In a year filled with many potential Game Of The Year nominees a few long-awaited titles have been released. Legend of Zelda Tears of The Kingdom, Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Street Fighter 6, Final Fantasy 16, Remnant 2, and more. Those don’t even include the upcoming titles such as Starfield, Spider-Man 2, and the game we are discussing Baldur’s Gate 3. Now keep in mind this is going to be centered around The Game Awards.
Inspired by the tweet above from @8BitClosedFist, Baldur’s Gate 3 is too niche to be considered for this year’s Game of The Year. Looking over the past years’ winners if it were not released on console as well as PC I would 100% say yes. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice definitely kicked down the door for a wider range of games to be considered for GOTY. Not only was it not a well-established IP but it is also a FromSoftware title aka Soulsborne.
If Sekiro Can Do It Why Not Baldur’s Gate 3
Nothing against soulsborne games but those games are notoriously difficult and usually are considered extremely niche. Even though they sell extremely well and previous FromSoftware games were in the running for GOTY. For example, Bloodborne lost to what many consider one of the most extraordinary RPGs The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. And the year before Dark Souls II lost to Dragon Age: Inquisition.
Then you had the indie title It Takes Two in 2021 win then another FromSoftware game Elden Ring bring home the award in 2022. In a world where FromSoftware has had two GOTY winners in the last 5 years, Baldur’s Gate 3 especially with its PlayStation 5 version has a chance to win.
Common Denominator is Consoles
The game being available on console and falling under the action-adventure genre are some apparent traits of past winners. Personally, I think it would still win a lot of awards but not the GOTY if it was not available on consoles. Maybe it could have been that barrier-breaking game such as Sekiro was. But, it seems like PC-only games are often looked at as too niche.
According to the report, there were 1.1 billion PC players and 611 million console players in 2022.
Rachel Kaser Venture Beat
It has been a clear fact that there are more PC gamers than console gamers but somehow PC only games still carry the niche title. So once again when talking about The Game Awards GOTY, Baldur’s Gate 3 has a solid chance of being nominated. But it is a game that will be played by mainly PC players (myself included) may keep it from taking home the award. I hope I am wrong and Larian Studios the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3 gets to bring home a mainstream Game of The Year Award. Make sure to wishlist or preorder the Baldur’s Gate 3 it will be available on PC on August 3rd, 2023, and on PS5 on September 2nd, 2023.
