Ubisoft Rakes In 14 Nominations for E3 2017 Game Critics' Awards

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Middle-earth: Shadow of War lead with four nominations each.

5

The E3 Game Critics have released their nominations for the best of the show from E3 2017, with Mario + Rabbit Battle Kingdom, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus leading the way with four nominations each.

On the publisher side, Ubisoft blew everyone away with 14 nominations, followed by Sony with seven and Bethesda with six. By platform, PC and PS4 each had 49 nominations, Xbox One had 44 and Nintendo Switch garnered 17.

Some games didn't make the E3 list because the critics require specific criteria for a game to be nominated. Games must be available to judges for at least five minutes of hands-on time at the show. That eliminated such titles, among others, as BioWare's new IP Anthem; the trailer-only Beyond Good & Evil 2; God of War, Metroid Prime 4, Ori and the Will of Wisps, and Marvel's Spider-Man.

Winners are expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Here is the complete list of nominees:

Best of Show

  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
  • Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best Original Game

  • Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
  • Sea of Thieves (Rare/Microsoft)
  • Skull & Bones (Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft)

Best Console Game

  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)\
  • Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft Milan/Ubisoft)
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best PC Game

  • Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive Ent)
  • Mount & Blade II: Bannerlords (TaleWorlds Entertainment)
  • Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly/Sega)
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best VR Game

  • Doom VFR (id Software/Bethesda)
  • Fallout 4 VR (Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda)
  • Lone Echo (Ready at Dawn/Oculus Studio)
  • Moss (Polyarc)
  • Transference (SpectreVision/Ubisoft)

Best Mobile/Handheld

  • Durango (What Studio/Nexon)
  • Metroid: Samus Returns (MercurySteam/Nintendo)
  • Hidden Agenda (Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • King's Knight: Wrath of the Dark Dragon (Square Enix)
  • Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (Atlus)

Best Hardware

  • Astro A10 Gaming Headset (Astro)
  • DisplayLink XR (DisplayLink)
  • Razer Thresher Ultimate (Razer)
  • Logitech PowerPlay Mat (Logitech)
  • Xbox One X (Microsoft)

Best Action Game

  • Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games/Activision)
  • Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision) 
  • Far Cry 5 (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
  • Star Wars Battlefront II (EA DICE/Motive/Criterion/Electronic Arts)
  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (Machine Games/Bethesda)

Best Action/Adventure Game

  • Assassin’s Creed: Origins (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
  • Detroit: Become Human (Quantic Dream/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • Days Gone (SIE Bend Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment)
  • Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith/Warner Bros. Interactive Ent).
  • Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo)

Best RPG

  • Battle Chasers: Nightwar (Airship Syndicate/THQ Nordic)
  • Kingdom Come: Deliverance (Warhorse Studios/Deep Silver)
  • Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlords (TaleWorlds Entertainment)
  • Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (Level 5/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
  • South Park: The Fractured But Whole (Ubisoft SF/South Park Digital Studios/Ubisoft)
  • Vampyr (Dotnod Entertainment/Focus Home Interactive)

Best Fighting Game

  • ARMS (Nintendo)
  • Dragon Ball FighterZ (Arc System Works/Bandai Namco Entertainment)
  • Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite (Capcom)
  • Pokken Tournament DX (Bandai Namco Studios/The Pokemon Co.)

Best Racing Game

  • Forza Motorsport 7 (Turn 10 Studios/Microsoft Studios) 
  • Gran Turismo Sport (Polyphony Digital/Sony Interactive Ent)
  • Need for Speed Payback (Ghost Games/Electronic Arts)
  • Project CARS 2 (Slighty Mad Studios/Bandai Namco Entertainment) 
  • The Crew 2 (Ivory Tower/Ubisoft Reflections/Ubisoft)

Best Sports Game

  • FIFA 18 (EA Canada/Electronic Arts)
  • Madden NFL 18 (EA Tiburon/Electronic Arts)
  • Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 (PES Productions/Konami)

Best Strategy Game

  • Battletech (Harebrained Schemes/Paradox Interactive)
  • Frostpunk (11 bit Studios)
  • Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle (Ubisoft)
  • Total War: Arena (Creative Assembly/Sega/Wargaming)
  • Total War: Warhammer II (Creative Assembly/Sega)

Best Family/Social Game

  • DropMix (Harmonix/Hasbro)
  • Just Dance 2018 (Ubisoft)
  • LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 (TT Games/Warner Bros Interactive Ent.)
  • Hidden Agenda (Supermassive Games/Sony Interactive Ent.)
  • That’s You (Wish Studios/Sony Interactive Ent.)

Best Online Multiplayer

  • Call of Duty: WWII (Sledgehammer Games/Activision)
  • Destiny 2 (Bungie/Activision)
  • Star Wars Battlefront II (EA DICE/Motive/Criterion/Electronic Arts)
  • Sea of Thieves (Rare/Microsoft)
  • Skull & Bones (Ubisoft Singapore/Ubisoft)

Best Independent Game

  • Ashen (Aurora 44/Annapurna Interactive)
  • Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (Inti Creates/505 Games)
  • Donut County (Ben Esposito/Annapurna Interactive)
  • Laser League (Roll7/505 Games)
  • The Artful Escape of Francis Vendetti (Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive)
Contributing Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 26, 2017 10:55 AM

    John Keefer posted a new article, Ubisoft Rakes In 14 Nominations for E3 2017 Game Critics' Awards

    • reply
      June 26, 2017 2:19 PM

      People like to hate on Ubisoft, but they're actually a pretty innovative group on the whole. They seem a little more willing to take chances than the other large publishers.

      (Granted, there are other aspects, like labour conditions, and perhaps a bit too much over-use of their tech, that are problematic with them.)

      • reply
        June 26, 2017 2:23 PM

        I feel like THQ, if they hadn't dove all in with that stupid uDraw stuff, probably would be in much the same boat as Ubisoft and/or been bought out by Vivendi at this point.

      • reply
        June 26, 2017 2:37 PM

        My primary hate with Ubisoft is the way they tend to handle content in open world games. There is very little if any sustenance.

        ie:
        Take Witcher 3.
        Remove 96% of the side quests.
        Shorten primary quest to 1/10th its original length
        Leave the world size the same
        Leave the treasure chests in
        Leave the village saving in
        Leave monster nest destroying in

        You now have an open world Ubisoft game.

        • reply
          June 26, 2017 4:12 PM

          Take Witcher 3

          remove the entire game
          keep map size the same

          replace it /w aggrivating platforming and garbage collecting

          You have an Ubisoft game.

      • reply
        June 26, 2017 5:17 PM

        They have improved in some areas. Rainbow Siege is an amazing game and UBI managed to leave the dev team alone to pursue the game as they saw fit and it's paid off well. They took a gamble on free DLC as well which has worked wonderfully and it seems like other publishers might be taking a similar tactic, I think Star Wars BF2 is planning on free DLC. They still have issues with server connectivity and other areas but they have been better than worse in the last year or two.

        • reply
          June 26, 2017 5:19 PM

          I agree! Definitely some stumbling, like with Ghost Recon: Wildlands (although, I'd argue that that franchise has been kinda mismanaged).

          The Division really turned a corner and turned into a really fun game.

Hello, Meet Lola