Golden Joystick Awards 2007 Announces Shortlists
David Mitchell Confirmed to Host 2007 Awards
PRESS INFORMATION: STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 2pm WEDNESDAY, 1 AUGUST 2007
The Oscars of the gaming world, the Golden Joystick Awards will today announce the shortlists for each of the 17 categories in the 25th anniversary year of the UK's oldest and biggest gaming award ceremony. Since 1 July, gamers worldwide have been voting for games on the Golden Joystick Awards longlists* at www.goldenjoystick.com and, with more votes being cast than ever before, the second round of shortlist** voting begins today. The Golden Joystick Awards is also proud to announce that David Mitchell, star of Channel 4's brilliant Peep Show and feature film Magicians, is set to host this year's award ceremony.
As all three super consoles now available to gamers, the 25th anniversary of the Golden Joystick Awards coincides with the most exciting time in video gaming history ever. With 2006 proving to be the 'year of the handheld', it remains to be seen what will emerge triumphant from this year's Golden Joystick Awards. The sheer muscle of the recently launched Sony Playstation 3 grabbed the attention of gamers in last year's awards as it received the 'One To Watch' accolade but the innovation of the Nintendo Wii console and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are both proving popular amongst UK gamers.
As most games publishers continue to release titles across all platforms, 2007 is shaping up to be a software showdown. The shortlist for this year's 'One's To Watch' category is entirely populated by highly anticipated game releases including Metal Gear Solid 4, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Unsurprisingly, both the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 feature in the 'Innovation Award' shortlist along with the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation's alternative The Playstation Network, while the 'Mobile Game of the Year' category is generating a lot of voting traffic and is being hotly contested by a number of titles in this, the newest of the GJA categories. Elsewhere in the awards, despite the availability of the super consoles, both the Playstation 2 and PC are still proving to be popular gaming platforms and there are some interesting developments in the 'Ultimate Game of the Year' shortlist, that heavily features expansive, fantasy game titles such as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and Gears of War. The Golden Joystick Awards 2007 shortlists in full are as follows:
The Sun Family Game of the Year
Wii Sports
Guitar Hero II
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Viva Piñata
Virtua Tennis 3
Mario Party 8
Sims 2 Pets
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Bliss Girls' Choice Award
Guitar Hero II
Viva Piñata
Okami
Cooking Mama
Virtua Tennis 3
Sims 2 Pets
SingStar Pop Hits
Crackdown
Buzz!: The Mega Quiz
Rayman Raving Rabbids
BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Guitar Hero II
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Need for Speed Carbon
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
God of War II
Gears of War
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Okami
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
Nuts All Nighter Award
Gears of War
WoW: Burning Crusade
Wii Sports
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Resistance Fall of Man
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Battlefield 2142
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
Company of Heroes
Handheld Game of the Year
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Pokémon Diamond/Pearl
Final Fantasy III
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Killzone: Liberation
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All
Tekken: Dark Resurrection
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Chili Con Carnage
Innovation Award
The Nintendo Wii
PlayStation 3
DirectX 10
Wii Sports
Halo 3 Beta
Steam
Xbox Box Live Arcade
The PlayStation Network
Wii Play
Crackdown
Mobile Game of the Year
Final Fantasy
Lemmings Return
Sims 2 Pets
3D Space Invaders
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Transformers
UEFA Champions League 2006-2007
Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII
World Series of Poker Texas Hold'em
Orcs & Elves
Nintendo Game of the Year
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Wii Sports
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition
Pokémon Diamond/Pearl
Call of Duty 3
Final Fantasy III
Mario Strikers: Charged Football
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Red Steel
Ones To Watch Award
Grand Theft Auto IV
Assassin's Creed
Crysis
Halo 3
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Metal Gear Solid 4
Super Mario Galaxy
Fallout 3
Bioshock
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
Online Game of the Year
EVE Online: The Path to Kali
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
Gears of War
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Resistance: Fall of Man
Mario Strikers Charged Football
Guild Wars: Nightfall
Battlefield 2142
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
PC Game of the Year
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl
Company of Heroes
Football Manager 2007
Guild Wars Nightfall
Battlefield 2142
Test Drive Unlimited
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
Medieval II: Total War
Supreme Commander
Gothic 3
Neverwinter Nights 2
Playstation Game of the Year
God of War II
Final Fantasy XII
Resistance: Fall of Man
Okami
MotorStorm
Guitar Hero II
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Call of Duty 3
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Killzone: Liberation
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
F.E.A.R.
Canis Canem Edit
Xbox Game of the Year
Gears of War
Guitar Hero II
Forza Motorsport 2
Crackdown
The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles
Call of Duty 3
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
F.E.A.R.
Viva Piñata
Test Drive Unlimited
Saints Row
The Darkness
Virtua Tennis 3
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Pro Evolution Soccer 6
Publisher of the Year
Nintendo
Ubisoft
Rockstar Games
Electronic Arts
Microsoft Game Studios
Sony
Codemasters
THQ
Square Enix
Konami
Capcom
Atari
Take Two Interactive / 2K Games
Activision
Sega
Retailer of the Year
Amazon.co.uk
Play.com
Game
Gamestation
Gameplay
HMV
EB Games
Virgin Megastores
Gameseek
UK Developer of the Year
Rockstar North
Codemasters
Lionhead
Rare
Team 17
Free Radical
Criterion
Sony London
Bizarre Creations
Traveller's Tales
Evolution Studios
Realtime Worlds
Sports Interactive
FireFly Studios
Llamasoft
Ultimate Game of the Year
Gears of War
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
God of War II
Final Fantasy XII
Resistance: Fall of Man
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
MotorStorm
Guitar Hero II
Wii Sports
Guild Wars Nightfall
Okami
Test Drive Unlimited
Company of Heroes
The final results of the Golden Joystick Awards 2007 will be unveiled at the glitzy award ceremony, held at London's Park Lane, Hilton hotel on Friday, 26th October 2007. Having started life performing with the famous Cambridge Footlights, host David Mitchell has become a household name in British comedy thanks to the huge success of Peep Show and the many sketch show series that he, and long term comedy partner, Robert Webb, have written and starred in. Once again, the entire night will be webcast live through computerandvideogames.com and, for the first time ever, on the gamesradar.com websites.
Officially the world's oldest and most respected games award ceremony, the Golden Joystick Awards this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Held for the first time in 1982, the Golden Joystick Awards have been honouring innovation in gaming since the days when Atari, Commodore and Spectrum ruled the earth. Now, as the world enjoys a golden age of video gaming there has never been a period when the pastime was more popular. Once considered the pursuit of bedroom geeks and younger kids, video gaming is finally poised to break through to the mainstream and has become one of the biggest entertainment industries in the UK, equalling the film industry in economic value. The Golden Joystick Awards 2007 are set to be the definitive guide to what's exciting the world's rapidly growing gaming community.
VOTE NOW AT www.goldenjoystick.com
***ENDS***
For further information on the Golden Joystick Awards please contact:
Dan Walsh @ The Incubator
T: +44 (0) 20 8744 80 60
M: +44 (0) 7775 770 379
E: dan@incubator-music.com
NOTES TO EDITORS:
*Every game released between the 31st July 2006 and the 1st August 2007 is eligible for the Golden Joystick Awards' longlist. Voted for entirely by gamers, the only time the Golden Joystick Award committee are involved in the process is when deciding which categories games should be represented in
**The shortlist will comprise the top 10-15 (depending on category) games as voted for by gamers. The shortlists will be announced on August 1st 2007 and gamers will have a second opportunity to vote for the
overall winning game
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