Voting results are available at ...... Almost as expected: the Steam Awards results (opens in new tab) have been announced, with not many surprises in the final tally of the December voting process. The Game of the Year trophy went to Elden Ring (good choice (opens in new tab)), and the other 10 awards went to games that, with one possible exception, had no impact at all. Here are the results:

These are certainly excellent games with big budgets and name recognition. It's hard to find fault, and almost every game fits into that category like a pair of well-worn shoes: "Hitman 3" is a great VR game (open in new tab); YouTuber favorite "Raft" is fun with friends; QED. cyberpunk 2077. is an interesting winner of the "Labour of Love" award. At the very least, it suggests that players are happy with how CDPR has handled the game since its failed 2020 launch.

While it is infuriating that "Final Fantasy" and not "Persona 5" won the soundtrack award, the only real odd result is "Death Stranding. Kojima's post-apocalyptic postman sim reportedly runs well on Steam Deck (opens in new tab), but it hardly seems like the kind of game that would eat up battery power on high settings and then quickly pull out while waiting in the departure lounge; "Vampire Survivors" would have been a better choice for a game on the go, but I guess I'm missing the wisdom of the Steam voters. 'Death Stranding' is pretty great wherever you play it (opens in new tab).

It's a bit of a shame that by incentivizing voting, they seem to have created a list of "games people have heard of" almost in the form of Steam trading cards that amount to precious pennies, even if they are not very invested in the outcome. For the next awards, I'd like to propose a new system: have Gabe Newell throw one of his many knives at a dartboard filled with Steam game names and pick winners in each category. This is democracy done right.