The win was not without controversy, with fans split on whether Baldur’s Gate 3 really deserved the accolade, with many saying that No Man’s Sky did far more in 2025. While players still love Baldur’s Gate 3, they point out that Hello Games did more to support its game in 2025.
“I hate when people vote for things based on how much they like them rather than how much they deserve them,” one user writes on the Baldur’s Gate 3 subreddit. “BG3 is a great game, sure, but it received one final major update this (last) year. No Man’s Sky received four and it’s still going.”
Turning an unplayable ripoff game into something that is maybe worth the steam sale price ten years later isn’t a “labor of love” it’s mitigating legal risk from it’s investors.
BG3 added a ton of content since release, to the point where they even brought in the entire voice cast to record additional dialogue.
Unplayable? I bought the game at launch and it played absolutely fine.
Was it a barren wasteland with fuck all to do? Sure, but it worked perfectly fine, the last decade has seen HG turn NMS into one of if not the most comprehensive space adventure game.
Since 2016 they have added various additional stuff like VR support, alongside gameplay enhancements (IE: content like building your own fleet, bases, settlements, expeditions, animal taming etc). All for free.
Personally, I don’t consider the latter to be an indication of a labour of love, but rather an obligation to their fans (because larian are a very good studio, who care for their fans).
I love both games, but BG3 absolutely did not deserve the labour of love category imo, there are simply far more obvious alternatives.
NMS has too many bugs with years of technical debt, incoherent game design choices, broken promises, broken game mechanics, half-baked mechanics, terrible UI, an unrelatable story, and a cardboard universe…
It just doesn’t look like a passion project. HG have made quite a handsome profit from the updates as well.
deleted by creator
April had a content patch, 12 new subclasses and it enabled crossplay I believe.
https://www.gamesradar.com/games/baldur-s-gate/baldurs-gate-3-wins-steams-labor-of-love-award-following-2-years-of-updates-and-community-support-pretty-f-ing-good-way-to-start-2026/
No Man’s Sky has added thousands of generic resource gathering tasks by now!
I have tried playing it maybe half a dozen times and come to the same conclusion each time: “This is it?”
It’s a great game for wasting your time in the most banal tasks possible, but not much more.
How tf does bg3 have Limited replayability? Im on my 9th run! Wtf kind of take is this? Put the meds down pal.
deleted by creator
Right… linear… this guy has never played dark urge.
There’s differences in playthroughs, if you choose, but it is linear. The game ultimately railroads you to the same endings.
Tap for spoiler
Goes on to enslave the world is apparently the same thing as killing an eldritch being with an army of friends you amass and being a hero apparently.
Limited replayability? It’s top of mind for me when I’m rattling off replayable games.
Turning an unplayable ripoff game into something that is maybe worth the steam sale price ten years later isn’t a “labor of love” it’s mitigating legal risk from it’s investors.
BG3 added a ton of content since release, to the point where they even brought in the entire voice cast to record additional dialogue.
Unplayable? I bought the game at launch and it played absolutely fine.
Was it a barren wasteland with fuck all to do? Sure, but it worked perfectly fine, the last decade has seen HG turn NMS into one of if not the most comprehensive space adventure game.
Since 2016 they have added various additional stuff like VR support, alongside gameplay enhancements (IE: content like building your own fleet, bases, settlements, expeditions, animal taming etc). All for free.
Conversely, larian has repeatedly stated that they do not want to do additional content for BG3; with every patch release it’s “this is it, we’re done with this now”, and when quizzed on additional content, such as dlc, The studio claims the Devs were elated to cancel BG3 dlc in favour of making a different game entirely.
Personally, I don’t consider the latter to be an indication of a labour of love, but rather an obligation to their fans (because larian are a very good studio, who care for their fans).
I love both games, but BG3 absolutely did not deserve the labour of love category imo, there are simply far more obvious alternatives.
Hasn’t No Man’s Sky won before? I don’t think you could vote for ones that had won before
It was one of the runners-up, and I definitely voted for it… so, either it can win more than once or it didn’t win previously.
NMS has too many bugs with years of technical debt, incoherent game design choices, broken promises, broken game mechanics, half-baked mechanics, terrible UI, an unrelatable story, and a cardboard universe…
It just doesn’t look like a passion project. HG have made quite a handsome profit from the updates as well.