God of War wins Game of the Year at Game Developers Choice Awards

The 19th annual Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony was held Wednesday night at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Sony Santa Monica’s God of War took home the coveted Game of the Year prize. It beat out Red Dead Redemption 2, which received the most nominations this year, as well as Marvel’s Spider Man, Return of the Obra Dinn, and Celeste.

This year’s nominees were announced in January. The slate is chosen each year by video game developers from around the world. The full list of winners is included below.

Each year during GDC, the Game Developers Choice Awards also takes time to honor notable figures in the industry with two very special honors. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given this year to Amy Hennig, whose career in the industry began in the Atari era. She has since become famous for her work as creative director and writer of the Uncharted series. On hand to receive the Pioneer Award was veteran game developer Rieko Kodama, whose own 30-plus-year career includes classic titles such as Phantasy Star, Alex Kidd, and Skies of Arcadia.

“The Game Developers Choice Awards represent the most refined games of the year, and the sheer variety of games honored tonight showed that games can still represent wholly new and unique creative visions,” said Katie Stern, general manager of GDC, in a news release.

“A number of independently developed titles like Celeste, Gris and Florence helped prove how internal or deeply personal turmoil can make for massively appealing games for millions of fans. While games like God of War and Red Dead Redemption 2 capture our imagination with poignant moments juxtaposed against epic tales of staggering scale and technical prowess. We embrace and accept all these amazingly creative works, and we’re proud to recognize these nominees and winners alike for the imagination and hard work that brought them here.”

You can watch an archive of the event on Twitch.

Best Audio

Celeste (Matt Makes Games)

Best Debut

Florence (Mountains)

Best Design

Into the Breach (Subset Games)

Best Mobile Game

Florence (Mountains)

Innovation Award

Nintendo Labo (Nintendo EPD/Nintendo)

Best Narrative

Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope/3909)

Best Technology

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)

Best Visual Art

Gris (Nomada Studio/Devolver Digital)

Best VR/AR Game

Beat Saber (Beat Games)

Audience Award

Beat Saber (Beat Games)

Game of the Year

God of War (SIE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Pioneer Award

Rieko Kodama

Lifetime Achievement Award

Amy Hennig