As of December 7th, the winners of The 2023 Game Awards have been revealed and the results have been rife with argument and controversy.

The Game of the Year award was awarded to Baldur’s Gate 3, much to the dismay of Spider-man 2 fans. Shortly after the results were revealed, the event showed the toxicity of the gaming community. This was shown when Spider-man 2 fans online continuously insulted Baldur’s Gate 3, saying things like how nobody has ever even heard of the game, or how the game is trash.

There were also some controversies on the side of the actual Game Awards hosts and event, such as when some of the developers who went on stage to take their awards and give their acceptance speech, were told very quickly to “wrap it up” via teleprompter, sometimes only able to go for as little as 30 seconds, and some winners weren’t even able to give their speeches at all. As opposed to the celebrity guests who arrived, who’s speeches went on for several minutes, like Jordan Peele, whose speech went on for over 6 minutes. The most notable example of this was when Swen Vickne, the creator of Baldur’s Gate 3, was told to wrap up his acceptance speech that he had dedicated to a deceased colleague who worked on the game.

Some spectators of the event also complained that there was an overwhelming amount of ads and previews. It was said that there were more ads than award showings in the 3 hour event. These two made it seem like the Game Awards was prioritizing its celebrity guests and advertising space over the actual winners of the event, which some journalists saw as disrespectful to the winners.

Another controversy of the Game Awards was when over 3,000 game industry members signed an open letter to make an announcement during the event regarding the Israel-Palestine Conflict and calling for a ceasefire. The announcement was ultimately never made. Paste Journalist Garrett Martin stated in an article criticizing the Game Awards, “Refusing to let your own honorees use their recognition to raise awareness of a humanitarian crisis that’s been largely ignored or downplayed by Western media is a cowardly move that once again exposes The Game Awards for what everybody already knew they were: an insincere, worthless celebration of commercialism that doesn’t care about games or the people who make them.”

This year’s Game Awards was an event ripe with controversy and anger, and although there was celebration with the winning games and developers, this still shows the dark side of the gaming industry, and shows a grim future for the Game Awards.