This award "celebrates titles of any genre with a significant portion of the gameplay experience transpiring online — collaboratively or competitively.
Titles submitted in this category are not limited to release within the calendar year but must be supported by significant new content".
The award's most recent winner is Helldivers 2, developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
This is typically exemplified through the expansion of a story or narrative through complementary elements across two or more platforms (e.g. Console/Facebook or Console/Mobile Device)".
These titles are tailored to the technical parameters of web browsers (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, and Firefox) and demonstrate a skilled usage of linking, sharing, and work equally well across multiple form factors and input mechanisms".
[17] Web Based Game of the Year was featured in the rules & procedures for 2014, but there were not any finalists named for the category.
343 Industries, DICE, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch have finalists named for both Online Gameplay and Connectivity.
Zynga is the only developer/publisher with a finalist for the Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay and Social Networking Game of the Year.