Editing Game Developers Choice Awards (section)

==Winner selection process==
Nominations for games are made by International Choice Awards Network (ICAN), a group of leading game creators. Votes are then additionally made by editors of [[Game Developer (website)|Game Developer]].<ref name="Game Developers Choice Awards">{{cite web|url=http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/rules.html|title=Game Developers Choice Awards|date=March 23, 2021 }}</ref> Any video game released in the preceding calendar year, regardless of medium, is eligible to be nominated, though upgrades, expansions, and mission packs are not eligible to be nominated.<ref name="Game Developers Choice Awards"/>

The top nominated games are assembled into the list of nominees, typically presented in December, are then voted on by final voting body, made up of ICANs, and editors of Game Developer.<ref name="Game Developers Choice Awards"/> In this final stage of voting, games with the highest votes in a category are the winners.<ref name="Game Developers Choice Awards"/>

Winners for Special Awards (Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer, Ambassador) are decided by a "Special Awards Jury", which appears to consist of a variety of 5 people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/advisory.html|title=Game Developers Choice Awards|date=March 23, 2021 }}</ref> This group may consider recommendations from ICAN members.<ref name="Game Developers Choice Awards"/>

The winners are announced during the [[Game Developers Conference]], which is typically held in March of the calendar year.

GDC related properties are owned by the [[UBM Technology Group|UBM technology group]].

===Historical process===

In 2007, [[gamasutra.com]] took over management of the awards from the [[IGDA]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/pr/pr_2007_1220.htm|title=Press Release:The 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards|date=December 20, 2007|access-date=September 13, 2016 }}</ref>
An advisory board selected by the editors of gamasutra.com and ''[[Game Developer (magazine)|Game Developer]]'' magazine oversees the selection process.

In the past, nominations are accepted from registered gamasutra.com users, confirmed to be game developers, and from the advisory board.
Once the nomination process is complete, the advisory board identifies five finalists for each regular category.

The recipients of the Lifetime Achievement, Pioneer (formerly known as First Penguin) and Maverick awards are selected by the advisory board.
For the other awards, a vote open to all those who participated in the nomination process chooses a recipient from each category's finalists.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/rules.html|title=rules and regulations|access-date=September 13, 2016 }}</ref>