Here are the winners of the MCV/DEVELOP Awards 2025!

Last night, the video games industry gathered for the MCV/DEVELOP Awards 2025 at the gorgeous Royal Lancaster Hotel, which overlooks London’s Hyde Park. It was a lot of fun, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting together with friends and colleagues for a night of celebrating the industry’s hard work. 

There were a few multiple award winners this year, all of whom are equally impressive. Rare took home two awards for Sea of Thieves; getting one in the Accessibility Innovation category, and another for Ongoing Innovation, which it also won last year. All Possible Futures also had a strong debut showing, winning both Visual Innovation for The Plucky Squire, as well as our prestigious Newcomer of the Year award. PLAION also secured two awards. One for Distributor of the Year and, alongside YRS TRULY, another for Campaign of the Year for Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

The 2025 Games for a Better World Award went to PlanetPlay, for their work taking the challenges of climate change and sustainability head-on. SEGA HARDlight is the the latest studio to take its place up in the Legend Award pantheon alongside previous winners Rare, Sports Interactive, Rebellion and Jagex.

Thank you to all of our sponsors over at Green Man Gaming Distribution, Exertis Ztorm, Electric Square and Lively Studio, Fireshine Games, Portal Studio, Liquid Crimson, SIDE, DISOBEY and Bespoke Arcades. Without you, the event wouldn’t have been possible, and we don’t take that for granted. 

We’d also like to say a big thank you to the finalists, the winners, the technical crew, all of the staff of our fabulous venue, our host Mr. Roger Tilling, and everyone who came up to present an award on the night.

Here is the list of winners in full:

• Recruitment Agency of the Year: Aardvark Swift
• Creative (Content) Partner of the Year: Project N
• Service Partner of the Year: Airship Interactive
• Strategic Partner of the Year: Bastion
• Major Studio of the Year: Frontier Developments
• Indie Studio of the Year: Dlala Studios
• Co-Development Studio of the Year: Electric Square and Lively Group
• Major Publisher of the Year: Bethesda
• Indie Publisher of the Year: Secret Mode
• Media Brand of the Year: Video Games Chronicle
• PR Agency of the Year: Honest PR
• Campaign of the Year: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – PLAION and YRS TRULY
• Event of the Year: London Games Festival
• Hardware Innovation of the Year: Evercade Alpha Bartop Arcade Machine – Blaze Entertainment
• Visual Innovation of the Year: The Plucky Squire – All Possible Futures
• Audio Innovation of the Year: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II – Ninja Theory
• Accessibility Innovation of the Year: Sea of Thieves – Rare
• Narrative Innovation of the Year: Still Wakes the Deep – The Chinese Room
• Gameplay Innovation of the Year: Paper Trail – Newfangled Games
• Ongoing Innovation of the Year: Sea of Thieves – Rare
• Distributor of the Year: PLAION
• Retailer of the Year: Argos
• Global Business Excellence Award: Virtuos
• Outstanding Association Award: Limit Break
• Newcomer of the Year: All Possible Futures
• For a Better World: PlanetPlay
• Legend Award: SEGA HARDlight

The MCV/DEVELOP Awards will return in 2026, so make sure you tap it into your phone calendars now.

Our next event will be the MCV/DEVELOP Women In Games Awards, which will return to the America Square Conference Centre in London in September!