Tomb Raider, Witcher lead DICE Award noms

Game award season is ramping up, as the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences today released its nominees for the 19th Annual DICE Awards. Although these are just nominations, it's not a stretch to declare Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3 as winners simply for their impressive hauls of nine nominations and eight nominations, respectively, among the award show's 22 categories.

As one might expect, both of those games received nominations for Game of the Year, alongside Ori and the Blind Forest (nominated in six categories total), Fallout 4 (five nominations), and Bloodborne (two nominations). Other multiple-time nominees that didn't crack the Game of the Year category included Her Story, The Order: 1886, and Star Wars Battlefront, each of which is contending in four categories.

In addition to the categories that are still up for grabs, the AIAS will also dole out honors for work over the course of a creator's career. This year's Lifetime Achievement Award will go to the late Satoru Iwata, while the 2016 Hall of Fame inductee is Hideo Kojima.

As always, the awards ceremony will serve as the climax of the DICE Summit in Las Vegas, but this year's show will see a change of venue from the Hard Rock Hotel to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. The show will be held February 18 and hosted by Pete Holmes

The top categories are listed below. A complete list of nominations is available from the AIAS website.

Game of the Year

• Bloodborne (From Software/Sony)
• Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
• Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios/Microsoft)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED)

Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction

• Fallout 4 (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
• Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (CD Projekt RED)
• Undertale (Toby Fox)

Adventure Game of the Year

• Batman: Arkham Knight (Rocksteady Studios/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Life is Strange (Dontnod Entertainment/Square Enix)
• Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (Kojima Productions/Konami)
• Ori and the Blind Forest (Moon Studios/Microsoft)
• Rise of the Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics/Square Enix)

Action Game of the Year

• Destiny: The Taken King (Bungie/Activision)
• Helldivers (Arrowhead Game Studios/Sony)
• Just Cause 3 (Avalanche Studios/Square Enix)
• Star Wars Battlefront (DICE/Electronic Arts)
• Splatoon (Nintendo EAD Group No. 2/Nintendo of America)

Mobile Game of the Year

• DomiNations (Big Huge Games/Nexon M)
• Fallout Shelter (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks)
• Lara Croft GO (Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix)
• Pac-Man 256 (Hipster Whale/Bandai Namco)
• The Room Three (Fireproof Games/Fireproof Studios)

DICE Sprite Award

• Her Story (Sam Barlow)
• Galak-Z (17-Bit)
• Kerbal Space Program (Squad)
• Rocket League (Psyonix)
• Undertale (Toby Fox)

[CORRECTION]: The original version of this article included a miscount of the number of nominations Rise of the Tomb Raider received.