The Game Developer Choice Awards 2019 held its annual event at the end of GDC 2019’s first day, honouring the best videogames across the industry, whether they were AAA, mobile, indie or virtual reality (VR) in nature. Up for the VR/AR category were some of the best-known titles, but it was the all-dominating Beat Saber that won out.
Beat Games’ Beat Saber was up against Budget Cuts, Tetris Effect, Moss, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission, adding another award to its collection. Additionally, Beat Saber was the only videogame out of the entire awards selection to win a second time, with the Audience Award.
It seems that there’s an awful lot of love for the saber swinging rhythm action title, which is still listed as an Early Access title on Steam. Currently supporting PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it was confirmed this week that Beat Saber would be a launch title for standalone headset Oculus Quest.
“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 the Game Developers Conference in a statement. “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.”
The full list of Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:
- Best Audio – Celeste (Matt Makes Games)
- Best Debut – Mountains (Florence)
- 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 (Sony Santa Monica / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
- Pioneer Award – Rieko Kodama
- Lifetime Achievement Award – Amy Hennig
For all the latest updates from GDC 2019, keep reading VRFocus.