The D.I.C.E. Award for Action Game of the Year is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. This award recognizes titles that "follow the gameplay from the prospective of the character that the player is controlling. These games feature heavy weapons use and/or involve characters engaged in combat while moving through a linear or open environment. The opponent can either be controlled by another player or by the game". All active creative/technical, business, and affiliate members of the Academy are qualified to vote for this category. The award initially had separate awards for console games and computer games at the 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 1998, with the first winners being GoldenEye 007 for console and Quake II for computer. There have been numerous mergers and additions of action-related games throughout the early years of the awards ceremony's history. The current version was officially introduced at the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2008, which was awarded to '.
The most recent winner of the award is Hades II, developed and published by Supergiant Games.
Initially, the Interactive Achievement Awards had separate awards for Console Action Game of the Year and Computer Action Game of the Year. The 1999 awards featured genre-specific Online awards, including Online Action/Strategy Game of the Year. There was only one Online Game of the Year in 2000. In 2001, the awards for action games and adventure games were consolidated to Action/Adventure awards, recognizing titles in which players are challenged with real-time action activities and combat where possibly skill, accuracy and puzzle-solving are required. Additional categories for console and computer first person action games were added for the 6th awards ceremony. This was probably because both winners for console and PC Action/Adventure in 2002 were first-person shooters, being ' for console and Return to Castle Wolfenstein for PC. A category for Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year was also introduced in 2003. Starting in 2006, genre-specific awards would no longer have separate categories for console and computer games, resulting in one Action/Adventure Game of the Year award, which included platform games going forward, and one First-Person Action Game of the Year award. These would ultimately be replaced by Action Game of the Year and Adventure Game of the Year in 2008.
Electronic Arts and Sony have published the most nominees for action-related Game of the Year awards. Activision and Ubisoft are tied for publishing the most winners for action-related Game of the Year awards. Ubisoft Montreal has developed the most nominees and award winners. Ubisoft Montreal is the only developer to win more than one award for the same game in the same year with ', winning for Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year and Computer Action/Adventure Game of the Year in 2004.
Rockstar North and Rockstar Games have also won multiple awards in the same year, but for different games in 2003:
Sierra On-Line has published the winners for multiple awards with different developers in the same year:
There are three publishers with back-to-back wins with different developers:
There have also been two back-to-back developer-and-publisher winners of the same award:
The Call of Duty franchise has received the most nominations and won the most awards. The Tom Clancy's franchise is second in nominations and tied for second-most wins with the Grand Theft Auto, Half-Life, Halo, and Prince of Persia franchises. In the early years of the Interactive Achievement Awards when there were multiple awards for action-related genres, some franchises has had multiple nominations in the same year. The 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards in 2003 have had three franchises receiving multiple nominations/awards with more than one game in action-related categories:
Some games have received more than one nomination in the same year for action-related awards:
Some games have received multiple nominations spread across multiple years, mostly for expansion packs.
There are only two franchises that have back-to-back wins for the same action-related award. The first is Half-Life for Computer Action Game of the Year in 1999 and 2000, and the second is Prince of Persia for Console Platform Action/Adventure Game of the Year in 2004 and 2005. Both the original Dead Space and the 2023 remake have been named as finalists, with the former winning the award outright.