After weeks of silence, Valve has announced the fan selected winners for its end of year 2016 awards. Among the winners are many expected games including the likes of Sid Meier's Civilization VI for the "Just 5 More Minutes" award, and Life is Strange for "I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye".
But not every outcome was so predictable, namely when it came to how Valve has handled the write-in category. Although Steam users were asked to create their own award name and winners, Valve appears to have heavily filtered the outcome. Several popular choices have gone unrecognized, instead replaced by things like "Sit Back and Relax" and "Boom Boom", all of which haven't been received well by Steam users.
Most notably, the "Game That Deserves a Sequel" choice is nowhere to be seen despite summoning widespread support across social media and gaming forums. Many participants are confident that it was the most widely chosen selection, yet it wasn't represented by Valve in any way.
This particular choice was commonly picked with games like Portal 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and most importantly Half-Life 2: Episode 2 selected as the winner. It appears that Valve wasn't interested in fueling the demand, and instead chose the following less popular—and perhaps far less interesting—choices.
- BroForce
- DOOM
- Just Cause 3
- Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
- Kerbal Space Program
- Dark Souls III
- Darkest Dungeon
- Dota 2
- Geometry Dash
- Super Meat Boy
- ABZU
- Cities Skylines
- Euro Truck Simulator 2
- Mini Metro
- Viridi
- Don’t Starve Together
- Gang Beasts
- Golf With Your Friends
- Left 4 Dead 2
- Magicka
Although seemingly insignificant, this has delivered yet another devastating blow to the prospect of a new Half-Life title, something gamers have expressed continued interest in. It is unquestionably the most highly demanded title, due in-part to the industry-changing performance of Half-Life and Half-Life 2. However, Valve has shown no interest in pursuing Half-Life 2: Episode 3 or Half-Life 3 no matter how much attention it has received.
Rumors point to Valve not only being preoccupied with several highly profitable projects, but also finding difficulty in discovering the innovation need to substantiate a new Half-Life release. Virtual reality might be what it has been looking for, although its small install base would ostracize millions of Half-Life fans.
Valve has announced that it will be conducting its annual 2016 Steam Awards running from December 22nd to the 29th, which will include a game of the year category. In the meantime, you can read all the winners for The Steam Awards here.
