The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the winners of its 18th annual awards, which were handed out at a ceremony during the D.I.C.E. Summit this week in Las Vegas.
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor picked up eight of the nine awards it was nominated for, including Outstanding Innovation in Gaming and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction. Dragon Age: Inquisition, however, took the Game of the Year nod, as well as the "Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year" award.
The D.I.C.E. Sprite award, which debuted at this year's show and seems pitched at awarding independent developers -- it's for "unique innovations that contribute to the ongoing progress of interactive media" -- went to Supergiant Games' Transistor.
Notably, game console innovator Ralph H. Baer (who recently passed away) was honored with a Pioneer Award alongside Pong developer Al Alcorn, while the Apple App Store got the show's other new award: Technical Impact.
The awards are chosen by active AIAS members from the developer and publishing communities.
The full list of winners is below:
Game of the Year
Dragon Age: Inquisition (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Action Game of the Year
Destiny (Activision Publishing/Bungie)
Adventure Game of the Year
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Family Game of the Year
LittleBigPlanet 3 (Sony Computer Entertainment America/Sony Worldwide Studios Europe & Sumo Digital)
Fighting Game of the Year
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo/ Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco Games, & Bandai Namco Studios)
Racing Game of the Year
Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Dragon Age: Inquisition (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
Sports Game of the Year
FIFA 15 (Electronic Arts/FIFA Development Team – EA Canada)
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment)
D.I.C.E. Sprite Award
Transistor (Supergiant Games/Supergiant Games)
Handheld Game of the Year
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo/ Sora Ltd., Bandai Namco Games, & Bandai Namco Studios)
Mobile Game of the Year
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment)
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay
Destiny (Activision Publishing/Bungie)
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Outstanding Achievement in Animation
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction
Monument Valley (Ustwo/Ustwo)
Outstanding Achievement in Character
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, for Talion (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition
Destiny (Activision Publishing/Bungie)
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design
Destiny (Activision Publishing/Bungie)
Outstanding Achievement in Story
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment/Monolith Productions)