The shortlist for the 2022 MCV/DEVELOP Awards

We are delighted to announce the shortlist for this year’s MCV/DEVELOP Awards, taking place on Thursday the 28th of April at The Brewery in London.

Before we start, we’d like to extend a hearty congratulations to all of this year’s nominees. We say this every time, but it is always an honour and a privilege to be able to celebrate the abundant talent found in the UK games industry. While you’ll have to wait until April to find out who’ll be taking home a prestigious MCV/DEVELOP award, please know that you’re all winners in our eyes.

It’s been quite some time since our last awards – all the way back in March of 2020, just before the pandemic forced the awards into a temporary hibernation. We’ve missed you all terribly.

Voting is now closed! Thank you for taking part, and we can’t wait to celebrate the winners with you later this month.

Tables for the evening are also available to book now, so be sure that you don’t miss out on MCV/DEVELOP’s return to the Brewery after two long years.

For branding and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Alex Boucher at alex.boucher@biz-media.co.uk.

And with all that out of the way, on with this year’s shortlist! Congratulations to you all.

DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS

Development Tool of the Year

• GameMaker Studio
• Elias Studio 3
• SyncSketch
• Unity
• Unreal Engine
• Wwise

External Development Partner of the Year

• Epic Games
• Keywords Studios
• Media Foundry
• PTW
• Testronic
• Virtuos

Recruitment Agency of the Year

• Aardvark Swift
• Amiqus
• Haptic
• InGame
• OPM
• Trust in Soda

INNOVATION IN GAMES

Visual Innovation of the Year

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (Ustwo Games)
• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Games Studio)
• Fracked (nDreams)
• Röki (Polygon Treehouse / CI Games)
• Returnal (Climax Studios, Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)

Audio Innovation of the Year

• Dirt 5 (Codemasters / EA)
• Forza Horizon 5 (Playground Games / Xbox Games Studio)
• Returnal (Climax Studios, Housemarque / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
• Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure (Sumo Digital / Sony Interactive Entertainment)

Gameplay Innovation of the Year

• Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic)
• Fights in Tight Spaces (Ground Shatter / Mode 7)
• I Am Fish (Bossa Studios / Curve Games)
• PowerWash Simulator (FuturLab / Square Enix)
• Sniper Elite VR (Just Add Water / Rebellion)
• Tails of Iron (Odd Bug Studio / CI Games)

Narrative Innovation of the Year

• Death’s Door (Acid Nerve / Devolver Digital)
• F1 2021 (Codemasters / EA)
• The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (Supermassive Games / Bandai Namco)
• Lost Words: Beyond the Page (Sketchbook Games / Modus Games)
• Overboard! (inkle)

OUTSTANDING STUDIOS

Major Studio of the Year

• Creative Assembly
• Frontier Developments
• Rebellion
• Playground Games
• Sumo Digital
• Supermassive Games

Indie Studio of the Year

• Acid Nerve
• Bossa Studios
• Hello Games
• Shedworks
• Skyhook Games
• Ustwo Games

PUBLISHING & PLATFORMS

Major Publisher of the Year

• Bethesda Softworks
• EA
• Xbox Game Studios
• Nintendo
• Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Square Enix

Indie Publisher of the Year

• Chucklefish
• Curve Games
• No More Robots
• Slitherine
• Sold Out
• Wired Productions

Platform of the Year

• Xbox / Microsoft Store
• Nintendo / Nintendo eShop
• Steam
• Antstream Arcade
• PlayStation / PS Store
• Humble Bundle / Humble Store

REACHING AUDIENCES

PR Agency of the Year

• Bastion
• Bope PR
• Dead Good Media
• Honest PR
• Indigo Pearl
• Renaissance

Creative Agency of the Year

• Diva
• Fluid Design
• Fourth Floor Creative
• Ichi Worldwide
• TAKEOFF Studios
• YRS TRULY

Campaign of the Year

• The Ascent, Curve Games (Renaissance)
• Lycanspiracy, Magic: The Gathering (YRS TRULY and Wizards of the Coast)
• Kiyan Prince, FIFA 21 (EA)
• PS5 TFL takeover (Diva)
• Yogscast Jingle Jam (Honest PR)

Media Brand of the Year

• Eurogamer
• GAMINGbible
• IGN UK
• PCGamesN
• RKG
• Video Games Chronicle (VGC)

RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION

Retailer of the Year

• Amazon
• Fanatical
• GAME
• Green Man Gaming
• ShopTo

Distributor of the Year

• CentreSoft
• Click
• Contact Sales
• Genba Digital
• Koch Media
• Plug In Digital