Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has been named the Game of the Year at the this year's SXSW Festival. Prior to this one, Sekiro was also named the GOTY by the NAVGTR Awards and The Game Awards 2019. For SXSW, Sekiro beat out the likes of Control, Devil May Cry 5, Disco Elysium, and Star Wards Jedi: Fallen Order.
This isn’t its only award, though, as Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was also handed the Excellence in Visual Achievement prize. Joining Sekiro with two awards was Disco Elysium which bagged the Matthew Crump Cultural Innovation Award and the Excellence in Narrative award. Winning two awards as well was Death Stranding, which received the Excellence in Technical Achievement and Excellence in Musical Score awards.
There were also two Special Recognition Awards given. The first was to Cecilia D’Anastasio as the Game Industry Journalist of the Year. Although now connected with WIRED, it was during her time with Kotaku when she came up with hard hitting stories like “Inside The Culture Of Sexism At Riot Game.” In a short video speech, she thanked her editors as well as the people she was “lucky enough to call my sources.” You can view her video below:
The second award was the Game Industry Champion of Change and was given to Steven Spohn. For those not familiar, Spohn is the COO of AbleGamers Foundation, a non-profit group that is dedicated to helping improve the accessibility of the video game space in order to allow more people with disabilities to play games.
Other awards handed out include:
- Mobile Game of the Year
- Sky: Children of the Light
- Tabletop Game of the Year
- Paladins of the West Kingdom
- XR Game of the Year
- No Man’s Sky BEYOND VR
- Trending Game of the Year
- Pokémon Sword and Shield
- Most Promising New Intellectual Property
- The Outer Worlds
- Excellence in Animation
- Kingdom Hearts 3
- Excellence in Art
- The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening
- Excellence in Design
- Control
- Excellence in Gameplay
- Devil May Cry 5
- Excellence in Multiplayer
- Final Fantasy 14: Shadowbringers
- Excellence in SFX
- Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
The SXSW Gaming Awards is held annually in Austin, Texas usually in March. Last year, Game of the Year was awarded to God of War. This year the actual awards show wasn't held due to the coronavirus, but the honorees were announced with messages and thanks were made through videos. You can view the winners and their messages here.
