OK Lets Be Real. Xbox Has Historically Been Snubbed For GotY

System Wars stuff aside, I was thinking about this yesterday and just saw and article by PureXbox discussing this very issue. Here is a chunk from the article.

"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.

Of course, plenty of recent years were through Xbox's lack of major exclusives - it's no secret that much of the Xbox One generation was barren in terms of big first-party releases. However, to only have 2021's Psychonauts 2 nominated in more than a decade is a little questionable, given the quality of certain Xbox titles compared to their nominees over the years"

"Let's take a look at 2014 for example - the first year of 'The Game Awards' in its current format. Xbox launched Forza Horizon 2andSunset Overdrivethat year - both of which could have arguably been put up for GOTY. In the end, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Bayonetta 2, Dark Souls 2, Hearthstone and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor were nominated - with Inquisition taking the crown. Do those two Xbox titles not deserve a spot? We think they do - and you could even throw Titanfall in there as a third-party Xbox exclusive worth nominating that year!"

They also mention Ori and the Forza Horizon games. And I 100% agree that Titanfall deserved nominations. The game was fantastic. PureXbox seemed to have missed Psychonauts 2 and Deathloop nominations/wins, but there are 2-3 games this year that probably should have been nominated. HiFi Rush, Starfield and Pentiment. Those games are MIA from most lists unless they have 20 nominations like the Golden Joystick Awards.

I don't think it's a conscious bias, this is the consequence of a generation of gaming journalists going to NeoGAF as their industry water cooler, while also being heavily moderated as a Sony safe space circle-jerk that perma-banned those expressing dissenting opinions. I've no doubt those working at all the major gaming outlets got their talking points from there, and it was no doubt changing the tones of the workplace to being a hostile working environment.

I don't think the Xbox tax is a conscious thing, more the byproduct of years of internalization. But it pops up like fanboy Tourette's with hatchet job articles.

@ghostofgolden: I agree with Ori could have been mentioned the year it released...maybe

And I do like Sunset Overdrive....but I don't think it's really a GOTY contender. That's probably more of a personal taste decision for sure.

But come on, this was a SPECTACULAR year for video games. Games I would put ahead of Starfield that didn't get nominated would be Hogwarts Legacy, Dead Space Remake, Armored Core 6, FF16, & Jedi Survivor.

The competition was very strong this year.....and I'm sorry an Average at Best Bethesda Game isn't going to make the field for a GOTY THIS YEAR. If Starfield could have been delayed another year, polished up some bugs and you know actually had some depth to the story and world then maybe it could have been a contender in 2024.

But Starfield isn't a GOTY game. It's ok to like Starfield and enjoy playing it. Hey I like Bethesda jank myself from time to time, and I enjoy the charm Bethesda games can have BUT

It's getting very noticeable how dated, clunky, and un-inspired the Bethesda formula is getting. Especially when the industry is moving forward in technology and story telling. I mean come on? Really? Load screens every time you enter a building? No Space to planet travel? Peer Games can have been doing this for years. Why can't Bethesda figure this out?

Bethesda isn't getting any free passes from Gamers anymore, and if Bethesda is serious about making better games, not that their game are bad mind you, they need to take a long hard look at Starfields' criticisms, take them seriously and go make a better game that can rival what peer studios are making in THIS decade.

Great scores, great sales and great player base numbers.

Hi Fi Rush should have got a nom, Starfield doesn't deserve it.

@fedor: I agree. But I think Hi-Fi Rush was released way too early in 2023 as it was competing way too many great games releasing this year it got swept under the rug. Heck even FF16 didn't make it for some gamers despite it has a staying power.

I can't think of a single game starfield could replace on current list.

Judging by meta or any other metric, there are games still ahead of starfield that are not on that list.

I agree. The flip side of this argument is what game needs to be taken off the list that Starfield should replace...

And there isn't one. Starfield can't justify itself in taking a spot

Lems are still in denial about Starfield. Jfc, guys. Come on! Stop with the turd polishing with regard to starfield. The Xbox just doesn’t have many great games, no matter how you feel about it. 🤦‍♂️

That one of the two biggest omissions in a decade is Sunset Overdrive says it all 😂.

As for Forza, there is som unwritten rule that GOTY should be given to a SP game. MP shooters and sport games pretty much never wins (I'm sure it's possible to find exceptions). So I think Forza not winning has more to do with that than any bias toward xbox

I would have put Starfield instead of RE 4. That game is old as hell.

Look the Forza Horizon series is the BEST racing game series of all time, and not one of the games in the series has gotten a GOTY nomination. Even though some of the FH games were higher in critical claim then games that were nominated, for a quick example FH4 was 92/100 and yet AC Odyssey 83/100 (same as Starfield) got nominated, just a joke of a show.

And yet whenever FH gets nominated for sports game of the year it always wins.

It's because all these game reviewers they pick to nominate 6 games are always picking story games, simply as that.

With the GOTY not all games are created equal.

@last_lap: Its been known for ages that Sports game arent allowed GOTY. They not accessible to everyone. GOTY games are games that have the ability to reach a massive gamer base.

Is this for real though? These titles aren't "accessible" to everyone? I feel like sports/racing games have a much wider audience than RPGs and Adventure games. They sure as hell sell more outside of a few titles. So why can't they win GOTY?

Lol the butthurt continues. Even if there was 15 GOTY nominees Starfield will still not be there. There are still a lot of games way better than Starfield that didn't make it.

Ex:

FF16

Sea of Stars

Armored Core

SF6

Hogwarts Legacy

Jedi Survivor

@mesome713:

Yeah let them do it for the sake of having a Xbox title in there. In return hopefully these Xbots shut up.

You all take thus shit seriously. Now we a touting conspiracy all because Starfield. lol

@kvallyx:

Unplug the keyboard and mouse and retire.

All because of Starfield? Somebody didnt ready the story

Yup. I sill want to play starfield though and see what the flop is all about. :D

So much salty shit. Glorious

Regarding Starfield, it really wasn't the best game nor was it label as the most important game of the decade is laughable. The game just didn't catch most Journalist keep playing it cause that game wasn't as fun as Skyrim and that's a huge damn shame as I love Skyrim. Starfield failed to keep me interest thus why I gave it a 6/10.

MS games as of lately don't come any closer to both Nintendo's or Sony's offering when it comes to quality of fun engaging the player. Just way too many good/awesome games released this year, it's really hard to narrow it down on making GOTY stuff and Hi-Fi Rush IMO released way too early this year as it was competing other great games that got swept under the rug to keep journalist talking about it.

Phil Spencer at the time admitted he wants to have a game be on the same level as Sony's top exclusives making Xbox brand stand out. If you want MS to get any awards such as GOTY, then they gotta earned it. Keep everyone engaging and not leaving disappointments behind is what it has to take. Why do you think exclusives like Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, & Tears of the Kingdom all got in GOTY? Because those games added more fun gameplay for gamers. Starfield didn't. It's not the worst game, not the worst Bethesda game either but its nowhere near as fun as Skyrim IMO.

Just out of curiosity, when was the last time FIFA has ever been nominated other than just Sports of the year? We all know FIFA is the hottest sport games around, not even Madden could never come close of beating it.

Sport games don't have a saying into GOTY and it doesn't matter if its that popularly good.

Lets face the facts here, MS hasn't released anything GOTY related since the XB360 days. Its not the gaming medias fault that MS keeps pushing out subpar games . Maybe this might cause Uncle Phil to put out quality games, instead of flops like Starfield and Redfall. Also with the back lash of the latest COD game, maybe MS might actually put some effort into COD games moving forward.

@mesome713: WTF are you on about?

You say that only games that have the ability to reach a massive gamer base. That's the dumbest thing I've read. FH is released on Xbox and PC, and therefore has the ability to reach more gamers than the Switch and PS5 COMBINED, there goes that dumb argument. Oh and Spiderman 2 has the least amount of ability to reach gamers since the PS5 user base is what some 30 million.

The real reason is because they have no story where these new age reviewers can get teh feels. Simple as that.

@kvallyx said:

Great scores, great sales and great player base numbers.

Thats nice and all, but something is missing that all these games I posted have in common. they all ahave Critics Recommend score of 90+. Something Starfield is lacking, but hey maybe next year Starfield has a chance to be considered for Game Awards

Tbh starfield in this years competition doesn't deserve to be there, for all the fun I've had out of the game and there are elements within the game that really are quite good the UC vanguard quest in particular, as an overall experience it feels far less cohesive than most titles, with that said I'm still of the opinion the community will deliver content and options for the game that make it a much better role play experience which is basically true of all Bethesda "RPG's", Bethesda seem perfectly capable of making great sandboxes but perennially incapable of understanding the depth the playerbase wants from their role play systems, which is why New Vegas remains the best game crafted within the creation engine.

@daredevils2k said:

@kvallyx said:

Great scores, great sales and great player base numbers.

Thats nice and all, but something is missing that all these games I posted have in common. they all ahave Critics Recommend score of 90+. Something Starfield is lacking, but hey maybe next year Starfield has a chance to be considered for Game Awards

Spider-Man got an 8 :( Death Stranding got an 82 on metacritic and was nominated for GOTY.

Oops.

Tell me when the story is ready then.🤷🏽‍♂️

Microsoft hasn't had a Goty caliber title since Gears of War 3. The reason they aren't nominated is because their games simply are not on that level. It's not a conspiracy theory it's just a fact. Do you think they would have been allowed to buy 80 billion dollars worth of game companies If they were competitive and cranking out bangers every year?

@kvallyx: Death Stranding being nominated for GOTY was the biggest joke ever. Just more proof that the awards show is a joke.

Oh and I wonder who's going to win esports coach of the year said no one EVER.

Do you guys remember last year they gave MS an award cause they can't actually win one. That was funny as hell

@ghostofgolden: yes, this is a good thread. This is a good reason why nobody can take tga seriously, just a clown award show. Golden Joystick is far better. I won't even be watching the tga this year, and only going to catch the YouTube highlights. Screw tga and screw Geoff Keighley.

@blaznwiipspman1: No awards show is good, not just TGA.

They're all bad no matter which game wins.

Xbox needs to actually release a good game first to be nominated tho.. can't keep getting away with mediocre gamepass fluff.

Meh. It doesn’t make me enjoy the games any less. 🤷‍♂️

I think there's a point to the OP, just not regarding Stanfield, in 2023 that game is far from being top tier. And I do enjoy Starfield.

It's the game awards with Dorito Pope.

Ads.

I honestly don't give a damn about GOTY awards or journalist game reviews. Journalistic integrity dies when money gets involved, so it's better to form your own opinions on what's good. I play what I want and like what I like. I don't really care what some Geoff Keighley guy or a secret committee of voters deems worthy.

Do give Death Stranding a try it is actually a really incredible game. I thought it was just a walking simulator but ended up with 100 hours worth of gameplay and hyped for the sequel. Pacing is absolute shite story is nonsense Kojima bullcrap but the gameplay itself is quite engaging especially if you play online.

No, I won't be going anywhere near it. I've seen enough to know it's not for me, although I don't mind the odd snowboarding game.

You know it's bad when IGN takes the piss out of a Sony exclusive.

How dare you enjoy games without the validation of strangers. This makes me

Lets be real here, Xbox hasn't made anything worthwile since 2009-2010 when they went full waggle mode with the Kinect. That is the year we lost the Xbox brand, and they've never recovered. What a disaster.

He's grasping at straws there...

Sunset Overdrive should have been considered for GOTY? The first Titanfall that had ZERO single-player content and lackluster content overall, even multiplayer wise? gtfo here...

@kvallyx said:

@daredevils2k said:

@kvallyx said:

Great scores, great sales and great player base numbers.

Thats nice and all, but something is missing that all these games I posted have in common. they all ahave Critics Recommend score of 90+. Something Starfield is lacking, but hey maybe next year Starfield has a chance to be considered for Game Awards

Spider-Man got an 8 :( Death Stranding got an 82 on metacritic and was nominated for GOTY.

Oops.

Meanwhile Starfield is sitting at a

Starfield isn't that good why would it be nominated for GOTY?

We all agree that Starfield was a massive flop. Definitely not worthy of GOTY. It's own reddit page even turned against it.

I wasn't aware that it flopped. When did that happen?🤔

@Pedro: like a month ago I think. It scored a 7.