Key Highlights:
- Yuri Lowenthal and Neil Newbon exchanged supportive messages following The Game Awards 2023.
- Baldur’s Gate 3 won six awards, including Game of the Year and Best Performance, while Spider-Man 2 received seven nominations without a win.
- Their exchange followed online disagreements over the results and wider criticism of the ceremony’s treatment of award winners.
Yuri Lowenthal, the voice of Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and Neil Newbon, who portrays Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3, have publicly expressed their admiration for one another following The Game Awards 2023. Their exchange came after Newbon won Best Performance ahead of Lowenthal, prompting disagreements among some fans over the results.
The ceremony, held on 7 December, saw Baldur’s Gate 3 collect six awards, including Game of the Year, while Spider-Man 2 received seven nominations without securing a victory.
Following the awards, Lowenthal shared an image featuring Spider-Man alongside Astarion with the message “Spread love, not hate.”
He reinforced the sentiment by writing “This. So much this,” encouraging fans to appreciate both performances rather than turn the awards into a rivalry.
Newbon responded warmly on 11 December, praising Lowenthal’s talent, expressing his admiration for the actor and mentioning how much he had enjoyed meeting him and Tara Platt.
Their interaction carried additional weight because both actors had competed directly for Best Performance. Newbon ultimately won for his portrayal of Astarion, while Lowenthal was nominated for his performance as Peter Parker.
I think the most telling part of their exchange is how little the award itself mattered to either actor’s public response. Where some fans saw competing performances and opposing results, Lowenthal and Newbon chose to recognise each other’s work.
The friendly messages also followed Baldur’s Gate 3 winning Game of the Year, another result that prompted arguments among supporters of the two games.
Beyond the results, The Game Awards 2023 faced criticism for limiting the time winners had to deliver their acceptance speeches.
Several recipients encountered prompts asking them to finish speaking, with particular concern surrounding Larian Studios’ Game of the Year acceptance speech.
Host and producer Geoff Keighley subsequently acknowledged that the closing music had begun too quickly for some winners.
As reported by Push Square, Keighley said he had asked the production team to relax the timing restrictions during the ceremony and recognised that the issue needed attention in future.
His response addressed the presentation of the awards rather than the results themselves.
Against that backdrop, Lowenthal and Newbon’s interaction offered a reminder that recognition from fellow performers can matter just as much as an award, regardless of which game takes home the trophy.
