To date, only three publishers have managed to release games that have won the coveted Game of the Year award atThe Game Awards. Following the end of Spike’s annual Video Game Awards show, Geoff Keighley formedThe Game Awards, which serves as essentially the video game version of the Academy Awards, breaking viewership records from one year to the next as fans tune in to see world premiere trailers and which games manage to win in their various categories.
Since The Game Awards was formed in 2014, nine games have been crowned Game of the Year. In 2014, it wasDragon Age: Inquisition, which was followed byThe Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,Overwatch,The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,God of War,Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice,The Last of Us Part 2,It Takes Two, and finallyElden Ringin 2022. The2023 Game Awards eventwill mark the 10th iteration of the awards ceremony, and it will be exciting to see which game wins GOTY next year.
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The Game Awards haven’t been going on all that long, but there are still some interesting observations to make about theGame of the Year winners, particularly when it comes to the publishers behind the games.
Game Awards GOTY Winners List
Electronic Arts, which was infamously voted to be one of the worst companies in America on more than one occasion, has nevertheless managed to win Game of the Year twice with titles it’s published. EA’s BioWare studio developedDragon Age: Inquisition, the first-ever Game of the Year winner at The Game Awards, and then in 2021,Hazelight’sIt Takes Two, published under Electronic Arts' EA Originals label, won the big prize.
The first game company to collect two Game of the Year awards was Activision Blizzard, snagging the first one in 2016 thanks to the runaway success of hero shooterOverwatch, and getting its second one in 2019 thanks toFromSoftware’s acclaimed action gameSekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
And finally, Sony has won two Game of the Year awards thanks to the efforts of PlayStation exclusivesGod of Warin 2018 andThe Last of Us Part 2in 2020. Sony had the chance to become the first company to win three Game of the Year awards at the 2022 event, and whileGod of War Ragnarokhad the most awards the show, it fell short of winning GOTY, losing out to FromSoftware’s open world epicElden Ring.
2023 will give more publishers the chance to become multi-time GOTY winners. Sony, EA, and Activision Blizzard will all have the opportunity to become the first company that wins three GOTY awards, and it will definitely be interesting to see who manages to pull it off first.
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