NeoGAF Games of the Year 2015 Awards

OleGunner said:
Not surprised that Bloodborne got #1 on Gaf.
That fanbase is uhh "passionate" to say the least.

Of course I think The Witcher 3 should be overall winner as it's an unparalleled game experience but it's really just semantics at the end of the day.

Nice to see Until Dawn squeeze in at #9 too, such a nice surprise for 2015.
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I don't think it was a case of rabid Sony/FROM fans voting Bloodborne and not The Witcher though. According to the stats, out of the people who had both TW and BB in their list, BB got ranked higher overall.
 
myco666 said:
You sure about that? This is Atlus we are talking about so there is no guarantee that EU is going to get it this year meaning it loses lot of potential votes.
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Fortunately because it's on Playstation, region lock isn't a problem. I will definitely be importing it from the US if it doesn't get released in the EU by 2016.
 
Knuf said:
Genuinely shocked Bloodborne got not robbed, given that other games were on 3 or more platforms while Bloodborne was available only on one: there's something pretty telling when the three gaming sources I trust the most share the very same GOTY (Edge and Eurogamer being the other two).
Well done, GAF, well done.
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I don't see how it is shocking. FROM is one of the most beloved developers on GAF (maybe only topped by ND) and many bought a PS4 for Bloodborne.

Exclusives are usually the winners on GAF anyway. The only multiplatform games to win were Mass Effect 2 and Portal 2. (no I'm not saying that's why Bloodborne won.)

You have to consider that the 3 platforms is largely irrelevant when taking into account that The Witcher 3 sold the vast majority of its copies on the PS4. I'm not sure how many primarily PC gamers even took part in this vote.

For example, look at how small the SteamGAF GOTY vote was or how many points any of the PC exclusives have in this list. Undertale is the only one with a decent amount of votes and that's just because any toaster can run it. Xbox users seem to have a low turn out as well. It's not like playing on PC/Xbox precludes you from having a PS4 on an enthusiast site like GAF either.
 
Magic Mushroom said:
I don't think it was a case of rabid Sony/FROM fans voting Bloodborne and not The Witcher though. According to the stats, out of the people who had both TW and BB in their list, BB got ranked higher overall.
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Yeah it's all fair game.

I just meant that Bloodborne fans have been on a rabid warpath once GoTY's started coming in with a vast majority of Witcher 3 wins lol.

Either game deserved top spot in the end so I'm cool with the list.
 
RespectThySole said:
You have to consider that the 3 platforms is largely irrelevant when taking into account that The Witcher 3 sold the vast majority of its copies on the PS4. I'm not sure how many primarily PC gamers even took part in this vote. For example, look at how small the SteamGAF GOTY vote was or how many points any of the PC exclusives have in this list. Undertale is the only one with a decent amount of votes and that's just because any toaster can run it. Xbox users seem to have a low turn out as well. It's not like playing on PC/Xbox precludes you from having a PS4 on an enthusiast site like GAF either.
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Last numbers we heard were a 30/70 split PC/consoles, so potentially pretty even across all platforms. Definitely not vast majority.

GAF has always been a console focused forum and PC exclusives are generally much more niche titles. Still though you got Undertale and Pillars of Eternity on there which I think is fairly decent representation from PC gamers. They were never going to be chart toppers on GAF but still nice to see. Like I said before these charts tend to skew towards exclusive. When fans have a game to rally behind they have a reason to vote. We saw that last year with the strong Nintendo representation in the top 3.
 
Magic Mushroom said:
I don't think it was a case of rabid Sony/FROM fans voting Bloodborne and not The Witcher though. According to the stats, out of the people who had both TW and BB in their list, BB got ranked higher overall.
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I agree that isn't the case, but to be fair it was pretty much even. 215-196 in Bloodborne's favor, but a lot of votes that had TW3 #1 were disqualified due to lack of comments.(based on the spreadsheet in the other thread TTK or Cheese posted) They wouldn't have changed the overall winner though since Bloodborne would've still had more volume of votes.
 
Lingitiz said:
Last numbers we heard were a 30/70 split PC/consoles, so potentially pretty even across all platforms. Definitely not vast majority.
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The PS4 made up most of those sales even in the strongest Xbox territories. (US/UK) The split was still like 60-70% in favor of PS4 and The Witcher is bigger in the ROTW than those territories. When you take into account the small volume of exclusively PC/Xbox owners here, I don't think it made a huge difference in this context.
 
Lingitiz said:
Last numbers we heard were a 30/70 split PC/consoles, so potentially pretty even across all platforms. Definitely not vast majority.
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As you say, there is a difference between the total sales split and the fanbase split in GAF. Most PC gamers would not hang here, there are much more PC gaming focused forums, including Steam own forums.

GAF is mainly console driven.
 
RespectThySole said:
You have to consider that the 3 platforms is largely irrelevant when taking into account that The Witcher 3 sold the vast majority of its copies on the PS4. I'm not sure how many primarily PC gamers even took part in this vote.
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Even if that part is true, you have the consider the raw numbers: chances are that way more people played TW3 than BB. People with only a PS4 could have voted for both games, but people with only PC/Xbone could only have voted for TW3, so TW3 definitely had a higher chance of appearing in way more charts than BB, hence skewing the votes in TW3's favour by "brute forcing" results from players' count alone.
 
Knuf said:
Even if that part is true, you have the consider the raw numbers: chances are that way more people played TW3 than BB. People with only a PS4 could have voted for both games, but people with only PC/Xbone could only have voted for TW3, so TW3 definitely had a higher chance of appearing in way more charts than BB, hence skewing the votes in TW3's favour by "brute forcing" results from players' count alone.
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I get what you're saying, but I don't think that the votes from PC/Xbox users are as skewed to TW3 as you are thinking.

1. There is already a low volume of exclusively PC/Xbox users

2. Just because they don't own a PS4, doesn't mean they've even played it. There are some PC gamers who mostly play indies or shorter games here. Xbox fans aren't particularly huge on RPGs in general apart from Bethesda games and Mass Effect like many PS4 owners would be. This pool of voters isn't that large to begin with. (PC/Xbox exclusively)

3. Can we be sure about more people playing TW3 on GAF specifically? (at least of those that took part in the vote) It certainly sold much more overall, but as I stated, FROM is in an exclusive club with ND in terms of GAF passion. It was also the first exclusive that made the PS4 feel "worth it" to many here so it was widely played and the OTs and DLC OTs are significantly longer than those of TW3.

There was more volume of Bloodborne votes, but those who had both in their list ranked them 1-2 in basically equal proportion. I could be totally off on this, but from what I've seen in the OT, many on GAF are still working their way through TW1/2 or intend to before playing TW3 for story purposes. Some are even reading the books. This would probably be more important here than at a place like say IGN. This isn't much of a thing for a new IP like Bloodborne.

It's also a very long game so many might not have been comfortable voting for it before reaching whatever level of completion they deem necessary. It could be that many played it and just didn't like TW3, in comparison to Bloodborne, but the data we have doesn't seem to show that. (47% of those who voted for BB had it as their top choice which is exactly the same number as those who voted TW3 as their top choice + the above data referring to their ranking by those who had both in their lists) Again, I could be wrong, but I don't think that users on a site like GAF conform to the same type of purchase choices of a regular site.
 
There's also the (apparently uncomfortable) possibility that a plurality of people simply liked Bloodborne and Bayonetta 2 more than everything else in their respective years.
 
Knuf said:
Even if that part is true, you have the consider the raw numbers: chances are that way more people played TW3 than BB. People with only a PS4 could have voted for both games, but people with only PC/Xbone could only have voted for TW3, so TW3 definitely had a higher chance of appearing in way more charts than BB, hence skewing the votes in TW3's favour by "brute forcing" results from players' count alone.
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TW3 sold more than BB as well. If I remember right, BB went off the charts after its initial month on the market, whereas TW3 kept selling and eventually hit a milestone by June.

I couldn't say why either game would win over the other, but I know for a fact that TW3 by and large has a higher number of GOTY awards than BB.
 
hawk2025 said:
There's also the (apparently uncomfortable) possibility that a plurality of people simply liked Bloodborne and Bayonetta 2 more than everything else in their respective years.
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It is really that simple. The continued conspiracies and discussions on several other factors are amusing though.
 
It's not that it's uncomfortable or impossible. I actually suggest this in my post as a possibility. I just don't see how it is remotely suprising that Bloodborne won GOTY. The lowest anyone could've realistically expected for Bloodborne is #2 unless you just haven't followed GAF much at all last year. It seems completely disingenuous to say otherwise.

Also, in regards to Bayonetta 2, We already know that it was not the most played game. Very unlikely to be the case even on GAF. Mario Kart 8 received more votes than Bayonetta 2, but less points overall. This is not what happened here.

Can you seriously not tell the difference between Bloodborne and Bayonetta 2?

Bayonetta 2 released in a fairly weak year for both PS4/XB1 in terms of exclusives and multiplatform games. PC had a good year, but there wasn't much fanfare for PC exclusives last year aside from Divinity. These circumstances allowed Bayonetta 2 to get the win. (not undeserved)

GAF loves Platinum, but it's not nearly as widespread as the FROM love. Bloodborne handily broke the record for points and reached OT5. Bayonetta 2 recieved less points than Rocket League and didnt even make it anywhere near OT2. Hell, even Bloodborne's expansion OT dwarfs Bayonetta 2's OT. OTs aren't the end all be all, of course, but this scenario happening with Bloodborne seems more plausible than something like Bayo 2. I'm not even saying that it did happen, just that there is no suprise here.
 
RespectThySole said:
I don't think it has better dialogue just due to the fact that the quality of writing in TW3 is flat out better, but I can see why you think this even if I don't agree.(you prefer the political tone) The Witcher 2 does have great replay value, but I'm not sure it's actually better than TW3 in this regard. There are way more different outcomes to see in a replay of the TW3 than TW2 even with TW2's branching Act 2&3. It's just a bit easier to replay TW2 since it's the shorter game.

World design, exploration, atmosphere, soundtrack, monster design and side quests are far superior in TW3. Gwent is so much better than arm wrestling and dice poker. Linearity isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I just find the game to be entirely too restrictive in comparison to TW1 and TW3.

Political world building is better, but that was the focus of TW2 so it really should be. I like the combat a lot more in TW3 than the TW2. To me, TW2's combat is barely serviceable and that's only with the rebalanced combat mod. Quest design is highly subjective, but I feel the best quests in TW3 are better designed than the best in TW2. There were more meaningful choices to make in TW3 overall as well imo. TW3 also has better characters, but obviously TW2 is no slouch in that area either. The main story itself is probably slightly better than TW3 just due to how focused it is, but TW3's resonated with me more because of the cast.
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All your points are valid.

I actually don't prefer W2,but I was just thinking up how people could defend such a position ,because I've seen a lot of arguments about how BB didn't deserve to win because its inferior to its predecessors.
 
hawk2025 said:
There's also the (apparently uncomfortable) possibility that a plurality of people simply liked Bloodborne and Bayonetta 2 more than everything else in their respective years.
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No wai man, here let me post a couple of spreadsheets of reasons why this multi platform game which sold great was clearly the underdog all along.
 
iz.podpolja said:
Let's not act as if BB was the dark horse in the race though.
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Exactly. It's not a difficult concept to grasp. Different demographics have their own particular buying habits. BB was always more likely to win GOTY here than TW3. It placed higher on the most anticipated list last year.

http://neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=967454

Bloodborne: 1474

TW3: 1171

In terms of general media, both TW3 and Bloodborne were underdogs to Fallout 4, Batman, MGS, UC4, etc. before the year started.
 
RespectThySole said:
BB was always more likely to win GOTY here than TW3. It placed higher on the most anticipated list last year.
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It's not like that it some rule.

These games all released in 2014 and were lower placed than Bayonetta in the GOTY and higher placed in the anticipation list:

Dark Souls 2
Destiny
Infamous: Second Son
Super Smash Bros.
Titanfall
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
 
benny_a said:
It's not like that it some rule.

These games all released in 2014 and were lower placed than Bayonetta in the GOTY and higher placed in the anticipation list:

Dark Souls 2
Destiny
Infamous: Second Son
Super Smash Bros.
Titanfall
Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
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I'm not saying it's an exact science. Those games you listed were largely disappointments to GAF though aside from Smash Bros. and they were punished for it.

Similarly, if MGSV had a competent story that satisfied fans, I bet it would've won this year.(even with its other flaws)

Edit: It's like how we expect Uncharted to win the next one even though there is always a chance of it being an "Uncharted 3."
 
iz.podpolja said:
Let's not act as if BB was the dark horse in the race though.
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Depends on your perspective.

I could name several 2015 games that are bigger franchises and were more likely to be awarded compared to BB and W3:

- MGS5
- Batman AK
- Fallout 4
- Halo 5
- Xenoblade X
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Destiny TTK

Both W3 and BB were not slated to be big hits of 2015. People figured they would resonate with the existing fanbase but that's about it. BB was a breakout success that surprised Sony and FROM. W3 even moreso. Go back and look at "most anticipated games of 2015" lists to verify.
 
Disaster Nebraska said:
Depends on your perspective.

I could name several 2015 games that are bigger franchises and were more likely to be awarded compared to BB and W3:

- MGS5
- Batman AK
- Fallout 4
- Halo 5
- Xenoblade X
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Destiny TTK

Both W3 and BB were not slated to be big hits of 2015. People figured they would resonate with the existing fanbase but that's about it. BB was a breakout success that surprised Sony and FROM. W3 even moreso. Go back and look at "most anticipated games of 2015" lists to verify.
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Sure, but that was in the beginning of the year when all we had were pigs in a poke, and as we came to separate the sheep from the goats, everyone and their dog knew there was not a cat in hell's chance for any of these to win.
 
tattooed_dwarf said:
Well that's sad since we haven't even played games coming this year. I understand why some get hypes but to make it GOTY already?!
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GOTY is also based on Genre and Mainstream appeal. Quality is just one factor.

When you look at it the game needs to have all 3 just like UC, like for example SFV is never going to get it because Genre. And Persona will never get it because Mainstream appeal.

Of course this applies to media GOTYs like VGA,IGN..etc. On GAF anything is possible. Persona has as good a chance as UC , if UC4 doesn't live up to everyones expectations.
 
RespectThySole said:
I'm not saying it's an exact science. Those games you listed were largely disappointments to GAF though aside from Smash Bros. and they were punished for it.

Similarly, if MGSV had a competent story that satisfied fans, I bet it would've won this year.(even with its other flaws)

Edit: It's like how we expect Uncharted to win the next one even though there is always a chance of it being an "Uncharted 3."
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I think there are some other exceptions to this though. I think the most interesting thing is that, if Fallout 4 had been announced in 2014, I feel like it would have topped many anticipated lists. But the Witcher 3 beat it in GotY awards, and I don't think that's because Fallout necessarily disappointed people but because people thought it felt like more of the same in comparison to the Witcher, which offered a similar large open world but with more meaningful and deeper content populating said world (note: I haven't actually played Fallout or the Witcher, this just seemed to be the consensus).
 
Calabria said:
BB was the dark horse, and even TW3 to an extent. Earlier in the year the discussion revolved around MGSV vs UC4 vs FO4.
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Yeah well, things kind of change between hype and actually playing a game. By the time the real GotY discussions started here Witcher 3 wasn't a dark horse, and frankly for the base here I don't think Bloodborne ever was. Even the arguable weakest game (Dark Souls II) hit the top 5.

EDIT: Actually, looking back Witcher 2 was also within the top 10 of that year, as a PC exclusive. Hitting XB1 and PS4 simultaneously this time... it was bound to make a huge leap forward, though I suppose there could've been an exclusive allure that could've vaulted Witcher 2 higher. But Witcher 3 was getting way too many GotY awards in the media to not have a respectable ranking here.
 
Shouldn't this thread be stickied? Seems to have sunk too fast for the enormous amount of work that goes into it.

Overall unsurprised with the results, even though I don't seem to be able to really love Bloodborne and MGSV the way so many of you do. Feel like SOMA's position is mainly due to how few people played it - but also not a bad position overall :)
 
Disaster Nebraska said:
Depends on your perspective.

I could name several 2015 games that are bigger franchises and were more likely to be awarded compared to BB and W3:

- MGS5
- Batman AK
- Fallout 4
- Halo 5
- Xenoblade X
- Rise of the Tomb Raider
- Destiny TTK

Both W3 and BB were not slated to be big hits of 2015. People figured they would resonate with the existing fanbase but that's about it. BB was a breakout success that surprised Sony and FROM. W3 even moreso. Go back and look at "most anticipated games of 2015" lists to verify.
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Xenoblade is not a bigger franchise than Bloodborne/Souls lol.
 
RespectThySole said:
It's not that it's uncomfortable or impossible. I actually suggest this in my post as a possibility. I just don't see how it is remotely suprising that Bloodborne won GOTY. The lowest anyone could've realistically expected for Bloodborne is #2 unless you just haven't followed GAF much at all last year. It seems completely disingenuous to say otherwise.

Also, in regards to Bayonetta 2, We already know that it was not the most played game. Very unlikely to be the case even on GAF. Mario Kart 8 received more votes than Bayonetta 2, but less points overall. This is not what happened here.

Can you seriously not tell the difference between Bloodborne and Bayonetta 2?

Bayonetta 2 released in a fairly weak year for both PS4/XB1 in terms of exclusives and multiplatform games. PC had a good year, but there wasn't much fanfare for PC exclusives last year aside from Divinity. These circumstances allowed Bayonetta 2 to get the win. (not undeserved)

GAF loves Platinum, but it's not nearly as widespread as the FROM love. Bloodborne handily broke the record for points and reached OT5. Bayonetta 2 recieved less points than Rocket League and didnt even make it anywhere near OT2. Hell, even Bloodborne's expansion OT dwarfs Bayonetta 2's OT. OTs aren't the end all be all, of course, but this scenario happening with Bloodborne seems more plausible than something like Bayo 2. I'm not even saying that it did happen, just that there is no suprise here.
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You may be right but comparing OT length may not be accurate for Soulsborne games because the obscure nature of these games promote a lot of discussion. So one person who may just post 5 times in an OT for a game would post way more for a Soulsborne game. Does not necessarily mean more people played it.
 
Oh snap, my first year voting and I got quoted :D

I figured a few of my games wouldn't be anywhere near the top 20, but it's good to see Undertale, Tales from the Borderlands and SOMA rank so high.
 
In just glad galak-z got some love! It's been one of my favorites of the year. also rocket league , so good, still play it nearly every day.

PS Shout out the judgementjay who pointed out in a Pm I needed to fix my scores with a review so it would count. Thanks!
 
Magic Mushroom said:
Yeah, unless really weird things happen, Uncharted has the next one on lock.
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Cyan said:
Bloodborne is a new IP and has nothing to do with Souls.
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Cyan said:
They're completely unrelated. Bloodborne was starting totally from scratch and was a big underdog.
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I don't really understand. I remember the excitement being through the roof for Bloodborne and it was largely because its a Souls game. Same as how there was excitement for XCX because of XC.
 
Malus said:
I don't really understand. I remember the excitement being through the roof for Bloodborne and it was largely because its a Souls game. Same as how there was excitement for XCX because of XC.
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Pretty much. It wouldn't have gathered anywhere as much attention leading up to release if it wasn't the new "Souls" game.
 
Malus said:
I don't really understand. I remember the excitement being through the roof for Bloodborne and it was largely because its a Souls game. Same as how there was excitement for XCX because of XC.
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Congrats, now you know how I feel every time I see people insist that Bloodborne is a new IP.
 
Completely forgot this was coming out so I'm just seeing it now haha. I'm glad Until Dawn got a lot of attention from NeoGAF! Very good picks.
 
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