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Pick Your Favorites Among The D.I.C.E. Award Nominations
Every year, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences combs through the many games that released over the past 12 months, and selects some of the best for consideration in the D.I.C.E. awards. Those nominations are then voted on by over 33,000 game industry professionals to determine the winners; in that way, the selections are a little different than some gaming awards, as they represent the collective thoughts from colleagues within the field.
This year’s nominations represent the variety we saw from the 2016 gaming year, including some big success stories in both large scale and indie development. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has a lot of chances to win big, snagging 10 distinct nominations, followed closely by indie darling, Inside. Other strong contenders include Battlefield 1, The Last Guardian, Firewatch, and Overwatch. Winners will be revealed at the 20th annual awards ceremony on February 23. This year's awards will also feature Bethesda's Todd Howard as he is inducted into the organization's Hall of Fame. If you'd like to make a note in your calendar, you can plan to watch a full stream of the event at 7:30pm PT that evening, though the link provided to the live stream appears to be inactive as of this writing.
The D.I.C.E. awards include 24 distinct categories, and you can learn about all of this year's nominations on the Academy’s official nominations page. You can also learn about last year's winners. The following are the categories that the Academy are shining the brightest spotlight on, as expressed in the organization’s nomination press release.
Game of the Year
Battlefield 1
Inside
Overwatch
Pokemon Go
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
1979 Revolution: Black Friday
Battlefield 1
Inside
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
D.I.C.E. Sprite Award
1979 Revolution: Black Friday
Firewatch
Inside
Superhot
That Dragon, Cancer
Adventure Game of the Year
Firewatch
Inside
King's Quest: The Complete Collection
The Last Guardian
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Action Game of the Year
Battlefield 1
Doom
Gears of War 4
Overwatch
Titanfall 2
Mobile Game of the Year
Clash Royale
Crashlands
Gardenscapes - New Acres
Pokémon Go
Reigns
I'm always intrigued to see the nominations for the D.I.C.E. Awards, as they tend to skew further away from raw popularity, and more toward valuing innovation and risk, at least in some cases. It will be interesting to see if industry professionals give the winning nod to big titles like Uncharted 4 and Overwatch, or if we'll see smaller titles like Inside and Firewatch take home some big categories.
