Today the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the nominees for its two new virtual reality (VR) focused categories: Immersive Reality Game of the Year and Immersive Reality Technical Achievement. The nominees feature some of the best known VR video games on the market, across a range of genres.
The Immersive Reality Game of the Year category focuses on the title that best utilizes the attributes of the platform. Elements such as design, direction and narrative are all factored into the title selection, states AIAS.
The nominees for Immersive Reality Game of the Year are:
- Eagle Flight – Developer: FunHouse/Publisher: Ubisoft
- I Expect You To Die – Developer: Schell Games/Publisher: Schell Games
- Job Simulator – Developer: Owlchemy Labs/Publisher: Owlchemy Labs
- The Lab – Developer: Valve/Publisher: Valve
- SUPERHOT VR – Developer: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o./Publisher: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o.
While the Immersive Reality Technical Achievement celebrates the highest level of technical achievement within an immersive experience. Elements like artificial intelligence, physics, engine mechanics, and visual rendering are all taking into consideration.
The nominees for Immersive Reality Technical Achievement are:
- Eagle Flight – Developer: FunHouse/Publisher: Ubisoft
- I Expect You To Die – Developer: Schell Games/Publisher: Schell Games
- Job Simulator – Developer: Owlchemy Labs/Publisher: Owlchemy Labs
- SUPERHOT VR – Developer: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o./Publisher: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o.
- Tilt Brush – Developer: Google/Publisher: Google
While these two categories are purely for VR video games, immersive titles do crop up in several other categories. These include Driveclub VR for Racing Game of the Year, Pokémon Go in Mobile Game of the Year and Game of the Year, and I Expect You To Die in Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.
The awards ceremony will take place on 23rd February 2017 in Las Vegas after the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit, live-streamed from 7:30pm PT/10:30pm ET via live.interactive.org.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit, reporting back with any further updates.