The 2023 Game Developers Choice Awards nominees have been announced with familiar faces in the lead. The International Choice Awards Network (ICAN) selects both the nominees and the winners. All members invited into the organization fulfill leading roles in various facets of the gaming industry. All nominees have been selected from games released in 2022.
The Game Developers Choice Awards is part of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) which initially started as an informal gathering in 1988. What started with 25 developers getting together in a living room to talk about computer games is now coming up to its 37th edition and welcomes developers from various platforms from all over the industry. GDC now includes consoles, mobile and handheld devices, tablets, online, and computer games and has recently started to expand into the world of VR and AR.
The finalists for Game Developers Choice Awards' Game of the Year are Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarok, Immortality, Pentiment, Stray, and Tunic. Elden Ring and Stray are leading in top nominations as both received 6. After them follows God of War Ragnarok with 5, among them a nomination for Best Narrative, and Pentiment with 4 nominations, competing with God of War for Best Narrative. All four are up for Best Visual Art. In addition to the categories of Best Debut, Best Audio, Best Design, Best Narrative, Best Technology, Best Visual Art, Innovation Award, Social Impact Award and Game of the Year, there will be an Audience Award that will be decided by all those who'll attend GDC and wish to vote. The 23rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards is part of GDC 2023 which will be held in San Francisco from March 20-24. Click here for the full list of GDC Awards nominees and categories.
Among the competing games is also Poncle's Vampire Survivors, which is up for Best Debut and is facing up against Angel Matrix's Neon White, Geography of Robots' NORCO, BlueTwelve Studio's Stray and TUNIC team's Tunic. When it comes to AAA titles, Sony Interactive's Horizon Forbidden West snatched up nominations for Best Audio, Best Technology and Best Visual Art, competing against all the above-mentioned major nominees.
While the categories are not as extensive as with other game award shows there are still plenty of video games that are represented among the nominees. The other titles that are up for nominations are Metal: Hellsinger for Best Audio, Marvel Snap for Best Design, A Plague Tale: Requiem for Best Technology, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist for Best Narrative and Social Impact Award, Return to Monkey Island for Best Narrative and among the Social Impact Award nominees are also As Dusk Falls, Citizen Sleeper, Endling - Extinction is Forever, OlliOlli World, and We Are OFK.