Summary
The Game Awards 2023 nominees have been announced, and fans may notice a glaring omission from the lineup: open worldHarry Potteraction-RPGHogwarts Legacywasn’t nominated for a single category.Hogwarts Legacyreleased 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 Legacyhas 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 theHogwarts LegacySwitch port, the game has proven to be a massive hit on other platforms. WithHogwarts Legacyenjoying 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 thatHogwarts Legacywould 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 forHogwarts Legacyto be nominated for multipleGame 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 recognizedHogwarts 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 thinkHogwarts Legacydeserved a nod in any of the categories. The other possibility is thatHogwarts Legacywas left off because of the game’s divisiveness. WhileHogwarts Legacyreviewed welland has been praised for what it accomplishes as a video game, theHarry Potterbrand 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 nominatedbecauseof 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 agame was snubbed at The Game Awards, and it won’t be the last, as it’s something that happens with all award shows.
