LittleBigPlanet Sweeps Interactive Achievement Awards

The 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony is over and the big winners of this year’s awards were LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Dead Space and Left 4 Dead - but mostly it was Media Molecule’s big night in the spotlight, leaving every other big name franchise released in 2008 eating its dust for most of the night.

Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet was the big winner of the night, sweeping the Overall and Console Game of the Year awards, in addition to multiple awards for Outstanding Achievement in art direction, visual engineering, character performance and game direction. The PS3 exclusive also won the Family Game of the Year Award and the Outstanding Innovation in Gaming Award.

The other big winners of the night, (garnering more than one award) were Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3 and Dead Space. Two indie titles, World of Goo and Braid, scored awards as well. A full listing of all the winners can be found after the break.

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AIAS Award Winners Announced

The recipients of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences” 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were announced this week, with BioShock, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box picking up four awards each. The annual awards for developers by developers also inducted Blizzard’’s Mike Morhaime into the Hall of Fame and gave a Lifetime Achievement Award to former Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi.

Mike Morhaime, president, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, was inducted as the 11th member of the prestigious AIAS Hall of Fame for helping to create some of the world’s most popular franchises, including Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft and World of Warcraft. Ken Kutaragi, former president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., received the Lifetime Achievement Award for this year.

As for the games, Call of Duty 4 won Overall Game of the Year, Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play; BioShock won Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition and Outstanding Achievement in Story Development; and The Orange Box won Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Computer Game of the Year, Outstanding Character Performance, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering. The big list of all of this year’’s winners can be found below:

Overall Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Console Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Computer Game of the Year: The Orange Box
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming: Rock Band
Handheld Game of the Year: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Multiplayer Game of the Year: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Cellular Game of the Year: skate
Role-Playing Game of the Year: Mass Effect
Racing Game of the Year: MotorStorm
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design: The Orange Box: Portal
Adventure Game of the Year: Super Mario Galaxy
Sports Game of the Year: skate
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year:Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Action Game of the Year: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Family Game of the Year: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Animation: Assassin’’s Creed
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering: Crysis
Outstanding Character Performance: The Orange Box: Portal (Ellen McLaw’’s voice work as GLADos)
Outstanding Achievement in Story Development: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering: The Orange Box: Portal
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play:Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Downloadable Game of the Year: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition: BioShock
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack: Rock Band
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design: BioShock

Congratulations to all of this year’s big winners.

Interactive Achievement Awards Nominees Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.