Baldur’s Gate 3 wins Game of the Year 2023

The Game Awards 2023 have a winner

Marco Wutz | Dec 7, 2023

Baldur’s Gate 3 wins Game of the Year 2023 /

Geoff Keighley has crowned Baldur’s Gate 3 as Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023. Decided by a combination of jury votes, which made up the large majority of the scoring, and some obligatory input from the general public, this award is considered to be the most prestigious trophy to win in the games industry.

Baldur’s Gate 3, developed and published by Larian Studios, is a CRPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition ruleset. It was released in Summer 2023 after spending nearly three years in Early Access. Larian used that period to work fan feedback into the game as it finished up the remaining content. Upon its release, Baldur’s Gate 3 completely blew any expectations out of the water. Despite belonging to a niche genre with a less than stellar reputation when it comes to its accessibility, Baldur’s Gate 3 captivated audiences like no other game this year.

Baldur's Gate 3 crew accepting the GOTY trophy. — Larian's representatives accepting the Game of the Year award / Larian Studios

From its incredibly written (and voiced) characters to its mechanical freedom, Baldur’s Gate 3 is probably the closest experience to an actual D&D session you can get in a video game. Playing its fabled predecessors from 1998 and 2000 is not necessary to understand what’s going on in the new title.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. In 2024, a physical release of the game is planned. Baldur’s Gate 3 sold over 2.5 million copies on PC in the Early Access period alone, surpassing the developers’ expectations.

Resident Evil 4 Remake, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Alan Wake 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Baldur’s Gate 3 were nominated for the grand prize.

In total, Baldur's Gate 3 won five trophies at The Game Awards 2023.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is now out on Xbox Series X|S

Published Dec 7, 2023

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg