The Innovation Award recognize games that demonstrate true innovation, advance the state of the art, and push the boundaries of games as an expressive medium. In essence, these are the games that are leading the way as the medium continues to evolve. Up to three Innovation awards may be bestowed on games that contain such outstanding contributions.

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12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2012)

Recipient

Johann Sebastian Joust (Die Gute Fabrik)
- Die Gute Fabrik Team

Nominees

Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Toys For Bob)
Portal 2 (Valve)
Bastion (Supergiant Games)
L.A. Noire (Team Bondi)

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11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2011)

Recipient

Minecraft (Mojang)
- Markus Persson

Nominees

Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Kirby's Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
Limbo (Playdead)
Dance Central (Harmonix)

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10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2010)

Recipient

Scribblenauts (5th Cell)
- Jeremiah Slaczka

Nominees

Flower (thatgamecompany)
- Jenova Chen, Kellee Santiago, Nick Clark, John Edwards
Uncharted 2 (Naughty Dog)
- Evan Weels, Christophe Balestra, Bruce Straley, Amy Hennig
Plants Vs. Zombies (PopCap)
- George Fan, Tod Semple, Sukhbir Sidhu, Jason Kapalka
Demon's Souls (From Software)
- Takeshi Kajii, Hidetaka Miyazaki

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9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2009)

Recipient

LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
- Alex Evans, Kareem Ettouney

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8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

Recipient

Portal (Valve)
- Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2007)

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Recipient

Line Rider
- Bostjan Cadez

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Recipient

Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

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Recipient

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2006)

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Recipient

Guitar Hero (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Greg LoPiccolo, Ryan Lesser

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Recipient

Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Tsutomu Kaneshige, Hideki Konno, Shigeru Miyamoto, Kiyoshi Mizuki

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Recipient

Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
- Junichi Hosono, Fumito Ueda

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5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2005)

Recipient

Donkey Konga (Namco / Nintendo)
- Hiroshi Igarashi, Hiroyuki Onoda

Nominees

I Love Bees (4orty2wo Entertainment / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Eln Lee
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
- Keita Takahashi

4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2004)

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Recipient

EYETOY: PLAY (Sony Computer Entertainment Europe)

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Recipient

VIEWTIFUL JOE (Capcom)

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Recipient

WARIOWARE INC.: MEGA MICROGAME$ (Nintendo)

3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2003)

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Recipient

ANIMAL CROSSING by Nintendo

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Recipient

BATTLEFIELD 1942 by Digital Illusions

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Recipient

MEDAL OF HONOR: ALLIED ASSAULT by 2015, Inc.

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Recipient

THE THING by Computer Artworks

Note: The nomination processes changed slightly in 2003, with only the actual recipients being presented an Innovation award. Having nominees "lose" in this category, while being nominated for risk taking and innovation was not in the spirit of the award.