Elden Ring takes home Game of the Year at the 23rd annual GDC Awards.
The 2023 Game Developers Choice Awards saw some of last year’s biggest games recognised for their achievements in front of an admiring audience of industry peers at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.
FromSoftware’s acclaimed action RPG Elden Ring won awards in three categories. It picked up Best Design, Best Visual Art, and the coveted Game of the Year award. The awards cap an extraordinary year for the game, which has topped numerous GOTY lists and achieved sales of over 20 million copies.
Sony’s God of War Ragnarök was also victorious, winning the Best Audio and Best Technology awards.
Elsewhere, Citizen Sleeper received the Social Impact Award, and BlueTwelve Studio’s Stray scampered away with Best Debut. Warren Spector was also on hand to present the Lifetime Achievement award to a deserving John Romero.
Here is the full list of GDC award nominees and winners.
GDC Awards 2023 Winners
Best Audio
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Metal: Hellsinger (The Outsiders/Funcom)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Debut
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Norco (Geography of Robots/Raw Fury)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
- Vampire Survivors (Poncle)
Best Design
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Marvel Snap (Second Dinner Studios, Inc./Nuverse)
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Innovation Award
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Neon White (Angel Matrix/Annapurna Interactive)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Narrative
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Return to Monkey Island (Terrible Toybox/Devolver Digital)
Social Impact Award
- As Dusk Falls (INTERIOR/NIGHT/Xbox Game Studios)
- Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
- Endling – Extinction Is Forever (Herobeat Studios/HandyGames)
- I Was A Teenage Exocolonist (Northway Games/Finji)
- OlliOlli World (Roll7/Private Division)
- We Are OFK (Team OFK)
Best Technology
- A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Beenox, Treyarch, High Moon Studios, Sledgehammer Games, Activision Shanghai, Demonware, Toys for Bob/Activision)
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Visual Art
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Game of the Year
- Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Immortality (Sam Barlow/Half Mermaid)
- Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
- Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Tunic (Tunic Team/Finji)
Read about this year’s IGF Awards winners and visit Thumbsticks over the next month to read a series of exclusive reports from GDC 2023.
