The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the academy's annual D.I.C.E. Awards. This award is "presented to the individual or team whose work represents the highest level of achievement in designing a unified graphic look for an interactive title." It originally was presented as Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics, with its first winner being Riven: The Sequel to Myst. It was renamed to the Outstanding Achievement Award in Art Direction at the 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.
The award's most recent winner is God of War Ragnarök, developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
Winners and nominees
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
Multiple nominations and wins
Developers and publishers
Sony has published the most nominees and winners. Sony had published games with multiple back-to-back wins, but with different developers. Nintendo and Microsoft have also published multiple nominees and both have two winners. The only other publisher with back-to-back wins has been Square Electronic Arts. Nintendo, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Square Enix Europe have also had multiple nominees for the same year. Several of Sony's developing subsidiaries have developed multiple nominees and winners. Insomniac Games has developed the most nominees, but only one of its nominated games has won so far (Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart). Sony subsidiary Naughty Dog is the studio who had developed the most winners in this category. Sony's second party studios Sucker Punch Productions and Santa Monica Studio, as well as Sony's in-house Japan Studio, have all also won this award category twice. The only developer with back-to-back wins has been SquareSoft. Ubisoft Montreal has the distinction of not only developing the most nominees without having a single winner (8 nominations, 0 wins), but also publishing the most nominees without a single win (12 nominations, 0 wins).
Franchises
The most nominated franchises have been Call of Duty (6 nominations) and Final Fantasy (5 nominations). Final Fantasy, God of War, and Uncharted have been the only franchises so far to have won more than once. The Call of Duty franchise have not won any awards in this category despite receiving the most nominations.