Halo 3 Wins Edge Award For Innovation, Online Integration

Bungie's Halo 3 earned Edge's 2008 Award For Interactive Innovation, announced the publication's deputy editor Alex Wiltshire at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today. "In the year since it came out, it's still showing itself to have innovated deeply in what it means to have a game on the internet," said Wiltshire. "It has the party system, the theatre, there's Forge, which pre-empted even LittleBigPlanet in allowing you to co-operatively mess around with levels, you can share pictures and levels... Nothing has ever put this into a consistent and coherent whole as well as Halo 3 has." The objective of the Edge Award, said Wiltshire, is to recognize "the game that pushed the creative culture forward the most in the past year." In its first year, Brain Training earned the nod, and last year's award went to Okami. This year's finalists included Grand Theft Auto IV, whereby Rockstar "showed their unparalleled understanding of world-building,"; Portal for its integration of story and puzzle; Rock Band, for its "inspiring" extension on Guitar Hero formula; the "genius" of Super Mario Galaxy, and Wii Fit. But of the winner, Wiltshire said, "We think Halo 3 presents a road map for the way online will be integrated into games from this point forward." By way of acceptance speech, Bungie presented a short machinima -- including community manager Luke Smith as a blue trooper who leered at Cortana and concluded with, "...and don't show this to the internet!" "The last 12 months [were] kind of a stand out... for games," Wiltshire said. "I think developers are really begining to understand the power of the platforms and how to use that to tell stories, create interfaces and use networks."