Democracy Dies in Darkness

The winners and losers of the Game Awards 2023

‘Baldur’s Gate 3’ and ‘Alan Wake 2’ won big, but ads, announcements and awards are a muddled blend

Perspective by
Staff writer
Game director Hideo Kojima, left, and film director Jordan Peele speak during the Game Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday. The Game Awards recognize creative and technical excellence in the global video game industry. (Caroline Brehman/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
6 min

The Game Awards have always reflected the dichotomy of video games as art and commercial product. In 2023, the 10th annual ceremony, the contrast has never been more apparent.

Hosted and coordinated by former journalist Geoff Keighley, the Game Awards have become the most-watched awards ceremony in entertainment, with 103 million streams for last year’s event (by rough comparison, the Oscars struggle to hit 20 million television viewers). That success is largely due to the fact the awards ceremony doubles as a showcase of flashy trailers for upcoming games. The ceremony is also thick with corporate sponsorship — even anti-nicotine ads show up here. The buzz of new products can mean the artists often feel secondary to the art.