Game Awards 2023: Baldur’s Gate 3 wins game of the year

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been named Game of the Year at the videogame industry’s biggest awards ceremony.

Accepting the award in Los Angeles, developer Larian said the epic fantasy RPG based on Dungeons and Dragons was a labour of love.

Wonka actor Timothée Chalamet presented the top prize to the Belgian studio.

It beat rivals including Super Mario Wonder, Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake 2 to the top prize.

In total, Baldur’s Gate 3 picked up six awards, including best performance for actor Neil Newbon, who played fan favourite Astarion.

Survival horror game Alan Wake 2 took home three awards for best game direction, narrative and art direction.

Other notable wins included The Last of Us TV series, which won best adaptation, Cyberpunk 2077 for best ongoing game, and puzzle adventure Cocoon in the Best Independent Game category.

Elsewhere, Forza Motorsport picked up the innovation in accessibility award and action-adventure Tchia was named Game for Impact winner.

The Game Awards is a mixture of awards show and preview event, with many fans watching for new trailers and announcements of forthcoming titles.

Fans got a first look at Exodus, a sci-fi RPG from Archetype Entertainment, a studio made up of ex-Bioware developers.

And legendary videogame creator Hideo Kojima unveiled OD, or Overdose, a project he’s working on with Get Out director Jordan Peele.

A remake of 2013 game Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons was revealed, alongside new looks at Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga and Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth.

And Sega announced it was reviving classic franchises Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio.

The awards follow a year that has seen thousands of job cuts in the games industry, despite an above-average number of highly praised titles.

Games companies including Fortnite maker Epic Games, Assassin’s Creed developer Ubisoft Montreal and Pokemon Go creator Niantic have all announced cuts.

The awards, organised by gaming journalist Geoff Keighley, is often criticised for spending more time on trailers and adverts than handing out prizes during the three-hour show.

And this year there have been complaints that the show sped through multiple awards at once without inviting the winners on stage.

Gaming site Kotaku said: “In a year when developers were laid off nearly every week, it would have been nice… to give all these talented people a moment to shine.”

There are 31 awards in total across a wide range of categories including audio design, best independent game and accessibility and innovation.

Winners are decided by a panel of industry experts and a fan vote which counts for 10% of the final score.

The full list is on the Game Awards website.

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