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Press release:
Madrid, December 22nd, 2021.
Last night, Sony Interactive Entertainment España (SIE España) hosted the 8th edition of the PlayStation® Awards — an online awards ceremony where the company showed its support to the local development scene and independent, original, quality-driven games. The main award, Best Game of the Year, went to “Dark Life: Excalibur”, a 3D action-adventure game where players will yield the legendary sword in a quest to avenge the main character’s family.

The event featured industry celebrities such as Shuhei Yoshida, head of Indies Initiative at SIE, as well as SIE executives such as Jorge Huguet, CEO of SIE Iberia, and Roberto Yeste, Head of Communications for PlayStation® Iberia.

Developed by Zero studios, Dark Life: Excalibur tells the story of Aron, a human bound to the legendary sword Excalibur. Aron will set a quest to defeat York, Lord of the Giants, who murdered Aron’s family. To do so, Aron will have to upgrade Excalibur to make it the most brutal sword ever yielded by a warrior. Every time Aron kills an enemy, the player gains points that can be spent on different perks and parts to improve the power of the sword. Mix and match all of them to custom your sword and find a unique fighting style and use them to defeat all the bosses and mini-bosses that are scattered through the map. You can download Dark Zero: Excalibur’s screenshots at this link.

Thanks to this award, the studio will have at its disposal its own office to develop the project for 10 months at one of the PlayStation® Talents Games Camp locations in Spain, as well as a monetary award of €10.000, PlayStation® development kits, mentoring from the PlayStation® Spain team and a marketing campaign.

THE OTHER PLAYSTATION®TALENTS AWARDS WINNERS

Dark Life: Excalibur also won the Press Award in an event where a handful of indie game were also highlighted. The Most Innovative Game was Spatium Inter Nos, a cooperative 2.5D platformer from Space Onion Games. Neon Blood, a cyberpunk 2.5D JRPG won the Best Narrative Award. In this game, players will join detective Alex McCoin and his quest to ignite a revolution in his homeland.

The mythological roguelike Shadow of Babel won the Best Art Award while the action platformer Hyperstacks earned the Best VR Game Award. The cooperative Steelbound received the Best Soundtrack Award while The Occultist got the Best Use of DualSense Award. Last but not least, One Last Breath got the Forever Green Special Mention. This game, by Moonatic Studios, is set in a post-apocalyptic world while urging players to take care of the environment.

MORE THAN 800 STUDIOS SHOWCASED SINCE 2014

Since its creation seven years ago, more than 800 studios have opted for the PlayStation®Awards. Year after year, a jury composed of relevant figures in the Spanish and worldwide industry, such as Shuhei Yoshida, head of Indies Initiative at SIE, as well as journalists and celebrities has chosen the more innovative, creative and best games of the year. The goal of these awards is to give studios the opportunity to publish their games in PlayStation® thanks to the support and partnership of PlayStation® Spain and the PlayStation® Talents program

ABOUT PLAYSTATION® TALENTS

Launched in 2015 by Sony Interactive Entertainment Spain, the PlayStation® Talents program aims to unify all the initiatives put together by the local Spanish branch in order to develop the Spanish creativity. The goal of the PlayStation Talents program is to support the local industry as well as to create video games fully developed in Spain to be sold around the globe. The PlayStation Talents program is formed by:

Two educational areas: PlayStation® Futuros Talentos and PlayStation® First
The PlayStation® Awards, aimed at independent studios.
PlayStation® Games Camp, a business incubator that is present in Madrid, Sevilla, Bilbao, Valencia, Málaga, and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
PlayStation® Alianzas, where different projects with well-known local studios that have been sold overseas come together.

More information at: http://www.playstationtalents.es/