Gaming
And the winners of the Dutch Game Awards 2023 are……!
The winners of the Dutch Game Awards 2023 were announced at the leading awards show for the Dutch game industry. This thirteenth edition of the award show took place during Dutch Media Week in Beeld & Geluid in Hilversum.
The Dutch Game Awards has several categories, from ‘Best Game’ to ‘Best Innovation’ and four special awards. The winners are chosen by a professional and diverse jury. Besides an award, the winners also receive a place in the collection of Sound & Vision, where the games are preserved as cultural heritage for eternity. And the winners are…!
Best Game: Age of Wonders 4 – Triumph Studios
Best Art: Mail Time – appelmoes games
Best Audio: Isonzo – BlackMill Games
Best Innovation: Secret Shuffle – Adriaan de Jongh & Friends
Best Technology: Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC – Nixxes Software
Best Game Design: Secret Shuffle – Adriaan de Jongh & Friends
Best Applied Game: Klankkr8 – Game Tailors
Best Debut Game: Kayak VR: Mirage – Better Than Life
Best Student Game: Iron Line – Team Trainwreck (BUas)
Triumph Studios with Age of Wonders grabs Best Game 2023 award: “Age of Wonders 4 proves to be an excellent continuation of the series. The game is innovative within the strategy genre and combines old and new mechanics to create a masterpiece. The depth and complexity give the game a feeling of epic proportions.”
The jury chose Secret Shuffle as the winner in the Best Innovation and Best Game Design categories: “What a way to put a smile on people’s faces! The game offers a very accessible way to connect people, through a form of gameplay never before seen by us. The different dance games will surprise at many parties, and the intuitive UI and low entry threshold make the game easy for anyone to understand and use. Making yourself uncomfortable has never felt better than with Secret Shuffle!”
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered PC by Nixxes Software wins Best Technology: “Where most PC ports don’t hold up to the original game, the PC port of Marvel’s Spider-Man surpasses it. The PC version adds subtle details like the enhanced reflections in the windows of the buildings, without sacrificing performance. With many custom solutions to the technological challenges Nixxes has raised the bar for porting technology.”
Iron Line was voted Best Student Game: “The judges were frustrated that this is not a full game (yet). Iron Line offers a unique twist on the Tower Defense genre. It cleverly combines cargo management with the placement of turrets. Add well-designed elements like the game economics and it makes the whole game fit together like a glove.“
Best Debut Game was won by Kayak VR: Mirage: “The judges really felt like they were outside while playing this game. The kayak moves very lifelike and the attention to detail in the environment adds up to an experience that feels beyond realistic. Next to that the game shows an intuitive UI and fun competitive multiplayer races.”
Klankkr8 wins Best Applied Game: “It is noteworthy that Game Tailors used solid scientific theories and evidence as the basis for Klankkr8 and also conducted scientific research on the effectiveness of the game! These theories translated well into consistent, playful and simulating game design that introduces young children to letters, sounds and the first steps of learning to read. Klankkr8 is a full-fledged, interactive game that serves different audiences.”
Best Audio was won by Isonzo: “Isonzo excels with the integration of realistic audio from the historic World War I setting and excellently balances the chaos of sounds in the frantic multiplayer battles. This really adds to the immersion and depth of the game, and what’s more, the soundtrack is an orchestral masterpiece!”
Mail Time wins Best Art: “The studio describes itself as “a very small studio” and so it is impressive that Mail Time’s art feels so ‘wholesome’ and ‘cosy’ even though it was created by only one person. The unique complementary mix of 2D and 3D art certainly contributes to this depth, which the jury says is very hard to achieve!”
Special Awards
The Special Awards were created for the studios, individuals or initiatives that sometimes play more in the background, but are important for the Dutch game industry. The winners for the Special Awards are:
Best Studio: Triumph Studios
Inclusion Award: Esmeé van’t Hoff
Career Achievement: Angie Smets
Awesome Achievement: Deloryan Games
Triumph Studios wins Best Studio award: “Triumph Studios has been around since 1997 and has been going strong and quiet for over 25 years. Joining the Paradox family in 2017 did not negatively impact its own studio culture, but rather made the studio stronger in its own way. Employees stay with the studio for a long time and praise its good leadership. The studio’s rock-solid direction can also be seen in their games, with Triumph Studios not capitalizing on erratic trends, but rather following their own course.”
This year’s Inclusion Award goes to Esmeé van’t Hoff: “As the driving force behind Wholesome Games and Wholesome Direct, Esmeé has worked hard to create more space and recognition for “cozy games.” She is a figurehead for making these games visible to the broader public, which has given developers of these games a more prominent place in the game industry.”
The Career Achievement was won by Angie Smets: “Over the past 20 years at Guerrilla Games, Angie has proven to be a true cornerstone of the successful AAA game studio. But perhaps even more important is the role she has played in normalizing diversity, for both Guerrilla’s games and in the studio’s workplace! We wish her all the best in her new role at PlayStation Studios and look forward to more groundbreaking work from Angie!”
Last but not least, the Awesome Achievement goes to Deloryan Games: “Deloryan Hommers started as a one-person studio in her spare time, but her studio has since expanded to a team of eleven. Deloryan Games’ unique game serves a niche audience of diehard horse fans, but we’re not talking about little girls and glittering unicorns. Horse Reality brings a lot of depth to the market of horse management games by focusing on horse genetics, breeding programs, horse training and health statistics and all based on real-life data. The studio competes with studios ten times its size. Nevertheless, they have managed to grow in a tough market by taking their audience seriously.”
Bet on Games, the instant and crash games vertical within the Betcore ecosystem, has launched a new horror-themed crash game called Zombie Rush. The title is now available for global integration via Betcore’s single API, alongside content from TVBET and ElCasino.
Zombie Rush wraps the crash mechanic in a graveyard “survival run” theme. Players decide when to cash out as the multiplier rises, with the round ending when the “crash” triggers.
Bet on Games said the game runs on an “Optimized Math Model” with 97.5% RTP and a “dynamically accelerating multiplier curve.” The release also highlights “Visceral Horror Aesthetics,” linking the crash moment to a “grisly, memorable animation.”
On the feature set, Zombie Rush includes Autoplay and Auto Cash-out. It also adds “Strategic Dual-Betting,” which allows play across two parallel rounds simultaneously.
Betcore is directing partnership and integration inquiries to [email protected]. A gameplay video is available here.
The post Bet on Games launches horror-themed crash title Zombie Rush appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
ICONIC21 has launched Squeeze Baccarat, a new RNG baccarat title designed around the “squeeze” reveal mechanic more commonly associated with live-table play.
In the game, the player controls the reveal pace, using actions such as peeling back an edge to uncover each card, rather than watching a standard automated animation sequence.
ICONIC21 said the title is fully customisable, including interface and card design, positioning it for operator branding and lobby integration.
Edvardas Sadovskis, Chief Product Officer at ICONIC21, said: “The squeeze is one of those moments every baccarat player is excited about. That slow, deliberate reveal before the big win is what makes it tense. The problem? That feeling almost never survives the jump to RNG. It gets replaced by an animation and the magic is gone.
“We refused to let that happen. Getting the squeeze right in a digital environment is genuinely hard but we successfully managed, and honestly, we’re pretty excited about what came out. Instead of watching it happen, the player controls the reveal themselves.
“Add full brand customisation on top of that, and what you have is something operators can truly call their own. We can’t wait to see what our partners do with it.”
The post ICONIC21 launches Squeeze Baccarat RNG game with player-controlled reveal appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
In an exclusive article for Gaming Americas, Udo Seckelmann, partner in the Gambling & Crypto department at Bichara e Motta Advogados, examines how the Brazilian iGaming market has entered a new phase of maturity following BiS SiGMA South America 2026.
Moving beyond regulatory expectations, the industry now faces real operational, political, and economic pressures, raising critical questions about sustainability, enforcement, and the balance between growth and consumer protection in one of the world’s most dynamic betting markets.
BIS SIGMA 2026 made it clear that the conversation around Brazil’s betting sector has fundamentally changed. The industry is no longer being discussed as a future opportunity shaped by regulatory expectations, but as a functioning ecosystem already subject to real-world pressures. With the framework in force and operators active, the focus has shifted to how the market actually behaves under regulation — and where that framework is being put to the test.
This shift was evident both in the quality of the discussions and in the profile of participants. In past editions, much of the debate focused on the ideal regulatory framework, taxation, and market entry strategies. In 2026, the focus moved toward more sophisticated — and, in many ways, more challenging — topics: regulatory implementation, enforcement, and the balance between growth and consumer protection.
An additional element that permeated many discussions was the recent hardening of political discourse toward the sector. Statements from the President suggesting the potential elimination of the regulated betting market, as well as initiatives in Congress aimed at broadly restricting betting advertising, reveal legitimate concerns about negative externalities but also a concrete risk of public policy being shaped in a way that is disconnected from the newly established regulatory reality.
The criticism here is not directed at the concern for consumer protection — which is undoubtedly essential — but rather at how this debate has been conducted. Prohibitive or overly restrictive measures, particularly in the field of advertising, tend to produce adverse effects already observed in other jurisdictions: reduced channeling capacity toward the regulated market, the strengthening of illegal operators, and a weakening of consumer protection mechanisms themselves.
In this context, advertising should not be viewed solely as a risk factor, but also as a public policy tool. It is through advertising that licensed operators can differentiate themselves from unregulated entities, communicate responsible gambling practices, and operate within auditable parameters. Disproportionate restrictions, in practice, reduce the visibility of those subject to regulation while simultaneously expanding the space for those operating outside it.
Moreover, the instability of political discourse — especially when it flirts with prohibition scenarios after years of efforts to structure a regulated market — creates significant legal uncertainty. Investments made based on a recent regulatory framework are reassessed, compliance costs increase, and the appetite of new entrants tends to decline. Ultimately, this undermines not only the development of the sector but also government revenue and the original regulatory objectives pursued by the Government.
Another key topic discussed during the event was the impact of increased taxation — particularly following the rise in the Gaming Tax — on the competitiveness of the regulated market. There is a legitimate concern that an overly burdensome environment, combined with severe advertising restrictions, may create an economically unviable scenario for licensed operators, once again encouraging migration to the unregulated market.
Another highlight of the event was the debate surrounding the role of technological intermediaries — including market makers in emerging segments such as prediction markets. The expansion of these models raises important regulatory questions: to what extent are existing frameworks sufficient to accommodate these innovations? And when will it be necessary to move toward specific regulatory regimes, potentially under the oversight of authorities such as the securities regulator?
A comparison with previous BIS SIGMA editions clearly demonstrates the sector’s growing maturity. If Brazil was once seen as a major promise, it is now a complex reality that requires fine-tuning and institutional coordination. The agenda has shifted from market opening to governance — now under much more intense political and social scrutiny.
Finally, one aspect that deserves particular attention is the increasing professionalization of all stakeholders involved. Operators, regulators, service providers, and even the broader public debate have evolved significantly. There is now a clearer understanding that the success of the Brazilian market depends on its credibility and long-term sustainability.
Udo Seckelmann
Partner in the Gambling & Crypto department at Bichara e Motta Advogados
The post The iGaming Industry’s New Challenges in 2026 appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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