GamesBeat selected nine category winners from the Unreal Engine games its staff watched on the E3 2017 show floor. The list was not a single ranking: each award recognized a different strength, from striking visuals to VR design and inventive traversal. Here are the winners and the qualities that set them apart, as GamesBeat described them in its June 16, 2017 roundup.
GamesBeat’s nine Unreal Engine award winners
GamesBeat staff watched show-floor demos, then debated nominees and winners across nine categories. The awards recognized different qualities rather than applying one shared score, so the category labels matter: “best” here means a winner in its particular editorial category, not an overall champion.
| Category | Winner | What stood out |
|---|---|---|
| Eye Candy | Dragon Ball FighterZ Arc System Works / Bandai Namco Entertainment |
Anime-inspired 3D characters look like 2D drawings in side-view combat, while the camera can swing around them for special moves. |
| Best Hook | Genesis: Alpha One Radiation Blue |
A demo that blended space exploration, starship construction, first-person shooting, horror, and roguelike systems. |
| Most Addictive | Laser League Roll7 |
Fast, chaotic team matches built around activating laser-emitting nodes, dodging opponents’ beams, and using abilities and power-ups. |
| Best Sequel | Lineage2: Revolution Netmarble |
A mobile MMORPG presented as a large-scale, real-time experience, including major battles on phones and tablets. |
| Best Original Game | A Way Out Hazelight Studios |
A cooperative prison escape that shifts between two characters through split-screen sequences, including escapes and heists. |
| Biggest Buzz | Sea of Thieves Rare |
Cooperative pirate play combined ship handling, changing ocean conditions, voice chat, combat, and treasure quests. |
| Best VR Game | Moss Polyarc Games |
A storybook adventure in which the player, as the Reader, guides and interacts with mouse hero Quill while solving environmental puzzles. |
| Outstanding Gameplay | Ashen Aurora44 |
Open-world exploration with temporary pairings: a partner’s character could later return as an NPC in the player’s town. |
| Unreal Underdog | Seven: The Days Long Gone IMGN.PRO / Fool’s Theory |
Climbing distinguished this isometric RPG, alongside stealth, traversal, and combat. |
Why the categories produced different kinds of winners
The awards were designed around separate strengths, not a common numerical scale. GamesBeat’s May 25, 2017 call for entries framed the categories around visual impact, compelling mechanics, replay appeal, sequel potential, original-IP potential, event buzz, VR experience, overall gameplay, and a team’s perseverance. That explains why this list ranges from an established mobile MMO sequel to a visually distinctive fighting game and an isometric RPG whose climbing stood out.
How GamesBeat described the standouts
Visual style and the show-floor “hook”
Dragon Ball FighterZ won Eye Candy for its animated appearance: its characters are 3D models, but the side-view fighting makes them read like 2D drawings. The camera’s movement during special attacks adds another visual effect without changing the core side-on combat presentation. GamesBeat listed the game for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
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Genesis: Alpha One earned Best Hook by bringing several familiar genres and systems together. GamesBeat’s account described procedurally generated galaxy exploration, building a starship, first-person combat, horror elements, and roguelike play. If the captain died, crew succession allowed the run to continue through another character; alien DNA could be used in cloning. The combination, rather than one isolated mechanic, was the point of its category win.
Replay pull and large-scale play
Laser League was GamesBeat’s Most Addictive pick. Teams activate nodes that send out lasers in their team’s color; players have to avoid enemy beams while positioning around the arena. Character abilities and map power-ups complicate the contest, and the article emphasized short, chaotic matches where skill and coordination both count.
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Lineage2: Revolution won Best Sequel for its effort to deliver a large-scale MMORPG format on mobile devices. GamesBeat described real-time play and battles involving as many as 200 people. Its 2017 article also reported more than 14 million players in Asia and $176 million in South Korea in the game’s first month after launch. Those are historical figures attributed to GamesBeat; the article does not identify the original data publishers, so they should not be read as independently verified or current metrics.
Co-op, buzz, and VR perspective
A Way Out won Best Original Game for its two-player prison-escape concept and its use of split-screen. The view shifts between the characters as their situations change, including during escape and heist sequences. GamesBeat also attributed this line to creator Josef Fares: “you’ll love the unique experience or you can ‘break my legs.’”
Rank #3
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Sea of Thieves took Biggest Buzz. The preview’s appeal lay in the connected nature of its pirate activities: players could work together aboard a ship, contend with ocean conditions, communicate by voice, fight, and pursue treasure quests.
Moss won Best VR Game with a storybook framing that casts the player as the Reader and introduces Quill, a mouse adventurer. Rather than simply watching her, players guide and interact with Quill while solving environmental puzzles. GamesBeat praised the stable sightline and dollhouse-like perspective, which made the world legible while preserving its miniature scale.
Rank #4
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Gameplay and an unusual traversal idea
Ashen received Outstanding Gameplay for pairing open-world exploration with temporary encounters with anonymous players. After an adventure, a partner’s character could show up later as an NPC in the player’s town, giving those brief partnerships a possible continuing presence.
Seven: The Days Long Gone was the Unreal Underdog. GamesBeat singled out climbing as the distinguishing feature in an isometric RPG, complementing stealth, traversal, and combat. Its award recognized a team and game that stood out through that particular movement idea rather than through a broad claim of overall superiority.
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The historical award partnership
GamesBeat named Epic Games and NVIDIA as collaborators on the 2017 awards. The winning teams were each set to receive an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, a prize also specified in the call for entries. This describes the event’s 2017 arrangement; it does not establish a current sponsorship or partnership.
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