Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year explained

The Game Developers Choice Award for the Game of the Year, also known as GDCA Game of the Year, is the main video game award presented at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers. The conference, usually held in or around March in San Francisco, presents the award as part of the Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), a series of awards honoring outstanding achievements in video game design for games released during the previous calendar year. It has been awarded since 2001.

Only four studios have won the award more than once:

• Valve, for Half-Life 2 (2004) and Portal (2007)
• Bethesda Game Studios, for Fallout 3 (2008) and (2011)
• Naughty Dog, for (2009) and The Last of Us (2013)
• Rockstar Games, for Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and Red Dead Redemption (2010)

The most successful video game publisher to date is Sony Interactive Entertainment with 13 nominations and 4 wins, followed by Nintendo (11 nominations, 1 win), Electronic Arts (8 nominations and 1 win) and Rockstar Games (7 nominations and 2 wins). Indie games have won the award 4 times: Journey (published by Sony Interactive Entertainment) in 2012, Untitled Goose Game in 2019, Hades in 2020, and Inscryption in 2021.

List of winners

2000s

Note: From 2005 to 2007 the award was titled Best Game. Years listed represent calendar years for which the awards were given. Ceremonies are usually held in March the following year.

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)
2000 (1st)	The Sims	Maxis	Electronic Arts	[1]
Deus Ex	Ion Storm	Eidos Interactive
Jet Set Radio	Smilebit	Sega
No One Lives Forever	Monolith Productions	Fox Interactive
Shenmue	Sega AM2	Sega
2001 (2nd)	Grand Theft Auto III	DMA Design	Rockstar Games	[2]
Black & White	Lionhead Studios	Electronic Arts
	Bungie	Microsoft Game Studios
Ico	Team Ico	Sony Computer Entertainment
Max Payne	Remedy Entertainment	Gathering of Developers / Rockstar Games
2002 (3rd)	Metroid Prime	Retro Studios	Nintendo	[3]
Battlefield 1942	Digital Illusions	Electronic Arts
	Rockstar North	Rockstar Games
Neverwinter Nights	BioWare	Atari
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell	Ubisoft Montreal	Ubisoft
2003 (4th)	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic	BioWare	LucasArts	[4]
Beyond Good & Evil	Ubisoft Montpellier / Ubisoft Milan	Ubisoft
Call of Duty	Infinity Ward	Activision
	Ubisoft Montreal	Ubisoft
	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo
2004 (5th)	Half-Life 2	Valve	Valve	[5]
	Criterion Games	Electronic Arts
	Rockstar North	Rockstar Games
Katamari Damacy	Namco	Namco
World of Warcraft	Blizzard Entertainment	Blizzard Entertainment
2005 (6th)	Shadow of the Colossus	Team Ico	Sony Computer Entertainment	[6]
	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo
God of War	Santa Monica Studio	Sony Computer Entertainment
Guitar Hero	Harmonix	RedOctane
The Movies	Lionhead Studios	Activision
2006 (7th)	Gears of War	Epic Games	Microsoft Game Studios	[7]
	Bethesda Game Studios	Bethesda Softworks
	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo
Ōkami	Clover Studio	Capcom
Wii Sports	Nintendo EAD	Nintendo
2007 (8th)	Portal	Valve	Valve	[8]
BioShock	2K Boston / 2K Australia	2K Games
	Infinity Ward	Activision
Rock Band	Harmonix	MTV Games / Electronic Arts
Super Mario Galaxy	Nintendo EAD Tokyo	Nintendo
2008 (9th)	Fallout 3	Bethesda Game Studios	Bethesda Softworks	[9]
Fable II	Lionhead Studios	Microsoft Game Studios
Grand Theft Auto IV	Rockstar North	Rockstar Games
LittleBigPlanet	Media Molecule	Sony Computer Entertainment
Left 4 Dead	Turtle Rock Studios	Valve
2009 (10th)		Naughty Dog	Sony Computer Entertainment	[10]
Assassin's Creed II	Ubisoft Montreal	Ubisoft
	Rocksteady Studios	Eidos Interactive / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Demon's Souls	FromSoftware	Sony Computer Entertainment
	BioWare	Electronic Arts

2010s

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)
2010 (11th)	Red Dead Redemption	Rockstar San Diego	Rockstar Games	[11]
	Ubisoft Montreal	Ubisoft
	Treyarch	Activision
Limbo	Playdead	Playdead
Mass Effect 2	BioWare	Electronic Arts
2011 (12th)		Bethesda Game Studios	Bethesda Softworks	[12]
	Rocksteady Studios	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Dark Souls	FromSoftware	Namco Bandai Games
	Eidos Montréal	Square Enix
Portal 2	Valve	Valve
2012 (13th)	Journey	Thatgamecompany	Sony Computer Entertainment	[13]
Dishonored	Arkane Studios	Bethesda Softworks
Mass Effect 3	BioWare	Electronic Arts
The Walking Dead	Telltale Games	Telltale Games
	Firaxis Games	2K Games
2013 (14th)	The Last of Us	Naughty Dog	Sony Computer Entertainment	[14]
Gone Home	The Fullbright Company	The Fullbright Company
Grand Theft Auto V	Rockstar North	Rockstar Games
Super Mario 3D World	Nintendo EAD Tokyo	Nintendo
Tomb Raider	Crystal Dynamics	Square Enix
2014 (15th)		Monolith Productions	Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment	[15]
	Creative Assembly	Sega
Bayonetta 2	PlatinumGames	Nintendo
Destiny	Bungie	Activision
Hearthstone	Blizzard Entertainment	Blizzard Entertainment
2015 (16th)		CD Projekt Red	CD Projekt	[16]
Bloodborne	FromSoftware	Sony Computer Entertainment
Fallout 4	Bethesda Game Studios	Bethesda Softworks
	Kojima Productions	Konami
Rocket League	Psyonix	Psyonix
2016 (17th)	Overwatch	Blizzard Entertainment	Blizzard Entertainment	[17] [18]
Dishonored 2	Arkane Studios	Bethesda Softworks
Firewatch	Campo Santo	Panic
Inside	Playdead	Playdead
	Naughty Dog	Sony Interactive Entertainment
2017 (18th)		Nintendo EPD	Nintendo	[19] [20]
Horizon Zero Dawn	Guerrilla Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment
	PlatinumGames	Square Enix
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds	PUBG Corporation	PUBG Corporation
Super Mario Odyssey	Nintendo EPD	Nintendo
2018 (19th)	God of War	Santa Monica Studio	Sony Interactive Entertainment	[21] [22]
Celeste	Matt Makes Games	Matt Makes Games
Marvel's Spider-Man	Insomniac Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games	Rockstar Games
Return of the Obra Dinn	Lucas Pope	3909 LLC
2019 (20th)	Untitled Goose Game	House House	Panic	[23] [24]
Death Stranding	Kojima Productions	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Control	Remedy Entertainment	505 Games
	FromSoftware	Activision
Outer Wilds	Mobius Digital	Annapurna Interactive

2020s

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)
2020 (21st)	Hades	Supergiant Games	Supergiant Games
	Nintendo EPD	Nintendo
Ghost of Tsushima	Sucker Punch Productions	Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Valve	Valve
The Last of Us Part II	Naughty Dog	Sony Interactive Entertainment
2021 (22nd)	Inscryption	Daniel Mullins Games	Devolver Digital	[25]
Deathloop	Arkane Studios	Bethesda Softworks
Forza Horizon 5	Playground Games	Xbox Game Studios
It Takes Two	Hazelight Studios	Electronic Arts
Resident Evil Village	Capcom	Capcom
2022 (23rd)	Elden Ring	FromSoftware	Bandai Namco Entertainment	[26]
God of War Ragnarök	Santa Monica Studio	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality	Sam Barlow	Half Mermaid Productions
Pentiment	Obsidian Entertainment	Xbox Game Studios
Stray	BlueTwelve Studio	Annapurna Interactive
Tunic	Finji	Finji
2023 (24th)	Baldur's Gate 3	Larian Studios	Larian Studios	[27] [28]
Cocoon	Geometric Interactive	Annapurna Interactive
Dave the Diver	Mintrocket	Mintrocket
Dredge	Black Salt Games	Team17
Marvel's Spider-Man 2	Insomniac Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Nintendo EPD	Nintendo

Notes and References

1. Web site: 1st Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
2. Web site: 2nd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
3. Web site: 3rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
4. Web site: 4th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
5. Web site: 5th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
6. Web site: 6th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
7. Web site: 7th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
8. Web site: 8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
9. Web site: 9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
10. Web site: 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
11. Web site: 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
12. Web site: 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
13. Web site: 13th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
14. Web site: 14th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
15. Web site: 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. GameChoiceAwards.com. Game Developer Conference. 19 March 2016.
16. Web site: Game Developers Choice Award winners led by Her Story, The Witcher 3. Polygon.com. 17 March 2016 . 31 October 2016.
17. Web site: Inside, Overwatch & Firewatch lead GDC 2017 Choice Awards nominees. Gamasutra. 4 January 2017. 4 January 2017.
18. Web site: Watch The Game Developers Choice Awards Right Here Tonight . Eddie . Makuch . Jason . Imms . March 1, 2017 . March 1, 2017 . .
19. Web site: Zelda, Horizon lead 2018 Game Developers Choice Award nominees . Michael . McWhertor . January 5, 2018 . January 5, 2018 . .
20. News: Breath of the Wild takes top prize at the 2018 Game Developers Choice Awards! - GDC News. 2018-03-22. GDC News. 2018-05-02. en-US.
21. Web site: Red Dead Redemption 2 leads list of GDC 2019 Choice Awards nominees! . January 4, 2019 . January 4, 2019 . .
22. Web site: God of War wins Game of the Year at the 2019 Game Developers Choice Awards. Staff. 2019-03-20. Gamasutra. 2019-03-25. English.
23. Web site: Death Stranding leads the pack of 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees . January 8, 2020 . January 8, 2020 . .
24. Web site: Untitled Goose Game nabs Game of the Year at the 2020 Game Developers Choice Awards! . March 18, 2020 . March 18, 2020 . .
25. Web site: 'Deathloop,' 'It Takes Two,' And 'Forza Horizon 5' Lead Nominees For GDCA 2022 . January 12, 2021 . January 12, 2021 . GDConf .
26. Web site: Beth Elderkin . 'Elden Ring' Wins Game Of The Year At The 2023 Game Developers Choice Awards . Game Developers Choice Conference . March 22, 2023.
27. Web site: The finalists have been announced for the Game Developers Choice Awards 2024. Vince. Pavey. MCVUK. January 16, 2024. February 13, 2024.
28. Web site: 'Baldur's Gate 3' Wins Game Of The Year At The 2024 Game Developers Choice Awards. Beth. Elderkin. Game Developers Conference. 20 March 2024. 20 March 2024.