Elden Ring has won Game of the Year at the 23rd annual Game Developer Choice Awards. The awards ceremony took place this evening as part of the 2023 Game Developers Conference (GDC), running throughout this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. As a peer-based event, the Game Developer Choice Awards are voted for by developers themselves.
FromSoftware’s hugely-successful fantasy blockbuster also picked up the awards for Best Visual Art and Best Design.
Sony Santa Monica Studio’s God of War Ragnarok also enjoyed a successful evening with its own trifecta of trophies. God of War Ragnarok was awarded Best Audio, Best Technology, and the Audience Award.
This year’s Game Developer Choice Awards also recognised industry legend John Romero with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The id Software co-founder, who helped create Commander Keen, Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom II, and Quake, is renowned as a pioneer of the first-person shooter genre and spearheading the concept of the multiplayer deathmatch – a term he is often credited with creating. This year’s Pioneer Award was posthumously given to Mabel Addis, designer and writer of The Sumerian Game in 1964. Addis has been recognised as the first female game designer, and her work on The Sumerian Game’s story has been mooted as the first video game narrative ever.
The full list of awards and winners is below.
- Best Debut: Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
- Best Visual Art: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Best Audio: God of War Ragnarok (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 Ragnarok (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Best Design: Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
- Audience Award: God of War Ragnarok (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
Elden Ring has snared a host of major GOTY awards since its release, including Game of the Year at the 26th annual DICE Awards, the 2023 New York Game Awards, and The Game Awards 2022. We also recognised Elden Ring as IGN’s 2022 Game of the Year. If you’re yet to try this 10 out of 10 hit, now is the perfect time to join the more than 20 million others who already have – especially with the recent news an expansion is now on the horizon.
Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can chat to him on Twitter @MrLukeReilly.