| D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation | |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Presented by | Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences |
| First awarded | 1998 |
| Currently held by | God of War Ragnarök |
| Website | www |
The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animation is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the individual or team whose work represents the highest level of achievement in bringing a character or characters to life. This award will consider the fluidity of movement, and interaction with the environment in addition to contextual realism (look and feel)".[1] Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as an artist, animator or programmer are qualified to vote for this award.[2]
The award's most recent winner was God of War Ragnarök, developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
|
See also: D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction |
The Academy originally offered the Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics at the first two annual awards ceremonies.[3][4] This would be separated into the categories Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Outstanding Achievement in Animation at the third annual awards ceremony.[5][6] Since the categories separated, roughly half of the finalists and winners for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were the same game within its respective release year. The games that had won both awards for "Animation" and "Art Direction" were Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, Half-Life 2, Gears of War, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, The Last of Us, Ori and the Blind Forest, Cuphead, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and God of War Ragnarök. Assassin's Creed III, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and Luigi's Mansion 3 won the "Animation" award, but were not finalists in the "Art Direction" category. 2022 was the only year that the "Animation" and "Art Direction" categories had the same five finalists and winner.
| Indicates the winner |
Sony has published the most nominees and winners. Sony has the distinction of publishing the most nominees within a single year (three) in four separate occasions (during the awards ceremony in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2014). Sony has also published the category winners for three consecutive years twice (2010 to 2012, and 2021 to 2023). Activision has published the most nominees without a single winner.
Sony's development subsidiary Naughty Dog has developed the most winners in this category. Ubisoft Montreal has developed the most nominees, and is one of two developers with back-to-back wins, with the other being SquareSoft. Ubisoft Montpellier, formerly known as "Ubi Pictures", has developed the most nominees without a single winner.
| Developer | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Naughty Dog | 9 | 5 |
| Ubisoft Montreal | 13 | 4 |
| Santa Monica Studio | 4 | 3 |
| Insomniac Games | 12 | 2 |
| SquareSoft/Square Enix | 7 | 3 |
| Oddworld Inhabitants | 3 | 1 |
| Sucker Punch Productions | 3 | 1 |
| Valve | 3 | 1 |
| Epic Games | 2 | 1 |
| Moon Studios | 2 | 1 |
| Rare | 2 | 1 |
| Ubisoft Pictures/Montpellier | 4 | 0 |
| Capcom | 3 | 0 |
| Infinity Ward | 3 | 0 |
| Japan Studio | 3 | 0 |
| Rocksteady Studios | 3 | 0 |
| Bend Studio | 2 | 0 |
| Guerrilla Games | 2 | 0 |
| Kojima Productions | 2 | 0 |
| LucasArts | 2 | 0 |
| Namco | 2 | 0 |
| Ninja Theory | 2 | 0 |
| Polyarc | 2 | 0 |
| Ready at Dawn | 2 | 0 |
| Team Ninja | 2 | 0 |
| Publisher | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Sony Computer/Interactive Entertainment | 41 | 11 |
| Ubisoft | 19 | 4 |
| Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios | 11 | 3 |
| Electronic Arts | 8 | 2 |
| SquareSoft/Square Enix | 7 | 3 |
| Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment / Warner Bros. Games | 5 | 1 |
| Nintendo | 5 | 2 |
| Activision | 6 | 0 |
| Namco/Bandai Namco Games/Entertainment | 4 | 0 |
| Valve | 4 | 0 |
| Capcom | 3 | 0 |
| LucasArts | 3 | 0 |
| Rockstar Games | 3 | 0 |
| Bethesda Softworks | 2 | 0 |
| Polyarc | 2 | 0 |
| Square Enix Europe | 2 | 0 |
| Tecmo | 2 | 0 |
Assassin's Creed has been the most nominated franchise, while Uncharted and God of War have been the most award-winning franchises. Final Fantasy is the only franchise to have back-to-back wins. Call of Duty is the most nominated franchise that has never won.
| Franchises | Nominations | Wins |
|---|---|---|
| Uncharted | 6 | 3 |
| God of War | 4 | 3 |
| Assassin's Creed | 7 | 2 |
| Final Fantasy | 6 | 2 |
| Prince of Persia | 4 | 2 |
| The Last of Us | 2 | 2 |
| Ratchet & Clank | 6 | 1 |
| Marvel's Spider-Man | 3 | 1 |
| Oddworld | 3 | 1 |
| Gears of War | 2 | 1 |
| Half-Life | 2 | 1 |
| Mario[b] | 2 | 1 |
| Ori | 2 | 1 |
| Sly Cooper | 2 | 1 |
| Call of Duty | 5 | 0 |
| Rayman | 4 | 0 |
| Batman: Arkham | 3 | 0 |
| Jak and Daxter | 3 | 0 |
| Dead of Alive | 2 | 0 |
| Horizon | 2 | 0 |
| Moss | 2 | 0 |
| Red Dead | 2 | 0 |
| Spyro | 2 | 0 |