As some fans figured out, there’s something odd with the way Valve has set up the Steam Awards.
Yesterday, we reported on how Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced comes up as eligible for nomination as Steam’s Game of the Year. We discussed the merits of whether it deserved winning the honor, or being nominated at all.
But now it looks like there’s something else going on.
As explained by GTA.COM.UA, GTA+ is also eligible for nomination in the Steam Awards. However, Grand Theft Auto Online is not eligible.
How did this happen? Valve only has themselves to blame for this one.
Valve’s system allows nominations to come up to each game as they are listed as an app in the Steam system. That’s convenient enough for most games and products on Steam.
However, that system lists GTA+ as a separate app. As for Grand Theft Auto Online, even if it receives the improvements from Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced, it is listed under its original publication date.
Obviously, even GTA+ subscribers would not want to nominate their subscription for GOTY. Grand Theft Auto Online is played by millions regularly, as one of the big live service titles alongside Fortnite and Roblox.
If anything, there may be a bigger case for Grand Theft Auto Online to deserve nomination as Game of the Year over Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced. But if we consider them as one game, maybe we can consider the whole package as eligible.
Ultimately, this is a problem with Valve’s system that exists because of the way that they operate. We may certainly appreciate how good a workplace Valve is, but this is a situation where that works against the public’s interest.
In this case, we know they chose to use automated systems because it would be easier. And it’s true that in 99 % of cases, there would be no problem with how they set up their Steam Award nomination system.
But they needed to intervene directly to remove GTA+ from this system. We suspect Valve won’t even really move on this, since they can just disqualify GTA+ in the odd chance that players decide to stuff it with nominations for fun.
Anyway, we certainly wonder if Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced will be getting any recognition in any of the awards shows for this year at all. There is absolutely a lot of great games that came out this year that deserves the attention much more.
