The winners from this year’s 32nd Annual Golden Joystick Awards have been announced, with From Software’s Dark Souls II taking home the prestigious Game of the Year award.
With the ceremony held at London’s O2 Arena, it has been confirmed that more than 9 million people voted for their winners in categories such as Innovation of the Year (winner: Oculus Rift), Best Gaming Moment (winner: The Last of Us: Left Behind — “The kiss”), Best Handheld Game (winner: Pokemon X & Y) and, of course, Game of the Year.
Ubisoft achieved some notable success at the event with their open-world title Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag scooping two awards in Best Visual Design and Best Audio, while Ubisoft Montreal emerged victorious in the Studio of the Year category.
Hideo Kojima, the prominent Japanese developer who created Policenauts, Snatcher and the Metal Gear Solid franchise, was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award during the ceremony.
“Thank you very much for presenting me with this prestigious Golden Joystick,” Kojima said via a record message. “Receiving a Golden Joystick award is an incredible honour, as they are voted for by the people who buy and play games.”
Kojima also apologised for not being at the event personally, claiming he’s “practically chained to my desk” in order to complete the development of the eagerly awaited Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, a free-to-play card title released earlier this year, brought the company two awards in the Best Online Game and Best Mobile Game categories.
Courtesy of CVG, all the winners from this year’s Golden Joystick Awards can be found below:
- Best Original Game in association with Digital Spy — DayZ
- Best Online Game in association with PC Gamer — Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Best Storytelling — The Last of Us: Left Behind
- Best Visual Design — Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Best Audio in association with PDP — Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
- Playfire Most Played Game of the Year — Rust
- Best Multiplayer in association with Absolute Radio — Battlefield 4
- Best Indie Game in association with Official X-Box Magazine — DayZ
- Innovation of the Year in association with T3 — Oculus Rift DK2
- Best Gaming Moment in association with Sony Xperia Z3 — The Last of Us: Left Behind – “The kiss”
- Best Handheld Game — Pokemon X & Y
- Best Mobile Game in association with Kiss FM — Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft
- Most Wanted in association with The Sun — The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
- Gaming Personality of the Year in association with Kotaku UK — PewDiePie
- Studio of the Year in association with CVG — Ubisoft Montreal
- Gaming Platform of the Year in association with GamesRadar — Steam
- Lifetime Achievement — Hideo Kojima
- Game of the Year in association with Green Man Gaming — Dark Souls II