Hideo Kojima picks up the Lifetime Achievements award

Dark Souls 2 is the winner of the Game of the Year award at the Golden Joysticks, the biggest set of awards for the video game industry which is based on the votes that have been cast by the public rather than on the opinions of the critics or the sales a release managed to generate.

The experience created by From Software managed to overcome a number of other capable competitors after more than nine million votes were cast by the public.

The rest of the winners include:

Best Original Game - DayZ

Best Online Game - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Best Storytelling - The Last of Us: Left Behind

Best Visual Design - Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Best Audio - Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Playfire Most Played Game of the Year - Rust

Best Multiplayer - Battlefield 4

Best Indie Game - DayZ

Innovation of the Year - Oculus Rift DK2

Best Gaming Moment - The Last of Us: Left Behind - "The kiss"

Best Handheld Game - Pokemon X & Y

Best Mobile Game - Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Most Wanted - The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

Gaming Personality of the Year - PewDiePie

Studio of the Year - Ubisoft Montreal

Gaming Platform of the Year - Steam

Lifetime Achievement - Hideo Kojima

Dark Souls 2 and the power of the hardcore crowd

Dark Souls 2 was probably not played by all the nine million people who have actually voted for the Golden Joystick awards, but the game managed to acquire a reputation in the industry for being uncompromising and capable of offering a new take on a familiar genre.

Declan Gough, head of content and marketing for film, games and music at organizer Future, is quoted by CVG as saying that “This year's awards have been another triumph for both Future and the world of gaming. The fans have once again voted in their absolute masses with some categories literally coming down to the last hours of voting. The Joysticks have once again demonstrated the depth and quality of this market and something we are very proud to be part of.”

Dark Souls 2 has received three major pieces of downloadable content since it was launched, and the development team at From Software is at the moment working on a new title called Bloodborne.

The experience will be launched in early February only on the PlayStation 4 home console from Sony and is being developed by a team led by Hidetaka Miyazaki, who worked on the first Dark Souls and on Demon’s Souls.

The core gameplay will remain harder than average, but players will get a ranged weapon and new moves to use while taking out a variety of enemies.

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