The Witcher III: Blood and Wine  shouldn't have been eligible since it was just an expansion pack, not a new game. DLC does not count a new game.

Having mobile and handheld in same category is dumb. I think 3DS games should be with normal console/PC games.

Always interesting how these kinds of awards are handled. Imagine if there was an Oscar for most anticipated film. Not saying video games should emulate the (by no means perfect) Academy Awards, but it's basically just a hype award.

Pokémon Go winning does seem deserved if only for its impact. Basically rewrote a whole bunch of social norms for a few months over Summer. Severed is my personal GOTY by a long shot so would've liked to see that win. Not sure if splitting handheld from phonegames would've helped it in this case, since it was a mobile release first.

Severed's progression was actually Vita -> phones -> Nintendo systems, but yeah.

That kind of irked me too, especially since there was a second expansion in there (for World of Warcraft) and admittedly, a late 2015 game.

I think it's a fair criticism, Jeff Keighly himself said he wanted these awards to be seen as the Oscars for Video games. 


That said, if you consider what existed prior to recent years (the Spike TV VGAs), this is a big improvement over what there used to be, if you care about a show that's meant to both honor people within the industry, as well as be something that can draw viewership.

So long story short:  The only thing to actually come from 2016 that won was something Nintendo just designed an accessory for, and the only aspect of Nintendo that's bright to that crowd right now is what's to come in 2017.


When it came to non-game ventures this was a good start, but as far as game development this was not a good year for Nintendo.  Then again, end-of-life years for systems rarely are strong.

We'll we kind of knew that since the end of 2015 that most of 2016 would be rough since it was pretty clear Nintendo had shifted most of it's resources to Switch development.  Of course we figured the Switch would at least come out by the Fall which didn't happen making 2016 even worse but if delaying the Switch is what helps give it a strong lineup of games that don't need to be rushed to launch, then it's a worthy sacrifice.

Nintendo banked on Star Fox Zero doing well and it didn't.

I think our own GOTY vote will show Nintendo had a damn good year, it's just that a super-majority of it was on 3DS.

I've got no problem with them. I've been bribing them every year to name me the World's Best Gamer and so far it's been money well spent!

I don't think the Oscars would have an in-memoriam segment followed by loud, obnoxious YouTube "celebrities" and pulsating techno music like the touching story of the dev whose son had passed away due to cancer had happen after his speech.

Plus, the Oscars usually do the important awards on the stage and not a quick mention in passing.

Pokemon Go is destined to be a segment on VH1's I Love the Twenty Teens!

Pffft, the game awards are a joke! Anyway, good to see breath of the wild got recognition.

Again, I think it's fair to suggest the game awards aren't exactly mature, because 1) they just aren't because of how young the awards show is, and 2) the audience probably skews younger than something like the Academy awards or golden globes.  There are going to be poor pacing or things of questionable value broadcast.


That said, it legitimately broke my heart listening to the acceptance speech for "That Dragon, Cancer", as a dad of two small boys.  That's not something I've commonly felt watching an awards ceremony.