The nominations for the first ever Steam Awards have just been announced. Valve has revealed the list of finalists for the 2016 Steam Awards. Voting begins on December 22.
The list of nominees do not include Valve's own "Half-Life" franchise. Valve did not allow the inclusion of any categories voted by the Steam community that would have included any mention of a "Half-Life" sequel.
The official list of nominees has been released by Valve for its awards for PC games. The Steam Awards were revealed during the recent Autumn Sale where Steam users nominated their choices for different award categories as well as suggest a new award category to be added. Valve's announced nominations for the Steam Awards did not include its own game franchise, Half-Life.
According to VG247, when the Steam Awards debuted during the Autumn Sale, Steam users could submit their suggestions for an additional award category. In addition to the eight award categories pre-defined by Valve, the company decided in the end, due to the great number of submissions, to add not just one user-suggested award category but rather four categories selected from the suggestions of their Steam userbase.
Gaming website Eurogamer reported that there were numerous submissions for "the game most in need of a sequel", with the very last Half-Life game released usually being the nominee for that award category. Valve evidently did not consider those submissions since there was no award category for "the game most in need of a sequel" mentioned in the announcement nor was any game in the Half-Life franchise included in the official list of nominees.
According to the gaming website Polygon, unlike other awards for gaming as well as annual awards in general, Valve did not include the criteria for nominees to have been released within the same calendar year that the Steam Awards is being held. The nominations are therefore open to games from the recent past and even games that are decades old, just as long as the game can be bought on Steam.
The award categories are also unconventional. They are not based on fixed descriptions, attributes, features, or characteristics of a game but are rather based on the different experiences that gamers have derived from a game. This allows small niche indie games to compete in the same category as large commercial blockbusters.
Voting for the 2016 Steam Awards will commence at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday, December 22 and will end in 9 days. Voting for each of the eight award categories determined by Valve will only be open for 24 hours.
All the four categories submitted by Steam users will only be open for voting on December 30. Winners for the 2016 Steam Awards will be announced on Dec. 31.
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