Continue reading »]]> The Game Developers Choice Awards are the premier accolades for peer-recognition in the digital games industry, celebrating creativity, artistry and technological genius. Industry professionals from around the world nominate for the awards, free of charge, ensuring that the recipients reflect the community’s opinions.

Awards in thirteen categories will be given at a ceremony produced by the Think Services Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game Developer Magazine, on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at GDC. The gala event, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. For further details about the Choice Awards, visit www.gamechoiceawards.com.

The Game Developers Choice Awards recognize excellence in the art of game creation regardless of genre or platform. 2008′s award categories are:Game Developers Choice Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award

The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of a developer who has made an indelible impact on the craft of game development and games as a whole.

Pioneer Award

The Pioneer Award (formerly known as the First Penguin Award) celebrates those individuals who developed a breakthrough technology, game concept, or gameplay design at a crucial juncture in video game history – paving the way for the myriads who followed them.

• Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy

Ambassador Award

The Ambassador Award honors an individual or individuals who have helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art.

• Tommy Tallarico

Game of the Year

The Game of the Year Award recognizes the choice of game developers for the overall best game release during 2008.

• Fable II (Lionhead Studios)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)

Innovation Award

The Innovation Award recognizes the single game that demonstrates true innovation, advances the state of the art, and pushes the boundaries of games as an expressive medium.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• Boom Blox (EA Los Angeles)
• Braid (Number None)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Debut Game

The Best Debut Game Award recognizes the best game from any development studio which released its first publicly available title in the year 2008.

• Braid (Number None)
• Sins of a Solar Empire (Ironclad Games)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• World of Goo (2D Boy)
• Soul Bubbles (Mekensleep)

Best Audio

The Best Audio Award recognizes the overall excellence of audio in a game – including, but not limited to, sound effects, musical composition, sound design, orchestration, etc.

• Dead Space (EA Redwood Shores)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Game Design

The Best Game Design Award recognizes the overall excellence of design in a game – including, but not limited to, gameplay mechanics, playability, play balancing, and level design.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)

Best Technology

The Best Technology Award recognizes the overall excellence of technology in a game – including, but not limited to, graphics programming, artificial intelligence, networking, and physics.

• SPORE (Maxis)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Left 4 Dead (Valve Software)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Visual Arts

The Best Visual Arts Award recognizes the overall excellence of visual art in a game – including, but not limited to, art direction, animation, modeling, character design, texture creation, and so on.

• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)
• Prince of Persia (Ubisoft Montreal)
• LittleBigPlanet (Media Molecule)
• Gears of War 2 (Epic Games)

Best Writing

The Best Writing Award recognizes the overall excellence of storytelling in a game – including, but not limited to, scenario, plot construction, story, dialogue, and other major factors.

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft Montreal)
• Braid (Number None)
• Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios)
• Grand Theft Auto IV (Rockstar North)
• Metal Gear Solid 4 (Kojima Productions)

Best Downloadable Game

Best Downloadable Game Award recognizes the overall best game released on console or PC platforms specifically and solely for digital download – with an emphasis on smaller, more ‘casual’-friendly titles.

• Castle Crashers (The Behemoth)
• Braid (Number None)
• World Of Goo (2D Boy)
• N+ (Metanet/Slick Entertainment)
• PixelJunk Eden (Q-Games)

Best Handheld Game

Best Handheld Game Award recognizes the overall best game commercially released on any handheld platform during 2008.

• Advance Wars: Days Of Ruin (Intelligent Systems)
• God Of War: Chains Of Olympus (Ready At Dawn Studios)
• Echochrome (SCE Japan)
• Patapon (Pyramid/SCE Japan)
• The World Ends With You (Jupiter/Square Enix)

Game Developers Conference 2009: March 23-27, San Francisco – Game Developer Choice Awards

Continue reading »]]> * Game of the Year:

Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Gears of War 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Fallout 3
LittleBigPlanet

* Studio of the Year:

Media Molecule (winner)
Rockstar North
Harmonix
Bethesda Game Studios

* Best Shooter:

Gears of War 2 (winner)
Left 4 Dead
Resistance 2
Far Cry 2

* Best RPG:

Fallout 3 (winner)
The World Ends With You
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Fable II

* Best Individual Sports Game:

Shaun White Snowboarding (winner)
Skate It
Wii Fit
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09

* Best Handheld Game:

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (winner)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Patapon
God of War: Chains of Olympus

* Best Graphics:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Gears of War 2
Fallout 3

* Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show:

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (winner)
Naruto: The Broken Bond
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Quantum of Solace

* Best Music Game:

Rock Band 2 (winner)
SingStar
Wii Music
Guitar Hero World Tour

* Best Driving Game:

Burnout Paradise (winner)
Mario Kart Wii
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
PURE

* Best Action Adventure Game:

Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Mirror’s Edge
Dead Space

* Best Soundtrack:

Rock Band 2 (winner)
Guitar Hero World Tour
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet

* Best Xbox 360 Game:

Gears of War 2 (winner)
Fallout 3
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable II

* Best Wii Game:

Boom Blox (winner)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
No More Heroes
Wii Fit

* Best PS3 Game:

LittleBigPlanet (winner)
Grand Theft Auto IV
Resistance 2
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

* Best PC Game:

Left 4 Dead (winner)
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Crysis Warhead
Spore

* Best Original Score:

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
LittleBigPlanet
Spore
Fallout 3

* Best Multiplayer Game:

Left 4 Dead (winner)
Call of Duty: World at War
Resistance 2
Gears of War 2

* Best Independent game:

World of Goo (winner)
PixelJunk Eden
Braid
Audiosurf

* Best Fighting Game:

Soulcalibur IV (winner)
Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

* Best Male Voice:

Michael Hollick as Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV (winner)
Stephen Fry as “The Narrator” in LittleBigPlanet
David Hayter as “Old Snake” in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Jason Zumwalt as “Roman Bellic” in Grand Theft Auto IV

* Best Female Voice:

Debi Mae West as Meryl Silverburgh in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (winner)
Keeley Hawes as “Lara Croft” in Tomb Raider: Underworld
Paula Tiso as “Silvia Christel” in No More Heroes
Nathalie Cox as “Juno Eclipse” in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

* Big Name in the Game Male:

Kiefer Sutherland as Sgt. Roebuck in Call of Duty: World at War (winner)
Liam Neeson as “Father” in Fallout 3
Ricky Gervais as “Himself” in Grand Theft Auto IV
Daniel Craig as “James Bond” in Quantum of Solace

* Big Name in the Game Female:

Jenny McCarthy as Special Agent Tanya Adams in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (winner)
Dame Judi Dench as “M” in Quantum of Solace
Eliza Dushku as “Shaundi” from Saints Row 2
Liv Tyler as “Betty Ross” in The Incredible Hulk

* Best Team Sports Game:

NHL 09
Fifa Soccer 09
NBA 2K9
Madden NFL 09

Spike Video Game Awards – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Continue reading »]]> Nintendo UK has released a massive release date list of Wii and DS titles for Europe today. Eurogamer notes that this list features the first GameCube-to-Wii ports, dubbed “New Play Control!” titles, which include Pikmin and Mario Power Tennis. This new label sees classic GameCube titles revamped to utilize new Wii-specific control schemes. See below for the complete, huge list of upcoming European releases.

Wii Release Dates

DS Release Dates

Incoming search terms:

• Oxygene srl wii

Continue reading »]]> Google is adding click-to-buy links to its YouTube video-sharing site. The new feature will let customers purchase songs and video games they like while watching videos on the site.

Google calls it instant gratification. Click-to-buy links, the company said, are non-obtrusive retail links positioned on the watch page beneath the video with other community features. That means users can buy products the same way they share, comment on, and respond to videos.

Google’s first step is to embed iTunes and Amazon links in videos from companies like EMI Music, and provide Amazon product links to the newly released video game Spore on videos from Electronic Arts.

Just the Beginning

According to Glenn Brown, YouTube’s strategic partner development manager, and Thai Tran, YouTube product manager, this is just the beginning of building a broad e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube.

“Our vision is to help partners across all industries — from music, to film, to print, to TV — offer useful and relevant products to a large yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos,” they wrote in the company blog. “And those partners who use our content identification and management system can also enable these links on user-generated content by using Content ID to claim videos and choose to leave them up on the site.”

The retail links are being gradually added to YouTube’s library of music videos — and only in the United States. But YouTube is looking to expand the program to additional content and product partners, and to international users. YouTube also said it will be experimenting with the user interface over time to make sure this works for the community and will innovate based on feedback.

Ads as Content

Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, said the YouTube concept is novel, but not new. There has long been talk about a hypothetical merger of television and the Internet that would allow viewers to stop the programming to purchase a product featured in the broadcast. But little progress has been made.

“There’s pressure on Google from various sources to squeeze more revenue out of YouTube and do it in a way that aligns with the content,” Sterling said. “Google’s search empire is built on the premise that ads are content when a consumer is interested in a particular topic. This is broadly consistent with that philosophy. Google is trying to generate more content without infringing on the user experience too much.”

Sterling isn’t willing to predict how much revenue YouTube could generate through the click-to-buy strategy. However, he does predict there will be more experimentation with tactics for getting more dollars from online videos.

“Google is making a worthy effort to do drive revenue without crowding the user experience with more ad units,” Sterling said. “It’s not exactly like search because people aren’t necessarily in buying mode when they are watching these videos. However, over time, if people become aware of these capabilities, then they may be prepared to buy.”

Google Launches Click-To-Buy Links on YouTube (NewsFactor) by NewsFactor: Yahoo! Tech

Continue reading »]]>

Come take a look at the Space Stage of Spore! Get a taste of Spore’s Space Stage in this video featuring brand new gameplay footage as well as an in depth interview with Producer Kip Katsarelis. Spore available in stores September 2008.