil/Modus Games)
• Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios/WB Games)
• Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (Ludosity Interactive/Fair Play Labs/GameMill Entertainment)
• Pocket Bravery (Statera Studio/PQube)
• * Street Fighter 6 (Capcom) *

Best Family Game

• Disney Illusion Island (DLaLa Studios)
• Party Animals (Recreate Games)
• Pikmin 4 (Nintendo EPD)
• Sonic Superstars (Sonic Team/Arzest)
• * Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD) *

Best Sim/Strategy Game

• Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp (WayForward Technologies)
• Cities: Skylines II (Colossal Order)
• Company of Heroes 3 (Relic Entertainment)
• Fire Emblem Engage (Nintendo EPD)
• * Pikmin 4 (Nintendo EPD) *

Best Sports/Racing Game

• EA Sports FC 24 (EA Vancouver/EA Romania/EA Sports)
• F1 23 (Codemasters)
• * Forza Motorsport (Turn 10 Studios) *
• Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged (Milestone s.r.l.)
• The Crew Motorfest (Ubisoft Ivory Tower)

Player's Voice (Popular Vote Winner)

• * Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) *
• Diablo IV (Blizzard Entertainment)
• Party Animals (Recreate Games)
• Street Fighter 6 (Capcom)
• Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo EPD)

Most Anticipated Game

• * Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix) *
• Hades II (Supergiant Games)
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu ga Gotoku Studio)
• Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment
• Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco Entertainment/Arika Co., Ltd.)

Content Creator of the Year

• * IronMouse *
• PeopleMakeGames
• Quackity
• Spreen
• SypherPK

Best Esports Game

• Counter-Strike 2 (Valve Corporation)
• Dota 2 (Valve Corporation
• League of Legends (Riot Games)
• PUBG Mobile (Lightspeed Studios)
• * Valorant (Riot Games) *

Best Esports Athlete

• * Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (League of Legends) *
• Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (CS:GO)
• Max “Demon1” Mazanov (Valorant)
• Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez (Call of Duty)
• Park “Ruler” Jae-hyuk (League of Legends)
• Phillip ”ImperialHal” Dosen (Apex Legends)

Best Esports Team

• Evil Geniuses (Valorant)
• Fnatic (Valorant)
• Gaimin Gladiators (Dota 2)
• * JD Gaming (League of Legends) *
• Team Vitality (Counter-Strike)

Best Esports Coach

• * Christine “potter” Chi (Evil Geniuses - Valorant) *
• Danny “zonic” Sorensen (Team Falcons - Counter-Strike)
• Jordan “Gunba” Graham (Florida Mayhem - Overwatch)
• Remy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Team Vitality - Counter-Strike)
• Yoon “Homme” Sung-young (JD Gaming - League of Legends)

Best Esports Event

• * 2023 League of Legends World Championship *
• Blast.tv Paris Major 2023
• EVO 2023
• The International Dota 2 Championships 2023
• VALORANT Champions 2023

As is usually the case, the 2023 Game Awards drew praise and criticism. Looking at the categories alone highlights the overall weirdness of maintaining genre award categories. Merging sports with racing games as well as simulation and strategy games in catch-all award categories while fighting games continue to maintain their own siloed award rubs me the wrong way. That and having an "Action" award on top of an "Action / Adventure" category is downright odd.

The only award result I completely disagreed with was for "Best Multiplayer." Look... I like Baldur's Gate 3, but saying its contributions to online multiplayer were greater than Street Fighter 6's or Forza Motorsport is BANANAS!

For the awards show itself... it is an awards show hosted by Geoff Keighley. The 2023 Game Awards were exactly what they have been in previous years in that it was a big event wherein Keighley boasts about the amount of money he pockets from larger publishers and developers while providing some space for developers and teams to get some props. I could write multiple paragraphs about how his awards events botch the portion between awards, skits, and game trailers, but this is something that has been the same since the inception of the event when it was hosted by Spike TV. The ushering of award winners after less than two minutes was disgusting, especially consider Keighley chumming it up with Kojima got twice as much stage time. That said, I'm not surprised.

It's insanely embarrassing that the show was both too long and gave absolutely no time for acceptance speeches. Either stop wasting time by throwing to Keighley after every segment, cut the Kojima celebrity/Keighley Muppet fetish segments if they have absolutely nothing to say, or break this thing up into multiple days.

I think this is the year that I agree with most of the awards. I love Baldur's Gate 3, and while I haven't played any Alan Wake game, I just finished Control for the first time. It's really great to see that these two devs that have been putting out very good games for years are finally getting some recognition.

I think that this the first year in which every celebrity guest presenter was either in a game themselves, or in an adaptation of a game, so that's an improvement.

Aggressively playing people off stage to the degree that happened is fucking rude and Keighley should be ashamed of himself. Telling us how important innovation in accessibility is while then giving that award off-stage and before the main show begins sucked. At least e-sports got the same treatment.

Might as well leave this here to come back to and see how many of these I don't get around to next year. I'm looking forward to:

Pony Island 2: Panda Circus because Inscryption was great.

Harmonium looks adorable and very cool for the reasons it's being made.

Exodus looks like it is being made for me. I love me some sci-fi, especially stuff that examines human culture in space when the light speed barrier cannot be broken. I hope it isn't just a third-person cover shooter with ancient aliens.

Hellblade: Senua's Saga looks awesome. This is one of those times where all of the stuff for the sequel looks so good that I finally start playing the first game.

A few others look good, but these are the ones that really stood out to me.

It was a pretty good Keighleys, all things considered. (Bonus mention to the absolutely huge dudes who were hired for stage security.)

A vtuber winning creator of the year or whatever was like a new cosmic horror. Accept that award out of character. I dare you.

@shindig: Would it count as being out of character if they accepted the award in person but as the VTuber's manager?

If someone wants to Dr. Tracksuit it, that'd be great.

It felt like an extremely long advert mixed in with some award stuff they don't really care about, one comment made me laugh "with an ad blocker the game awards is only 7 minutes long".

The selection of categories were eyebrow raising, winners were positioned slightly off camera to minimise travel time, the constant goal of moving on to get to more sponsors and trailers for mobile games, it was such a manufactured and egregious "show", nothing about it felt good.

I'm only going to bring up some of the awards because for the most part i don't really have a stake in 2023, i haven't taken part in this years offerings i've mostly been here to join the discussions about all of the industries failings so overall i'm left feeling pretty negative.

Best ongoing game Cyberpunk, i don't feel good about giving an award to a game that launched so incredibly poorly even if they've spent 3 years finishing it, i applaud the dedication but i don't condone the practice of releasing games unfinished in the first place.

Best content creator IronMouse, nothing against Mousey she's great, i just don't know why she won and to a degree it feels like a category that you can only win if you apply in the first place. Forbes made an article with the same question and received a ton of backlash for it but it's a legit question, she's been streaming since 2017 and as a vtuber watcher i'm unaware of anything significant she did in 2023 besides her usual consistency. Meanwhile there are content creators in the gaming space producing remarkable documentaries and investigations into games and the industry and having an actual and measurable impact, i suspect having Digital Foundry win an award for regularly calling out AAA's lack of polish wouldn't sit well with the publishers, or Karl Jobst's expensive and extended legal battle with Billy Mitchell, and his and SomeOrdinaryGamers's videos on that multi year charity scandal which saw support from Hollywood celebrities, the variety of developers and content creators who rallied together in unprecedented support against the sudden changes to the Unity engine, which would have made a mass exodus of the platform viable for many people if Unity didn't roll back the changes.

On the game side i gather the most exciting thing was the variety of returning Sega franchises, but the trailer kinda made them all look like early UE3 games on a budget, so that's a shame.

I stopped watching after 10 minutes it was so bad.

"Best E-Sports athlete"

Not a single Starcraft player. Embarassing

It was mostly okay, but the award Cyperpunk 2077 got was complete BS, and I like that game just fine.

@cikame:The Game Awards has sort of become "mini E3 in December" and that's how I treat it. I don't really care about the awards themselves, I don't watch, I do check some website for the list of reveals and watch the trailers that matter to me. By that standard I'd say this was a decent year because there were some good trailers and reveals. A lot of single player traditional games and some indies, which is neat to see.

Does anyone take the awards themselves seriously? It positions itself as the Oscars for games but I've never seen anyone treat it as such except for publishers promoting a game. It's much more akin to the Golden Globes, which is fine but isn't something people take seriously (and even the Oscars aren't taken that seriously today.)

It would be cool if they were more interested in celebrating games that had been released and actually being an awards show but it's not.

I saw Jimmy Broadbent (the racing sim guy) going off on Forza Motorsport winning best sports/racing game and I 100% agree. It's an aggressively mediocre game and Microsoft being rewarded for it is a good demonstration of why the Game Awards are not so good. The driving itself in Forza is okay but literally everything else around it is pretty poor compared to pretty much any other semi-serious racing game on the market right now and even older Forza games. It's a game that positions itself as a serious racing game going after the sim scene but has none of the stuff in it that people who play sims would want. It even lacks UI features games partially aimed at the casual market like the F1 games have. Instead it's a game that brags about simulation quality when most of the races in the single player portion are so short that none of it would ever factor in.

When I discovered that they tried to GaaS the single player by making a chunk of the racing series only available for limited amounts of time, I gave up playing altogether (I had already finished all the other single player content anyway. There's not much of it). That's not an acceptable substitute for gutting the single player and only giving you a small fraction of racing series that previous games had. Add to that the Drivatar system being as awful as ever (doesn't matter how much you crank up the difficulty, they still drive into you in corners constantly and drive as if your aren't there on straights. The drivatars break every rule in the book when it comes to clean racing) and you're left with a bad and extremely short single player experience. And that's not getting into the boneheaded practice and car levelling systems that completely ruins one of the most fun parts of Forza games: customizing cars. It's a hugely disappointing game that seems like it was so focused on being a graphical showpiece that it forgot that it also has to be a good racing game.

@ben_h: Forza won Innovation in Accessibility which I don't think many people can't argue against.

And Forza won Best Sports/Racing Game category beating F1 23, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2 Turbocharged, The Crew Motorfest, and soccer title EA Sports FC 24.

Nominees for most categories of The Game Awards are chosen by an international jury of over 100 global media and influencer outlets, selected for their history of critical video game evaluation. Specialized juries also convene for other categories including esports, accessibility and best adaptation.

Best Sports/Racing Game is a pretty weak category, I wouldn't be surprised if Forza was the only racing game majority of the judges put serious time into. I wouldn't put weight into any of the winners the awards are an afterthought.

It feels to me like Cyberpunk won that category because the Game Awards doesn't have a "best DLC" or "best expansion" category and this was the closest fit to recognize Phantom Liberty. It doesn't really make sense, but large high quality expansions like Phantom Liberty should have a category to be recognized. Shoehorning that stuff into what is ostensibly the live service category is definitely dumb, there should be a DLC category. Maybe they're worried there won't be worthy candidates every year to fill a category like that, but I'd rather have a category that is weak in some years than have the scenario we had this year where Phantom Liberty gets shoved into and wins a different category and Horizon Burning Shores gets completely snubbed from any nominations across the board.

Yeah you can't argue against the accessibility stuff. But yes it's pretty clear the category was something of a throwaway and that most of the judges didn't play other racing or weren't racing game people. I played F1 23 a bit too during a free weekend and would qualify it as a much better overall package than Forza. The F1 game makes practice sessions a meaningful thing (while also allowing you to skip them if you don't want to do them), has much better AI, and has several different substantial single player modes along with decent multiplayer. It's not perfect but it's a lot better than Forza.

That's a big list of products so far! It's a shame that EA Sports WRC (Rally Sim Game) didn't get nominated for the Best Sports/Racing Game category.