HARDWARE

RUNNER-UP NINTENDO LABO

Manufacturer Nintendo Sixty quid for cardboard? Nintendo made it feel like a bargain. The software might be hit and miss (though the Variety Kit’s fishing game is a minor classic) but assembling these contraptions has the same satisfaction as a complex Lego build. It’s a reminder that games aren’t just art, but pieces of complex engineering – and Labo’s educational bent makes it manna for STEM teachers, too.

RUNNER-UP XBOX ADAPTIVE CONTROLLER

Manufacturer Microsoft It looks cool. And it didn’t have to – Microsoft’s latest bit of kit is all about functionality, a fully customisable controller designed to help disabled videogame fans comfortably play with ease. Even the futuristic packaging it comes in is accessible. Microsoft may have lagged behind this year when it came to games, but the Adaptive Controller proved it was way ahead of the curve in another respect.

WINNER PSVR

Manufacturer Sony Sony’s strategy for PSVR – once again it has clustered all the year’s notable releases together in its final few months – may make sense for the PlayStation platform as a whole, but developers may not put up with being forced to fight over the same lunch for long. Still, with Astro Bot,

Tetris Effect and The Persistence, to name a few, this was the year PSVR came into its own. What once felt like a curio is now essential.