9th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards

Honoring the Best Games of 2008

For photos, please browse our albums.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Hideo Kojima

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Pioneer Award

Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture video game history - paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

Ambassador Award

Tommy Tallarico

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

Game of the Year

Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
- Todd Howard, Emil Pagliarulo, Istvan Pelyl

Finalists:

• Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Innovation Award

LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule / Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Alex Evans, Kareem Ettouney

Finalists:

• SPORE (Maxis)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
• Braid (Number None)

Audio

Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores / Electronic Arts)
- Don Veca, Dave Feise, David Swenson, Andrew Lackey

Finalists:

• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Game Design

LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule / Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Mark Healey, David Smith

Finalists:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montréal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)

Technology

LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule / Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Alex Evans, David Smith

Finalists:

• SPORE (Maxis)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Visual Arts

Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montréal / Ubisoft)
- Mickael Labat

Finalists:

• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Writing

Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
- Emil Pagliarulo

Finalists:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montréal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Downloadable Game

World Of Goo (2D Boy)
- Kyle Gabler, Ron Carmel

Finalists:

• Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
• Braid (Number None)
• N+ (Metanet / Slick Entertainment)
• PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)

Best Handheld Game

God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios / Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Ru Weerasuriya, Mark Turndorf, Dana Jan

Finalists:

• Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
• Echochrome (SCE Japan)
• Patapon (Pyramid / SCE Japan)
• The World Ends With You (Jupiter / Square Enix)

Best Debut

LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Finalists:

• Braid (Number None)
• Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
• World of Goo (2D Boy)
• Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)