And the coveted Game of the Year award for 2018 goes to…Fortnite? Oh wait yeah, Fortnite! Really tho? Okay then.
Last November 16, 2018 was the 36th Annual Golden Joystick Awards that included heavyweight nominees all vying to earn each category such as Best Storytelling, Critics Choice Award, and of course, Game of the Year.
Games such as Santa Monica Studios’ God of War, Capcom’s Monster Hunter World and Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 were in almost every category but if there’s one game no one expected to win for Game of the Year, it’s Epic Games’ Fortnite. Yes, Fortnite – the game that your 11-year old cousin won’t stop playing and talking about while seeing normies everywhere doing the dances labeling them as “Fortnite dance”.
How did Fortnite win?
So now you may be wondering, “Okay how what where when why did Fortnite win GOTY when there are far better games out there right now?” Yeah I asked myself the same thing too but apparently The Golden Joystick Awards was based on popularity votes instead of basing the game in terms of quality and overall impact to the gamer.
At this point, you should be able to realize the demographic that voted for the battle royale game to win; just think about it: it’s the most trending game since January especially during the whole Drake x Ninja fiasco on Twitch, celebrities began tweeting about how the game is so addictive, and it brought in mad revenue for Twitch.
Looking at how Fornite is holding up these days, the game has made more than $1 Billion ever since that article by Forbes last July. That’s the combined power of streaming audiences, daily active players buying V-bucks, and Ali-A screaming “WOT IS OP GOYYYYYS” followed by a loud bass drop on the intro.
Fortnite vs the rest of the gaming community
Red Dead Redemption 2 was a close second for the title while God of War was third. Alas, while the Fortnite fans may be so happy about the news, the rest of the community weren’t really happy about the results. Just look at the tweet comments after GamesRadar+ posted the announcement of GOTY 2018:
This is the biggest disappointment since my son
— Oh Wine (@owainrt) November 16, 2018
— ★Jαᴋe★ ✘2『メリア』 (@StarlightKick) November 16, 2018
Remember when game of the year actually used to mean something now they give it to games like fortnite proof positive money does buy everything these days
— Scott Bremner (@pheonix79) November 16, 2018
Fortnite isn’t a bad game per se. In fact, it does tend to be quite addicting to play at some point but if the matter is about the right mix of graphics, gameplay, narration, sound design and replayability, I’m not sure about battle royale being a winner with no questions asked. But since this was based on a popularity vote and with millions of players backing it up, I shouldn’t be surprised to see this one taking the W.
While Fortnite may have won GOTY and Best Competitive Game in the Golden Joystick Awards, Epic Games’ massively successful battle royale mode isn’t nominated for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2018.
So what are your thoughts about Fortnite winning GOTY? Did they truly deserve such a title due to popularity and income or do story-driven games with highly-immersive should always be the only ones in the category? Let us know down in the comments below!
