Earlier today, Valve released the winners of the 2023 Steam Awards, and it seems there are some interesting picks this year. Baldur's Gate 3 won two awards, which makes sense, but there were some choices here that I found a bit questionable, especially the Best Game on Steam Deck winner, Hogwarts Legacy. For reference, here are the winners of each award:
- Game of the Year: Baldur's Gate 3
- VR Game of the Year: Labyrinthine
- Labor of Love: Red Dead Redemption 2
- Best Game on Steam Deck: Hogwarts Legacy
- Better With Friends: Lethal Company
- Outstanding Visual Style: Atomic Heart
- Most Innovative Gameplay: Starfield
- Best Game You Suck At: Sifu
- Best Soundtrack: The Last of Us Part 1
- Outstanding Story-Rich Game: Baldur's Gate 3
- Sit Back and Relax: Dave the Diver
Before I go into my point, I first want to congratulate all the winners. While I may not agree with all of them, these are all incredible games that deserve recognition in one way or another. I will also say this article is an opinion piece, so everything below will be based on my feelings regarding the awards. With that out of the way, let's talk about these winners.
So, I don't really have any issues with Baldur's Gate 3's awards, and I think Sifu, Lethal Company, Dave the Diver, and Labyrinthine are all deserving of their awards. I can even see Atomic Heart winning, though there are a couple of games, like Persona 5 Tactica and Worldless, that have a more unique visual aesthetic. I can even understand The Last of Us Part 1 having the Best Soundtrack, but I will forever say that Persona's music isn't matched 99% of the time.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is an extremely odd choice for Labor of Love though, especially when there are a solid number of games that have had many updates. No Man's Sky generally takes the cake here, but Cyberpunk 2077 is another great example of solid updates keeping players coming back. Apex Legends has had a solid amount of updates too, which makes this choice much weirder. The last content update for RDR2 seems to be from July 2022, and Rockstar announced last year that no new content would be coming in 2023, so how did it win this category?
Another odd one is Starfield winning Most Innovative Gameplay. Now, I am not saying the gameplay isn't enjoyable, but it really felt like...Skyrim in space. No Man's Sky does a lot of what Starfield does but makes it more seamless and intriguing. Of the finalists, I voted for Shadows of Doubt, and I feel it really deserves this. This game sets you in a world, and you go solve randomly generated crimes throughout the world. The entire game is fully sandbox and procedurally generated, and it is just simply amazing. I have never played a game as open and free as this one when it comes to detective-esque games, and I feel it really deserves more credit than it got. They are even working on mod support, which is nuts!
But the biggest perpetrator, for me, is Hogwarts Legacy. I played hundreds of games on the Steam Deck last year, ranging from older titles to recently released ones, and I can name hundreds that feel better to play on the handheld than Hogwarts. My issue is less with the actual game's quality and more with its performance, which makes it a worthwhile investment to play on the go, which is not one I could easily recommend to everyone.
Hogwarts Legacy needs compromises to run stable on the Deck, and it can't hit above 30 FPS. This means there are visual compromises, and it won't feel nearly as fluid or smooth. And it will still have a bigger battery drain. Compared to the other finalists, it falls behind in both of those categories. DREDGE was my choice, and it runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck at 60 FPS with low battery drain. Brotato has consistently been on the top 20 most-played lists and runs even better than DREDGE, while The Outlast Trials and Diablo 4 end up running a bit better and still looking wonderful.
Now, I completely understand Hogwarts Legacy is an enjoyable game and very different than all of these, but it feels like this wasn't the right choice. The other issue I see is the possibility of those who don't have a Steam Deck voting. The system encourages people to vote for all of the awards to get stickers or badges, so it's very possible that those who never played it or don't have a Steam Deck voted in this, too. While I don't mind this, it ends up giving others the impression Hogwarts Legacy is an incredible game to play on the Deck, and while it may be for some people, it isn't an optimal game to run on there to showcase the strengths of the device.
In the end, this is all my opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own feelings about it. I am not saying all of this to slander Hogwarts Legacy as a game, but more to bring awareness that, while it can be played on the Steam Deck, there are compromises and much better experiences from the other finalists and many other games released throughout the year. I mentioned Persona 5 Tactica earlier for the music, but it is also an incredible game to play on the Steam Deck. Blasphemous 2, Skybreakers, Turok 3, Star Ocean, Ooblets, and Tales of Arise are all great examples of games that run and look better. Lies of P is another amazing one, which won our personal GOTY for the Steam Deck.
Overall, each of the games mentioned here are great in their own rights. Hogwarts Legacy is a ton of fun and Red Dead Redemption 2’s story and attention to detail is unmatched, but there’s no way these games should be winning these awards. This could be a manifestation of a non-vetted community-only voting system, but it can be quite misleading for those looking to purchase new games, which is where I feel this is heading.
If you enjoyed this article, check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that will help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back!
RECENT NEWS
Categories
Recent Tips & GUIDES
recent reviews
This is the result of community nominated and community voted winners. The ones that don't make sense are meme votes. Valve should nominate and let the community vote on those, otherwise we get Boaty McBoatface.
I think RDR 2 and Barebones Space Skyrim were honestly troll votes. HL... Well there is the fact that it is a huge franchise with a lot of popularity and a lot of pwople probably voted for it even if they don't have the deck. I honestly don't find it a good game. It is decent but not a good game imho. I normally say it is the best Harry Potter postcard you can get. Things are pretty but skin deep. No interaction no NPC schedules and a lot of ludo narrative dissonance like the Merlin challenges who were left unresolved for hundreds of years because no one bothered to jump on an obvious rock for hundreds of years... I mean... Ffs...
Dave the Diver, Dredge, Hollow Knight, Witcher 3, CP77, BG3! So many games that play and look way better on the deck imho...
Yeah a few of these where meant as trolling...
Starfield winning most innovative game is the biggest sore thumb I've ever seen at any video game awards. Other than it's leveling system (which I swear there's been things like this before, I just can't name it) there's nothing about the game that is innovative, much less enough things to make it THE MOST innovative game of the year.
I also agree that while Last of Us has a good OST, I wouldn't give it the award.
I also don't see how RDR2 is a labor of love in any way.
And I as well have played hundreds of (new) games on my steam deck and would never give it to hogwarts.
Everything else is reasonable.
Steam's Game awards are absolutely popularity contests, I always feel weird when I have to vote for a VR game because I don't play VR and usually I've never even heard of most of them and so I pick one at random or pick the one I know. From that perspective I can't imagine what it would be like for most people voting on stuff not knowing any games and seeing (one of) your favorite games only up for one award and the voting for it because you liked it.
Finalist votes shouldn't happen for awards. Ask us to vote once (initial voting that they already do) and then give us some other mini-game (like guess which one won each category) to click on for stickers.
Absolutely agree on all your points, also, I think we should be able to write-in games that aren't included in the 5 "finalist" games. I would have absolutely chosen No Man's Sky as the most innovative/Best on Steam Deck, Hello Games has CONSTANTLY been supporting that game and adding better and better mechanics and gameplay for years, plus I can play it on high graphic settings on my Steam Deck with zero issues.
I haven't tried NMS on the Deck yet, I've always played it on Game Pass which means I tend to stick to my Desktop and Xbox. But if it ever leaves Game Pass, it's definitely a game I'd pay for on Steam and try out on the Deck.
I'm in full agreement with each of these. Last of Us Part 1 winning best Soundtrack is a little odd as well but nowhere near as much of an oddity as these other ones highlighted in the article. Compared to last year, this was rather disappointing and comes off more like a popularity contest than anything for those.
Yes, in my opinion it was definitely a case of people having "heard" of a game, or played one of the nominated games, and automatically just voting for that one, regardless of anything else.
The fact that you got rewarded for voting on a category meant that a lot of Steam users will vote even if they have no opinion or knowledge on the subject, just to get the reward. Or even worse, just spam clicking down the category list at random to vote.
That's even more so for the Steam Deck category, as the majority of Steam users don't own a Steam Deck (less than 10% of them), which means most of the votes for "best game on Deck" will have been made by people who have never used a Deck.