Vote now for the 2018 Steam Awards

Valve has unveiled the full categories and finalists for its 2018 Steam Awards.

Launched in tandem with Steam’s 12th Annual Winter Sale, Steam users will be able to cast their votes across eight different categories. As a thank you for their participation, voters will be able to pick up a set of digital trading cards.

"Best Developer proved to be a highly-contested category with a lot of close calls among the top nominees," Valve explained in its press release, explaining why there are so many shortlisted for this particular category. "As a result, we expanded the set of nominees to 10. In addition, we’ve excluded Valve (ourselves) from this category."

Voting closes on January 3rd, 2019, with the winners expected to be announced in early February. Here’s the full nomination list:

Nominees for Game of the Year

• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
• Monster Hunter: World
• Kingdom Come: Deliverance
• Hitman 2
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Nominees for VR Game of the Year

• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
• VRChat
• Beat Saber
• Fallout 4 VR
• Superhot VR

Nominees for Labor of Love

• Dota 2
• Grand Theft Auto V
• No Man’s Sky
• Path of Exile
• Stardew Valley

Nominees for Best Environment

• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• Subnautica
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Far Cry 5
• Dark Souls III

Nominees for Better with Friends

• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Payday 2
• Dead by Daylight
• Overcooked! 2

Nominees for Best Alternate History

• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
• Hearts of Iron IV
• Sid Meier’s Civilization VI
• Fallout 4

Nominees for Most Fun with a Machine

• Euro Truck Simulator 2
• Rocket League
• NieR: Automata
• Factorio
• Space Engineers

Nominees for Best Developer

• CD Projekt Red
• Ubisoft
• Bethesda
• Rockstar Games
• Digital Extremes Ltd.
• Square Enix
• Capcom
• Paradox Interactive
• Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Klei

Valve recently announced changes to its Steam Distribution Agreement that enables developers of the platform’s biggest games to retain more profit. Broadly in line with the profit share tiers across other platforms like Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox, Valve roughly takes a 30 per cent cut of all game sales published on its PC digital platform. 

Now, however, Valve has agreed to drop its share to 25 per cent once revenue surpasses $10 million, and then down to 20 per cent for sales over $50 million. The changes – which apply from October 1st, 2018 – will apply to all revenue, including in-game purchases and DLC.

"Our hope is this change will reward the positive network effects generated by developers of big games, further aligning their interests with Steam and the community."