The Last Of Us Honored With 10 Awards Including Game Of The Year At 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards

Top Honors Celebrating the Creative Accomplishments in Interactive Entertainment Also Went to Bioshock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, Plants vs. Zombies 2, and More

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Suspense, horror, and surreal worlds dominated the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, the video game industry's most prestigious honors. Naughty Dog's dystopian, post-apocalyptic reimagining of the zombie thriller, The Last Of Us, stole the show with 10 awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Story, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming, Adventure Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction and the industry's top honor, Game of the Year.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140207/DC60994-a )
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140207/DC60994-b )

The evening's other big winners included Irrational Games' provocative alternate-historical FPS, Bioshock Infinite, which took home Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. PopCap's runaway mobile hit Plants vs. Zombies 2 won both Casual Game of the Year and Mobile Game of the Year, while EA Canada's FIFA 14 continued the FIFA franchise's run of five consecutive wins with Sports Game of the Year.  Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons, Starbreeze Studios' touching, story-driven adventure, took home the hardware for Downloadable Game of the Year. Wargaming's multiplayer online game World of Tanks took home the honor for the D.I.C.E. Awards' newest category, Online Game of the Year.

"Tonight's big winner, The Last of Us, is a prime example of how today's modern video game studios expertly blend art, game play, and storytelling to transcend the traditional notion of video games," said Martin Rae, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "This year's winners range from deep, story-driven epics and massive interactive worlds to realistic sports action and engaging mobile experiences. They paint a broad picture of the new golden age we're currently experiencing in the video game industry."

Hosted by actress, producer and gamer Felicia Day, with fellow gamer and filmmaker, Freddie Wong, the awards were revealed in front of industry professionals at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas and broadcast online via Twitch.tv. The show was the culmination of the annual two-day D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit (#DICE2014), drawing some of the brightest and most influential interactive entertainment industry leaders, decision makers and visionaries.

The complete list of winners as decided by an all-peer-based voting system, includes:

Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Animation

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Character Performance

The Last of Us (Ellie)

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition

Bioshock Infinite

• Publisher: 2K Games
• Developer: Irrational Games

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Story

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering

Grand Theft Auto V

• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Developer: Rockstar North

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Action Game of the Year

Bioshock Infinite

• Publisher: 2K Games
• Developer: Irrational Games

Adventure Game of the Year

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Fighting Game of the Year

Injustice: Gods Among Us

• Publisher: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Developer: NetherRealm Studios

Role Playing Game/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year

Diablo III

• Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment

Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year

XCOM: Enemy Within

• Publisher: 2K Games
• Developer: Firaxis Games

Casual Game of the Year

Plants VS Zombies 2

• Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
• Developer: PopCap, Electronic Arts Inc.

Family Game of the Year

Super Mario 3D World

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo EAD Tokyo Software Development Group No.2

Racing Game of the Year

Forza Motorsport 5

• Publisher: Microsoft Studios
• Developer: Turn 10 Studios

Sports Game of the Year

FIFA 14

• Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
• Developer: EA Canada

Downloadable Game of the Year

Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons

• Publisher: 505 Games
• Developer: Starbreeze Studios

Handheld Game of the Year

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Nintendo EAD Software Development Group No.3

Mobile Game of the Year

Plants VS Zombies 2

• Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
• Developer: PopCap, Electronic Arts Inc.

Online Game of the Year

World of Tanks

• Publisher: Wargaming Public Company Ltd. 105
• Developer: Wargaming.net

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

Game of the Year

The Last of Us

• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
• Developer: Naughty Dog Inc.

During the ceremony, Rockstar Games' Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and Sam Houser were inducted as the 18th, 19th and 20th members of the AIAS Hall of Fame. Rockstar Games achieved worldwide recognition for its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series and open-world epics such as Red Dead Redemption and Bully.  Their latest blockbuster, Grand Theft Auto V, garnered this year's accolade for Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering.

The AIAS also honored game industry trailblazer Eugene Jarvis as its sixth Pioneer Award recipient. Jarvis is known as a key player from the golden age of arcade games, who was instrumental in establishing the interactive industry with such seminal games as Defender, Robotron: 2084 Narc, and Smash TV

Since 1996, the D.I.C.E. Awards have recognized outstanding games, individuals and development teams that push the boundaries of technology, creativity and artistic expression in the worldwide interactive entertainment industry. Titles were played and evaluated by members of the Academy's Peer Panels. The panels are comprised of the game industry's most experienced and talented men and women. Each panel is responsible for evaluating one award category. D.I.C.E. Awards recipients are determined by a vote of qualified Academy and IGDA members. Award voting is confidential, conducted online and supervised and certified by VoteNet Solutions, Inc. The integrity of the system, coupled with a broad-based voting population of AIAS members, makes the D.I.C.E. Awards the most credible, respected and recognized awards for interactive entertainment software. 

The show was produced by the AIAS in conjunction with media partner PMC/Variety. Highlights of the Awards Show will be available on Variety's YouTube channel.

About the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences:
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) was founded in 1996 as a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to promote, advance and recognize the outstanding achievements in the interactive entertainment industry worldwide. The Academy conducts its annual awards show, the D.I.C.E. Awards, to celebrate and honor creative accomplishments in the field. To further enhance awareness of the Academy's vision, the organization created the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit in 2002, a once yearly conference dedicated to exploring approaches to the creative process and artistic expression as they uniquely apply to the development of interactive entertainment. With more than 22,000 members, including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Google, Bethesda Game Studios, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Double Fine, Gearbox Software, Nexon and Insomniac Games, among others.

More information can be found at http://www.interactive.org and http://www.dicesummit.org. Follow the Academy on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+.

SOURCE Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences