Tag: SXSW Gaming Awards

SXSW Gaming Awards: All the Winners from 2013 to 2022

The SXSW Gaming Awards were previously given out each Spring as part of the South by Southwest festival, honoring games released during the previous calendar year. The ceremony was first held in 2014, but games and gaming have a long history at the Austin festival.

South by Southwest, also popularly known as SXSW, first opened its doors in 1987 as a regional music festival organized by The Austin Chronicle. After quickly growing in prominence over the next few years, SXSW expanded its scope in 1994 with the addition of a Film Festival. A Multimedia track focusing on technology and games would launch a year later.

SXSW’s celebration of games and game creators would get its own section, Screenburn, in 2006. That name was clearly a vestige of early 2000s “xtreme” culture, and it gave way to the more familiar SXSW Gaming in 2013.

Nominees for the SXSW Gaming Awards were chosen by festival staff with assistance from an advisory board. After the nominees were announced, the public helped determine the winners by participating in an online vote to help select the winners, which was weighted alongside another vote from festival staff and the advisory board.

The SXSW Gaming Awards were discontinued in 2023.

Every “Video Game of the Year” winner from the SXSW Gaming Awards can be found here…

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GOTY Flashback: 2013-2014 SXSW Gaming Awards

The organizers of South By Southwest have closed the doors on yet another festival within the Austin city limits, but for the first time in nearly a decade, they did so without the SXSW Gaming Awards. According to a spokesperson for the event, the Gaming Awards were discontinued this year in an effort to “streamline our festival a bit more.”

But rather than wonder whether SXSW’s jury would have chosen Elden Ring or God of War: Ragnarok, let’s look back at the winners from the very first SXSW Gaming Awards ceremony in 2013-2014.

The inaugural program from the SXSW Gaming Awards honored the best games from 2013 and you’ll find a very familiar name at the very top of the list. The Last of Us, which has since spawned multiple re-releases, a sequel, and a live-action adaptation, was the most-awarded game of the night, collecting “Game of the Year” honors for Naughty Dog, as well as three other statuettes (“Narrative,” “Musical Score,” and “SFX”).

While The Last of Us edged out some tough opposition for the big prize at the first SXSW Gaming Awards, almost all of the other titles competing for “Game of the Year” came away with something.

▶ The “Excellence in Gaming Marketing” award went to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for promoting a life of piracy.
▶ The patriotic imagery of Columbia snared the “Excellence in Art” award for Irrational’s BioShock Infinite.
▶ Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, which has also been re-released multiple times in the last decade, received the “Excellence in Technical Achievement” award.
▶ The chaotic multiplayer of Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D World won “Best Multiplayer Game.”
▶ And the origami world of Media Molecule’s Tearaway won “Excellence in Design and Direction.”

The full list of winners and nominees from the 2013-2014 SXSW Gaming Awards (as reported by the Austin Chronicle) can be found after the break.

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Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker Wins “Video Game of the Year” at 2021-2022 SXSW Gaming Awards

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker made history this weekend at the 2021-2022 SXSW Gaming Awards.

Square Enix’s MMO won “Video Game of the Year” at the close of the ceremony, marking the first time an MMO has ever won the top prize at one of the major year-end award shows. Not content with a single trophy, the game also took home the “Excellence in Narrative” and “Excellence in Original Score” awards for Square Enix and Producer Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida.

As in years past, the SXSW voting body chose to spread out the remainder of the awards among a wide variety of deserving titles.

The developers at Witch Beam can put the “Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award” on their shelf for Unpacking, but it was Kena: Bridge of Spirits that was honored with the “Indie Game of the Year” award last night. Another buzzy indie from last year, Daniel Mullins’s Inscryption, cashed in a winning hand with a victory in the “Excellence in Game Design” category.

Insomniac’s Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart rode its next-gen accolades to a trophy for “Excellence in Technical Achievement,” and Playground’s Forza Horizon 5 did the same in the “Excellence in Animation, Art, and Visual Achievement” category.

The creepy soundscapes of Capcom’s Resident Evil Village claimed the “Excellence in Audio Design” award, while stablemate Resident Evil 4 VR won “VR Game of the Year.”

Finally, after scoring “Game of the Year’ victories at The Game Awards and the DICE Awards, Hazelight’s It Takes Two had to settle for “Excellence in Multiplayer” at SXSW.

A complete list of winners and nominees from the 2021-2022 SXSW Gaming Awards can be found after the break.

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Hades is “Video Game of the Year” at the 2020-2021 SXSW Gaming Awards

The God of the Underworld has added South By Southwest to his expansive domain as Supergiant’s Hades was named “Video Game of the Year” during last night’s ceremony for the 2020-2021 SXSW Gaming Awards. The roguelike also collected a second trophy for “Excellence in Game Design.”

Festival organizers decided to drastically slim down the category slate, presenting just a dozen awards this year (down from 17 in 2019-2020), though 43 different games received at least one nomination. Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima and Moon Studios’s Ori and the Will of the Wisps led the way with four nominations apiece and both managed to score one win (“Excellence in Animation, Art, and Visual Achievement” for Sucker Punch and “Excellence in Score” for Moon Studios).

But it was another indie that managed to outshine the rest of the lineup at this year’s ceremony, as Ghost Ship Games’s Deep Rock Galactic was the only other two-time winner for “Indie Game of the Year” and “Excellence in Multiplayer.” Other winners at the 2020-2021 SXSW Gaming Awards included Half-Life: Alyx (“VR Game of the Year”), Dreams (“Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award”), The Last of Us Part II (“Excellence in Narrative”), Microsoft Flight Simulator (“Excellence in Technical Achievement”), and Doom Eternal (“Excellence in Audio Design”).

The SXSW Gaming Awards also selects a “Tabletop Game of the Year” every year as well, and this year the award went to The Search for Planet X.

A complete list of winners and nominees from the 2020-2021 SXSW Gaming Awards can be found after the break.

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Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Wins “Video Game of the Year” at the 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards

The cancellation of this year’s South By Southwest feels like a distant memory, but in the weeks since the announcement was made, a few people had started to wonder if the winning envelopes from the 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards would also remain locked away forever. Thankfully, the festival’s organizers recently fired off a press release that revealed all the winners.

Drumroll, please…

From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice won “Video Game of the Year,” and the one-armed ninja also snuck away with a win for “Excellence in Visual Achievement.” Only ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium (the “Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award” and “Excellence in Narrative”) and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding (“Excellence in Musical Score” and “Excellence in Technical Achievement”) were able to earn more than a single award from this year’s voters.

“Gaming is a key part of the creative ecosystem that brings us together, and now more than ever it provides us with a unique sense of escape and adventure in uncertain times,” said Hugh Forrest, the Chief Programming Officer for South By Southwest. “We were devastated that we weren’t able to celebrate our honorees in person with the cancellation of our event, but glad that we’re still able to share their achievements and creative works with our community.”

A complete list of winners and nominees from the 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards can be found after the break.

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See the Nominees from the Possibly-Canceled 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards

The organizers of South By Southwest officially canceled the 2020 edition of the massive arts festival on March 6, and that also means this year’s SXSW Gaming Awards will not go on as planned.

Wil Wheaton and Janina Gavankar were originally picked to co-host the ceremony, which would have taken place tonight, but with no further updates from SXSW, it’s possible we’ll never find out which games were slated to win. However, that shouldn’t stop us from honoring all the previously-announced nominees.

Remedy’s Control and Kojima Productions’s Death Stranding led the way with seven nominations apiece, but Kojima’s latest mindbender wasn’t nominated for “Video Game of the Year.” Instead, Control was grouped with Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5, ZA/UM’s Disco Elysium, From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for SXSW’s most-coveted award.

You can find a complete list of nominees from the 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards in all categories after the break.

UPDATE (3/26/20): The winners of the 2019-2020 SXSW Gaming Awards were announced in a press release.

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God of War Captures “Game of the Year” at 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards

Sony Santa Monica’s God of War continued its award-winning ways this weekend with a trio of wins at the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards. The action-adventure title was awarded “Game of the Year” by SXSW’s Gaming Advisory Board, as well as “Excellence In Design” and “Excellence in Visual Achievement.”

The rest of the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards were spread out among a large number of games, and like Kratos, several managed to secure multiple victories. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only other game to win in three categories, and it took home some hardware as the “Trending Game of the Year,” along with “Excellence in Technical Achievement” and “Excellence in SFX.”

Insomniac’s Spider-Man won two awards (“Excellence in Convergence” and “Excellence in Animation”), as did Epic’s Fortnite (“Most Promising New Esports Game” and “Excellence in Multiplayer”) and Beat Games’s Beat Saber (“VR Game of the Year” and “Most Promising New Intellectual Property”).

Congratulations to all the winners, and you can find a complete list of every winning game (and all the nominees) from the 2018-2019 SXSW Gaming Awards after the break.

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is “Video Game of the Year” at 2017-2018 SXSW Gaming Awards

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took home another trophy last night when the “open-air” adventure was named “Video Game of the Year” at the 2017-2018 SXSW Gaming Awards. The Nintendo Switch launch title also scooped up awards for “Excellence in Design” and “Excellence in Gameplay”

PUBG Corporation’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds also picked up three awards last night (“Esports Game of the Year,” “Trending Game of the Year,” and “Excellence in Multiplayer”), and a handful of other games (Cuphead, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Nier: Automata) were two-time winners.

You can find the complete list of winners and nominees from the 2017-2018 SXSW Gaming Awards after the break.

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Uncharted 4 Wins “Video Game of the Year” at the 2016-2017 SXSW Gaming Awards

Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End was named “Video Game of the Year” at the 2016-2017 SXSW Gaming Awards last night, finally putting an end to Overwatch‘s winning streak. Nathan Drake’s final adventure also earned the big prize in the “Excellence in Narrative” and “Excellence in Animation” categories, and the treasure hunter himself won for “Most Memorable Character.”

However, don’t feel too bad for Blizzard, Overwatch took home three SXSW Gaming Awards including “Esports Game of the Year,” “Most Promising New Intellectual Property,” and “Excellence in Multiplayer.”

The WWE’s Austin “Xavier Woods” Creed hosted the 2016-2017 SXSW Gaming Awards, and he also handed out statuettes to a wide variety of other games including Pokemon Go (“Mobile Game of the Year”), Doom (“Excellence in Gameplay” and “Excellence in Musical Score”), Battlefield 1 (“Excellence in Technical Achievement” and “Excellence in SFX”), and Dishonored 2 (“Excellence in Design”). And this year’s “Tabletop Game of the Year” award was given to Fantasy Flight’s Arkham Horror: The Card Game.

You can find all the winners and nominees from last night’s SXSW Gaming Awards show after the break.

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