Baldur’s Gate 3 took the Golden Joystick Awards by storm this year, scoring a record seven wins in categories including Best Story, Best Studio, and Best Game of the Year. However, the CEO of Larian Studios did not expect such a number of trophies, despite the enormous success of the game.
Reacting to the award, Sven Vincke said that the team “didn’t plan anything” and even joked among themselves that they would go home empty-handed: “How are we going to get rid of depression?” Vincke admits he thought winning PC Game of the Year was possible, but “didn’t think” it would be followed by the other six awards.
The main reason for his skepticism is that despite brutal layoffs and studio closures, there have been a lot of good games this year.
There were a lot of competitors this year. I’ve been doing this for quite a long time, as you can tell by my hair, and there have been very few years when so many good games came out so close together.
Vincke actually thought that the main trophy would go to other notable games.
Honestly, I thought it would be Alan Wake 2. I haven’t played it yet, but I’ve seen all the talk about it. I saw that people were delighted with her. So I decided it would be Alan Wake 2, and if not Alan Wake 2, then The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Another reason Vincke was surprised was that games like Baldur’s Gate 3 don’t often win awards, which sometimes shift to “cinematic” blockbusters.
I didn’t think a PC-centric game like BG3 with hardcore RPG mechanics could achieve such success.
