What are the Steam Awards?

Very interesting choices by Steam, giving Red Dead Redemption II a reward for “Continuous support” despite there being no content updates since 2021. This won’t cover every steam award, just the somewhat questionable ones.

Every year, Steam – A global game marketplace where developers can publish and sell their games for users to purchase and play – publishes a list of games, voted by users that they “award” for a certain reason. This gives developers publicity and gets new users exposed to their games. Usually the steam awards are good choices, with games deserving of a certain reward receiving a reward. This year however, the rewards were extremely confusing and weird. Here’s what they were:

Game of the Year award:

Given to Baldur’s Gate 3, it was a somewhat decent choice for this category. Released in August 2023, it received amazing user feedback, scoring a 10/10 on Steam and 90% positive feedback across users. Steam’s Game of the Year award is given to the “best of the best” game on steam over the course of the year and it is voted in by users.

VR Game of the Year award:

Given to Labyrinthe, a cooperative Horror game developed by Valko Game studios, players explore a maze, uncovering the haunting history and stories behind it (in the story mode) or dive into the “Case Files” with their friends, solving puzzles, gathering items and survive the “nightmarish” encounters that await. Whilst it was very popular, there were some other popular VR Games, such as Ghosts of Tabor, Pavlov VR, Boneworks (and Bonelab), among others that could’ve been given this award as numerous people haven’t even heard of Labyrinthe.

Labor of Love award:

Labor of Love is given to games who’s developers “continue to nature and support their game.” This year it was given to the 2018 title “Red Dead Redemption II.” Developed by Rockstar Games, the same company behind the Grand Theft Auto series, players play as the Protagonist “Arthur Morgan,” a cowboy in the late 1800s. The game has one of the most notable stories across the majority of games, with many people saying how the game’s story was better than most movies. The issue is, Rockstar Games hasn’t updated the game since 2021. Labor of Love is given to games who receive continuous support by their developers. Rockstar has not touched or looked at Red Dead Redemption II in almost 3 years.

Best on Steam Deck award:

The Steam Deck is Steam’s portable console. It’s built upon their own software called “SteamOS.” Developers have to design their games specifically to work on the steam deck and certain games don’t run as well as others due to compatibility issues. Hogwarts’ Legacy, a story mode video game set in the Harry Potter universe was given this award. Whilst the existence of this award is somewhat trivial (why does it need to exist in the first place?) This award could’ve been given to any game ever as the award itself is very open ended.

Best Game you Suck at award:

Given to SIFU, a third person fighter game, you fight countless enemies in a kung-fu style martial art. Many users believed this game was hard, but of all the choices of games for the award, SIFU definitely made no sense. The games listed here are relatively unknown (meaning their player base isn’t extraordinarily large & there were some other games that would fit the criteria better.) Cuphead, for example, is a notoriously hard and iconic game. Whilst it’s somewhat old at this point it was well known to be an extremely hard and rage-inducing game.

Best Soundtrack award:

The choice for this game wasn’t bad, but Red Dead Redemption II would’ve fit this more than The Last of Us Part II. Red Dead II’s soundtrack is immaculate, with the choice and timing of different songs enhancing the western atmosphere even more. The Last of Us Part II soundtrack, whilst really fitting and atmospheric, can’t compare to Red Dead II’s.

Awards not covered:

These games were not covered because they fit the category and weren’t somewhat absurd and/or out of place.

Better with Friends award: Lethal Company
Outstanding Visual Style award: Atomic Heart
Most Innovative Gameplay award: Starfield
Outstanding Rich Story award: Baldur’s Gate
Sit back and Relax award: Dave the Diver

Overall this year’s Steam Awards were interesting to say the least, especially with a game that hasn’t been updated or even acknowledged in over 2 years receiving an award for being continuously maintained. Hopefully 2024’s awards are more fitting than this year’s. Even if the awards were weird and out of place, it did give users a good laugh and conversation with each other about.