Awards honour games industry achievement

 

Five hundred games industry executives last night gathered at Develop Magazine’s Industry Excellence Awards to honour the people behind the year’s best games.

Scrabble Word Finder

Now in their fifth year, the Develop Industry Excellence Awards are Europe’s only dedicated games developer awards ceremony.
 
Voted for by an independent panel of industry experts, they reward the creative achievements across all areas of game development, from visuals arts through to innovation.
 
In all, there were 17 different companies and individuals claiming the 18 awards.
 
Evolution Studios’ MotorStorm (PS3) and Zoe Mode’s Crush (PSP) were voted best new intellectual property, while Traveller’s Tales picked up best independent developer and best use of a licence for its Lego Star Wars II.
 
Realtime Worlds picked up the innovation award for Crackdown, Eden Studios grabbed the award for best use of online for Test Drive Unlimited and Rare’s Viva Piñata bagged the award for visual arts.
 
Other big winners included Sega – voted the industry’s publishing hero – and Ubisoft France, who were unveiled as the best in-house developer.
 
Ian Hetherington, co-founder of the 80s publishing powerhouse Psygnosis and ex managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, was crowned Development Legend.
 
He is currently chairman of Evolution Studios and Real Time Worlds – two of the evening’s winners – illustrating the continued contribution he makes to the industry.

Brave new world

Sony was crowned the Grand Prix winner, capping the 12 months, which have seen the firm deliver a new hardware format that inspired developers around the world to make cutting-edge next generation games.

They are also heralded for supporting great ideas devised by both its internal studios and external partners.
 
Guest of Honour at this year’s event was Richard Garriott, creator of the Ultima series and Executive Producer of NCsoft’s Tabula Rasa.
 
"The fact that no one company dominated the awards this year shows what a diverse range of talent this industry boasts," said Michael French, editor of Develop Magazine.
 
"It’s been a brilliant year for games, with new hardware allowing developers to really stretch their imagination with new ways to play – so competition for these prestigious awards has been fiercer than ever.
 
"Whilst the winners and the finalists will undoubtedly grab the headlines, everyone involved in games development should be applauded for continuing to broaden the market and those playing our games," he concluded.
 
 

You’ve read it. Now review it.

Back to top

Back to top