Elden Ring, the acclaimed action role-playing game from renowned game director Hidetaka Miyazaki and fantasy writer George R. R. Martin, was awarded Game of the Year at the Game Developers Choice Awards on Wednesday—taking home three awards over the course of the night.
FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment’s smash hit Elden Ring is the latest game from the team that created the challenging yet rewarding Dark Souls series. The title is directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who pioneered the so-called “Soulsborne” genre itself, and features writing and world-building from fantasy novelist and writer/producer George R. R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon).
Not only does Elden Ring return to The Lands Between with the momentous Game of the Year award, but the game also claimed the prize in the Best Design and Best Visual Arts categories.
Here is a video highlighting this year's winners.
Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War Ragnarök also claimed high honors at the show with three awards, winning Best Audio and Best Technology—along with the Audience Award,which was selected through a public vote. God of War Ragnarök continues the story of the demigod Kratos and his son Atreus as they face down powerful foes from Norse Mythology while the world approaches Ragnarök, the world-ending cataclysmic battle.
The other big winners of the night include Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive), which won Best Debut, IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions) which received the Innovation Award, Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios), winner for Best Narrative, and Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller), which won the Social Impact Award.
The Game Developers Choice Awards also spotlights influential figures in the industry who push the medium forward each year. This year, GDCA was honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to John Romero, who helped pioneer the first-person shooter genre, the widely popular multiplayer gamemode “Deathmatch” and much more through his work on games such as Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake.
This year’s Pioneer Award was posthumously awarded to Mabel Addis, widely regarded as the first female video game designer, who designed The Sumerian Game for the IBM 7090 in 1964. Mabel’s award was accepted on her behalf by Mabel’s grandson, Erik Johnson.
The winners of the 2023 Game Developers Choice 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
The GDCA ceremony took place as part of the 2023 Game Developers Conference, taking place in San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. Winners were selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, composed of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.
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