The 2017 Golden Joystick Awards winners are in, revealed last night at the 35th annual ceremony that celebrated the best in gaming this year. Taking the Golden Joystick for ‘Best VR Game’ was Capcom’s horror-adventure Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), a game that equally supports PSVR and traditional monitors.

The ‘Best VR Game’ category was a new addition to the awards show this year. Since the show was opened last year to the voting public, the award represents the Best VR Game according to community choice. And the community that’s played Resident Evil 7 is truly massive by VR standards.

After its launch in January, some metrics showed that almost 10 percent of registered PSVR players were playing it concurrently. Capcom later announced early this month that Resident Evil 7 had some 475,000 PSVR players out of the ~4 billion units sold. When it comes to community choice, market penetration is definitely a deciding factor.

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The nominees for Best VR Game were: Farpoint (PSVR), Lone Echo (Oculus Rift), Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PSVR), Star Trek: Bridge Crew (PSVR/Rift/Vive), and SUPERHOT VR (PSVR/Rift/Vive).

Besides Resident Evil 7, all of the nominees were built exclusively for VR.

Here’s the full list of last night’s winners:

  • Best Storytelling – Horizon Zero Dawn
  • Best Visual Design – Cuphead
  • Best Audio – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • Best Gaming Performance – Ashly Burch (Horizon Zero Dawn)
  • Best Indie Game – Friday the 13th: The Game
  • Best Multiplayer Game – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
  • Studio of the Year – Nintendo EPD
  • Best VR Game – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
  • eSports Play of the Year – Agilities
  • eSports Team of the Year – Seoul Dynasty (formerly Lunatic-Hai)
  • eSports Game of the Year – Overwatch
  • Best Streamer / Broadcaster – Markiplier
  • Handheld / Mobile Game of the Year – Pokémon Sun and Moon
  • Nintendo Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • PlayStation Game of the Year – Horizon Zero Dawn
  • Xbox Game of the Year – Cuphead
  • PC Game of the Year – PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
  • Critics’ Choice Award – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
  • Breakthrough Award – Ashly Burch
  • Hall of Fame – Final Fantasy
  • Most Wanted Award – The Last of Us Part II
  • Still Playing Award – World of Tanks
  • Outstanding Contribution to the UK Games Industry – Debbie Bestwick MBE
  • Lifetime Achievement – Sid Meier
  • Ultimate Game of the Year – The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

If you’re curious to see the full show, you can check it out on Twitch. Skip ahead to 1:21:00 to bypass the pre-show and get into the award ceremony.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Skippy76

    Seriously?
    The list of nominees are total shit.
    Resident evil isnt even a proper VR title yet.
    Who comes up with these lists??

    • victor

      True dat

    • Gonzalo Novoa

      RE7 is an incredible VR title and it will be even better when and if ever comes out with ´Touch support but that doesn’t stop it from being an awesome vr title. I voted for Lone Echo, though, because it is not a hybrid but a pure VR title.

      • Skippy76

        It might be a good game but no way in hell is it the best VR title.
        Onward is far superior with a fraction of the budget! Space pirate trainer, serious sam, raw data, rec room, im sure there a long list of oculus games too that are better than any psvr game.

        • Gonzalo Novoa

          Well, that is a matter of personal taste. For me RE7 is one of the best VR games out there without the slightest doubt but everyone has their own preferences and tastes.

          • Skippy76

            Maybe because you haven’t tried real roomscale VR.
            This game shouldn’t even be considered VR because you play seated with a controller. Zero immersion

          • Gonzalo Novoa

            Not true, the game is very immersive. According to that way of reasoning Elite Dangerous is not immersive because you play seated and use a controller which makes no sense, and the same goes for dozens of games.

          • ITALI-LORI-MONTI

            lascialo perdere, non sa quello che dice! ignoranza totale!

          • Skippy76

            You are really not making any sense..
            Elite Dangerous is a SEATED game!! you’re in a cockpit flying. Even more immersive if you have the proper HOTAS controllers!
            REVII is a roomscale type game except you are forced to play seated with a controller. This is as lame as playing a VR boxing game with a controller!! It’s NOT proper VR!!
            Nice try though!!

          • ITALI-LORI-MONTI

            non sai quello che dici! prima di parlare prova il gioco!io lo platinato con il VR e lo rigiocato 12 volte e ancora non sono stufo!credo ne passerà del tempo prima esca un gioco di tale livello per la VR!

  • mareknr

    OK. And when we will get support for PC VR?

  • doug

    Sounds like Sony had enough pull with golden joystick to get this “best of 2017” award before Fallout 4 VR was released… also in 2017.

  • Luke

    my oculus rift is ready!

  • VRgameDevGirl

    If this doesn’t come out for VIVE I’m going to have to buy a damn PSVR, try and not vomit while I attempt to beat the game in a week, then return the PSVR. Does the game support move controllers??? I didn’t even think of that.

    • Sch@dows

      No move support, it’s just a minimalist VR implementation where you control where the camera is pointing to (so does the weaping since the crosshair is stuck in the middle of the screen) with the headset and a couple of options to adjusting movement/turn speed.

      • VRgameDevGirl

        That sucks!!! Could u imagine how much fun this would be with room scale and motion controllers????? OMG

        • Sch@dows

          Well, since the game doesn’t have a teleport functionality (as I said, the game wasn’t though for VR initially and every jump scares are based on invisible tripwire that you might skip if you were able to teleport), I don’t think room scale would be such a great idea.

          I mean, I’m able to cope with linear motion now, but only if i’m seatted. Standing up for roomscale and using linear movement doesn’t mix that well in my opinion.

          But I completely agree with you on being able to use the controllers to interact with the environment, or even just aiming your weapon.
          Unfortunately, the game behave quite classically here, with you having to press a button when facing a desk to open the drawer, and press the button again to loot it. You d’ont feel connected to the world.
          Same with the inventory which, despite being quicker, kind of get me out the the experience each time I opened it.

          But the worst thing (because it would have been the easiest thing compared to what I complained above), is that you have to aim with your head. It complicate thing when you want to look elsewhere briefly while escaping an enemy, and because they don’t want you to feel sick, there is no recoil when shooting.
          By the way, every cut-scenes, despite still being in FPS view, are displayed in theater mode (probably to avoid dizziness once again).

          The only thing that game has for itself is that it is a great game initially (without VR).

          • VRgameDevGirl

            Touchpad walking would not be so bad…. i never said anything about teleport….and there are many ways to implement a VR inventory system.. Obviously they would have to add support and change things for it to work with HTC VIVE/Room scale…. If they were able to it would be so awesome.

          • care package

            Room scale isn’t a good idea period, since those who would/could even use it are a very small percentage. Same reason why most VR games can be played using very little space.

          • Arnold

            Salut. Je te répond ici vu que je commente pas sur Motorsport (et qui de toute façon, supprime les commentaires qui ose remettre en doute l’immense talent de RG), concernant l’article de Grosjean et sur son potentiel d’être champion du monde (sic).

            Dire que chez Lotus en 2012 et 2013, il y a un numéro 1 et 2 pour expliquer la déculottée de RG globalement, c’est très facile. C’est comme dire que Vettel bat Kimi uniquement parce qu’il est numéro 1 (même si c’est plus vraiment le cas aujourd’hui), c’est uniquement les excuses des pro-RG qui rage sur KR ça les Nicolas13rouc ou Bourvil ^^).

            C’était quoi l’ambition de Grosjean en 2012 ? Gagner avec Lotus pour finir chez Ferrari. C’est ballot, il y a eu exactement ça, mais avec son coéquipier. Ca explique probablement la grosse frustration du français envers son ancien coéquipier l’an dernier, propos dégueulasse complètement mis sous silence par Motorsport d’ailleurs…

            Grosjean est capable de faire des belles courses mais c’est le gars le plus irrégulier du plateau avec aucun talent d’adaptation, une véritable chercheuse d’excuse, je suis bien content que Raikkonen détruit indirectement le futur de la carrière de Grosjean en 2012-2013 vu que ses performances vis à vis de Grosjean va convaincre Marchionne de le reprendre, en 2014-2015 c’est la fausse bonne idée mais quand je regarde le niveau du Finlandais contre Vettel au sommet de sa forme cette année, c’est franchement l’inverse aujourd’hui.

            Un statue de #2 n’excuse pas une aussi grosse différence (200pt d’écart en 35 courses!!!), et c’est la même chose pour Massa contre Alonso ou même Palmer contre Hulkenberg l’an dernier…

    • ITALI-LORI-MONTI

      non capisco perché sei convinto che con PSVR tu debba vomitare e con il VIVE no!non ha senso!
      no move controllers.

  • Sch@dows

    I would say “Best Games with VR” rather than “Best VR Game”. The game wasn’t design for VR in the first place, and the implementation is minimalist.
    Doesn’t change that this is a great game anyway, but it’s VR implementation is clearly timid.

  • Awesome! Now I want to try it on my PC? When will they do the porting??!

  • ITALI-LORI-MONTI

    RE 7 VR ASSOLUTAMENTE UN CAPOLAVORO!!

  • FISHSTIX

    PSVR has sold 4 billion already LMAO I think that is a little overstatement……….