Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian Studios achieved an incredible feat at the 2023 Golden Joystick Awards held last week. This is the first time the award has been held in-person since 2019. The purpose of the award is to celebrate the best and most popular video games based on votes from millions of players.
Baldur’s Gate won the biggest award for the night, “Ultimate Game of the Year”. According to a summary of the results by the organizers of the Golden Joystick Awards, the feat achieved by Larian and Baldur’s Gate 3 is historic. Baldur’s Gate 3 performance trumped the six awards bagged by Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II.
Baldur’s Gate 3 won in five categories while Neil Newborn (who played the role of Astarion) won the award for Best Supporting Performer. The award for the Studio of the Year went to Larian Studios. In total, the studio went home with seven awards.
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“It was impossible to expect,” said Larian boss and Baldur’s Gate 3 director Swen Vincke. “We tried to make everything as accessible as possible, but we didn’t compromise.”
CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt still holds the record for the most awards won by a single game over several years at the Golden Joystick Awards. It won “The Most Anticipated Game” in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, it won five awards including Game of the Year and Studio of the Year.
The game’s expansion, “Blood and Wine” won two awards in 2016. CD Projekt Red also won the “Studio of the Year” for their effort. In the same year, Doug Cockle was awarded for playing Geralt in the game.
Full list of Golden Joystick Awards 2023 winners
- Best storytelling: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Still Playing Award: No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
- Best visual design: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Studio of the Year: Larian Studios
- Best game expansion: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red)
- Best indie game: Sea of Stars (Sabotage Studio)
- Best VR game: Horizon Call of the Mountain (Guerrilla Games, Firesprite)
- Best multiplayer game: Mortal Kombat 1 (NetherRealm Studios)
- Best audio: Final Fantasy XVI (Square Enix)
- Best game trailer: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (CD Projekt Red)
- Best streaming game: Valorant (Riot Games)
- Best game community: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Best gaming hardware: PlayStation VR 2
- Breakthrough Award: Coccoon (Geometric Interactive)
- Critics’ Choice Award: Alan Wake II (Remedy)
- Best lead performer: Ben Starr (Clive Rosfield, Final Fantasy XVI)
- Best supporting performer: Neil Newborn (Astarion, Baldur’s Gate 3)
- Nintendo Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)
- PC Game of the Year: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
- Xbox Game of the Year: Starfield (Bethesda Softworks)
- PlayStation Game of the Year: Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
- Most wanted game: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth (Square Enix)
- Ultimate Game of the Year: Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
Larian Studios boss wants more games like Baldur’s Gate 3
Since its launch in August, Baldur’s Gate 3 has received massive accolades. It is one of the highest-scoring releases this year with an average score of 96 on Metacritic, based on 114 critical reviews. In a discussion with GamesRadar+, Vincke said he believes there will be a resurgence of computer role-playing games (CRPGs) like Baldur’s Gate 3.
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“We’ve always been very focused on just making our game, and a lot of people have attached a lot of things to that because the game turned out the way that we wanted it to be,” Vincke said. “So, I hope there will be more games like a CRPG type. It’s a game I like to play, and a lot of people in the industry like to play as well. So, if those games come out, and they don’t have a story that we know already, I think that will be great. I look forward to those types of games.”
CRPG is a subgenre of role-playing games with an isometric top-down view. They are usually designed to be open-ended and story-driven, giving the feeling of Dungeons & Dragons. Baldur’s Gate 3 was particularly praised for its huge scope of choices.
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