Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences
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DICE Awards organizer's new festival will honor video game art
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences is launching a video game art festival with help from iam8bit.
2015 DICE Award nominations led by Shadow of Mordor
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for this year's DICE Awards, recognizing a total of 56 games. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor received nine nominations, including the Game of the Year award. The other Game of the Year nominees are Destiny, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Far Cry 4 and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Far Cry 4 received seven nominations, one being for Action Game of the Year. Destiny and Hearthstone each had six nominations, whereas Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Monument Valley received five apiece. The 18th Annual DICE Awards ceremony will be held at the The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas following the 2015 DICE Summit, which runs from February 3 through February 5. The event will be livestreamed on DICE's Twitch channel, starting at 10:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m. PT). Head past the break for a partial list of nominees; the full list can be found on AIAS' website.
Unity, Riot Games co-founders join AIAS board of directors
David Helgason, CEO and co-founder of Unity Technologies, and Brandon Beck, CEO and co-founder of Riot Games, have joined the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Board of Directors. For those just catching up, Unity is engine behind everything from garage development games to the upcoming Pillars of Eternity, while Riot Games is the studio behind highly-successful MOBA League of Legends. Helgason and Beck's addition to the AIAS is effective immediately, as is the promotion of Nexon America CEO Min Kim to Chairman. Ted Price, CEO and founder of Insomniac Games and AIAS vice chairman, congratulated all three men on their new titles. "Min's industry experience, his ability to tackle tough problems creatively and his collaborative approach to leadership will help propel the AIAS forward as it tackles more and more ambitious goals," Price said in a press release." "Furthermore congratulations and welcome to our newest board members David and Brandon. Whether it's through putting games development at the fingertips of every aspiring creator or delivering co-operative and competitive play on an unmatched global scale, Brandon and David have driven major change in our industry. We're honored that they're joining our team and we're excited to work with them in furthering the Academy's mission." [Image: Unity/Riot Games]
Grand Theft Auto masterminds crash into AIAS Hall of Fame
Rockstar heads Leslie Benzies, Dan Houser and Sam Houser are the 18th, 19th and 20th inductees into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, joining previous winners Gabe Newell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Mark Cerny, Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuck, and Tim Sweeney, among other luminaries. The Houser brothers founded Rockstar Games in 1998 and acquired Benzies' studio, DMA Design, in 1999. It became Rockstar North, the hub of Grand Theft Auto development. Microsoft Corporate Veep Phil Harrison will present Benzies and the Housers at the DICE Awards on Thursday, February 6. "A rare combination of cultural savvy, technical prowess and a deep passion for interactive entertainment has made Rockstar Games a global success story that has helped propel the games medium forward," Harrison says in a press release. "I am proud and honored to present Leslie, Sam and Dan with this award on behalf of the entire industry." AIAS calls out specific franchises as examples of Rockstar's impact on the industry, as both developer and publisher: Grand Theft Auto, Bully, Red Dead Redemption, Manhunt, The Warriors and LA Noire. We'll be running a liveblog of the DICE Awards on Thursday, starting at 7:30PM PT. [Image: Rockstar Games]
The Last of Us leads 2014 DICE Awards nominations
Nominations for the 17th Annual DICE Awards are led by The Last of Us, which received 13 total nods. The peer-based video game awards hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences spans 24 categories and recognized 61 separate games this year. The five games nominated for the Game of the Year award are The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto 5, BioShock Infinite, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Both GTA 5 and The Last of Us are joined by Papers, Please, Tearaway and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons for the Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction award. The awards ceremony will cap off the 2014 DICE Summit on Thursday, February 6 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Head over to the AIAS' site to view the full list of nominees in PDF form.
Check out the D.I.C.E. awards finalists
The nominees for the 16th annual D.I.C.E. (hint: It's spelled out right in the image) awards have been listed! While Journey is (deservedly) leading the list with 11 nominations, MMOs and not-quite-MMOs have done their genre proud. Diablo III, Torchlight II, and Guild Wars 2 are all in the running for Role-Playing / Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year. Diablo III also got tapped for a shot at Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion is also in the running for the original music composition award. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Thursday, February 7th. There are oodles of other games in the running for oodles of other titles, so be sure to check out the complete listing of nominees.
Valve's Gabe Newell inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve, is the 17th inductee into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, earning the title for 2013. Newell joins Shigeru Miyamoto, Sid Meier, John Carmack, Michael Morhaime, Drs. Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuck, and Tim Sweeney, among others, in the AIAS Hall of Fame.Newell will also be a keynote speaker for Thursday's conference at the 2013 DICE Summit. Epic Games President Mike Capps will present Newell with the Hall of Fame Award at the 2013 DICE Awards."Gabe is a living legend of the video games industry, and his relentless focus on customer experience has made our whole industry a better place," Capps says. "Valve's unconventional success is an inspiration for us all, and I couldn't be more pleased to present Gabe's Hall of Fame award."
DICE Award nominations for 2013 open
Pssst, academy members, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences currently has submissions open for the DICE awards. So, go ahead and start submitting titles for the annual awards show. You've got until 5PM Pacific on Monday, December 3. Nominees will be announced the week of January 21, 2013. The actual awards show is February 7 at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas.Pssst, non academy members, here's your chance to tell voting members the games you think should be nominated. The DICE awards, previously known as the Interactive Achievement Awards, is the most legit awards show this industry has all year. So, go ahead and drop some ideas in the comments below. We're pretty sure some members will use it as a crib sheet.
Uncharted 3 leads AIAS 2011 award nominations
We've already told you what our favorite games of 2011 are, but the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences apparently needed a bit more time to ruminate on the matter. The final awards will be given at the annual DICE summit in Las Vegas on February 9, giving us all tons of time to pressure the AIAS into giving Rayman Origins the awards for Outstanding Animation and Outstanding Art Direction. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception is the belle of the ball this year, with a total of 12 nominations across several categories. Other notable titles include Portal 2 (10 nominations) L.A. Noire (9 nominations), Bastion (3 nominations), and Battlefield 3 (6 nominations). 2010's top game from the AIAS was Mass Effect 2, which walked away with awards in the RPG and storytelling categories. Jay Mohr will be hosting again -- here's his monologue from last year -- and the entire show will be streamed online through GameSpot, starting at 7:30pm PT/10:30pm ET. Or you could buy a plane ticket and fly to Vegas, hoping to somehow sneak in. We wouldn't suggest that, though, as your time and money can be better spent petitioning for Rayman Origins. Hit the jump for the full list of this year's nominees.
Blizzard's Frank Pearce steps up to join AIAS' board of directors
Blizzard Entertainment has another reason to be proud of its family at holiday parties this year, as lil' Frank Pearce has grown up to join the board of directors at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "Look at my boy," Blizzard will sniffle with pride. "We always knew he was going to make something of himself one day!" Pearce was one of the original co-founders of Blizzard back in 1991 and has been a vital part of the studio's operations ever since -- he's overseen development on World of Warcraft among other roles. In joining the AIAS board of directors, Pearce will now extend his influence over the Academy's dealings with its over 22,000 members from various industry leaders. For his part, Pearce thinks the appointment will be a good match for his experience: "I've always appreciated the Academy's commitment to advancing the gaming medium and fostering creativity within our industry. I'm honored to be chosen for this role on the Board, and I look forward to drawing on my experiences at Blizzard to help support and contribute to the AIAS' ongoing mission."
Joseph Olin steps down as AIAS president, replaced by Martin Rae
Joseph Olin (pictured), president of the The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, has announced he's stepping down to "pursue new opportunities." Part of his AIAS duties included hosting DICE and the Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the 13th installment of which took place back in February and was streamed through IFC.com. Taking over the role as AIAS president will be Martin Rae, who will work with Olin throughout the remainder of the year to ensure the 10th annual DICE Summit and subsequent 14th installment in the Annual Interactive Achievement Awards both go off without a hitch. Rae's track record consists of time spent as CEO of Sunleaf Studios, a "virtual world/Internet game company" and time spent at Boss Entertainment, working with both Boss Game Studios and The Electric Playground. For the full press release, head past the break.
Video: Borderlands' ClapTrap at the AIAS Awards
One could argue that ClapTrap is the most charismatic entity in Borderlands ... and that person would be correct. The penchant for dancing and demeanor of the robotic denizens of Pandora are a highlight of the title, without a doubt. And like all talent, ClapTrap can get a bit temperamental -- especially when said talent didn't win in its respective category of the Interactive Achievement Awards. The Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance ended up going to Mark Hamill for his portrayal of The Joker in Batman: Arkham Aslyum, and ClapTrap has been simmering for the past month. If you ever doubted a robot's capacity to feel, you need only watch the video above.
Interview: Joseph Olin discusses DICE awards
Joseph Olin, president of the The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, is a busy, busy man this week. Hosting DICE and getting ready for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards tonight, which will be streamed on IFC.com (and shown on IFC's cable TV network the following week). We were curious to know a little more about what the academy has planned for its public image and who Olin is rooting for tonight. Joystiq: Do we call it the Interactive Achievement Awards ... or do we say I.A. awards? Joseph Olin: Interactive Achievement Awards. I think most people just give them the moniker "The DICE Awards." Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain certainly sums up why people make games. I'm comfortable with that. Is this the first year the show will be streamed live? Actually, this will be the third year it'll be streamed live. But, last year our good friends at IGN had a problem with their uplink relay on their end. So we were streaming and nothing went. So they captured and were about 30 minutes behind. As we all know, the internet is a flawless piece of technology and as reliable as the mail. So, yes, we're excited about IFC streaming it this year because they have a much better track record of streaming their content. So, we should say this is the first year IFC is streaming it? This is the first year IFC is streaming it live. Then the highlights show will be on the following Friday, the 26th.
Into the Pixel goes into the auction on eBay
Hey, you remember the Into the Pixel exhibit at last year's E3, right? Oh, no, that's right, they don't allow the plebes in. Had you been lucky enough to grace it with your stares, you'd have found a "jury-curated exhibition of video game art created by published video and computer game artists." And now that very same art can be found gracing the pages of eBay, as the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has opened up bidding on a smattering of pieces (starting yesterday and running through February 20). Featuring art from games like Flower and Fable 2, the proceeds will help to fund the AIAS' scholarship programs. The bidding has most certainly begun, though most pieces remain at their initial $100 opening bid as of publishing. If you're looking to snap up one of these snappy pieces, we'd suggest you get bidding sooner rather than later!
Nathan Drake hoping to take home more shiny trinkets at AIAS awards
We're in the thick of awards season, and video games are no exception. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its finalists for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ("The 'Racties" -- we're kidding but that's what they should be called), and, as you might have guessed, award hog Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the pack with 15 nominations. The rest of the nominees include more of the usual suspects from 2009: Assassin's Creed II with 10 noms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight. This year's awards also features three new categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Portable and Social Networking Games of the Year. You can find a list of selected categories and their nominees after the break, or check out the Academy's full list in PDF form. The awards will be given out at the DICE Summit on February 18 in Las Vegas, where Activision's Bobby Kotick is scheduled to keynote. We can only guess that he'll go all Kanye on the podium if Modern Warfare 2 doesn't win.
Marble Madness creator Mark Cerny to be inducted into AIAS Hall of Fame
It may have been a quarter century since Mark Cerny's groundbreaking arcade game Marble Madness was first developed, but this year the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences will give the influential developer an induction into its Hall of Fame. On February 18 in Las Vegas, Cerny will become the 13th member of the AIAS' small club -- a club that includes development bigwigs like Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto, among others. For those of you who don't know, Cerny's been hard at work behind the scenes of some of our favorite games throughout the years. The developer's had a hand in everything from Sonic 2 through God of War 3, with his influential "Cerny Method" of tenacious development being passed down to modern day big boys like Insomniac's Ted Price and Naughty Dog's Evan Wells. "Mark has left an indelible mark on all of the games he's been a part of, the developers that he's collaborated with, and most importantly the individuals that he's worked along-side of," Wells said in the press release (warning: PDF link). For Cerny's part, he said he's "thrilled to accept this award" and humbly offloaded some respect to past colleagues that he's "had the pleasure to work with over the years." We're looking forward to witnessing the "Cerny Method" in action during his acceptance speech, wherein he only allows himself 30 seconds to catch our interest before reevaluating the entire thing.
D.I.C.E. summit rolling to Singapore in September
The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences has announced today that its annual D.I.C.E. Summit will be going global. For the first time, the summit with be held in Asia, at Singapore's Suntec Center -- the same venue for Games Convention Asia. D.I.C.E. and GC Asia will open together on September 17.Among those in the industry planning to head out to the Lion City for D.I.C.E. are Masaya Matsuura of PaRappa the Rapper fame and Chris Taylor, founder and creative director of Gas Powered Games. With both events running at the same time, it would seem like a rather good idea for regional game designers to stop by the Suntec Center this year.
Wrath of the Lich King receives three AIAS nominations
Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King expansion has garnered some more praise via three Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominations. The nominations are for Computer Game of the Year and Massively Multiplayer Online Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition. The first nomination seems much more like an honorable nod, but the second two are very likely wins for Blizzard and its second expansion. Speaking purely in terms of composistion, the music design in World of Warcraft -- and especially in Wrath -- has been some of the best in the business.We won't know the winners until February 18th-20th when they're announced at the 2009 DICE Summit, but we wish the Blizzard team the best of luck on all three nominations.
Blizzard wins the Oscars of online games
As Oscar time gets closer, some of us gamers may start wishing for awards of our own. Mass Effect was at least as good as There Will Be Blood, right? Luckily, on February 7th, we gamers got our own red carpet show, as The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences hosted the 11th annual Interactive Achievement Awards in conjunction with the DICE Summit at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Blizzard, of course, managed to snag a few rewards of their own. Not only did the Burning Crusade pick up Massively Multi-player Game of the Year, but Blizzard President Mike Morhaime was inducted into the Academy's Hall of Fame.Gamespot had video coverage of the event, which you can check out here, or if you'd rather just cut to the meaty stuff, the Academy's website has a PDF with a list of the winners here. You can also check out some wider commentary on all the awards from our friends at Joystiq here. We'll expect trophies for Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II next year!
Gears of War wins big at Interactive Achievement Awards
The 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards have at long last confirmed a growing, industry-wide suspicion: Gears of War is pretty good. In a ceremony held last night at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences bestowed eight shiny statuettes upon Epic Games' monsters vs. testosterone epic. In addition to winning overall Game of the Year, it picked up gongs for Console Game of the Year, Online Game Play, Animation, Art Design, Visual Engineering, Outstanding Character Performance and Action/Adventure Game of the Year.Wii Sports waggled three awards out of the academy, including ones for Outstanding Innovation, Gameplay Engineering and Game Design. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Guitar Hero II and Loco Roco all came away with double wins, whereas The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess made off with a single prize for Outstanding Story and Character Development (in your face, Saint's Row!). Inaugural Lifetime Achievement awards went to Minoru Arakawa and Howard Lincoln, for their involvement with the NES and the rebuilding of a shattered games industry during the 1980's.Check out the full list of winners after the break.Read -- AIAS press release [PDF]
