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The Finnish Game Awards showcase the best achievements of the year

Neogames organizes the annual Finnish Game Awards in co-operation with Finnish Game Developer Studios Association. The gala is an opportunity for the local game branch to celebrate new innovative and successful game titles by local developers and award the industry’s best achievements of the past year.

Nominees are chosen by a jury and winners are voted by the members of Finnish Game Developer Studios Association. The awards gala, where winners are announced, takes place in the spring as a live, invite-only awards show, live streamed online.

The history of the Finnish Game Awards goes back to the late 1990’s. First local game awards were handed by local videogame magazine Pelit in 1998. In 2008-2013 the local industry awards were handled by Figma, an association of multimedia publishers. Finnish Game Developer Studios Association has coordinated the awards since 2014 in co-operation with Neogames, who handles the operation and production of the annual event.

Nomination Process

At the Finnish Game Awards gala, eligible nominees include all games commercially available on all platforms developed by Finnish game developer companies and released during the previous calendar year. The list of eligible games released during the past year is compiled by Neogames Finland. The nominees are confirmed by the board of the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association.

Early Access releases for PC games are accepted as eligible nominations. However, the same game cannot be nominated multiple times; if a game is nominated at the gala as an Early Access release, it cannot be nominated again after its official release.

Beta releases for mobile games are not eligible for nomination. Only global launch releases for mobile games are accepted as nominations.

VR games compete in the Big Screen category at the gala, while AR games compete in the Small Screen category.

Selection of Winners and Awardees

The lists of nominees for the three main categories (Big Screen Game of the Year, Small Screen Game of the Year, Finnish Game of the Year) are chosen based on a member vote organized by the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association. In the voting process, each member studio can allocate 1-5 points to nominee games, with the best game receiving 5 points, the next 4 points, and so on down to 1 point. All points must be allocated. The final lists of nominees, ranging from 5-10 nominees per list depending on the year and category, are formed based on the points gathered from the member vote. The board of the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association confirms the nominee lists.

Traditionally, the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association has also awarded recognitions at the gala outside of the nomination and voting process. Traditional recognitions include awards such as Best Creative Achievement of the Year, Finnish Rookie of the Year, and Power Player of the Year. Additional awards may also be distributed as needed over the years. The recipients of these recognitions are determined by the board of the Finnish Game Developer Studios Association.

Other awards from various gaming industry associations and entities are also presented at the gala, and these may vary annually.

Past winners at the Finnish Game Awards