OKAMI AND ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION LEAD THE FINALISTS
OF THE SEVENTH ANNUAL GAME DEVELOPERS CHOICE AWARDS

Industry’s Only Open Peer-Based Awards to Honor Greatest Games and Developers of Past Year; Double Fine’s Tim Schafer to Host Ceremony at GDC.

SAN FRANCISCO—Feb. 6, 2007—Clover Studio and Capcom Entertainment’s Ōkami and Bethesda Game Studios and 2K Games' The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead the nominees for the seventh annual Game Developers Choice Awards with four nominations each, including Best Game. 

The ceremony, produced and hosted by CMP Technology’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) and presented by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), honors the developers of the best videogames released during the previous calendar year.  The Game Developers Choice Awards is the only awards program in the industry with an open peer-based nomination system where honors are bestowed to developers by developers, shining the spotlight on the artists who so often remain behind the scenes.  Recipients will be announced during the GDC, which will take place March 5-9, 2007 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center.

“The GDC derives its authenticity from the developers themselves, who teach and share at the show – the Game Developers Choice Awards is then the natural validation of their collective artistic effort, voted on and awarded to individual game creators,” said Jamil Moledina, Executive Director of the Game Developers Conference.  “Since the Choice Awards have an open nomination process and reflect the judgement of peers, the awards have earned the highest respect of the community.”

The Game Developers Choice Award ceremony, hosted by development community darling and 2006 award recipient Tim Schafer of Double Fine Productions, will take place Wednesday, March 7 at 6:30p.m. within the Esplanade Ballroom of the Moscone Center’s South Hall.  Entertainers appearing include DJ Chris and Mega64.  The Independent Game Festival Awards will be announced at the same ceremony in a program hosted by PocketWatch Games’ Andy Schatz.

“Yet again, we received thousands of nomination submissions from around the world, a fact that makes it an enormous honor just to be named as one of the five finalists from each category,” said Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the IGDA.  “Nobody knows what goes into game development better than the developers themselves, so we are excited to see who the community votes to receive each of these very competitive awards.”

Nominations for the 7th annual Game Developer Choice Awards were free of charge and all IGDA members were able to participate, ensuring that the nominees reflect the international development community's opinions.  The IGDA membership will vote on the finalists.  In addition to the voted award categories, honors will be presented for the Lifetime Achievement, First Penguin, Community Contribution, Maverick and Innovation awards. 

For more information about the Game Developers Choice Awards, check out www.gamechoiceawards.com.

The complete list of nominees is (all names listed alphabetically):

Best Game

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Cliff Bleszinski, Michael Capps, Rod Fergusson

Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Todd Howard

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Eiji Aonuma, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

 

Audio

Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
- Crispin Hands, John Johnson, Jennifer Lewis, John Tennant

DEFCON: Everybody Dies (Introversion Software)
- Alistair Lindsay, Michael Maidment

Guitar Hero II (Harmonix Music Systems / RedOctane)
- Jeff Allen, Eric Brosius, Izzy Maxwell

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive)
- Troels Folmann, Karl Gallagher, Mike Peaslee, Gregg Stephens

LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Kemmei Adachi, Tomonobu Kikuchi, Kouji Niikura, Nobuyuki Shimizu

 

Character Design

Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
- Hideo Minaba, Hiroshi Minagawa, Akihiko Yoshida

LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment)
- Tsutomu Kouno, Keigo Tsuchiya

Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Mari Shimazaki, Sawaki Takeyasu, Kenichirou Yoshimura

Rayman Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft Montpellier Studio / Ubisoft Entertainment)
- Michel Ancel, Charles Beirnaert, Hubert Chevillard, Florent Sacre
 
Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Ryan Stevenson

 

Game Design

Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
- Michael Skupa

Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Hideki Kamiya

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Todd Howard

Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Justin Cook, Gregg Mayles

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Keizo Ohta, Takayuki Shimamura, Yoshiaki Yamashita

 

Technology

Company of Heroes (Relic Entertainment / THQ)
- Drew Dunlop, Shelby Hubick, David Swinerd, Ian Thomson

Dead Rising (Capcom Entertainment)
- Shinya Ikuta, Tomofumi Ishida, Yasuhide Sawada, Tomohiro Ueda

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Michael Capps, Ray Davis, Tim Sweeney, Daniel Vogel

Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Rockstar San Diego / Rockstar Games)
- Ted Carson, Eugene Foss, Wil Paredes, Steve Reed

Wii Sports (Nintendo)
- Takuhiro Dohta, Takeshi Miyamoto, Keizo Ohta, Kenta Sato

 

Visual Arts

Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix)
- Isamu Kamikokuryo, Hideo Minaba, Akihiko Yoshida

Gears of War (Epic Games / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Jerry O'Flaherty, Chris Perna

Ōkami (Clover Studio / Capcom Entertainment)
- Naoki Katakai, Kenichirou Yoshimura

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Matthew Carofano, Christiane Meister, Istvan Pely

Viva Piñata (Rare / Microsoft Game Studios)
- Ed Bryan, Ryan Stevenson

 

Writing

Bully (Rockstar Vancouver / Rockstar Games)
- Dan Houser, Jacob Krarup

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey (Funcom / Aspyr Media)
- Dag Scheve, Ragnar Tørnquist

Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock (Telltale Games / GameTap)
- Brendan Ferguson, Dave Grossman, Steve Purcell

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Game Studios / 2K Games/Bethesda Softworks)
- Ken Rolston

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo EAD / Nintendo)
- Kyogoku Aya, Nate Bihldorff, Mitsuhiro Takano

 

New Studio

Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms)
- Jacob Van Wingen, Don Wurster

Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest)
- Paul Chieffo, Jeff Goodsill, Brian Sullivan

Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz)
- Joshua Glazer, Tian Mu, Sam Thibault

Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter)
- Didier Malenfant, Andrea Pessino, Ru Weerasuriya

Wadjet Eye Games (The Shivah)
- Dave Gilbert