7th Game Developers Choice Award Nominees Announced

Organizers have revealed that that Clover Studio's Okami and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lead the list of nominated games for the 7th annual Game Developers Choice Awards with each game receiving four nods, including for 'Best Game'. In addition to the aforementioned Okami and Oblivion, Best Game nominations also recognized Microsoft and Epic Games' Gears of War, as well as Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Wii Sports. In the Best Audio category, the nominees were THQ and Relic's Company of Heroes, Introversion Software's DEFCON: Everybody Dies, Harmonix and RedOctane's Guitar Hero II, Eidos and Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider: Legend, and Sony's LocoRoco. The nominations for Visual Arts went to Square Enix for Final Fantasy XII, as well as Gears of War, Oblivion, Viva Pinata, and Okami. Character Design nominations went to Final Fantasy XII, LocoRoco, Okami, Ubisoft for Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Microsoft and Rare for Viva Pinata. Viva Pinata and Okami also picked up nods for the Game Design award alongside Oblivion, RockStar's Bully and Nintendo's Wii Sports. The Technology nominations consisted of Company of Heroes, Gears of War, and Wii Sports, as well as Capcom's Dead Rising and Rockstar's Table Tennis. Writing award nominations recognized Bully, Oblivion, and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, as well as Funcom and Aspyr Media's Dreamfall: The Longest Journey and Telltale Games' Sam & Max Episode 1: Culture Shock. Finally, New Studio nominations for this year's Choice Awards went to Gastronaut Studios (Small Arms), Iron Lore Entertainment (Titan Quest), Naked Sky Entertainment (RoboBlitz), Ready At Dawn Studios (Daxter), and Wadjet Eye Games (The Shiva). The awards ceremony, to take place Wednesday, March 7, 2007 during CMP Technology’s Game Developers Conference, is produced by the GDC (which also owns Gamasutra.com) and presented by the International Game Developers Association. The gala event, held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival, will be hosted in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. The 7th annual ceremony will be hosted by Double Fine founder and 2006 award recipient Tim Schafer (Psychonauts, Grim Fandango, Full Throttle), and will feature entertainment by MC Chris and video game humorists Mega64. In addition, organizers note that the Independent Game Festival Awards will be announced during 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." The Game Developers Choice Awards ceremony will take place Wednesday, March 7 at 6:30 p.m at the Esplanade Ballroom of the Moscone Center's South Hall. Further information is available on the official Game Developers Choice Awards site, and a full list of nominees, including honored individuals, is available via a Choice Awards statement.