The D.I.C.E. Awards (formerly the Interactive Achievement Awards) is an
award show in the
video game industry started in 1998 and commonly referred to in the industry as the "video games
Oscar". The awards are arranged by the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...
(AIAS) and held during the AIAS' annual D.I.C.E. Summit in
Las Vegas. "D.I.C.E." is a
backronym for "Design Innovate Communicate Entertain". The D.I.C.E. Awards recognize games, individuals, and development teams that have contributed to the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.
Format
The nominees in each category are selected by a peer panel, assembled by AIAS, of over 100 video game professionals across several facets of the industry, including developers, programmers, artists, and publishers, which is published on the AIAS website each year. The nominees are then voted on by the full membership of AIAS (approximately 22,000 members) via a confidential and secured voting system, and winners are subsequently announced during the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas, typically the February of that year. Due to this approach, the D.I.C.E. awards are considered the main peer-based recognition within the video games compared to other major awards.
Award categories
The tables below are based on the awards cycle for the calendar year preceding the award ceremony date; for example, all awards given for "1997" were presented to winners in a 1998 ceremony.
Game of the Year
Overall
Action Game of the Year
Adventure Game of the Year
Cellular/Mobile Game of the Year
Downloadable Game of the Year
Family Game of the Year
Handheld/Portable Game of the Year
Immersive Reality Game of the Year
The Immersive Reality Game of the Year was added for consideration of 2016 games to award those in the growing area of
virtual reality and
augmented reality
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...
games.
Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year
Referred to in the past as "Persistent World", "Online", or "Online Role-Playing" Game of the Year.
Racing Game of the Year
Role-Playing Game of the Year
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year
Sports Game of the Year
Fighting Game of the Year
Casual Game of the Year
Social Networking Game/Web Based Game of the Year
"Outstanding" Awards
Outstanding Independent Game
Outstanding Animation
Outstanding Game Direction
Outstanding Art Direction
Outstanding Character Performance
Outstanding Achievement in Character
Outstanding Game Design
Outstanding Gameplay Engineering
Immersive Reality Technical Achievement
This award was added to honor games from 2016 onward in technical achievements for virtual reality and augmented reality.
Outstanding Licensed Soundtrack
Outstanding Online Gameplay
Outstanding Original Music Composition
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design
Outstanding Character or Story Development
Outstanding Story
Outstanding Visual Engineering
Outstanding Technical Achievement
Innovation in Gaming
Console Awards
Console Game of the Year
Console Innovation
Console Children's
Console First Person Action
Console Sports Simulation
Console Action Sports
Computer Awards
Computer Game of the Year
Computer Innovation
Computer Educational/Skills
Computer Family/Children's
Computer First Person Action
D.I.C.E. Sprite Award
The D.I.C.E. Sprite Award was introduced in the 2015 awards ceremony. It is intended to honor "a game having disproportionate resources for development and exposure (as compared to AAA titles), represent a higher degree of risk tolerance and advances our industry with innovative gameplay and experiences".
Award show hosts
Since 2000, the annual award show has been hosted by many notable figures from the entertainment world.
:
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...
—
Martin Short
Martin Hayter Short (born March 26, 1950) is a Canadian-American actor, comedian, and writer. He has received various awards including two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. In 2019 Short became an Officer of the Order of Canada.
He ...
:
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
—
Martin Lewis
:
2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
—
Patton Oswalt
:
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
—
Dave Foley
:
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...
—
Diane Mizota
Diane Kiyomi Mizota (born September 9, 1973) is an American dancer, actress, and TV personality.
Early life
Diane Mizota, a Japanese American, was born in Los Angeles, California and raised in Danville, California, Danville, California. She st ...
:
2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...
— Cory Rouse and Kurt Scholler
:
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
—
Jay Mohr
:
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
— Jay Mohr
:
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
—
Charles Hardwick
Charles Hardwick (22 September 1821 – 18 August 1859) was an English historian and a priest of the Church of England who became the Archdeacon of Ely.
Life
Hardwick was born in Slingsby, North Yorkshire, Slingsby, North Yorkshire, the son of ...
:
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
—
Freddie Wong and
Felicia Day
:
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
—
Pete Holmes
:
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
— Pete Holmes
:
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
—
Greg Miller and
Jessica Chobot
:
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
— Greg Miller and Jessica Chobot
:
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
— Greg Miller and Jessica Chobot
:
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
— Greg Miller and Jessica Chobot
:
2021
File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...
— Greg Miller, Jessica Chobot and Kahlief Adams
:
2022
File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...
— Greg Miller and Jessica Chobot
Special categories
Hall of Fame
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has annually inducted into its "Hall of Fame"
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
s that have made revolutionary and innovative achievements in the video game industry.
AIAS Hall of Fame
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Lifetime Achievement Awards
The Lifetime Achievement Award is given "for individuals whose accomplishments span a broad range of disciplines over a lengthy career in the industry".
Pioneer Awards
The Pioneer Award is given "for individuals whose career spanning work has helped shape and define the interactive entertainment industry".
Technical Impact Award
The Technical Impact Award was added for the 2015 awards ceremony to recognize "unique innovations that contribute to the ongoing progress of interactive media".
Milestones
Games with multiple wins
The following games received six or more D.I.C.E. Awards:
Games with multiple nominations
The following games received eleven or more D.I.C.E. Award nominations:
References
{{DICE GOTY
D.I.C.E. Awards
Awards established in 1998