Metal Gear Solid V, The Witcher 3 Lead Nominees for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers have revealed the nominees for the 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, the leading peer-based video game event celebrating the industry's top games and developers. The host for the ceremony will be veteran developer Robin Hunicke, co-founder of Funomena. Winners in all categories will be honored at the Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony, taking place on Wednesday, March 16th, 2016 at 6:30pm at the San Francisco Moscone Center during the 2016 Game Developers Conference alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards. The ceremonies will be livestreamed on Twitch at the following link:http://www.twitch.tv/gdca

Among the esteemed nominees, two games have earned the most nominations in four categories each. The open-world entry in Kojima Productions' legendary action stealth franchise, Metal Gear Solid V, has earned nominations for Best Audio, Best Design, Best Technology and Game of the Year. CD Projekt RED's vast open-world action role-playing game, The Witcher 3, received nods for Best Visual Art, Best Narrative, Best Technology and Game of the Year.

A diverse selection of additional titles received multiple nominations for the Game Developers Choice Awards, including six titles which each earned three nominations apiece. DICE earned three nominations for its action shooter set in the beloved Star Wars universe, Star Wars Battlefront, including nods for Best Audio, Best Technology and Best Visual Art. FromSoftware's dark and rewardingly punishing action RPG, Bloodborne, is the nominee for Best Design, Best Visual Art and Game of the Year. Bethesda Game Studios' ambitious and massive RPG world of Fallout 4 received nominations for Best Design, Best Technology and Game of the Year. Nintendo's breakout color-filled third-person shooter, Splatoon, nabbed nominations for Best Design, Innovation Award and Best Visual Art.

A pair of acclaimed independent games also received multiple nominations for their novel approach to game design. Her Story by Sam Barlow received accolades for the game's unique true crime detective story and earned nominations for Best Handheld/Mobile, Innovation Award and Best Narrative. Undertale, the subversive and clever RPG that puts the fate of nearly every NPC in the player's hands, earned nominations for Innovation Award, Best Narrative and Best Debut for developer Toby Fox.

Any video game that was released and made publicly available to customers during the 2015 calendar year, irrespective of platform or delivery medium, is eligible for nomination for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards. Both nominees and winners are selected by the Game Developers Choice Awards-specific International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), which is an invitation-only organization, comprised of leading game creators from all parts of the industry.

The host for the 2016 Game Developers Choice Awards, Robin Hunicke, has established a career designing, making and teaching about games for more than 12 years. Hunicke has contributed to an eclectic mix of critically acclaimed titles, including Journey, Boom Blox, MySims, The Sims 2 and several others. Recognized as an influential Woman in Games, Hunicke is an outspoken evangelist for diversity of thought and participation in game design and game culture. She co-organizes the annual Experimental Gameplay Workshop at GDC, and is also a Professor of Art, Games & Playable Media at UC Santa Cruz. A game designer and producer by training, she has a background in computer science, fine art and applied game studies. She currently serves as the co-founder of the independent San Francisco game studio Funomena, where she is working on Luna and Wattam.

The complete list of nominees, including honorable mentions, for the 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards is as follows:

Game of the Year
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt)
Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami)
Bloodborne (FromSoftware / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Rocket League (Psyonix)

Honorable Mentions: Her Story (Sam Barlow), Super Mario Maker (Nintendo EAD Group No. 4 / Nintendo), Undertale (Toby Fox), Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo), Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix)

Innovation Award
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
Super Mario Maker (Nintendo EAD Group No. 4 / Nintendo)
Undertale (Toby Fox)
Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo)
The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)

Honorable Mentions: Rocket League (Psyonix), Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (Steel Crate Games) Cibele (Star Maid Games), Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix), Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami)

Best Debut
Studio Wildcard (ARK: Survival Evolved)
Toby Fox (Undertale)
Moon Studios (Ori and the Blind Forest)
Moppin (Downwell)
Steel Crate Games (Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes)

Honorable Mentions: Asteroid Base (Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime), Question (The Magic Circle), Thomas Happ (Axiom Verge), Dinosaur Polo Club (Mini Metro), MidBoss (Read Only Memories)

Best Design
Rocket League (Psyonix)
Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami)
Bloodborne (FromSoftware / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/ Bethesda Softworks)
Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo)

Honorable Mentions: Her Story (Sam Barlow), Super Mario Maker (Nintendo EAD Group No. 4 / Nintendo), Undertale (Toby Fox), The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt), Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios / Microsoft Studios)

Best Handheld/Mobile Game
Lara Croft: GO (Square Enix Montreal / Square Enix)
Fallout Shelter (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Downwell (Moppin / Devolver Digital)
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
AlphaBear (Spry Fox)

Honorable Mentions: Prune (Joel McDonald), The Room Three (Fireproof Games), Subterfuge (Ron Carmel and Noel Llopis), Pac-Man 256 (Hipster Whale and 3 Sprockets / BANDAI NAMCO), Sage Solitaire (Zach Gage), SteamWorld Heist (Image and Form), You Must Build a Boat (EightyEight Games)

Best Visual Art
Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios / Microsoft Studios)
The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt)
Star Wars Battlefront (DICE / Electronic Arts)
Bloodborne (FromSoftware / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo)

Honorable Mentions: Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami), Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics / Square Enix), Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment), The Order: 1886 (Ready at Dawn / Sony Computer Entertainment), Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (The Chinese Room / Sony Computer Entertainment), Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)

Best Narrative
Her Story (Sam Barlow)
The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt)
Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix)
Undertale (Toby Fox)
The Beginner's Guide (Everything Unlimited Ltd.)

Honorable Mentions: Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (The Chinese Room / Sony Computer Entertainment), Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks), Until Dawn (Supermassive Games / Sony Computer Entertainment), Cibele (Star Maid Games), Soma (Frictional Games)

Best Audio
Star Wars Battlefront (DICE / Electronic Arts)
Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios / Microsoft Studios)
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (The Chinese Room / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami)
Crypt of the NecroDancer (Brace Yourself Games)

Honorable Mentions: Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks), The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt), Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment / Square Enix), SOMA (Frictional Games), Bloodborne (FromSoftware / Sony Computer Entertainment), Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo)

Best Technology
Metal Gear Solid V (Kojima Productions / Konami)
The Witcher 3 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt)
Star Wars Battlefront (DICE / Electronic Arts)
Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks)
Just Cause 3 (Avalanche Studios / Square Enix)

Honorable Mentions: Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics / Square Enix), Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment), Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2 / Nintendo), Super Mario Maker (Nintendo EAD Group No. 4 / Nintendo), Halo 5: Guardians (343 Industries / Microsoft Studios)

The Game Developers Choice Awards also gives out three annual Special Awards: the Pioneer,
Ambassador and Lifetime Achievement awards, all of which will be announced in the near future.

For more information about the 16th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit
http://www.gamechoiceawards.com. For information about the 2016 GDC, visit
http://www.gdconf.com.

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