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Looking Back, Xbox Has Had Some Strange GOTY Omissions Over The Years [PureXbox]

Yesterday, Geoff Keighley & co. unveiled this year's Game of the Year nominees for The Game Awards 2023 - and we noted that Bethesda's brand-new IP Starfield failed to make the GOTY cut, despite being nominated for Best RPG. This GOTY omission has got folks talking (and us thinking) about Xbox's history with GOTY ceremonies - and how the team seems to miss out most years.

If you go even further back than that, to when The Game Awards was called the 'VGAs', there's another pretty big omission in our book. Gears of War 3 is one of the best games of the Xbox 360 generation for us - an absolute masterclass across all of its mechanics and modes, and the culmination of an amazing trilogy of games. Admittedly, it had some pretty stiff competition in 2011 from Skyrim, Portal 2 and Zelda: Skyward Sword - but we're struggling to see why Batman: Arkham City and Uncharted 3 deserved a spot above it, to be honest.

Look, we're not saying that these other nominations and winners don't deserve their places — far from it — we just think there've been quite a few Xbox-shaped gaps over the years that deserved more of a GOTY shout. Anyway, we're hoping that with Xbox's long list of acquisitions in recent years we'll start to see some of the team's big releases make it onto these TGA GOTY lists. And in the meantime, we'll stay salty that the likes of Gears 3, Sunset Overdrive and Starfield weren't up for GOTY consideration.
 
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Instead of blaming Xbox and its leaders for making it terrible and not presenting a goty candidate in more than a decade, we are going to blame Geoff and cast a shadow of doubt on the awards, seriously it is ridiculous, The brand is like this, it's always someone else's fault.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
If you have to go all the way back to Gears of War 3 to find an instance where an XBox exclusive unfairly didnt get the nomination then surely this isnt really an issue.

Besides, Batman Arkham city is leagues ahead of Gears of War 3 which was basically more of the same like uncharted 3. the only difference is that uncharted 3 was the sequel to the 2009 goty winner while gears 2 lost to fallout 3.

I was a 100% convinced that starfield would get nominated over spiderman 2 but its shocking how mediocre starfield turned out to be.
 
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graywolf323

Member
Instead of these guys demanding better games they just play the blame game and point fingers.

They will go down with the ship.
I like how they seem to imply that because it was nominated for Best RPG it should have been up for GOTY as well 🙄 what about the fact that Octopath Travel II was more deserving for either spot? 🤔 (though I honestly don’t understand why Lies of P is up for RPG and not Action)
 

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
If you have to go all the way back to Gears of War 3 to find an instance where an XBox exclusive unfairly didnt get the nomination then surely this isnt really an issue.

Besides, Batman Arkham city is leagues ahead of Gears of War 3 which was basically more of the same like uncharted 3. the only difference is that uncharted 3 was the sequel to the 2000 goty winner while gears 2 lost to fallout 3.

I was a 100% convinced that starfield would get nominated over spiderman 2 but its shocking how mediocre starfield turned out to be.
They also mentioned Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2, and Ori and the Blind Forest. Those weren't in the quotes from the OP, though.
 

Punished Miku

Gold Member
Yeah and you go back to 2002 and Morrowind and Panzer Dragoon Orta loses out to Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime, Grand Theft Auto 3, Resident Evil Remake.

I was still very happy to have Morrowind and Panzer Dragoon Orta. It really comes down to whether or not you like playing as many cool games as you can. If you do, you have all the systems like I always have and you play as much of it as you can. If all you want is to focus on the system with the most accolades, I don't think anyone is ever beating Nintendo. Sony over the years has had really strong 3rd party support carrying most of the biggest wins, but their 1st party is very formidable now as well.
 
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SCB3

Member
Look I liked Starfield a lot, but so many games better than it came out this year, for example Tears of the Kingdom, Baldurs Gate 3 and Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man who Erased his Name, I enjoyed those all more, Starfield is in my personal top 10 for this year, but its about 5th or 6th at best

That being said, its Xbox's best game this year
 

GHG

Member
I like how they seem to imply that because it was nominated for Best RPG it should have been up for GOTY as well 🙄 what about the fact that Octopath Travel II was more deserving for either spot? 🤔 (though I honestly don’t understand why Lies of P is up for RPG and not Action)

Jagged Alliance 3 and System Shock remake are far more deserving of recognition than Starfield, but these guys won't touch or talk about anything that doesn't have an Xbox logo slapped on it.

Their loss, let them wallow in their delusion and self-pity while everyone else enjoys what the industry has to offer.
 

skit_data

Member
I don't know many people who would rate Uncharted 3 higher than Gears of War 3.
Well, I'm just looking at the Metacritic scores. It seems more likely higher overall ratings will result in a greater likelyhood of getting nominated since the outlets deciding TGA nominations/awards are probably included among those.

I haven't played Gears 3 but I personally think Arkham City is a bit overrated, so I could see why they make that argument. But the reviews are what they are - the scores are higher than Gears 3.

Edit: I actually like Uncharted 3 better than Uncharted 2, but I have yet to confess that in the "Raise your flameshield"-thread
 
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Punished Miku

Gold Member
When you have to use Sunset Overdrive as ammunition.
I haven't played it yet, but what I saw looked like it was extremely similar to Spider Man. I think they're literally using the same code base. If Elden Ring is loosely Demon's Souls 7, then Spider Man 2 is Sunset Overdrive 4. It almost looks like some of the animations are nearly the same.

But yeah, I haven't played it. Maybe the humor and punk stuff is cringe. I don't know.
 

miklonus

Member
Instead of blaming Xbox and its leaders for making it terrible and not presenting a goty candidate in more than a decade, we are going to blame Geoff and cast a shadow of doubt on the awards, seriously it is ridiculous, The brand is like this, it's always someone else's fault.
Two things are at play: Microsoft's leadership sucks/and Hogwart's Legacy got snubbed, so Geoff's show ain't against snubbing people for political reasons.

Microsoft more than likely can't make the grade, but it needs to be pointed out that if Microsoft could make the grade, Hogwart's Legacy is proof that having all the qualities to be a nominee and still getting snubbed is a very real reality.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
They also mentioned Titanfall, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2, and Ori and the Blind Forest. Those weren't in the quotes from the OP, though.
Titanfall shouldve been nominated and as much as I loved Sunset Overdrive, a zombie shooter isnt someone's idea of a GOTY. Or racing games for that matter. Sorry, but thats just how awards work. It's like comedies and action movies getting snubbed at the oscars.

xbox shouldve made sure that their big tentpole releases like Gears 4 and Gears 5 were at least up to the standards set by Gears 2. Halo Infinite and Halo 5 were up their with halo 2 and Halo 3. They simply werent. And when your tentpole GOTY bait games get more and more mediocre, expecting 2d indie games like Ori and racing games like Forza Horizon to compete with Dragon Age is not going to do it. lets not forget MS completely dropped the ball with several years shipping ZERO exclusives. I counted at least 3 in the last five years.

I am looking at 2014 nominees and Dragon Age, HEartstone, Mordor, Dark Souls 2, and Bayonetta were picked over Titanfall and Sunset Overdrive. I wouldve personally replaced Titanfall with mordor but TF didnt ship with a single player campaign which was a big no no in 2014. Still, plenty of other non-xbox omissions that year. Destiny was the biggest game out of 2014 despite its poor reception with the critics and no nomination. Watch Dogs didnt get a nomination either. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash bros were left out too.

This happens to a lot of games every year. Its not some conspiracy. You need to be at the top of your game every single year with multiple goty level releases. Something xbox simply hasnt done. And their 2024 year is once again set to be extremely barebones with just hellblade 2 set to release and ninja theory isnt some studio you can count on to deliver a goty contender.
 

SEGAvangelist

Gold Member
When your best game is a dev's worst game this argument doesn't hold water.
Which game?
Good-great games but GOTY? No way in hell.
Based on the years they were released?

Titanfall, Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive came out the same year as GotY Dragon Age Inquisition (lol). Shadow of Mordor was even given a nomination over them. I'll give this clickbait article that one for sure.

2015 was a definitely a tougher year, but Mario Maker got a nod over Ori and the Blind Forest. That's a confusing one to me too.

This year, I think the game award GotY nominations are pretty sensible.
 

K' Dash

Member
I mean, this year has been crazy, I understand why they didnt get a nomination...

You could make a case for some of the previous shows.
 

Chuck Berry

Gold Member
Gears of War 3 is one of the best games of the Xbox 360 generation for us

This is a real cringe of the year sentence right here. This lame ass "separatist" type of fanboy mentality is so fucking embarrassing. Touching grass won't fix that level of retardation and immaturity, no sir.

Is it so hard to enjoy all games, no matter what fucking box they're on?

Yes, yes it is apparently.
 
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Hugare

Member
They had to go back to 2011 to find a good example

Fucking pathetic

'Admittedly, it had some pretty stiff competition in 2011 from Skyrim, Portal 2 and Zelda: Skyward Sword - but we're struggling to see why Batman: Arkham City and Uncharted 3 deserved a spot above it, to be honest.'

They agree with Skyward Sword but struggle to see why Arkham City and U3 deserved the spot?

Shows that they cant see quality even if it smacks their faces
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Two things are at play: Microsoft's leadership sucks/and Hogwart's Legacy got snubbed, so Geoff's show ain't against snubbing people for political reasons.

Microsoft more than likely can't make the grade, but it needs to be pointed out that if Microsoft could make the grade, Hogwart's Legacy is proof that having all the qualities to be a nominee and still getting snubbed is a very real reality.
Eh. hogwarts is a good game but its extremely mediocre in everything from combat, game design, and storytelling. Its one big accomplishment is getting the world right but thats hardly enough. its a ubisoft game with a great setting. nothing more. And ubisoft games never get nominated.

Had they focused on delivering a good story with some memorable moments then maybe it wouldve gotten a nomination. But right now, its an aggressively mediocre game.
 
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