Baldur’s Gate 3 Also Takes Best Narrative, Best Design and the Audience Award; The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Venba Take Home Two Awards Each

Baldur’s Gate 3, the critically acclaimed role-playing game by Larian Studios, has been presented with the Game of the Year award during the 24th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCAs), the prominent peer-based video game event that celebrates the developers who have created the year’s top games. In addition to Game of the Year, Baldur’s Gate 3 also claimed three other distinguished awards at tonight’s ceremony: Best Narrative, Best Design and the Audience Award. The GDCA ceremony was presented as part of the 2024 Game Developers Conference (GDC), which is taking place this week at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

Larian Studios’ Baldur’s Gate 3 is a role-playing game based upon the tabletop fantasy RPG system of Dungeons & Dragons and was created by the team who developed the beloved Divinity series. The game was partially released in Early Access in October 2020 but has received a breadth of new content and features leading up to its full release in late 2023. The game is directed by Larian Studios’ founder and CEO Swen Vincke, who has had a hand in all of the studio’s creations since its founding in 1996.

Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom also claimed high honors at the show, winning both the Innovation and Best Technology Awards. The title is a continuation of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which won Game of the Year, Best Audio and Best Design Awards during the 2018 GDCA ceremony. Visai Games’ Venba also received two awards, with the unique narrative cooking game having all the ingredients needed to be served with the Best Debut and Social Impact Awards.

Other winners of the night include Alan Wake 2, created by Remedy Entertainment, which received the Best Visual Art Award in recognition of its chilling atmosphere and visually impressive graphics. Hi-Fi Rush by Tango Gameworks took home the Best Audio Award thanks to its impressive soundtrack composed of both licensed and original compositions alongside its unique overall audio direction.

The Game Developers Choice Awards also took the time to celebrate two important and influential figures in the industry. This year, the GDCA was honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Yoko Shimomura, the respected Japanese composer and pianist who has delighted players across the world thanks to her work creating music for iconic games including Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG, Street Fighter II and Final Fantasy XV. The GDCA also welcomes the return of the Ambassador Award, which is given to individuals who have helped video games advance to a better place. The honor was presented to Fawzi Mesmar, an award-winning creative director, game designer, author, public speaker and mentor whose career has spanned over two decades in the games industry and has had a hand in developing well-known franchises such as the Battlefield, Candy Crush, Mario Rabbids, Star Wars and Persona series.

The 24th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards winners are:

Best Debut

Venba (Visai Games)

Best Visual Art

Alan Wake 2 (Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games)

Best Audio

Hi-Fi Rush (Tango Gameworks / Bethesda Softworks)

Best Narrative

Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)

Social Impact Award

Venba (Visai Games)

Innovation Award

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Best Technology

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo)

Best Design

Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)

Audience Award

Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)

Game of the Year

Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios)

Ambassador Award

Fawzi Mesmar

Lifetime Achievement Award

Yoko Shimomura

The awards were livestreamed on the official Twitch channel for the Game Developers Conference (GDC) at Twitch.tv/GDC and are archived both on Twitch and on the official GDC YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/c/gdconf.

For more information about the 24th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit: http://www.gamechoiceawards.com. For more details on the Game Developers Conference, please visit the GDC’s official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Official photos are available via the Official GDC Flickr account: www.flickr.com/photos/officialgdc.

About GDC

The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professional game industry event with market-defining content for programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision makers, and others involved in the development of interactive games and immersive experiences. GDC brings together the global game development community year-round through events and digital media.

GDC is organized by Informa PLC, a leading B2B information services group and the largest B2B Events organizer in the world. To learn more and for the latest news and information visit www.informa.com.

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