Gamers agree remakes shouldn't be considered for GOTY

Well, this is what I think many might refer to as a controversial take. Some people think that remakes shouldn’t be considered as Game of the Year contenders.

While 2023 has been a turbulent year for those who work in the video game industry, consumers have been treated to a wide array of stellar games. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many GOTY contenders in a single year. There’s Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, Star Wars Jedi Survivor, Alan Wake 2, Diablo IV … I really could go on. Some gamers think that remakes shouldn’t be eligible though which would, for this year, wipe out Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space - not that the latter really stood a chance anyway.

Take a look at our review of Starfield below - just one of this year’s many bangers.

Reddit user Zedtomb wrote, “Unpopular opinion: remakes shouldn’t be considered for Game of the Year. I don’t think they’re viable,” garnering a whopping 3.9K upvotes. It turns out, the opinion may not be as controversial as the OP thought it might be although plenty of people pointed out that some remakes vastly differ from the original release. “I think it depends what the level of remake is, personally. Resident Evil 2 and Final Fantasy 7 remakes are basically new games. If it’s just a remaster, even if it has some additions, then no,” commented More_Lavishness8127.

User stiffjoe added, “Remastered versions shouldn't. Remakes should be,” while guitarerdood commented, “I think you should consider them but they'd need to be absolutely mind-blowing to beat out other, newer GOTY candidates.”

There are plenty of awards bodies that give away GOTY accolades but the most famous is arguably The Game Awards. As I mentioned, Resident Evil 4 will likely be vying for a nomination this year - and while it may be a remake, it’s a stellar one and I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the running. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.