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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: THOMAS J. ALLEN
PHONE: 301-437-7880
E-MAIL: INFO AT NAVGTR DOT ORG
Sony, Bethesda, Warner Bros., Square Enix, and Nintendo lead NAVGTR Nominations
Los Angeles, CA (February 9, 2016) / NAVGTR CORP. — The National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers, a non-profit media organization, has announced nominations for its 15th annual awards program honoring video game art, technology, and production.
The nominees for GAME OF THE YEAR are:
• Batman: Arkham Knight
• Bloodborne
• Fallout 4
• Splatoon
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The leader in nominations (20) is Fallout 4, setting a record for most nominations. Heavy Rain is now the second most-nominated game. With 17 nominations, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt now ties for third most-nominated game in history, along with The Last of Us, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Metroid Prime.
Rounding out this year’s top nominees is The Order: 1886 with 10 nominations, as well as Life is Strange and Batman: Arkham Knight with 9 each.
Small budget leaders include Undertale, Ori and the Blind Forest, Her Story, and Crypt of the Necrodancer. Additional small budget games include Axiom Verge, Grow Home, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Donut County, iDARB, Lines the Game, and Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes.
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask scored 3 nominations. Despite an initial release in the year 2000, eligibility rules allow a re-release to compete if no previous version was nominated. Majora’s Mask pre-dates the existence of the academy by one year.
This year, with 21 nominations, Bethesda Game Studios leads the totals among development companies. CD Projekt RED has 17, and Nintendo has 14. Other top developers include Ready at Dawn (10), Rocksteady Studios (9), and Dontnod Entertainment (9). Developers Toby Fox and Sam Barlow tied the tallies from Microsoft.
By publisher, Sony leads with 25 nominations. Bethesda Softworks has 20, and Warner Bros. and Square Enix have tied with 19 each. Other top publishers include Nintendo (18), CD Projekt (17), and Activision (11).
Creative and technical award categories recognize achievement in animation, art direction, character design, control design, control precision, game design, game engineering, musical score, sound effects, writing, and more.
For a complete list of 56 categories and nominees, visit https://navgtr.org
This year’s Honorary Award recipients are Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, and Mark DeLoura, for developing programs for children to explore coding.
The academy now begins the attribution process to assign names and credits to each nominated work. An initial attribution record will be made available on February 16, and nominated company input is requested by March 1. Winners will be announced March 21, 2016.
NAVGTR strongly supports the IGDA Developer Credit special interest group (SIG) at http://igda.org/devcredit to improve crediting practices and help certify award attributions. Unofficial associated credits have been made available for those researching career achievements or preserving the history of game development where there is otherwise no public record at AIAS, DICE, GDC, GANG, VGA, VGX, TGA, BAFTA, and Golden Joysticks. The SIG group may seek to certify associated credits especially in cases where years of award recipients are not made public, though associated credits do not necessarily indicate actual recipients. To assist in proper future attributions, developers are highly encouraged to adopt the IGDA Credit Standards Guidelines as a first step.
All titles, characters, likenesses, and indictia are copyrights or trademarks of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
ABOUT NAVGTR CORP.
NAVGTR Corp.(TM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation devoted to promoting and recognizing the developments and achievements of the interactive entertainment industry for public awareness and education.
The general voting body of reviewers, journalists, analysts, and writers includes contributors for such varied outlets as 1up, About.com, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Austin American-Statesman, Break, Chicago Sun-Times, CNN, Contra Costa Times, Detroit Free Press, Digital Journal, Discovery, EclipseMagazine.com, EGM Now, FHM, Gamespot, Gaming Illustrated, Gannett News Service, Geek, Joystiq, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Machinima, MAX Level, Moody’s, National Post, NBC, New Gamer Nation, New York Times, The Ottawa Citizen, PC Gamer, Salon, San Jose Mercury-News, Terminal Gamer, USA Today, The Vancouver Sun, Wired News, and hundreds more.
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GAME OF THE YEAR
Batman: Arkham Knight
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Splatoon
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
ANIMATION, ARTISTIC
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Fallout 4
King’s Quest Chapter I: A Knight To Remember
Kirby and the Rainbow Curse
Rise of the Tomb Raider
ANIMATION, TECHNICAL
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Dying Light
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
ART DIRECTION, PERIOD INFLUENCE
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Fallout 4
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
ART DIRECTION, FANTASY
Bloodborne
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Yoshi’s Woolly World
ART DIRECTION, CONTEMPORARY
Batman: Arkham Knight
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Fallout 4
Life is Strange
Rise of the Tomb Raider
CAMERA DIRECTION IN A GAME ENGINE
Batman: Arkham Knight
Fallout 4
Mortal Kombat X
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CHARACTER DESIGN
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Evolve
Fallout 4
Life is Strange
CONTROL DESIGN, 2D OR LIMITED 3D
Axiom Verge
Super Mario Maker
CONTROL DESIGN, 3D
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Splatoon
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
CONTROL PRECISION
Batman: Arkham Knight
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Halo 5: Guardians
Ori and the Blind Forest
Rocket League
COSTUME DESIGN
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Fallout 4
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
DIRECTION IN A GAME CINEMA
Fallout 4
Life is Strange
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GAME DESIGN, NEW IP
Bloodborne
Life is Strange
Pillars of Eternity
Splatoon
Undertale
GAME DESIGN, FRANCHISE
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GAME ENGINEERING
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Super Mario Maker
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GRAPHICS, TECHNICAL
Fallout 4
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
INNOVATION IN GAME TECHNOLOGY
ANT VR
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Grow Home
Guitar Hero Live
Valve Steam Controller
LIGHTING/TEXTURING
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
ORIGINAL LIGHT MIX SCORE, NEW IP
Axiom Verge
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Galak-Z: The Dimensional
Life is Strange
Undertale
ORIGINAL LIGHT MIX SCORE, FRANCHISE
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
King’s Quest Chapter I: A Knight To Remember
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Tales from the Borderlands
Tales of Zestiria
ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE, NEW IP
Bloodborne
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Grey Goo
The Order: 1886
Pillars of Eternity
ORIGINAL DRAMATIC SCORE, FRANCHISE
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Halo 5: Guardians
Killer Instinct Season 2
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY, LEAD
Minecraft: Story Mode – Catherine Taber as “Jesse”
Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty! – Lorne Lanning as “Abe”
Tales from the Borderlands – Troy Baker as “Rhys”
PERFORMANCE IN A COMEDY, SUPPORTING
Minecraft: Story Mode – Martha Plimpton as “Olivia”
Tales from the Borderlands – Erin Yvette as “Sasha”
Xenoblade Chronicles X – Chris Cason as “Tatsu”
PERFORMANCE IN A DRAMA, LEAD
Fallout 4 – Brian T. Delaney as “Male Player Character”
Her Story – Viva Seifert as “Wife”
The Order: 1886 – Steve West as “Grayson / Sir Galahad”
Rise Of The Tomb Raider – Camilla Luddington as “Lara Croft”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Doug Cockle as “Geralt”
PERFORMANCE IN A DRAMA, SUPPORTING
Batman: Arkham Knight – John Noble as “Scarecrow”
Batman: Arkham Knight – Mark Hamill as “Joker”
Fallout 4 – Stephen Russell as “Codsworth/Nick Valentine”
Until Dawn – Brett Dalton as “Mike”
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – William Roberts as “Uncle Vesemir”
SONG, ORIGINAL OR ADAPTED
Devil’s Third – “Bleed Out”
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture – “The Mourning Tree”
Fallout 4 – “Good Neighbor”
Life is Strange – “To All of You”
Rare Replay – “Opening Number”
SONG COLLECTION
Fallout 4
Life is Strange
Rock Band 4
SOUND EDITING IN A GAME CINEMA
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Bloodborne
Fallout 4
The Order: 1886
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
SOUND EFFECTS
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Fallout 4
The Order: 1886
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
USE OF SOUND, NEW IP
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
Evolve
The Order: 1886
Until Dawn
USE OF SOUND, FRANCHISE
Fallout 4
King’s Quest Chapter I: A Knight To Remember
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Wars Battlefront
Super Mario Maker
WRITING IN A COMEDY
Minecraft: Story Mode
Tales from the Borderlands
WRITING IN A DRAMA
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Fallout 4
Her Story
Life is Strange
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GAME, CLASSIC REVIVAL
Grim Fandango Remastered
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
Rare Replay
GAME, MUSIC OR PERFORMANCE-BASED
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Guitar Hero Live
Rock Band 4
GAME, ORIGINAL ACTION
Bloodborne
Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
GAME, ORIGINAL ADVENTURE
Life is Strange
Ori and the Blind Forest
GAME, ORIGINAL FAMILY
Donut County
Splatoon
GAME, ORIGINAL FIGHTING
no nominations
GAME, ORIGINAL RACING
Fast Racing Neo
Project CARS
GAME, ORIGINAL ROLE PLAYING
Pillars of Eternity
Undertale
GAME, ORIGINAL SPORTS
iDARB
Rocket League
GAME, FRANCHISE ACTION
Batman: Arkham Knight
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Just Cause 3
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Transformers: Devastation
GAME, FRANCHISE ADVENTURE
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Tales from the Borderlands
GAME, FRANCHISE FAMILY
Lego Dimensions
Super Mario Maker
Yoshi’s Woolly World
GAME, FRANCHISE FIGHTING
Killer Instinct Season 2
Mortal Kombat X
GAME, FRANCHISE RACING
F1 2015
Forza Motorsport 6
Need for Speed
GAME, FRANCHISE ROLE PLAYING
Fallout 4
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Xenoblade Chronicles X
GAME, FRANCHISE SPORTS
MLB 15: The Show
NBA 2K16
PES 2016
GAME, ESPORTS
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Heroes of the Storm
Killer Instinct Season 2
Mortal Kombat X
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
GAME, PUZZLE
Her Story
Lines the Game
GAME, SIMULATION
Fallout Shelter
Kerbal Space Program
Prison Architect
GAME, SPECIAL CLASS
The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna
You Must Build a Boat
GAME, STRATEGY
Invisible, Inc.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void
HONORARY AWARD
Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man
Mark DeLoura, for developing programs for children to explore coding
Nomination Leaders by Title
20 Fallout 4
17 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
10 The Order: 1886
09 Life is Strange
09 Batman: Arkham Knight
08 Rise of the Tomb Raider
08 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
07 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
07 Bloodborne
07 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
05 Tales from the Borderlands
05 Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
04 Super Mario Maker
04 Star Wars Battlefront
04 Splatoon
03 Undertale
03 The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
03 Rocket League
03 Pillars of Eternity
03 Ori and the Blind Forest
03 Mortal Kombat X
03 Minecraft: Story Mode
03 King’s Quest Chapter I: A Knight to Remember
03 Killer Instinct Season 2
03 Her Story
03 Crypt of the Necrodancer
Nomination Leaders by Developer
21 Bethesda Game Studios
17 CD Projekt Red
14 Nintendo
10 Ready at Dawn
09 Rocksteady Studios
09 Dontnod Entertainment
08 Telltale
08 Kojima Productions
08 Crystal Dynamics
07 Ubisoft
07 Treyarch
07 From Software
05 The Chinese Room Ltd.
05 Rare
04 Gearbox
04 Electronic Arts
03 Toby Fox
03 The Odd Gentlemen
03 Sam Barlow
03 Psyonix
03 Obsidian Entertainment
03 NetherRealm Studios
03 Moon Studios
03 Microsoft
03 Iron Galaxy
03 Double Helix
03 Grezzo
03 Brace Yourself Games
Nomination Leaders by Publisher
25 Sony Computer Entertainment
20 Bethesda Softworks
19 Warner Bros.
19 Square Enix
18 Nintendo
17 CD Projekt
11 Activision
10 Microsoft
09 Konami
08 Ubisoft
08 Telltale
04 Electronic Arts
03 Toby Fox
03 Sierra Entertainment
03 Sam Barlow
03 Psyonix
03 Paradox Interactive
03 Brace Yourself Games
03 2K Games