Game of the Year 2023

[Mnementh]

UnderwaterFunktown said:

UnderwaterFunktown said:

I mean, there's really only 2 candidates if we're being honest. It'll probably be the most even split in recent years between those two though, at least 30 % for both.
But realistically I expect it to be Baldur's Gate, it might be a little more niche than TotK perhaps, but TotK being an iterative sequel to a game that already took home a zillion GOTY awards will work against it.

Also RE4 will definitely take home more awards than some of those on the poll, remake or not. Could end up 3rd or 4th in the ranking.

Looks like I was on point with RE4 (it's currently 4th in the tally) and about BG3 winning, but it definitely wasn't as close as I expected. I hadn't exactly expected BG3 to dominate Reader's Choice awards like it has since it seemed like a game less people had played but in the end it ended up being one of the best sellers of the year so that was definitely a miscalculation.

Well, looking at the past years, it seems like this is kinda a usual distribution. In most years the winner is around 50% of the GOTYs and other titles fall far behind. Closest to what you suggest is 2013 with 47% of GOTYs for The Last of Us and 30% for GTA V. So even in a year like this one, with many good games usually a clear candidate evolves.

And yeah, I fully expected games like Spiderman and Hogwarts Legacy to be ahead of Resident Evil. I didn't put it in the nine choices, because I actually had more than 10 candidates considered, Resident Evil one of them, but thought others might be more likely. A total dark horse for me was Alan Wake though, I didn't consider it at all. I am very surprised by this.

And about BG3 - I hoped it would win, but as you say it is kinda a niche genre and if you ask people last year if a turn-based party-focused CRPG can win, most would have said no. I fully expected for instance the Geoff Keileygh show to give it to either Zelda or Spiderman, as this usually is very tilted towards action adventures.