Today the awards ceremony for the traditional Golden Joystick Awards has been hosted, and the winners have been announced.
The Game of the Year award was won by Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian Studios. The D&D-based RPG and its developers won several other awards, as you can see below.
The rest of the top five were Final Fantasy XVI in fifth place, Resident Evil 4 in fourth place, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 in third place, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in second place. Interestingly, Larian's game received a whopping 26% of the votes while TOTK was left behind with 14%.
The Most Wanted Game Award was won by Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. As you may imagine, this award honors the game that has not yet been released which is most anticipated by the audience.
It was much closer compared to the Game of the Year, with the next adventure of Cloud, Tifa, and the rest of the gang taking 12% of the votes, followed by Hades II with 10% and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl with 9%.
Besides a few, the Golden Joystick Awards are community-voted, which makes them rather unique among the many awards that are mostly voted by critics or developers.
You can find the full list of winners below.
- Best Storytelling: Baldur's Gate 3
- Still Playing Award: No Man's Sky
- Best Visual Design: Baldur's Gate 3
- Studio of the Year: Larian Studios
- Best Expansion: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
- Best VR Game: Horizon: Call of the Mountain
- Best Indie Game: Sea of Stars
- Best Multiplayer Game: Mortal Kombat 1
- Best Audio: Final Fantasy XVI
- Best Game Trailer: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
- Streamer's Choice: Valorant
- Best Game Community: Baldur's Gate 3
- Best Hardware: PlayStation VR2
- Breakthrough Award: Cocoon
- Critics' Choice Award: Alan Wake 2
- Best Lead Performer: Ben Starr - Clive in Final Fantasy XVI
- Best Supporting Performer: Neil Newbon - Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3
- Nintendo Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- Best PC Game of the Year: Baldur's Gate 3
- Best Xbox Game of the Year: Starfield
- Best PlayStation Game of the Year: Resident Evil 4
- Most Wanted Game: Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Ultimate Game of the Year: Baldur's Gate 3
If you're wondering, last year the Ultimate Game of the Year award was won by Elden Ring, while The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom won the Most Wanted Game award. Yet, Nintendo's new adventure of link couldn't stop Baldur's Gate 3's triumphant cavalcade.
