From Nintendo’s triumphant follow-up to Breath of the Wild to the hot pink perfection of Barbie and so much more, 2023 has been a landmark year for games and entertainment. Indeed, IGN has labeled 16 games, movies and TV shows a masterpiece over the past 12 months, with countless more worthy of your time and money. Admittedly, it’s also been a year of polar opposites, and Skull Island: Rise of Kong wasn’t the only stinker to receive a bad score (I’m looking at you, Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey). The games industry suffered a huge number of lay-offs too, and Hollywood strikes put release calendars on hold as screenwriters and actors fought for better working conditions.
So while 2023 had its low points, we wanted to shine a spotlight on its successes and give recognition to everything that brought us joy, whether it was two hours of pure escapism in a movie theatre, being transported to another world for an experience like no other, or a moment that made us step back and gasp, “Holy fuck…”
IGN’s Twenty Questions – Guess the game!
As such, IGN Awards launches next week, a five-day celebration of the best games, movies, TV, anime, comics… Everything IGN, like you, is passionate about. Of course, as 2023 draws to a close you’ll see lots of awards lists popping up, but the IGN Awards aren’t distracted by what’s coming out next year and beyond. We’ve made sure that the list of awards categories is streamlined and focused, because we know you’ve only got so much spare time. We’ve made sure every award counts and is dedicated to something that you care about.
2023’s IGN Awards will therefore look a little different compared to last year. For starters, it’s no longer called IGN’s Best of – we wanted a name that better reflected the grandeur the winners deserve. That said, it is 100% still a celebration of the best of everything that IGN covers. We’ll still be crowning the best game and movie of the year, along with other returning categories such as role-playing game, TV series, anime show, and more. But we’ve also introduced new categories like Best Horror Game, Best Soulslike and Best Open-World Game, to reflect how gaming trends have changed over the past few years.
Elsewhere, we’ve asked the podcasting teams of Beyond, Unlocked and NVC to respectively pick the best PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo games of the year, because no one knows those consoles and games better than the people who talk passionately about them week in, week out.
Finally, while we’re exceptionally proud of all the winners chosen by IGN’s editorial team, we also want to know what have been your favourites of 2023. Therefore you’ll find a poll alongside each award, which includes the same shortlist of nominees the IGN team picked from. Vote for the one you liked most in each category and we’ll showcase your winners at the end of next week.
So join us from Monday and throughout the week to see if your picks of the best of 2023 are crowned the winners. I’m certainly looking forward to sharing our choices, but more than that I cannot wait to see what moments made you shout “Holy fuck!” this year!
Alex Simmons is IGN’s Features Director. Follow him on X / Twitter.