The 2021 Golden Joystick Awards took place last night, and in a community vote, PC was voted as the ultimate gaming hardware of all time. PC users already knew this of course, but it’s nice to have public validation all the same.

Besides the usual announcements for the best game of the year for each platform, this year’s Golden Joysticks also held a public vote where gamers could choose what they thought was the best hardware and best software of all time. On the hardware side, things were relatively simple with a list of every major console since the Atari 2600, including the Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and even the Amiga 500.

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The final five in this category boiled down to the original PlayStation, PS4, Super NES, PlayStation 2, and PC. Curiously, the Commodore 64 was also listed as a separate option from PC even though it’s arguably the first commercially available PC ever made.

But I digress. After a brief vote, PC won with 17% of the vote. Valve’s Gabe Newell showed up at last night’s presentation to accept the award for PC gamers everywhere, which seems appropriate given his platform’s domination of the PC gaming space.

"Gamers and developers have benefited enormously from the relentless innovation in PC gaming hardware," Newell said. "On behalf of all of those who've made the PC the greatest gaming hardware of all time, I am honored to accept this award."

Things were even more contentious on the software side. The Golden Joysticks picked 20 great games for voters to choose from, including Minecraft, Doom, Tetris, Mario 64, Half-Life 2, Metal Gear Solid, Pac-Man, SimCity, GTA 5, Breath of the Wild, Halo, Pokemon Go, Street Fighter 2, Space Invaders, The Last Of Us, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario Bros. 3, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Half-Life 2. That said, there were quite a few notable absences, such as Witcher 3, Terraria, Stardew, and many, many more.

The top two boiled down to Dark Souls and Doom, with Dark Souls just barely edging out the 1993 shooter with 12% of the vote.

As for the rest of the winners, here they all are in no particular order.

  • Best Storytelling - Life is Strange: True Colors
  • Best Multiplayer Game - It Takes Two
  • Best Audio - Resident Evil: Village
  • Best Visual Design - Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
  • Best Game Expansion - Ghost of Tsushima: Iki Island Expansion
  • Mobile Game of the Year - League of Legends: Wild Rift
  • Best Gaming Hardware - PS5
  • Best Indie Game - Death's Door
  • Studio of the Year - Capcom
  • Best Performer - Maggie Robertson (Lady Dimitrescu)
  • Breakthrough Award - Housemarque
  • Best Game Community - Final Fantasy 14
  • Still Playing Award - Final Fantasy 14
  • PC Game of the Year - Hitman 3
  • Nintendo Game of the Year - Metroid Dread
  • Xbox Game of the Year - Psychonauts 2
  • PlayStation Game of the Year - Resident Evil Village
  • Most Wanted Game - Elden Ring
  • Critics Choice Award - Deathloop
  • Ultimate Game of the Year - Resident Evil Village
  • Ultimate Hardware of All Time - PC
  • Ultimate Game of All Time - Dark Souls

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