The German Computer Game Prize was awarded on May 11th. In Germany, the DCP 2023 is associated with €800,000 in prize money for German games. We look at which 3 games got the highest cash prizes on MeinMMO and see an interesting phenomenon when ranking the games by their Steam Reviews.
What makes the German computer game prize different? The high cash payments linked to the price cause a little astonishment in English-speaking countries. Prize money of €100,000 is not available at comparable events anywhere else.
The English-speaking gaming journalists from PC Gamer wrote in astonishment: When Geoff Keighley presents his video game prize to the public in December, there will be no check for Hideo Kojima.
It’s different in Germany, because the computer game prize is a kind of economic promotion from the Federal Republic for German game studios. The prize is sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection – i.e. by Green Jesus, Robert Habeck, personally.
The DCP is paying out a total of 800,000 euros in 15 categories.
A JRPG wins the award for best German game 2023
Who was the big winner of the night? The JPRG “Chained Echoes”, which was released on December 8, 2022 on Steam, won the prize for the “Best German Games”. It comes from Matthias Linda and was awarded by Deck 13.
It costs €25 on Steam and has 91% positive reviews.
On Steam it says about the game:
So apparently the jury chose a real cracker for the “Best German Game” and rewarded it with €100,000.
Only games that were at least 80% developed in Germany are allowed. The winners will be determined in a two-stage process:
€120,000 for “serious” game
Who got the most money? The game “Beholder 3” pocketed 3 cash prizes in all:
But Beholder 3 fares significantly worse than Chained Echoes on Steam. This is a “dystopian strategy sim” where you spy on tenants, employees, and bosses.
It only has 68% positive Steam reviews, costs €15 there.
The Steam reviews say the game has potential but is being ruined by gamebreaking bugs. Others criticize a weak translation and lame dialogue options.
But there are also people who praise the game as very entertaining – especially fans of the series. Beholder 1 was released on Steam in 2016 and has garnered 91% positive reviews to date.
€100,000 for survival horror from Germany
Who else has collected the right amount? There was €100,000 for “Signalis”, who got €60,000 for the best debut and €40,000 on top of that for the best sound design.
Signalis even has 95% positive reviews on Steam. This is a survival horror game. It is currently on sale for a reduced price of €16.
One review says: “Robots from space make me feel emotions again.”
Incidentally, the best international game was “God of War: Ragnarök” – but the prize is not endowed. Would be even nicer.
The cover photo shows Lara Trautmann (Lara Loft) during the event (Image source: Franziska Krug/Getty Images for Quinke Networks).