D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement

The D.I.C.E. Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement is an award presented annually by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the D.I.C.E. Awards. The award "celebrates the highest level of technical achievement through the combined attention to gameplay engineering and visual engineering. Elements honored include but are not limited to artificial intelligence, physics, engine mechanics, and visual rendering". Creative/technical Academy members with expertise as an artist, animator or programmer are qualified to vote for this award.

The award's most recent winner is Marvel's Spider-Man 2, developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

History
The first and second awards ceremonies offered the Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering. In 2000, the award for software engineering was split into separate categories for Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering and Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering. Gameplay Engineering recognized "the highest level of achievement in engineering artificial intelligence and related elements which contribute to a challenging game". Visual Engineering would recognize "the highest level of achievement in rendering 3-D virtual environments for an interactive title." The two categories would eventually be merged into Outstanding Technical Achievement in 2015.
 * Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering (1998–1999)
 * Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering (2000–2014)
 * Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering (2000–2014)
 * Outstanding Technical Achievement (2015–present)

There was tie for the award in Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering in 2006 between Guitar Hero and Nintendogs.

Developers and publishers
Sony has published the most nominees, as well as the most winners. Sony's subsidiary Naughty Dog has developed the most winners, while Nintendo EAD (now EPD) has developed the most nominees. Nintendo has also published both winners for Outstanding Achievement in Software Engineering. There have been two developers with back-to-back wins for Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering: Four developers have developed winners for both Gameplay Engineering and Visual Engineering: EA Canada, Ubisoft Montreal, Valve, and Naughty Dog. Electronic Arts has published the winners for both awards with different developers for different games in 2008. Sony has published the winners for Visual Engineering for four consecutive years with LittleBigPlanet (2009), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2010), Heavy Rain (2011), and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2012). Activision has published the most nominees without having a single winner. Electronic Arts developer DICE has developed the most nominees without a single winner.
 * Nintendo EAD: Nintendogs in 2006 and Wii Sports in 2007.
 * Ubisoft Montreal: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell in 2003 and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in 2004.

Franchises
The Legend of Zelda and Call of Duty are the most nominated franchises in this category. Uncharted is the most award-winning franchise, with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves being one of four games to win both awards in gameplay and visual engineering. The other three are SSX, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and Half-Life 2. Uncharted and Halo have won the awards for "Visual Engineering" twice, while Grand Theft Auto is the only franchise to win for "Gameplay Engineering" twice. Despite the record-tying nomination count, Call of Duty has never won an award outright.