STUDIO OF THE YEAR

RUNNER-UP SIE JAPAN STUDIO

While we’ve heard rumblings of discontent about the PlayStation operation’s Tokyo studio, there was no arguing with its output in 2018. In addition to running support on Bluepoint’s astounding Shadow Of The Colossus remake and Hidetaka Miyazaki’s VR debut Déraciné, it gave PlayStation VR one of its best games to date with the stellar and smartly designed Astro Bot Rescue Mission.

RUNNER-UP ROCKSTAR

Rockstar’s global eight-studio network may have turned out the runaway game of the year, but reports that emerged on the eve of RDR2’ s release raised concerns about the human cost of such a staggering technical achievement. It’s a sour note in what should be a year to celebrate, but unlikely to be repeated: if we’ve learned one thing about Rockstar over the years, it’s that it doesn’t like to be embarrassed.

WINNER EPIC GAMES

You’d hardly have noticed Epic was even at E3 2017: locked away in an upstairs meeting room, it was the forgotten man of the industry. Now it runs the world’s biggest game, and the lessons learned in its upkeep have seen Unreal Engine come on leaps and bounds. Fortnite’s success broke down walls between platform holders, and Epic is giving its crossplay tech to other devs for free. A remarkable turnaround.