God of War is GDC 2019’s game of the year

Kratos slew the entire Olympic pantheon, and more recently, fought to protect his son from the harsh world of Norse mythology. That latest adventure has earned God of War the biggest prize of the Game Developers Conference 2019.

Sony Santa Monica’s blockbuster action game took home the coveted Game of the Year trophy at the 19th Game Developers Choice Awards, a ceremony that’s part of the annual San Francisco event. God of War beat out Return of the Obra Dinn, Red Dead Redemption 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Celeste (which was GamesBeat’s choice for game of the year).

While it was the only win of the night for God of War, it was the third major GOTY award overall for the game: It previously won the top prize at February’s DICE Awards and last year’s The Game Awards. But in general, indie games did extremely well against their triple-A competition, taking home a total of eight awards. Here’s a list of the rest of tonight’s winners:

• Best Debut: Florence (Mountains)
• Best VR/AR Game: Beat Saber (Beat Games)
• Best Mobile Game: Florence (Mountains)
• Best Narrrative: Return of the Obra Dinn (Lucas Pope)
• Pioneer Award: Rieko Kodama (lead producer and director at Sega)
• Best Audio: Celeste (Matt Makes Games and Power Up Audio)
• Best Technology: Red Dead Redemption 2 (Rockstar Games)
• Best Visual Art: Gris (Nomada Studio)
• Best Design: Into the Breach (Subset Games)
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Amy Hennig (game designer and Uncharted creator)
• Innovation Award: Nintendo Labo (Nintendo)
• Audience Award: Beat Saber (Beat Games)