Steam Winter Sale start date confirmed, Steam Award nominees announced

Valve has announced the final list of nominees for the 2018 Steam Awards, and has also confirmed that the Steam Winter Sale, as rumored yesterday, will begin on December 20.

First things first: The shortlist! The categories for 2018 are somewhat more grounded than they have been in previous years—no trying to figure out what the hell "Mom's Spaghetti" means, for instance.

Game of the Year:

Playerunknown's Battlegrounds
Monster Hunter: World
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Hitman 2
Assassin's Creed Odyssey

VR Game of the Year:

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

Labor of Love:

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

Best Environment:

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

Better with Friends:

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

Best Alternate History:

Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Hearts of Iron 4
Sid Meier's Civilization 6
Fallout 4

Most Fun with a Machine:

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

Best Developer:

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

You will notice that the "Best Developer" category has ten nominees—twice as many as all the others. This, Valve explained, is because it was a "highly-contested category" during the nominations, and so it expanded the category (and excluded itself from it) to give all the contenders a proper shot.

Valve said that voting for the 2018 Steam Awards will begin on December 20, "along with the launch of the 12th Annual Winter Sale," so there's that nailed down as well. Voting will be open until January 3, with Steam trading cards going to everyone who takes part. The winners are expected to be announced in February.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.