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The 2017 Game Developers Choice Awards are just around the corner, with nominees for this year's categories officially announced. It should come as no surprise that games like Uncharted 4, Overwatch and Dishonored 2 received oodles of nods, with indie darling Inside earning the most nominations of all.
This year's host will once again be Tim Schafer, set to take the stage and guide us all through an evening of awards on March 1. This year's Game Developers Conference is being hosted out of San Francisco, though the whole shebang can be viewed around the world through a livestream on Twitch.
The folks over at Gamespot got their hands on the list of nominees, which can be found below. Without further ado, here are the nominees for the 17th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards.
Best Debut
Heart Machine for Hyper Light Drifter
Campo Santo for Firewatch
ConcernedApe for Stardew Valley
Drool for Thumper
Night School Studio for Oxenfree
Best Mobile/Handheld Game
Super Mario Run
Clash Royale
Pokemon Go
Reigns
Pokemon Sun/Moon
Best Narrative
The Last Guardian
Oxenfree
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Inside
Firewatch
Best Visual Art
Firewatch
The Last Guardian
Overwatch
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Inside
Best VR/AR Game
Rez Infinite
Superhot VR
Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives
Pokemon Go
Fantastic Contraption
Each category had a boatload of honorable mentions listed, but the list above gives you an idea of what the nomination committee consider the best 2016 had to offer. There's plenty of nods to the usual suspects, with plenty of nice surprises peppered throughout including a couple of appearances from Thumper and, despite all of the controversy, No Man's Sky. Some surprises went the other direction, though. We completely agree with Pokemon Go being nominated in the innovation category, but putting it up for Best Mobile/Handheld Game seems like a bit of a stretch. It's a phenomenon and it has done great things for fitness and spreading positive messages about games in general, yes, but we doubt even diehard players would argue that it's actually a solid gaming experience.
But that just goes to show that all of this stuff is subjective, as well it should be. We wish all of the nominees the best of luck and we'll see you back here following the March 1 awards show to go over the winners.