The Game Awards 2023 nominees have been announced, and fans may notice a glaring omission from the lineup: open world Harry Potter action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy wasn't nominated for a single category. Hogwarts Legacy released in February to mostly positive reviews and is currently the best-selling new video game release of 2023. The game found a great deal of success on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X before continuing its momentum on PS4 and Xbox One later in the year.

Hogwarts Legacy has been highly praised on all platforms it's released on so far, though the Nintendo Switch version is still unproven at the time of this writing. While the jury is still out on the quality of the Hogwarts Legacy Switch port, the game has proven to be a massive hit on other platforms. With Hogwarts Legacy enjoying so much praise from both game critics and gamers themselves, some fans may be baffled at its exclusion from The Game Awards 2023 nominees.

With 2023 being stacked with critically-acclaimed releases, it's safe to say many fans didn't assume that Hogwarts Legacy would be getting a Game of the Year nod. However, many are likely surprised that the game wasn't nominated in any category. The argument could be made for Hogwarts Legacy to be nominated for multiple Game Awards categories, like Best Art Direction, Best Score & Music, Best Audio Design, and Best Role Playing Game, yet the game is nowhere to be found. What makes the snubs even more egregious is that the Grammy's have recognized Hogwarts Legacy's Score & Music as being exceptional, with the game earning a nomination at that long-running award show.

Why Wasn't Hogwarts Legacy Nominated for Any Awards at The Game Awards 2023?


There hasn't been an official statement on the matter, but two explanations are the most likely. One scenario is that the people who voted on the list of nominees simply didn't think Hogwarts Legacy deserved a nod in any of the categories. The other possibility is that Hogwarts Legacy was left off because of the game's divisiveness. While Hogwarts Legacy reviewed well and has been praised for what it accomplishes as a video game, the Harry Potter brand is forever tied to controversial creator J.K. Rowling. Including the game would have likely caused some serious backlash that would have threatened to overshadow the entire show and ruin things for the other nominated games.

Of course, Hogwarts Legacy's absence from The Game Awards 2023 nominees list could be a combination of the two possibilities: it could be that the people who nominated the games didn't think it deserved to be nominated because of J.K. Rowling, as opposed to the quality of the game itself in any of the listed categories. Regardless, this wouldn't be the first time that a game was snubbed at The Game Awards, and it won't be the last, as it's something that happens with all award shows.



Posted: Nov 17, 2023 2:26 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/game-awards-2023-hogwarts-legacy-snub/