Fun & Serious Game Festival

Fun & Serious Game Festival is a video game festival that takes place, in Bilbao, Spain, from late November to the beginning of December since its foundation in 2011.^[1] Its main objective is to recognize the cultural importance of video games. To do so, several leisure and training activities are celebrated, such as the VIT Talks and the Fun & Serious Awards.^[2]

Fun & Serious Game Festival

Formation	2011
Type	Video games convention
Location	Bilbao, Spain
Key people	Alfonso Gómez Aguirre (Director)
Website	www.bilbaogamesconference.com

History

The Fun & Serious Game Festival has the support of the Basque Regional Government - SPRI, the city hall of Bilbao and Vizcaya's Provincial Council. Besides, it is sponsored by the newspaper 'El Correo'. Among the strategic partners of this event relevant brands from the sector can be found, such as Microsoft, PlayStation and Ubisoft. The Spanish Association of video games (AEVI) also collaborates with the Festival.

The Titanium Awards honoring the year's contributions to the video game industry conclude the festival.^[3]

The Titanium Award changed its name and design in 2015, in reference to the titanium, a metal that represents the transition experimented in the city of Bilbao. In 2016, the total number of assistants was of 25000 people.^[4]

In 2018, by its eighth edition, the festival changed its location, moving to the Bilbao Exhibition Centre of Baracaldo, in order to increase the habitual capacity.^[5] In 2019 the IX edition will take place, between the 6th and 9 December, where Yōko Shimomura will be awarded with the Titanium award for her input in the video games' music world. Furthermore, the compositor will impart a talk in the VIT Talks of this festival.^[6]

Ceremonies

Year	Date	Game of the Year	Venue
2011	November 8	Battlefield 3 (European)	Campos Eliseos Theater
		Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Non-European)
2012	November 29	Halo 4
2013	November 28	Grand Theft Auto V
2014	December 3	Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
2015	December 1	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
2016	November 28	Uncharted 4: A Thief's End	Guggenheim Museum
2017	December 9	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
2018	December 10	Red Dead Redemption 2
2019	December 9	Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order	Bilbao Exhibition Centre
2020	December 12	The Last of Us Part II	Virtual
2021	December 11	It Takes Two	Bilbao Exhibition Centre
2022	November 19	God of War Ragnarök
2023	December 18	The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
2024	December 6	Astro Bot
2025	TBA	TBD

Award winners

2011

The first ceremony for the Titanium Awards was celebrated at the Campos Eliseos Theater on November 8, 2011, and it was presented by Patricia Conde and Alex Odogherty.^[7]

Category	Winner
Game of the year (European)	Battlefield 3[8]
Game of the year (Non-European)	Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception[9]

2012

Category	Winner
Game of the year	Halo 4[10]

2013

Category	Winner
Game of the year	Grand Theft Auto V[11]

2014

Category	Winner
Game of the year	Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor[12]

2015

Category	Winner
Bizkaia Award	Alexey Pajitnov[13]
Vanguard Award	Tim Schafer[14]
Honorific Award	James Armstrong[15]
Game of the year	The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Best Soundtrack	Life Is Strange

2016

The ceremony took place at the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao and was presented by the actress Itziar Atienza and the journalist Toni Garrido. The awards were handed by Ed Vaizey, the basketball player Alex Mumbrú and the comedian Hovik Keuchkerian.^[16]

Category	Winner
Bizkaia Award	Yuji Naka[17]
Vanguard Award	Harvey Smith[18]
Honorific Award	Warren Spector[19]
Game of the year	Uncharted 4: A Thief's End[20]

2017

The ceremony was held in the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao and was presented by the journalist Iñaki López and the actress Itziar Atienza.^[21]

Category	Winner
Bizkaia Award	John Romero[22]
Honorific Award	Jordan Mechner[22]
Vanguard Award	Jeff Kaplan[22]
Game of the year	The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild[23]

2018

Category	Winner
Bizkaia Award	Fumito Ueda[24]
Honorific Award	Brenda Romero[25]
Pioneer Award	Jade Raymond[26]
Game of the year	Red Dead Redemption 2

2019

Category	Winner
Bizkaia Award	Tim Willits[27]
Vanguard Award	Bruce Straley[28]
Pioneer Award	Yoko Shimomura[29]
Honorific Award	Greg Street[30]
Game of the year	Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order[31]

References

1. Gamer, Redacción FS. "Fun & Serious Game Festival, un festival de 'cine' | FS Gamer" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-02.
2. EP (2013-05-04). "La tercera edición del Fun & Serious Game Festival llega en noviembre a Bilbao" (in Spanish). El País. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
3. Sempere, Josep Maria (2018-12-10). "Anunciados los ganadores de los premios Titanium". Eurogamer.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-02.
4. "Más de 25.000 personas asistieron al Fun & Serious Game Festival 2015". Vandal (in European Spanish). 4 December 2015. Retrieved 2019-07-04.
5. Ortega, José L. (2018-09-24). "Fun & Serious Game Festival se muda a un nuevo recinto". HobbyConsolas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-02.
6. "Yōko Shimomura recogerá el Premio Pionera en la IX edición de Fun & Serious Game Festival". El Correo (in Spanish). 2019-07-02. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
7. "Patricia Conde y Alex Odogherty presentan el Fun & Serious Game Festival 2011". Hoy (in European Spanish). 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
8. "Listado de premios del festival Fun & Serious 2011". 9 November 2011. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
9. "Listado de premios del festival Fun & Serious 2011". Akihabara Blues (in Spanish). 2011-11-09. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
10. "Estos son los ganadores de los premios Fun & Serious". 29 November 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
11. Sánchez, Por Marta (2013-11-29). "Lista de ganadores de los premios Fun & Serious 2013". IGN España (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-08.
12. Alonso, Álvaro (4 December 2014). "El festival Fun & Serious ya tiene a sus ganadores". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-14.
13. "El inventor del Tetris desvela su éxito: 'Construyes algo y eso agrada'". ELMUNDO (in Spanish). 2015-11-29. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
14. Ruiz, Clara Castaño (2015-04-25). "Fun & Serious Game Festival 2015: Tim Schafer recibirá el Premio Honorífico del festival". HobbyConsolas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-02.
15. "James Armstrong recogerá el Premio de Honor en el Fun & Serious Game Festival". El Norte de Castilla (in European Spanish). 2015-11-19. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
16. Ávila, Diario de (13 December 2016). "Uncharted 4: El desenlace del ladrón, mejor juego del año". Diario de Ávila (in Spanish). Retrieved 8 July 2019.
17. "Fun & Serious Game Festival 2016: Premiado Yuji Naka". BUHO (in European Spanish). 2016-11-07. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
18. "Harvey Smith premio honorífico Fun & Serious Game Festival". Euskadi Tecnología (in Spanish). 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
19. "Fun&Serious: Las múltiples caras del videojuego". La Vanguardia. 2016-12-01. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
20. "Uncharted 4, galardonado con el Premio Titanium al Mejor Videojuego del Año | Fun & Serious Game Festival" (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2019-07-14.
21. "'The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild', premio Titanium al mejor videojuego del año". El Correo (in Spanish). 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
22. EFE (9 December 2017). "Kaplan, de escritor fracasado a estrella del videojuego tras jugar 272 días". eldiario.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
23. "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Premio Titanium". andaluciainformacion.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-08.
24. CD, Alex (2018-09-04). "Fumito Ueda recibirá un Galardón Honorífico en el próximo Fun & Serious de Bilbao". Vidaextra (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
25. "Brenda Romero recibirá el Premio Bizkaia en Fun & Serious Game Festival". Vandal (in European Spanish). 6 July 2018. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
26. INFORMACION (2 October 2018). "Fun & Serious honrará a Jade Raymond, creadora de 'Assassin's Creed'". www.diarioinformacion.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-07-04.
27. "Tim Willits, Premio Honorífico en la IX edición de Fun & Serious Festival". Europa Press. 2019-09-03. Retrieved 2019-09-04.
28. Cejas (Beld), Sergio (2019-09-19). "Bruce Straley, director de Uncharted 2 y 4 y The Last of Us, recibirá el premio Vanguardia en la edición de este año del Fun & Serious". Vidaextra (in Spanish). Retrieved 2019-09-26.
29. "Yōko Shimomura recogerá el Premio Pionera en Fun & Serious Game Festival". Vandal (in Spanish). 2 July 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
30. "Greg Street recibirá un premio honorífico en el noveno Fun & Serious Game Festival". El Correo (in Spanish). 17 October 2019. Retrieved 2019-10-17.
31. "Ganadores de los premios Titanium del Fun & Serious 2019". Generación Xbox (in Spanish). 2019-12-10. Retrieved 2019-12-10.

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)