2018 Steam Awards sees PUBG win game of the year

[midian182]

A hot potato: The results of the 2018 Steam Awards have been announced. As is so often the case with these sort of things, some winners have proved quite controversial, including PUBG taking Game of the Year. Interestingly, the only winning title released last year was Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

While it wasn’t the first Battle Royale game, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds popularized the genre following its full release back in December 2017. It’s been living in the shadow of Fortnite and Apex Legends in recent times, but PUBG was still the top-earning premium game last year, generating $1.028 billion—a figure that doesn’t include the mobile version. It beat Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, and Assassin's Creed Odyssey—most of which have graced our Best PC Games (You Should Be Playing) feature—to take the top honor.

Probably the most divisive winner was in the ‘Labor of Love’ category, where GTA V was voted number one. While there's no doubting the amount of work put into the most profitable entertainment product of all time, many argue that Stardew Valley, which was made by one person, should have won. Even No Man’s Sky, which managed to turn one of the biggest disasters in video game history into a success, might have been a worthier winner.

Valve said one of the most highly-contested categories was Best Developer, leading it to increase the number of nominations to ten. In the end, it was won by CD Project Red, which released Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and the excellent Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales last year. The studio's most popular title, 2016’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, walked away the Best Environment award.

Check out the full list of nominees and winners:

• Most Fun With a Machine: Rocket League (Euro Truck Simulator 2, Nier: Automata, Factorio, Space Engineers)
• Best Alternate History: Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Wolfenstein 2, Hearts of Iron 4, Civilization 6, Fallout 4)
• Better With Friends: Rainbow Six Siege (Payday 2, Dead By Daylight, CS:GO, Overcooked! 2)
• Best Environment: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (Subnautica, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, Dark Souls 3)
• Best Developer: CD Projekt Red (Ubisoft, Bethesda, Rockstar, Digital Extremes, Square Enix, Capcom, Paradox Interactive, Bandai Namco, Klei)
• Labor of Love: Grand Theft Auto 5 (No Man's Sky, Path of Exile, Dota 2, Stardew Valley)
• VR Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR (VR Chat, Beat Saber, Fallout 4 VR, Superhot VR)
• Game of the Year: Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey)

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https://www.techspot.com/news/78686-2018-steam-awards-sees-pubg-win-game-year.html

 

[kevbev89]

Personally would've put MHW as winner of the Best Environment category. It is really amazing how creative and diverse each area is.

I wholly disagree with PUBG being GOTY though... revenue doesn't drive everything. The rest I can agree with quite comfortably.

 

[texasrattler]

Pubg winning GoTY, ROFL. So it made money, so what. Good for the dev but the game is a utter mess. Fortnite and the newly released Apex Legends will easily dethrown it and more shocked that Fortnite didn't win it. Im no fan of Fortnite but id say it had way more positive with the gaming world than Pubg will ever have.
Also since when does overall money making mean you win GoTY? That's a new one on me.

 

[Polycount]

...What?

 

[Draconian]

Rocket League is better with friends, too. It should've been nominated for that category.

 

[Draconian]

shocked that Fortnite didn't win it. Im no fan of Fortnite but id say it had way more positive with the gaming world than Pubg will ever have.

I think it's limited to games that are on Steam. Fortnite isn't on Steam.

 

[PetrolHead]

Pubg winning GoTY, ROFL. So it made money, so what. Good for the dev but the game is a utter mess. Fortnite and the newly released Apex Legends will easily dethrown it and more shocked that Fortnite didn't win it. Im no fan of Fortnite but id say it had way more positive with the gaming world than Pubg will ever have.
Also since when does overall money making mean you win GoTY? That's a new one on me.

Nobody said PUBG won GotY because it made money, that's just PUBG-related trivia that the article provides for context. PUBG won GotY in Steam Awards because it got the most votes. Fortnite and Apex Legends are not in Steam and Apex Legends wasn't even out when the voting was open, so they weren't even theoretically eligible. Furthermore, there is always just a handful of options to pick from when voting in Steam Awards. The other options for GotY were (also listed in the article): Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Maybe money played a role in how this group was selected, but the votes were cast by Steam users who probably do not know or care about such things.

 

[texasrattler]

Nobody said PUBG won GotY because it made money, that's just PUBG-related trivia that the article provides for context. PUBG won GotY in Steam Awards because it got the most votes. Fortnite and Apex Legends are not in Steam and Apex Legends wasn't even out when the voting was open, so they weren't even theoretically eligible. Furthermore, there is always just a handful of options to pick from when voting in Steam Awards. The other options for GotY were (also listed in the article): Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Maybe money played a role in how this group was selected, but the votes were cast by Steam users who probably do not know or care about such things.

It won because it was controversial as it is with all Steam voting. No one had it as Best Game to play from any site. Most don't even recommend it. It's a mess, certain server areas are a joke or simply no longer exist, cheating still out of control, bugs and as always still heavily unoptimized. It only won cause of the amount of Chinese players. They are the only country playing and spending money on it. Almost everyone else left, the real gamers anyways. Game is a disaster, everyone knows it. Pubg mobile is 10x better which is sad and came out well after.
Im sure money played a bigger factor. Hell the players voting could have been mainly from China which represent the majority of their player base.

 

[texasrattler]

I think it's limited to games that are on Steam. Fortnite isn't on Steam.

That's true. Forgot about that.