60 Fun Facts About 2023 Video Game

Which game won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023?

Baldur's Gate 3 later became the first game to win the top prize at all five major award shows. Its PC launch had been pulled forward four weeks, clear of an autumn crowded by Starfield.

Which Belgian developer adapted Dungeons & Dragons' fifth edition into a hit 2023 role-playing game?

Larian Studios was first told by Wizards of the Coast that it was 'a bit too green'. After Wizards saw footage of Divinity: Original Sin II, it came back and asked if the studio was still interested.

Neil Newbon won Best Performance at The Game Awards 2023 for voicing which vampire-spawn rogue?

Astarion's win ended awkwardly: the play-off music cut Newbon off while he was describing players' heartfelt responses to the character.

Which die settles most attacks and dialogue checks in 2023's hit Dungeons & Dragons role-playing video game?

A 20-sided die decides it, but a default setting called karmic dice quietly nudges the rolls so that bad luck doesn't run in long streaks.

Which 2023 Remedy Entertainment horror sequel won Best Narrative and Best Art Direction at The Game Awards?

Alan Wake 2 took 13 years to arrive: Remedy pitched a sequel early on, but its talks with Microsoft turned into Quantum Break instead.

Which company funded Remedy Entertainment's 2023 horror sequel, keeping its PC version off Steam?

Epic Games Publishing signed Remedy in March 2020 on terms that covered development costs and split profits 50/50, so the PC version launched only on Epic's own store.

Which kind of new playable lead joins the trapped novelist in Remedy Entertainment's 2023 horror sequel?

An FBI agent was added for newcomers: 13 years after the first game, the writers didn't want anyone to need homework, so her murder case gives first-time players their own way in.

Which villain awakens as a mummified corpse beneath Hyrule Castle at the start of Tears of the Kingdom?

Ganondorf is held down by a glowing severed arm; once it lets go he shatters the Master Sword and ruins Link's arm, and that same arm becomes Link's replacement.

Tears of the Kingdom added islands in the sky and a vast underground region beneath Hyrule called what?

The Depths mirror the surface above: each Lightroot sits beneath a shrine and carries that shrine's name spelled backwards, so finding one pinpoints the other.

Which Tears of the Kingdom ability lets Link stick objects together to build vehicles?

Ultrahand exists because of fans: after watching players post videos of wild experiments in the previous game, the developers built tools that reward tinkering.

Which ancient people built the floating ruins, shrines and devices of Tears of the Kingdom?

The Zonai were little more than a name on some ruins in Breath of the Wild; the sequel reveals them as Hyrule's founders, come down from the sky, with Rauru as its first king.

Which Warner Bros. studio, once the maker of Disney Infinity, developed Hogwarts Legacy?

Avalanche Software came back from the dead: Disney shut it in May 2016 after cancelling Disney Infinity, and Warner Bros. bought and reopened it in January 2017.

Ranrok leads a rebellion of which magical creatures in Hogwarts Legacy, set in the 1890s?

Goblins supply the villain of a story set in the 1890s on purpose: the writers wanted players far enough from Harry Potter's era that Voldemort could never turn up.

Hogwarts Legacy was 2023's best-selling US game, ending a 14-year streak shared by Rockstar titles and which series?

Call of Duty or a Rockstar game had topped every US year since 2009; this time Modern Warfare III, released nine months after the wizarding game, had to settle for second.

Todd Howard described Starfield, Bethesda's first new IP in 25 years, with which three-word phrase?

"Skyrim in space" ended a long wait for Howard: in the 2000s, when Bethesda held the Star Trek licence, he pitched a Star Trek role-playing game that never got made.

About how many planets did Bethesda say players could land on in Starfield?

More than 1,000 planets is only possible because most are assembled on the fly: the game stitches blocks of terrain together as a ship approaches, then places handcrafted locations on top.

Starfield launched on September 6, 2023, for Windows and which console family only?

Xbox Series X/S was the only console at launch because Microsoft had finished buying Bethesda's parent, ZeniMax, in 2021. A PlayStation 5 version did not arrive until April 2026.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 pits Peter Parker and Miles Morales against Kraven and which alien symbiote?

Venom's host here is not Eddie Brock: the game's creative director said the aim was an original story, one players had not yet seen in the comics or the films.

Which PlayStation studio, also behind Ratchet & Clank, developed Marvel's Spider-Man 2?

Insomniac Games was hacked by a ransomware gang weeks after launch; when no ransom came, 1.67 terabytes of files spilled out, including the studio's release plans for the next 12 years.

In Super Mario Bros Wonder, Bowser fuses himself with the castle of which new land?

The Flower Kingdom's chatty Talking Flowers were a late swap: Nintendo spent about six months building sports-style live commentary on the player's moves, then dropped it.

A new fruit power-up in Super Mario Bros. Wonder transforms Mario into which animal?

The other new power-ups are a bubble flower and a drill mushroom. Wonder Flowers trigger effects like pipes coming to life mid-level.

Who voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros Movie, released in April 2023?

Jack Black also sang Bowser's piano ballad "Peaches" in the film, and it reached the Billboard Hot 100, his first solo entry on that chart.

Which animation studio made The Super Mario Bros Movie with Nintendo, the first video game film to gross $1 billion?

Illumination got the job through theme parks: Shigeru Miyamoto met its boss Chris Meledandri via Universal's park work with Nintendo, decades after the 1993 live-action film flopped.

Which publisher did Microsoft finish acquiring in October 2023, in what was then gaming's biggest-ever takeover?

Activision Blizzard agreed a $68.7 billion sale that took nearly two years of regulator battles; just over three months after closing, Microsoft cut 1,900 gaming jobs, many of them at its new purchase.

Which company bought cloud-streaming rights to the games in Microsoft's $68.7 billion 2023 takeover, winning over the UK regulator?

Ubisoft got the streaming rights to 15 years of the publisher's games after the UK regulator blocked the first deal in April 2023 over cloud gaming; the narrower version was cleared that October.

Which US agency went to court in 2023 to block Microsoft's $68.7 billion gaming takeover, and lost?

The Federal Trade Commission lost when a judge found the evidence pointed to more access to the games, not less; it lost an appeal too and dropped the case in May 2025.

What is the Florida-based fictional state revealed in the first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer called?

Leonida's reveal came early: a low-quality copy of the trailer leaked online, so Rockstar published the official version ahead of schedule.

The first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer introduced a criminal duo modelled on which real-life outlaw pair?

Bonnie and Clyde inspired Lucia and Jason, partners in love and crime; the trailer also sent Spotify streams of its Tom Petty song, Love Is a Long Road, up nearly 37,000 percent.

Street Fighter 6's main new mechanic, a meter that can be spent on five different techniques, is called what?

The Drive Gauge is full from the start of each round, but spend it all and the fighter enters Burnout: it refills on its own while blocking weakens, so managing it decides matches.

In the 2023 Resident Evil 4 remake, Leon rescues the president's daughter from a cult in which country?

Spain's cult plot began as a rush job: the original game's director says he wrote the story in two or three weeks, and he praised the remake for fleshing out his hurried work.

Which 2023 action RPG made $666 million within five days of going on sale?

Diablo IV hit the total five days after launch and became its studio's fastest-selling game, months after the same studio's Overwatch 2 had launched to server attacks and long login queues.

Who is the protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI, guardian to his younger brother Joshua?

Clive Rosfield's dark tale of warring realms owes a debt to television: the early story drew on the first seasons of Game of Thrones, and the team was full of fans of the show.

Masayoshi Soken, who scored Final Fantasy XVI, made his name composing for which long-running online Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy XIV's music kept coming even in 2020, when Soken wrote from a hospital room during months of chemotherapy, revealing the illness to players only in 2021.

Pikmin 4 introduced which two new Pikmin species?

Ice and Glow Pikmin do new jobs: the first freeze enemies and even pools of water, while the second defend a base from night raiders in the series' first missions after dark.

Which studio, known for the horror series The Evil Within, surprise-released the rhythm-action game Hi-Fi Rush in January 2023?

Tango Gameworks was marked for closure by Microsoft in May 2024 even though an Xbox executive had called the game a breakout hit; PUBG publisher Krafton bought the studio and Hi-Fi Rush three months later.

In Dave the Diver, what does Dave do each evening after his daytime dives?

Dave helps run a sushi restaurant for chef Bancho, and the hit sparked a row: maker Mintrocket belongs to Korean giant Nexon, yet it was nominated for Best Independent Game.

The 2023 Soulslike Lies of P is loosely based on which 19th-century novel?

The Adventures of Pinocchio gives the game its hook: P can choose to lie or tell the truth to the people of Krat, those choices shape the ending, and a cricket named Gemini rides along.

Which Dark Souls and Elden Ring studio revived its mech series with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon?

The war on Rubicon 3 is fought over Coral, a powerful energy source. It became the best-selling entry in the series and won Best Action Game at The Game Awards.

Redfall, Arkane Austin's poorly received 2023 shooter, pitted four survivors against what?

Vampires cut the island town off from the world, and the fallout was real: a year after launch Microsoft closed Arkane Austin, cancelled the promised new heroes and compensated players who had bought them.

Which zombie shooter, once the most wishlisted game on Steam, was pulled from sale within a week of its December 2023 launch?

The Day Before failed so fast that studio Fntastic announced its own closure four days in, saying it lacked the funds to go on; refunds followed and the servers shut the next month.

In 2023, Unity sparked a developer revolt by announcing a per-installation charge it called what?

The runtime fee cost Unity dearly: its chief executive was out within a month of the announcement, and a year later the company scrapped the charge altogether.

What happened to E3 2023, planned as its first in-person show since 2019?

E3 2023 was cancelled after major publishers pulled out, with Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony all skipping it, and that December the organiser ended the show for good.

Which November 2023 Sony accessory streams PS5 games to a handheld screen but cannot run games itself?

PlayStation Portal launched as purely a window into the owner's own PS5: no apps, no local games and no link to Sony's cloud service, which reached it only in a late-2024 test.

Valve refreshed the Steam Deck in November 2023 with a model featuring what kind of screen?

The OLED model hid a Final Fantasy VII joke: its new chip is codenamed Sephiroth, replacing the original's Aerith, the heroine that villain famously kills.

Cocoon director Jeppe Carlsen previously designed which two atmospheric puzzle-platformers?

Limbo and Inside were both side-scrollers, and Cocoon began as one too, until Carlsen's team found a top-down view made hopping between its worlds hit harder.

HBO's The Last of Us, which won Best Adaptation at The Game Awards 2023, stars which actor as Joel?

Pedro Pascal took over from Troy Baker, who voiced Joel in the games and turns up in the series as a settler named James.

Cyberpunk 2077's 2023 expansion Phantom Liberty added which lawless new district to Night City?

Dogtown is where the New United States president's aircraft crashes, and V's rescue mission pulls in a sleeper agent played by Idris Elba.

Assassin's Creed Mirage, a return to stealth roots, is set in the 9th century in which city?

Baghdad had to be rebuilt from texts: none of the Abbasid Round City's structures survive, so the team leaned on historians and medieval descriptions to recreate it.

Which actor plays Jedi Knight Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, set five years after Fallen Order?

It was the last game EA released under its ten-year exclusive Star Wars licence with Lucasfilm. Director Stig Asmussen returned from the first game.

How does engineer Isaac Clarke differ in the 2023 Dead Space remake from the 2008 original?

Silent in 2008, he is fully voiced this time by Gunner Wright, who played him in the two sequels, so the engineer can argue and bond with his crew.

Sea of Stars' Solstice Warriors Valere and Zale wield the power of what?

The sun and moon power Zale, a blade dancer, and Valere, a lunar monk, and the homage runs deep: Chrono Trigger's own composer, Yasunori Mitsuda, wrote guest tracks for the game.

Which Wonka star presented Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023?

Timothée Chalamet's slot summed up critics' complaints: celebrity guests talked for minutes, while winners were told to wrap it up after about thirty seconds.

Which games conglomerate began closing studios in 2023, among them Saints Row maker Volition, after a $2 billion deal collapsed?

Embracer Group had grown by buying studio after studio; when the $2 billion deal fell through it began shutting and selling them, and Volition closed that August.

Which review aggregator's scores made 2023 gaming's best-reviewed year in two decades, with 25 releases averaging 90 or higher?

Metacritic counted 25 such releases by late October, about double a typical year, and many had been given extra time: Tears of the Kingdom was held back more than a year for polish.

Which RPG from the makers of Genshin Impact won Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2023?

Honkai: Star Rail went turn-based for a reason: its makers, known for fast action games, said many players still love command battles and that taking turns gives newcomers an easier way in.

Which racing game won Best Sports/Racing and Innovation in Accessibility at The Game Awards 2023?

Forza Motorsport, Turn 10's reboot, added Blind Driving Assists: audio cues that let blind and low-vision players race.

Counter-Strike 2, released in September 2023, was built on which game engine?

Source 2 is Valve's own engine, and the move came as a free upgrade that replaced Global Offensive on Steam instead of launching beside it.

In Zeekerss's 2023 co-op horror hit about selling scrap from abandoned moons, who employs the players?

The Company sets an ever-rising profit quota, and a crew that misses it is ejected into space.

Pizza Tower, the 2023 indie hit starring pizza chef Peppino Spaghetti, was built as a spiritual successor to which Nintendo series?

Wario Land 4 lent its best trick: Peppino topples a pillar at a level's end, then must sprint back to the entrance before a countdown runs out.

Which GameCube classic returned as a surprise Switch remaster, released the same day it was revealed in February 2023?

Metroid Prime's GameCube controls had no free aim while moving, so players locked on to shoot; the remaster's default twin-stick layout plays like a modern shooter.