GameMakers 2021 Game Awards Results

To All,

We had a really fun time talking about the best and worst of F2P games in 2021. There’s definitely a lot of really great riffs you definitely don’t want to miss so check it out!

The Best Burp of 2022

Let’s begin with what may wind up to be the best burp award for 2022 on a podcast:

GameMakers Drunk Awards for 2021

Our awards crew:

• Javier Barnes, Lead Game Designer at King

• Josh Burns, Founder at DigitalDevConnect

• Shannon Chang, Head of Operations at Trading.TV

• Niklas Herriger, Executive Coach at 8 Bit Coaching

• Matthew Kanterman, CFA, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bloomberg LP

• Eric Kress, Principal at Gossamer Consulting Group, LLC

• Ken Landen, Lead Product Manager at Scopely

• Brian Peganoff, Ex. Senior Director, Corporate Development & Strategy at Glu Mobile

As a summary here is what we came up with for our awards below:

Biggest winner: Which games industry company was the biggest winner in 2021?

Roblox:

• Eric: “Roblox by a wide mile. Increase of 30% on stock price and up 70% during the year. Huge Metaverse play.”

Biggest loser: Which games industry company was the biggest loser in 2021?

Activision Blizzard:

• Stock down significantly, brain drain, game delays, poor community sentiment

Best Game (HD or mobile)

Valheim:

• Brian: “Step-function innovations on coop gameplay.”

• Niklas: “It’s a great game, not because of any particular feature, but because of how it makes you feel, how immersive it is. It has such broad appeal. Great single-player experience, combined with 10-people coop. PvP is also possible. Cozy base building, combined with vast (procedurally generated) Map and exploration. It is astounding that Iron Gate made this game with only 5 people. What an entrepreneurial accomplishment, not only for a game studio but in general.”

Worst Game (HD or mobile)

PUBG New State:

• Mainly based on performance relative to expectations

Biggest Surprise 

Axie Infinity:

• Ken: “It exploded in popularity for a while and surprised many traditional game designers due to its lack of traditional ‘fun’ gameplay.”

Biggest Comeback

Apex Legends:

• Ken: “Apex has been a sleeper for a while and really took over player attention in the battle royale scene in the last half of the year.”

• Eric: “Apex is the game that has had amazing resilience in an otherwise struggling market for console engagement.”

Biggest Missed Opportunity

Pokemon Unite:

• JK: “It’s personally my favorite game of 2021 because the gameplay is great - a simplified MOBA that is great for kids to play and something an old dad like me can play with the whole family. The missed opportunity part is that they leaned way too heavily on existing UX and systems design from Asian MMOs and mobile MOBAs and botched monetization design.” 

Biggest News

Apple vs. Epic trial verdict:

• Niklas: “Finally someone took on Apple and the tail managed to wag the dog. Apple can’t dictate anymore that there is only one payment processor system that is their own.”

Game or Big Hame Update You're Most Looking Forward To

Starfield:

• Eric: “This game should be amazing… I can’t wait for a big Bethesda game.”

The Prediction

Guess who made yet another prediction that came true? Lol…

Until next time everybody, have a great New Year, and looking forward to all of the activities in 2022 that should make for a great awards show for next year!