Once again early access indie games have accrued another controversy to add to the heaping pile. This time the finger is being pointed a superstar amongst indie gamers as of late, and that titan is none other than Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds. Whose success has garnered it a recommendation for game of the year by many publications among industry giants such as Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as well as Mario Odyssey. These two games are certainly deserving of the title of game of the year as they are hugely popular masterpieces that really accentuated this year’s gaming scene. Arguably PUBG has done the same with only one key difference. PUBG hasn’t even been fully released yet.
The main underlying question here is whether or not a game that technically hasn’t been fully released yet deserves to be honored as game of the year. The gaming community has a lot to say. One particularly humorous argument is that if PUBG wins game of the year this year and is fully released the following year, could it potentially win game of the year two years in a row? This is most likely is just an exaggeration meant to highlight the awkwardness of early access gaming; however the point isn’t exactly invalid, as the lines here are blurred.
Looking to the creators of PUBG itself, some of them say that they don’t want or deserve any game of the year awards. Brendan “PlayerUnknown” Greene himself was quoted saying “Personally, I don’t want to win a Game of the Year award […] While I would love to win it for the team, I think this year there have been far better games.” Greene specifically referred to Horizon Zero Dawn, and the latest entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise as “masterpieces of game design and storytelling.” in an interview with IGN.
Greene’s comments honestly bring some much needed levity to the conversation. One may suspect that a more haughty attitude towards any scrutiny would be met with even more resentment on behalf of gamer’s everywhere. The central claim lies more upon the early access category in general than anything PUBG did or didn’t do. The simple truth is that people do not trust early access, and the fact that something as prestigious as Game of the Year might be handed to what could have been a gigantic waste of time and money, is offensive to some. It’s not hard to see how the idea of early access would have it’s fault, with perfectly good example’s littering the Steam Store’s graveyard.
Early access is a tricky topic at best. When you have a game trying to gain support for it’s desired end point by being marketed to people as an unfinished product, there’s no doubt you’ll find some ambivalence as well as heated debate. Despite this, it can be argued that a game should not be judged by the labels it wears, but by the actual game itself. Perhaps if PUBG won any gaming awards this year, it could simply be kept out of the running from next years GOTY competition, if for no other reason than fairness.
Much of this debate should be put to rest in the coming month or so, as the design team is expecting a full release of the game by the end of the year. Which should make it completely eligible for game of they year in the eyes of anyone.
Gaming and Writing with Passion 