Ben Starr deserved his Best Lead Performer win. His performance as Clive Rosfield in FFXVI is one of the best I’ve ever heard. The game also won Best Audio, which is also well-deserved in my opinion. Game of the Year was obivous, but I don’t think Resi 4 Remake should have gotten the PS GOTY. Starfield as Xbox GOTY seems controversial, but I’m fine with it.
High budgets are killing the film industry. In the case of gaming, it plays a factor, but greed is probably the main issue. Most big budget AAA games in the past made large amounts of money even if they didn’t have universal appeal. Because companies realised that they could make large amounts of money off loot boxes, microtransactions, cash shops and battle passes, they started trying to funnel players into games, mainly so that players would buy things. That’s one of the main reasons the AAA industry is getting worse: games need to appeal to as many as possible, while coming out as fast as possible, all so that players will buy the overpriced in-game items endlessly shoved in players’ faces.