Game Developers Choice, IGF Winners

The 2009 Game Developers Choice Awards, the only honors for developers as voted on by developers, were celebrated tonight in a packed hall full of exuberant developers and media. The event was hosted by Double Fine founder Tim Schafer, whose one liners may indicate a career to fall back on should this game development gig fall through.

Harmonix co-founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy received the Pioneer Award for their innovation in the music game genre with such games as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while Video Games Live co-founder and founder of the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) Tommy Tallarico, was honored with the Ambassador Award for helping to advance game audio, music and games. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Kojima said that there were a lot more things that he wanted to do with his life, like maybe write a novel, or direct a film - but he also said that he has a long career ahead in the game industry.

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Call of Duty 4 Wins Big at BAFTAs

The GAME British Academy Video Games Awards (BAFTAs) are over and the biggest winner was Call of Duty 4. The awards took place at the London Hilton on Park Lane, and were hosted by games aficionado Dara O’Briain. At this gala event some of last year’s biggest games were honored in various categories, while Atari founder Nolan Bushnell was given the BAFTA FELLOWSHIP Award for his contributions to the industry over his long and interesting career.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the biggest winner of this year’s BAFTA video game awards, picking up top honors in the Action & Adventure, Gameplay, Story and Character categories - along with the only category voted on by players - the GAME Award of 2008. Dead Space also did pretty well, landing awards for Original Score and Use of Audio, while Super Mario Galaxy won the Best Game award this year.

A full list of the categories, nominees and this year’s winners can be found after the break (winners highlighted in bold).

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LittleBigPlanet and MotorStorm Coming to PSP

So, you thought the PSP was dead, eh? Or at least living on borrowed time? Not so, says Sony, especially if its recently announced 2009 lineup is any indication. According to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Sony’s Little Handheld That Could will be chugging along uphill in 2009, as some of the most popular titles on its PlayStation 3 big brother get shrunken down for new PSP releases.

“There are a lot of big claims in the gaming industry but we’re confident when we say that 2009 is going to be an exciting year for PSP,” said Mark Hardy, European Marketing Director, SCEE. “Our fans have demanded big PSP titles and this year, we’re going to deliver again and again. With Resistance: Retribution, already on its way to stores, PSP gamers are going to get one big franchise after another.”

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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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Game Developers Choice Award Finalists Announced

The ninth annual Game Developers Choice Awards finalists have been announced this morning, with Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet leading with seven nominations and Jonathan Blow’s Xbox Live Arcade title Braid following closely with five nominations.

Other nominees include Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Fable 2, Far Cry 2, World of Goo, Metal Gear Solid 4, Grand Theft Auto IV and many others. The Game Developers Choice Awards are held annually in tandem with the Game Developers Conference in March.

The full list of categories and nominees after the jump:

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The Rundown: Feb. 4, 2009

Love, war, strategy, survival, sackboys and hockey draw our attention in today’s edition of The Rundown. More after the jump.

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The Top 21 News Stories of 2008: 21 - 15

(contributors: Hal Halpin, President, ECA; James Fudge, David Chapman)

We count down the top twenty-one news stories of 2008, though picking which were the very best proved to be a painful, gut-wrenching exercise. There were so many interesting stories this year; we watched the interactive entertainment industry grow - and then later - retract as the global economy wreaked havoc on every kind of business you can imagine; players got their first taste of WiiWare, Home and the New Xbox Experience; we watched as the big three slugged it out for North American supremacy in the latest round of console wars and we saw Blizzard dust off its classic franchises and move million of copies of its Lich King expansion.

Yeah, 2008 was a good year, but not without its share of triumphs, disappointments, joys and sorrow. Here are the stories that moved us, made us angry, scared us and made us think about the industry we cover.

We begin with #21 - #15, starting now.

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