It was another big night for Elden Ring, awarded Game of the Year at the 2023 Game Developers Choice Awards. The game also took home Best Visual Arts and Best Design.
Elden Ring is developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who pioneered the "Soulsborne" genre. It features writing and world-building from none other than fantasy novelist and writer/producer George R. R. Martin.
While Elden Ring was indeed the big winner at the 2023 GDC Awards, God of War Ragnarök also claimed high honors winning three awards: Best Audio, Best Technology, and Audience Award. God of War Ragnarök follows the demigod Kratos and his son Atreus as they face down strong foes from Norse Mythology.
Other big winners of the night were Stray for Best Debut, IMMORTALITY for Innovation Award, Pentiment for Best Narrative, and Citizen Sleeper for Social Impact Award.
GDC isn't all games as it also highlights the influential figures that helped push the industry forward each year. For 2023, the Lifetime Achievement Award was given to John Romero who helped pioneer the first-person shooter genre and the widely popular multiplayer game mode "Deathmatch." He worked on games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake.
Finally, the Pioneer Award was posthumously awarded to Mabel Addis, widely regarded as the first female video game designer and responsible for The Sumerian Game for the IBM 7090 in 1964. Accepting the award on her behalf was her grandson, Erik Johnson.
The complete list of winners for the 2023 GDC Awards are:
- Best Debut
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Best Visual Art
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Best Audio
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Best Narrative
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Social Impact Award
- Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
- Innovation Award
- IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions)
- Best Technology
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Best Design
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Audience Award
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Game of the Year
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Pioneer Award
- Mabel Addis
- Lifetime Achievement Award
- John Romero
What did you think of this year’s results?
