Steam's 2023 GOTY nominations are extremely weird, and…

Steam's 2023 GOTY nominations are extremely weird, and I guess that's your fault

The description for Steam's "Labor of Love" award reads as follows:

"This game has been out for a while. The team is well past the debut of their creative baby, but being the good parents they are, these devs continue to nurture and support their creation. This game, to this day, is still getting new content after all these years."

Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that hasn't received an update since 2020 by my reckoning, and has been famously rather undersupported compared to the GTA games or even its own predecessor, probably shouldn't be nominated for such an award, right? And yet…

There's similar weirdness to be found all the way through this year's Steam Awards. In theory, it's just democracy made manifest—users nominate games, and then vote on a shortlist of nominees. But come on, do you guys really think FC24 and Hogwarts Legacy are good picks for 2023's Game of the Year?

Atomic Heart and High on Life are up for Outstanding Visual Style. Starfield is nominated for Most Innovative Gameplay. A game called Love is All Around, an awkward FMV dating sim, is up for Outstanding Story-Rich Game. Overwatch 2 is apparently one of the "Best Games You Suck At", an award described as being for "the game that rewards persistence, and is not for the faint of heart.". What's going on here?

I get how this sort of thing happens—ultimately when you throw these sorts of things out to the general public, lots of people will just click on the one game in a list that they recognise, or champion their favourites regardless of the wording of a category. And of course games are subjective, and people like different things and for different reasons.

But I don't think it's controversial to say these nominations seem a little all over the place, and out of step with almost every other set of awards going. For me, it makes it all feel a bit meaningless. That's a shame given how much work Valve clearly put into the presentation here, with gorgeous graphics, animated stickers to earn, and a user-friendly voting interface. Maybe it's time to rethink the process a bit? Or am I just being a grumpy old games journo, and these nominations truly reflect the will of the people?

Voting closes later today, so the winners should be announced soon. The full list of nominations is: