Author: VGC | John

John Scalzo has been writing about video games since 2001, and he co-founded Warp Zoned in 2011. Growing out of his interest in game history, the launch of Video Game Canon followed in 2017.

SXSW Gaming Awards: All the Winners from 2013 to 2022

The SXSW Gaming Awards were previously given out each Spring as part of the South by Southwest festival, honoring games released during the previous calendar year. The ceremony was first held in 2014, but games and gaming have a long history at the Austin festival.

South by Southwest, also popularly known as SXSW, first opened its doors in 1987 as a regional music festival organized by The Austin Chronicle. After quickly growing in prominence over the next few years, SXSW expanded its scope in 1994 with the addition of a Film Festival. A Multimedia track focusing on technology and games would launch a year later.

SXSW’s celebration of games and game creators would get its own section, Screenburn, in 2006. That name was clearly a vestige of early 2000s “xtreme” culture, and it gave way to the more familiar SXSW Gaming in 2013.

Nominees for the SXSW Gaming Awards were chosen by festival staff with assistance from an advisory board. After the nominees were announced, the public helped determine the winners by participating in an online vote to help select the winners, which was weighted alongside another vote from festival staff and the advisory board.

The SXSW Gaming Awards were discontinued in 2023.

Every “Video Game of the Year” winner from the SXSW Gaming Awards can be found here…

[Continue Reading…]

GOTY Flashback: 2013-2014 SXSW Gaming Awards

The organizers of South By Southwest have closed the doors on yet another festival within the Austin city limits, but for the first time in nearly a decade, they did so without the SXSW Gaming Awards. According to a spokesperson for the event, the Gaming Awards were discontinued this year in an effort to “streamline our festival a bit more.”

But rather than wonder whether SXSW’s jury would have chosen Elden Ring or God of War: Ragnarok, let’s look back at the winners from the very first SXSW Gaming Awards ceremony in 2013-2014.

The inaugural program from the SXSW Gaming Awards honored the best games from 2013 and you’ll find a very familiar name at the very top of the list. The Last of Us, which has since spawned multiple re-releases, a sequel, and a live-action adaptation, was the most-awarded game of the night, collecting “Game of the Year” honors for Naughty Dog, as well as three other statuettes (“Narrative,” “Musical Score,” and “SFX”).

While The Last of Us edged out some tough opposition for the big prize at the first SXSW Gaming Awards, almost all of the other titles competing for “Game of the Year” came away with something.

▶ The “Excellence in Gaming Marketing” award went to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag for promoting a life of piracy.
▶ The patriotic imagery of Columbia snared the “Excellence in Art” award for Irrational’s BioShock Infinite.
▶ Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, which has also been re-released multiple times in the last decade, received the “Excellence in Technical Achievement” award.
▶ The chaotic multiplayer of Nintendo’s Super Mario 3D World won “Best Multiplayer Game.”
▶ And the origami world of Media Molecule’s Tearaway won “Excellence in Design and Direction.”

The full list of winners and nominees from the 2013-2014 SXSW Gaming Awards (as reported by the Austin Chronicle) can be found after the break.

[Continue Reading…]

The Last of Us, Quake, and Computer Space Lead 2023’s Crop of Finalists for Induction into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

HBO’s live-action adaptation of The Last of Us completed its first season to widespread critical acclaim this past weekend, and now it looks like the original game is a finalist for induction into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Naughty Dog’s groundbreaking action game is part of a dozen finalists vying for a spot in the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023. It was joined by a cadre of other first-time finalists including Ensemble’s Age of Empires, Mattel’s Barbie Fashion Designer, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Nutting’s Computer Space, id Software’s Quake, and Sir-Tech’s Wizardry.

The remaining slots on the shortlist were filled out by five returning finalists, including a few others that have recently been in the spotlight.

There’s GoldenEye 007 from Rare, which will get its second chance at the Hall after a highly-anticipated re-release for the Xbox and Switch in January 2023. Rovio’s Angry Birds is also up for its second shot at induction alongside the surprise delisting of the game from the Google Play Store. And FIFA International Soccer is taking its third shot at the Hall of Fame in the final year before the publisher rebrands the franchise as EA Sports FC. Rounding out this year’s finalists are Visual Concept’s NBA 2K and Nintendo’s Wii Sports.

As always, the World Video Game Hall of Fame will give the public a voice in the final vote from now until March 22 with the Player’s Choice Ballot. The three games that receive the most public votes will be forwarded to the final tally, and they’ll will be weighed alongside the other ballots submitted by the Hall of Fame’s International Selection Advisory Committee.

The inductees to the Class of 2023 will be announced on May 4. And you can learn more about this year’s finalists after the break.

[Continue Reading…]

An “Expert Jury” Made Some Odd Choices When Picking “20 Best Video Games of All Time” for The Times

The Times delivered its first daily edition to the people of London all the way back in 1785. The newspaper has reported on some of the biggest stories the world has ever seen in the nearly 240 years since, and they’ve given space to pieces from a very distinguished array of writers over the centuries, including Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, and Albert Einstein.

But earlier this week, their editorial staff decided to wade into the debate surrounding the best video games of all time.

Jake Helm, a Culture Reporter for The Times, assembled a “jury of experts” to choose the “20 Best Video Games of All Time,” and some of the selections are a bit on the wild side.

Some of gaming’s biggest franchises (including The Legend of Zelda, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Final Fantasy) went unmentioned, but Sonic Adventure 2 (#20) and Far Cry 4 (#15) both made the cut. The panel also picked Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft (#16), but overlooked World of Warcraft.

All that is certainly odd, but the top half of the list features most of the big blockbusters you expect to see on a Best Games list. Doom (1993) is #6, Tetris is #4, and a combo pick of The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II is #2. Another two-for-one selection, Portal and Portal 2, teleported its way into the #1 spot.

So who was on this expert panel? That would be Charlie Brooker, former game critic and the creator of Black Mirror; Lucy Prebble, a writer on Succession; Daniel “DanTDM” Middleton, a popular YouTuber; and Helen Lewis, a writer for The Atlantic and a “self-confessed video game fan.” All of the panel’s picks can be found after the break.

[Continue Reading…]

Boss Fight Books: Season 6 Will Include “PaRappa the Rapper,” “Animal Crossing,” “Minesweeper,” and “Day of the Tentacle”

The team at Boss Fight Books has returned from a short hiatus with the sixth season of their documentary-style books about classic video games. The season’s theme is “Here to Play,” and publisher Gabe Durham has promised that this set of titles will explore the “fun, playful, and goofy” side of video games.

Boss Fight Books: Season 6 is currently seeking funding through Kickstarter (until Tuesday, March 7), and it’ll include PaRappa the Rapper by Mike Sholars, Animal Crossing by Kelsey Lewin, Minesweeper by Kyle Orland and Day of the Tentacle by Bob Mackey. All of these authors will be making their Boss Fight Books debut during this season, but each one is also a crafty veteran of the game history game.

Mike Sholars has previously worked as an editor for Boss Fight Books. PaRappa the Rapper will be available as an ebook in April 2023 with the paperback scheduled to follow a few months later.

Kyle Orland has served as the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012. Minesweeper will plant a flag in your ebook library in May 2023 before the paperback is released this Summer.

Bob Mackey is a co-founder, co-host, and podcast producer for the Retronauts network. Day of the Tentacle will invade bookstores as an ebook in August 2023 and in paperback a month later.

And Kelsey Lewin is the Co-Director of the Video Game History Foundation and co-host of the Video Game History Hour podcast. Animal Crossing will close out Season 6 as an ebook in November 2023 and in paperback a month later.

You can learn more about all four books after the break. And be sure to read a trio of excerpts from Minesweeper at Ars Technica, Kotaku, and GamesIndustry.biz.

[Continue Reading…]

Elden Ring Wins “Game of the Year” at 2022-2023 DICE Awards

From Software’s Elden Ring has gone two-for-two during the 2022-2023 awards season after the RPG captured “Game of the Year” honors at the conclusion of last night’s DICE Awards ceremony. The RPG’s distinctive dark fantasy aesthetic was honored with four other awards, also winning for “Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction,” “Outstanding Achievement in Game Design,” “Outstanding Technical Achievement,” and, of course, “Role-Playing Game of the Year.”

It was a good night for From Software, though the mighty God of War was not always so easily toppled.

Before the show, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences bestowed a dozen nominations on God of War: Ragnarok. But while it might have missed the big prize, Kratos and company collected more statuettes than any other game at the DICE Awards. Developers from Sony Santa Monica would climb up on stage seven times, starting with the award for “Adventure Game of the Year.”

The team would also be honored for their narrative work (“Outstanding Achievement in Story” and “Outstanding Achievement in Character” for Kratos himself), graphical prowess (“Outstanding Achievement in Animation” and “Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction”), and audio work (“Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition” and “Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design”).

The only other game to win multiple awards at the 2022-2023 DICE Awards was Vertical Robot’s Red Matter 2, which was triumphant in both immersive reality categories (“Immersive Reality Technical Achievement” and “Immersive Reality Game of the Year”).

Many of the remaining awards were distributed amongst some of the biggest surprises from 2022. The vampire-less Vampire Survivors sunk its teeth into the “Action Game of the Year” award. The full-fledged Premium Edition of Dwarf Fortress paid off more than 15 years of anticipation with a win for “Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year.” And the addictive Marvel Snap was named “Mobile Game of the Year.”

You’ll find a replay of last night’s ceremony, which was hosted by Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller and IGN’s Stella Chung, after the break, along with a full list of winners and nominees.

[Continue Reading…]

Bite-Sized Game History: The Creators of Myst Wear Pants, Halo at Macworld, and a Wild Theory About Console Sales

“You wouldn’t understand. You had to be there.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always felt that that idiom is an absolutely ridiculous turn of phrase. Why would you have to be anywhere specific to understand something?

And yet, there are some things that are so unbelievable they only really make sense if you were there to experience it for yourself.

We’ll look at two such examples for this edition of Bite-Sized Game History, as well as a third that is so wild you might not believe it even if you were there (or anywhere for that matter).

[Continue Reading…]

The New Yorker’s Simon Parkin Launches “My Perfect Console” Podcast

Simon Parkin is the video game guru for both The New Yorker and The Observer, but it looks like the famed journalist will add podcast host to his resume in the very near future with the announcement of My Perfect Console.

Each episode of the interview podcast will introduce a new guest (“from the worlds of gaming, film and television, music, comedy and more”) who will sit down with Parkin and discuss the five games that mean the most to them:

In My Perfect Console, Simon Parkin, New Yorker journalist and video game critic for The Observer invites guests from the worlds of gaming, film and television, music, comedy and more to choose the five video games they would like to immortalise on their very own fictional games machine, and discuss what their choices mean to them.

There’s no start date for My Perfect Console just yet, but Parkin has shared a short preview to give listeners a taste of what’s to come. The first episode will feature Josh Wardle, the creator of Wordle, while a subsequent episode will bring in Charles Cecil, the co-founder of Revolution Software and creator of the Broken Sword franchise.

My Perfect Console will be produced by Acast, and each episode will be available to download through your favorite podcast service.

Google Launches Worm Game on Stadia… 5 Days Before Service Shuts Down

Google plans to pull the plug on its game streaming service, Stadia, on January 18. But even though the end is nigh, the team behind the project has given players one last game to play over the final five days.

Worm Game, an impressive adaptation of Snake, was used internally to test some of Stadia’s features, and it’s now free to play for all Stadia users. The game’s surprise release was accompanied by a short note from the development team:

Play the game that came to Stadia before Stadia came to the world. “Worm Game” is a humble title we used to test many of Stadia’s features, starting well before our 2019 public launch, right through 2022. It won’t win Game of the Year, but the Stadia team spent a LOT of time playing it, and we thought we’d share it with you. Thanks for playing, and for everything.

Worm Game features full controller support, a single-player campaign, leaderboards, online multiplayer, and a level editor. Play it now (before it’s gone forever on the 18th) in your browser at Stadia.Google.com.

UPDATE (1/19/23): Worm Game, and the rest of the Google Stadia service, was taken offline during the early morning hours of January 19. An official gameplay video of the title was never uploaded by Google, but multiple players have uploaded full playthroughs to YouTube (including from Watch the Gameplay and Helix Plays Games).

Good luck to the development team as they move on to new projects.

Jordan Minor’s “Video Game of the Year” Will Feature “The Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games” from 1977-2022 When it Releases in July 2023

PC Magazine’s Jordan Minor will publish his first book in 2023, and for the subject of this tome, the journalist has zeroed in one that’s very near and dear to my heart.

In Video Game of the Year, Minor will sort through thousands of titles in his quest to compile… and here comes the subtitle… A Year-By-Year Guide to the Best, Boldest, and Most Bizarre Games from Every Year Since 1977.

Minor, along with a small army of contributors (including Jason Schreier, Rebekah Valentine, and others), will choose the defining game from each year and explore how they “captured the zeitgeist and left a legacy for all games that followed” through a series of essays:

Pong. The Legend of Zelda. Final Fantasy VII. Rock Band. Fortnite. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For each of the 40 years of video game history, there is a defining game, a game that captured the zeitgeist and left a legacy for all games that followed. Through a series of entertaining, informative, and opinionated critical essays, author and tech journalist Jordan Minor investigates, in chronological order, the innovative, genre-bending, and earth-shattering games from 1977 through 2022. Minor explores development stories, critical reception, and legacy, and also looks at how gaming intersects with and eventually influences society at large while reveling in how uniquely and delightfully bizarre even the most famous games tend to be.

From portly plumbers to armor-clad space marines and the speedy rodents in between, Video Game of the Year paints individual portraits that, as a whole, give readers a stronger appreciation for the vibrant variety and long-lasting impact of this fresh, exciting, and massively popular art form. Illustrated throughout with retro-inspired imagery and featuring contributions from dozens of leading industry voices, including New York Times bestselling author Jason Schreier (Blood, Sweat, and Pixels; Kotaku), Max Scoville (IGN), Rebekah Valentine (IGN), Blessing Adeoye Jr. (Kinda Funny), and Devindra Hardawar (Engadget), this year-by-year anthology is a loving reflection on the world’s most popular art form.

Video Game of the Year will be published by Abrams in paperback and all ebook formats on July 11, 2023.

[Continue Reading…]