Winners at the 41st Golden Joystick Awards 2023 Powered by Intel have been revealed, and British voice actors including Neil Newbon were recognised.
Neil plays eccentric and flamboyant rogue Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3, and won the award for Best Supporting Performer.
Ben Starr, the voice actor of Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI, also picked up an award for Best Lead Performer.
Another British voice actor, Troy Baker, hosted the Golden Joystick Awards ceremony streamed live from the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. He was alongside special guests from the world of gaming including actors Manon Gage, Maggie Robertson, Ben Starr, Yuri Lowenthal, Stephanie Joosten, Samantha Béart and Neil Newbon, as well as Elvira Björkman and Nicklas Hjertberg from Two Feathers and Gosia Mitręga, Executive Producer of the new Witcher saga at CD Projekt Red. Plus Amelia Tyler, Narrator of Baldur’s Gate 3, helped guide viewers through the games and studios that were nominated this year.
Baldur’s Gate 3 and Larian Studios picked up a whopping seven wins, including Ultimate Game of the Year, PC Game of the Year, Best Game Community, Best Storytelling, Best Visual Design and Studio of the Year, plus the aforementioned Neil Newbon won an award for voicing Astarion in the game.
Watch our interview with Neil Newbon from Insomnia Gaming Festival last year here.
Nearly 5m public votes were cast to pick the winners in 20 different categories. Three more categories, Critics’ Choice (Alan Wake 2), Breakthrough Award (Geometric Interactive, Cocoon) and Streamers’ Choice (Valorant) were critically chosen.
Other winners on the night included Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty which won Best Game Expansion and Best Game Trailer, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Most Wanted Game), Resident Evil 4 (PlayStation Game of the Year), Starfield (Xbox Game of the Year) and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo Game of the Year).
In total over 115 games, studios, hardware and actors were represented at the Golden Joystick Awards.
The awards also featured a special musical performance of “You Are My Sunshine”, a collaboration between Bloober Team and the Polish artist Natalia Szroeder.
Full list of 41st Golden Joystick Awards 2023 winners
All of the below Golden Joystick Awards were from public votes, unless stated in brackets otherwise.
- Best Storytelling – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Still Playing Award – No Man’s Sky
- Best Visual Design – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Studio of the Year – Larian Studios
- Best Game Expansion – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
- Best VR Game – Horizon Call of the Mountain
- Best Indie Game – Sea of Stars
- Best Multiplayer Game – Mortal Kombat 1
- Best Audio – Final Fantasy XVI
- Best Game Trailer – Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty – Official Cinematic Trailer
- Streamers’ Choice – Valorant (critically chosen)
- Best Game Community – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Best Gaming Hardware – PlayStation VR2
- Breakthrough Award – Cocoon / Geometric Interactive (critically chosen)
- Critics’ Choice Award – Alan Wake 2 (critically chosen)
- Best Lead Performer – Ben Starr – Clive Rosfield, Final Fantasy XVI
- Best Supporting Performer – Neil Newbon – Astarion, Baldur’s Gate 3
- Nintendo Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
- PC Game of the Year – Baldur’s Gate 3
- Xbox Game of the Year – Starfield
- PlayStation Game of the Year – Resident Evil 4
- Most Wanted Game – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Ultimate Game of the Year – Baldur’s Gate 3
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
