1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards

The 1st Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was the 1st edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 1997 and the first three months of 1998. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) and were held on the first day of E3 1998 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia. There was not an official host of the award ceremony.^[1][2] All titles eligible for nomination were publicly release in North America between January 1, 1997 and March 31, 1998.^[3]

Final Fantasy VII, GoldenEye 007, and Riven: The Sequel to Myst were tied for receiving the most nominations. GoldenEye 007 took home the most awards, including "Interactive Title of the Year". Electronic Arts received the most nominations and had the most nominated games. Electronic Arts also tied with Broderbund for having the most awarded games. Rare and Nintendo won the most awards, with Rare as the developer and Nintendo as the publisher. There was a tie between Age of Empires and StarCraft for "PC Strategy Game of the Year". Carmen Sandiego had two award-winning titles for the PC awards "Edutainment" and "Skills Building" with Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? and Carmen Sandiego Word Detective, respectively. There was a category for "Arcade Game of the Year" in the initial category listing, but there weren't any finalists named for the category.^[4] This would be the only year "Interactive Title of the Year" was offered, and would be renamed "Game of the Year" going forward.

Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of several of Nintendo franchises including Donkey Kong, Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero, and Star Fox, was the first inductee of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.