Welcome to /v/GA Spotlight, which aims to showcase a category each week in the Vidya Gaem Awards and why we have them in the show.
With as many good games coming out as there are bad ones, the “Best New IP” award category is for the best new video game franchise.
Names we used for the Best New IP Award:
- “Most Interesting New IP” (for our 2011 show)
- “/v/irgin Award” (pronounced “Virgin Award”)
- “New Challenger Award” (originates from Super Smash Bros. franchise, when a new character appears)
Some interesting things about Best New IP: we recognize games that are a part of an established franchise outside of gaming as eligible. We also treat “spiritual successors” such as Sleeping Dogs (formerly True Crime: Hong Kong before the property was sold to Square Enix) as new IPs. Spiritual successors rarely win, but their nominations are controversial.
Best New IP is a legacy award category, which means it has appeared in the Vidya Gaem Awards for at least ten years, either on screen or site-only.
Winners of the Vidya Gaem Awards’ Best New IP award, by year:
- 2011: Bastion (video) (results)
- 2012: Hotline Miami (video) (results)
- 2013: Dragon’s Crown (video) (results)
- 2014: Shovel Knight (video) (results)
- 2015: Splatoon (video) (results)
- 2016: VA-11 HALL-A (video) (results)
- 2017: Cuphead (video) (results)
- 2018: Octopath Traveler (video) (results)
- 2019: Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (results)
- 2020: Hades (video) (results)
- 2021: Cruelty Squad (video) (results)
- 2022: Elden Ring (results)
Analysis: Beat-em-ups, platformers, and ARPGs seem to be popular winners in this category with /v/, but they don’t always win. Cruelty Squad (a tactical shooter), Splatoon, and VA-11 HALL-A were notable exceptions.
Here’s an excerpt from 2017’s Best New IP Award speech:
[…] Cuphead’s challenging-fun experience is topped off by its big-band and ragtime musical score, rubber-hose animation, and a lovable cast of silly characters.
Broken down into one sentence, the Best New IP award explains everything great about the game and what set it apart from other new properties coming out that year.
The Vidya Gaem Awards are an award show for video games originating from 4chan’s “/v/ - Video Games” board. It is an award show that features both positive and negative award categories, has been held each year online since 2011, and made possible by a group of volunteers who work on the project for free. Learn more about “What are the Vidya Gaem Awards?” here.
Disclosure: I am the current Head of Outreach and the former Executive Producer of the Vidya Gaem Awards (2013–2015, 2017).
