This year’s DICE Award nominees have been announced, and with it the five choices for this year’s Online Game of the Year.
The DICE Awards are particularly prestigious for game developers, as it’s run by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, “a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and recognition of the interactive arts” and more focused on developer and publisher work in the industry. Its members are required to have some degree in the industry, individually by having at least two shipped games or two years in a company with commercially published work.
Nominees for the Online Game of the Year are “titles of any genre with a significant portion of the gameplay experience transpiring online — collaboratively or competitively,” per the DICE Awards Rules & Procedures. “These titles frequently offer excellent matchmaking systems, innovative gameplay options, persistent content releases that further evolve gameplay, user customization and fluidity of gameplay.”
The five nominees for the DICE Awards’ Online Game of the Year this year are:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch, Activision)
- Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred (Blizzard)
- Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios, Sony)
- Marvel Rivals (NetEase)
- Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 (Saber Interactive, Focus)
Helldivers 2 is also up for Game of the Year, joining Astro Bot and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as top nominees with six unique nominations each.
This may seem an interesting spread of games to see nominated this year, though the AIAS tends to look holistically at the releases each year as opposed to what received the most hype. We’re seeing three different sequels and one expansion, though these are all picks with precedent, as the Call of Duty series has seen nominations in the past, and Final Fantasy XIV is the most recent game with an expansion to be nominated via Endwalker two years ago.
Indeed, expansions and games in general that are “supported by significant new content” can be nominated for the award. This means that by way of its expansion’s nomination, Diablo 4 also has a chance here to take this award for two consecutive years, given it won last year among a particularly fascinating spread of nominees.
Who do you want to see win Online Game of the Year—or who do you genuinely think deserves the nod? (Or, do you think they missed a title?)
