9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards

The 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was the 9th edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry during 2005. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), and were held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 9, 2006 (2006-02-09). It was also held as part of the Academy's 2006 D.I.C.E. Summit, and was hosted by stand-up comedian Jay Mohr.^[1]

This was the first year that the Academy did not have separate genre awards for console and computer. In addition, there was only one award for "Outstanding Innovation in Gaming". "Wireless Game of the Year" was seemingly replaced with "Cellular Game of the Year", as the former was part of the description for "Cellphone Game of the Year" in the nomination packet.^[2] The announcement for submissions listed the "Handheld Game of the Year" as a "Game of the Year" category along with "Cellular Game of the Year", but would both be listed as genre categories when the finalists were announced.^[3][4]

God of War received the most nominations and won the most awards, including "Overall Game of the Year". Sony Computer Entertainment received the most nominations and won the most awards. Nintendo had the most nominated games, but Electronic Arts had the most award-winning games. There was a tie for the "Outstanding Achievement in Gameplay Engineering" award between Guitar Hero and Nintendogs. There was also a tie for "Massive Multiplayer/Persistent World Game of the Year" between City of Villains and Guild Wars, the only time a publisher, NCSoft, published both games that tied for a category.

Richard Garriott, creator of Ultima, was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.