Game Development Community Chooses 'Portal' as Game of the Year at the 8th Annual...

Game Development Community Chooses 'Portal' as Game of the Year at the 8th
Annual Game Developers Choice Awards
Valve's 'Orange Box' Puzzler and 2K Boston/2K Australia's 'Bioshock' Receive 3
Awards Each; 'Crackdown,' 'Crysis,' 'Fl0w' and 'The Legend of Zelda: Phantom
Hourglass' Take Prizes

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Valve's genre-blending first person
shooter/puzzler, "Portal," was the recipient of three honors including Game of
the Year at the 8th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a
ceremony this evening at CMP's 2008 Game Developers Conference (GDC). The
game -- one of three new games on the developer's "Orange Box," alongside
"Half-Life 2: Episode 2" and "Team Fortress 2"-- also took the prizes for
Innovation and Best Game Design. Also taking three awards was 2K Boston/2K
Australia's blockbuster shooter, "Bioshock," which won for Best Audio, Best
Visual Art and Best Writing. Realtime Worlds' "Crackdown," Thatgamecompany's
"Fl0w," Crytek's "Crysis" and Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda: Phantom
Hourglass" were the recipients of the remaining awards, taking home one honor
each. Produced and hosted by GDC and presented by Gamasutra.com and Game
Developer Magazine, the Game Developers Choice Awards honors the creators of
the best video games released during the previous calendar year, as well as
awarding key figures from the video game community.
"The Game Developers Choice Awards stand out from other game industry
prizes by being open to all games of a calendar year and by recognizing the
individual developers behind each celebrated game," said Jamil Moledina,
executive director of the Game Developers Conference. "We are thrilled gamers
at home will be able to meet the people behind their favorite games when our
first ever television broadcast special on the awards airs soon on the G4
television network."
The recipients of the 8th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are:

2007 Best Game Design
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Realm Lovejoy, Paul Graham

2007 Best Visual Art
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Scott Sinclair, Shawn Robertson, Andrew James

2007 Best Technology
Crysis (Crytek/Electronic Arts)
Cevat Yerli, Douglas Binks, Timur Davidenko, Martin Mittring

2007 Best Writing
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Ken Levine, Emily Ridgway, Joe McDonagh, Susan O'Connor

2007 Best Audio
BioShock (2K Boston/2K Australia / 2K Games)
Eric Brosius, Pat Balthrop, Emily Ridgway, Justin Mullins

2007 Best Debut
Crackdown (Real Time Worlds / Microsoft Game Studios)
Ramon Gonzalez, Violetta Sanchez, Rafael Diaz, Jose Guerra

2007 Innovation
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

2007 Best Handheld Game
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo / Nintendo)
Eiji Aonuma

2007 Best Downloadable Game
Flow (thatgamecompany / Sony Computer Entertainment)
Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen, Martin Middleton, Hao Cui, John Edwards,
Nick Clark

2007 Game of the Year
Portal (Valve)
Kim Swift, Erik Wolpaw

Recipients for the evening's special awards were:

Lifetime Achievement Award
Sid Meier

Pioneer Award
Ralph Baer

Ambassador Award
Jason Della Rocca

"It was an incredible year of innovation, top-notch explorations within
known franchises and introductions of great new properties," Simon Carless,
publisher, Gamasutra.com and Game Developer. "The whole community mobilized
to express their admiration for the best works, and we are proud to present
these meaningful peer awards."
For more information about the awards and all the recipients, please
visit: www.gamechoiceawards.com/
About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com)
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest professionals-
only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the
essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of
computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games. The GDC attracts over
16,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists,
producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and
others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange
ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the CMP
Game Group, a division of CMP Technology.
About CMP (http://www.cmp.com)
CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company
serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event and print
brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that
reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology
industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as
TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times and TechOnline; produces
major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developers
Conference and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business
information and marketing services such as the International Customer
Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights and Second Life consulting for
technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media
(http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution
and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than
$3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news.
SOURCE CMP

Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com, or Brian Rubin, brian@fortyseven.com, both
of fortyseven communications, +1-323-658-1200, for CMP; or Loria Ryan of CMP
Game Group, +1-415-947-6287, lryan@cmp.com