The Best Game award recognizes the overall best - as interpreted by developers - game released during the year.

9th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

Recipient

• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)

Nominees

• Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2008)

Recipient

• Portal (Valve)
  - Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

Nominees

• BioShock (2K Boston / 2K Australia / 2K Games)
  - Ken Levine, Jon Chey, Alyssa Finley, Melissa Miller
• Call of Duty 4 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Jason West, Grant Collier, Vince Zampella
• Rock Band (Harmonix Music Systems / MTV Games)
  - Alex Rigopulos, Greg LoPiccolo
• Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Yoshiaki Koizumi

7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2007)

Recipient

• Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Nominees

• Okami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
  - Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya
• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
  - Todd Howard
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
  - Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto
• Wii Sports (Nintendo)
  - Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

6th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2006)

Recipient

• Shadow of the Colossus (Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.)
  - Kenji Kaido, Yasuhide Kobayashi, Fumito Ueda

Nominees

• Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward / Activision)
  - Mark Ganus
• Electroplankton (Nintendo)
  - Toshio Iwai, Koichi Kyuma, Yuichi Ozaki
• God of War (Sony Computer Entertainment America)
  - Brad Aldredge, Clint Bajakian, Chuck Doud, Dave Murrant
• Project Gotham Racing 3 (Bizarre Creations / Microsoft Game Studios)
  - Nick Bygrave, Guy Whitmore, Nick Wiswell

5th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2005)

Recipient

• Half-Life 2 (Valve Software / Vivendi Universal Games)
  - Ken Birdwell, Gabe Newell, Jay Stelly

Nominees

• Burnout 3: Takedown (Criterion Games / Electronic Arts)
  - Paul Glancey, Chris Roberts, Paul Cross, Fiona Sperry, Alex Ward
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar North / Rockstar Games)
  - Leslie Benzies, Adam Fowler, Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, Alexander Roger, Obbe Vermeij
• Katamari Damacy (Namco)
  - Keita Takahashi
• World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment)
  - Mark Kern, Mike Morhaime, Rob Pardo

4th annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2004)

Recipient

• STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC (BioWare Corp.)

Nominees

• BEYOND GOOD & EVIL (Ubisoft Pictures)
• CALL OF DUTY (Infinity Ward)
• PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME (Ubisoft Montreal)
• THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: THE WIND WAKER (Nintendo EAD)

3rd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2003)

Recipient

• METROID PRIME (Retro Studios)

Nominees

• BATTLEFIELD 1942 (Digital Illusions)
• GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY (Rockstar North)
• NEVERWINTER NIGHTS (BioWare Corp.)
• TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL (Ubi Soft Montreal)

2nd annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2002)

Recipient

• GRAND THEFT AUTO III (DMA Design/Rockstar Games)

Nominees

• BLACK & WHITE (Lionhead Studios)
• HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED (Bungie Studios)
• ICO (Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.)
• MAX PAYNE (Remedy Entertainment)

1st annual Game Developers Choice Awards (2001)

Recipient

• THE SIMS (Maxis)

Nominees

• DEUS EX (ION Storm Austin)
• JET GRIND RADIO (Smilebit)
• NO ONE LIVES FOREVER (Monolith)
• SHENMUE (Sega AM2)