PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds creator, Brendan Green, doesn’t believe the game is worthy of winning a ‘Game of the Year’ award.
Speaking to website IGN, the modder and developer thinks that other games this year, like Horizon Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are far better candidates, calling them “masterpieces of game design and storytelling.
"They’re just wonderful, wonderful games," he told IGN. "I think they will probably win it. I would hope they would win it.”
“Personally, I don’t want to win a Game of the Year award," Green also told IGN, who admitted it’d be a "nice feather in their cap" for developer Bluehole. "While I would love to win it for the team, I think this year there have been far better games… I don’t know if we deserve it.”
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is one of the breakout success stories of this year. The early access title has managed to demolish records set for concurrent Steam users, all held by Valve’s own games, along with establishing itself as an esports contender and a streaming staple for online audiences. Microsoft also nabbed the title as a console exclusive for the Xbox family of consoles, launching on December 12th in the Game Preview program.
The game is not yet released and so a game that is still in active development winning a game of the year award would be unusual, but stranger things have happened.