Black Myth: Wukong, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Stellar Blade All Celebrated at PS Partner Awards

The annual PS Partner Awards in Tokyo carried added significance this year, as PlayStation celebrated its 30th anniversary. For those unfamiliar with this event, its designed to reward developers for their performance on Sony systems across the Japan and Asia region, so leans towards commercial success as opposed to critical reception.

Nevertheless, it was a big night for Chinese developer HoYoverse, as Genshin Impact scooped the coveted Excellence Award, while both Honkai: Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero secured Partner Awards.

Elsewhere, Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth took home Grand Awards.

Of note, first-party games Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade took home two gongs apiece: the Special Award and Users’ Choice Award.

Given the 30th Anniversary celebrations, there were special awards for each respective generation of PlayStation, with Final Fantasy 7 (PS1), Final Fantasy X (PS2), Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (PSP), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3), Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita), and Elden Ring (PS4) all acknowledged.

We’ve included the full list of winners, with additional translation and context courtesy of the PS Blog, below.

Excellence Award

Awarded to the title developed in the Japan/Asia region that have had a consistent and significant impact along with commercial success over the past three years*.

• Genshin Impact (HoYoverse)

Grand Award

Awarded to the top three titles developed in the Japan and Asia regions with the highest worldwide sales between October 2023 and September 2024*.

• Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science Interactive Technology)
• Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree (FromSoftware, Inc / Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.)
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix Co. Ltd)

Partner Award

Awarded to titles developed in the Japan/Asia region with top-ranked worldwide sales between October 2023 and September 2024*, with particularly noteworthy accomplishments.

• Dragon’s Dogma 2 (Capcom Co., Ltd.)
• Honkai: Star Rail (HoYoverse)
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (SEGA)
• Persona 3 Reload (Atlus Co., Ltd)
• Tekken 8 (Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.)
• The First Descendant（Nexon）
• Zenless Zone Zero（HoYoverse）

Special Award

Awarded to PS5 titles developed in collaboration with SIE outside the Japan/Asia region that achieved outstanding success within Japan/Asia between October 2023 and September 2024*.

• Rise of the Ronin (SIE, developed by Koei Tecmo)
• Stellar Blade (SIE, developed by Shift Up)

Users’ Choice Award

Awarded to the top five titles released in the Japan/Asia region between October 2023 and September 2024, selected by user votes in the Japan/Asia region, out of the top 30 titles with the longest total gameplay time.

• Black Myth: Wukong (Game Science Interactive Technology)
• Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (Square Enix Co. Ltd)
• Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (SEGA)
• Rise of the Ronin (SIE, developed by Koei Tecmo)
• Stellar Blade (SIE, developed by Shift Up)

PlayStation Generations Awards

Awarded to titles chosen by users in the Japan and Asia regions from each PlayStation generation – the original PlayStation, PS2, PSP, PS3, PS Vita, and PS4. All games are previous “PlayStation Partner Award” winners.

PlayStation Generations (1994 and beyond)

• Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix Co. Ltd.)

PlayStation 2 Generations (2000 and beyond)

• Final Fantasy X (Square Enix Co. Ltd.)

PlayStation Portable Generations (2004 and beyond)

• Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Capcom Co., Ltd.)

PlayStation 3 Generations (2006 and beyond)

• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc.)

PlayStation Vita Generations (2011 and beyond)

• Persona 4 Golden (Atlus Co., Ltd)

PlayStation 4 Generations (2013 and beyond)

• Elden Ring (FromSoftware, Inc / Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.)