Baldur's Gate 3 conquers The Golden Joystick Awards and wins the Ultimate Game of the Year

In the end, Baldur's Gate 3 virtually bulldozed its way over the competition, getting the coveted Ultimate Game of the Year. Aside from the UGOTY title, BG3 won PC Game of the Year, Best Game Community, Best Visual Design, and Best Storytelling. Plus, Neil Newborn (who voiced Astarion) won Best Supporting Performer and Studio of the Year went to Larian Studios.

The rest of this year's Golden Joystick Awards winners are as follows: Best Game Trailer – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Best Streaming Game – Valorant Best Multiplayer Game – Mortal Kombat 1 Best VR Game – Horizon: Call of the Mountain Best Game Expansion – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Best Audio – Final Fantasy XVI Best Indie Game – Sea of Stars Best Lead Performer – Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI) Best Gaming Hardware – PSVR 2 Still Playing Award – No Man's Sky Critic's Choice Award – Alan Wake 2 Nintendo Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Playstation Game of the Year – Resident Evil 4 Xbox Game of the Year – Starfield Breakthrough Award – COCOON Most Wanted Game of the Year – Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

Wizards of the Coast (which owns the Dungeons & Dragons IP) congratulated the team of Swen Vincke and Larian Studios for the multiple wins at this year's Golden Joystick Awards.

Interestingly, some high profile titles such as Diablo 4, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon, Street Fighter 6, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor did not win any of the categories they were in.

Regardless, the fact that Baldur's Gate 3 won most of the prestigious titles at the Golden Joystick Awards is a testament to how good the game is. Turn-based and story-driven computer roleplaying games had been viewed as past its prime for a while, with RPGs being either primarily action-based (such as Diablo IV) or fully open-world explorations (such as The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim and Elden Ring).

However, one should take into account that Larian Studios took six years to develop Baldur's Gate 3. The game studio had been hard at work from negotiating the D&D and Forgotten Realms licenses from Wizards of the Coast, to the Early Access version in 2020, and even after it was released with multiple patches and hotfixes. This is why other companies have referred to Baldur's Gate 3 as a masterpiece, but also an "anomaly".

Now that Baldur's Gate 3 has tested its mettle with the huge wins at the Golden Joystick Awards, what do you think of its chances at The Game Awards 2023 this December? Is BG3 a sure-bet for the Game of the Year 2023? And when will it finally get in the hands of Xbox players as the year comes to a close?