Death Stranding, Control, and Outer Wilds Lead the Game Developers Choice Awards Nominees

With nominations in seven categories, Death Stranding looks to have the strongest support heading into the 20th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, held each year during GDC. It'll almost assuredly walk away with at least one award, but in the Game of the Year category Sam Porter Bridges is facing down a ninja, a space explorer, the director of the Federal Bureau of Control, and one particularly obnoxious goose—in other words, GDC GOTY glory is by no means a lock.

Yes, with five nominations each, Remedy's Control and Mobius Digital's Outer Wilds join Death Stranding in the GDC Awards' biggest category. The Game Awards 2019 GOTY winner Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and this author's personal pick, Untitled Goose Game, round out the list of five. Notably, Disco Elysium is only an honorable mention in the category—it won USG's Game of the Year award—but it is nominated for four others, including Best Narrative and the Innovation Award. Last year, Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption 2 earned the most nominations, while Sony Santa Monica's God of War ended up taking home the 2019 GDC Game of the Year award.

The Game Developers Choice Awards will be held on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 p.m. PT. That same evening, GDC will host the Independent Games Festival Awards, where Die Gute Fabrik's Mutazione leads the pack of finalists with four nominations (the full list of IGF 2020 finalists can be found here). Both ceremonies will be livestreamed via GDC's official Twitch channel.

Game Of The Year

• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive)

Best Debut

• ZA/UM (Disco Elysium)
• Mobius Digital(Outer Wilds)
• William Chyr Studios(Manifold Garden)
• Foam Sword Games (Knights and Bikes)
• Chance Agency (Neo Cab)

Innovation Award

• Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)
• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive)

Best Design

• Baba Is You (Hempuli)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision Publishing, FromSoftware)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)

Best Audio

• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna Interactive)
• Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
• Untitled Goose Game (House House/Panic)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)

Best Mobile Game

• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna Interactive)
• What the Golf? (Triband Productions/The Label Limited)
• Grindstone (Capybara Games)
• Sky: Children of the Light (thatgamecompany)
• Call of Duty: Mobile (TiMi Studios/Activision)

Best Narrative

• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)
• Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• The Outer Worlds (Obsidian Entertainment/Private Division)
• Outer Wilds (Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive)

Best Technology

• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward/Activision)
• Apex Legends (Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts)
• Noita (Nolla Games)

Best Visual Art

• Control (Remedy Entertainment/505 Games)
• Death Stranding (Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware/Activision)
• Sayonara Wild Hearts (Simogo/Annapurna Interactive)
• Disco Elysium (ZA/UM)

Best VR/AR Game

• Vader Immortal (ILMxLAB/Disney)
• Blood & Truth (SCEE Studio London/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Asgard's Wrath (Sanzaru Games/Oculus Studios)
• Boneworks (Stress Level Zero)
• Pistol Whip (Cloudhead Games)