3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards
The 3rd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards was the 3rd edition of the Interactive Achievement Awards, an annual awards event that honored the best games in the video game industry within the last nine months of 1999 and the first two months of 2000. The awards were arranged by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, and were held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California on May 11, 2000 during E3 2000. It was hosted by Martin Short, and featured presenters included Martin Lewis, Ahmet Zappa, Stevie Case, Brian Fargo, Alison Sweeney, Harry Shearer, Elisa Donovan, Leah Lail, Carmine Giovinazzo, Delroy Lindo, and Peter Molyneux. This would be the final year the awards ceremony would be held during E3.
Several craft awards were split up into separate categories: "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics" would be separated into the categories of "Art Direction" and "Animation", "Outstanding Achievement in Sound and Music" would be separated into the categories of "Sound Design" and "Original Music Composition", and "Software Engineering" would be replaced with "Visual Engineering" and "Gameplay Engineering". The content awards for "Adventure" and "Role-Playing", both for console and PC, were combined into "Adventure/Role-Playing Game of the Year". The console award for "Children's/Family Title of the Year" was introduced while still having a separate PC award. Only one "Educational Title of the Year" award was offered instead of having separate awards for ages 0–8 and 9-16. There were no genre-specific awards for "Online Game of the Year". This would be the final year that categories for websites would be offered.
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings received the most nominations. It also tied for winning the most awards along with Final Fantasy VIII and The Sims, with the latter winning "Game of the Year". Electronic Arts received the most nominations, won the most awards, and had the most nominated and award-winning games. There was also a tie for the "Outstanding Achievement in Character or Story Development". Disney Interactive was the only developer with more than one award-winning game.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame.
Winners and Nominees
Winners are listed first, highlighted in boldface, and indicated with a double dagger.Hall of Fame Award
Multiple nominations and awards
Multiple Nominations
Multiple awards
| Awards | Game |
| 3 | Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings |
| 3 | Final Fantasy VIII |
| 3 | The Sims |
| 2 | Soulcalibur |
| Awards | Games | Company |
| 9 | 5 | Electronic Arts |
| 5 | 3 | Microsoft |
| 3 | 1 | Ensemble Studios |
| 3 | 1 | Maxis |
| 3 | 1 | SquareSoft |
| 2 | 2 | Disney Interactive |
| 2 | 2 | Sierra On-Line |
| 2 | 2 | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| 2 | 1 | Namco |