The Game Developers Conference (GDC) Awards for 2023 was held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the best of the best video games got appreciated for their excellence. Coming as a real shocker (not), Elden Ring won three awards, which included the Game of The Year awards as well. The Tolkien-inspired world by G.R.R. Martin got another couple of awards as well, which include the Best Visual Art, and Best Design awards. The game had already won multiple awards at The Game Awards, D.I.C.E. Awards, and other outlets, making this win come as a surprise to no one.
Sony Santa Monica’s God of War Ragnarok also performed well, taking home three awards just like Elden Ring, including the Audience award, which was the only award selected through public voting. The other two included Best Audio, and Best Technology (whatever that means). Other notable games from last year, such as Stray, Pentiment, and Immortality, also won awards at the ceremony.
Elden Ring And God of War Ragnarok Hit Big at GDC Awards 2023
You can see the complete list of awards at GDC 2023 below:
Best Debut
Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive)
Best Visual Art
Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Best Audio
God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Narrative
Pentiment (Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studios)
Social Impact Award
Citizen Sleeper (Jump Over The Age/Fellow Traveller)
Innovation Award
IMMORTALITY (Half Mermaid Productions)
Best Technology
God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Design
Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
Audience Award
God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Game of the Year
Elden Ring (FromSoftware Inc./Bandai Namco Entertainment)
The International Choice Awards Network, an invitation-only organization of game creators, picked the winners. This year, John Romero, an industry legend, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Mabel Addis, the first American female game designer, received the Pioneer Award.
Elden Ring’s success continued even after winning multiple awards, becoming the studio’s best-selling game with 20 million copies sold in the first year after its release. Bandai Namco, the game’s publisher, released impressive data on how gamers interacted with the world of Elden Ring in the past year, including over 9 billion deaths, over 5.9 billion boss attempts, and over one billion summons.
FromSoftware is currently working on the game’s first expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, which may not release until after the studio’s next game, Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, rumored to launch in September. Elden Ring fans are also eagerly waiting for the ray tracing patch coming to PC and current-generation consoles.