Codemasters triumphant at Golden Joystick Awards – wins Developer and PC gaming categories.

Codemasters, the developer and publisher of world-class video games, was victorious at the 25th annual Golden Joystick Awards winning both the ' UK Developer of the Year 2007 Award' and the ' PC Game of the Year 2007 Award' for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, developed by Turbine, Inc. and published and operated in Europe by Codemasters Online.

The Golden Joystick Awards are the UK's longest running and most popular video game awards and, in this 25th anniversary year, saw nearly 750,000 votes cast by readers of Future Publishing's leading video game magazines and websites. The prestigious event took place at the Hilton Hotel on London's Park Lane on Friday.

In being named ' UK Developer of the Year', Codemasters is the first to be honoured with the award. The category, introduced just this year, praises and recognises the best home-grown creative talent and saw 51 companies competing for nomination.

Codemasters, whose Warwickshire-based central studios are responsible for titles including Colin McRae: DiRT, Brian Lara International Cricket and the Race Driver series, beat competitors including Rockstar North, Lionhead, Rare, and Bizarre Creations to the award. Codemasters was also the only 3rd Party games publisher in the final nominations announced during the event for the 'Publisher of the Year' award, alongside Microsoft and Nintendo.

"To be recognised and rewarded as a creative team is a great achievement and the fact that this award was voted for by hundreds of thousands of gamers has made everyone at Codemasters immensely proud," said Gavin Cheshire, Vice President, Codemasters Studios.

"Game development has been a part of Codemasters for almost as long as the publishing arm has been operating and our titles have a quality and consistency that many other developers and publishers envy. We're overjoyed in winning the award for our achievements to date and, be assured, we have many exciting concepts for the future."

In addition to the 'UK Developer of the Year' award, Codemasters also celebrated winning the much coveted Golden Joystick for ' PC Game of the Year 2007' for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar, which it publishes and operates in Europe in association with the title's developer, Turbine, Inc.

The highly acclaimed massively-multiplayer online role-playing game beat out a stellar list of nominees, including World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars and S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl, cementing its place as one of the premier gaming experiences on the PC. The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar was also nominated in the Soundtrack of the Year, Nuts All-Nighter Award, Online Game of the Year and Ultimate Game of the Year categories as well.

"Codemasters Online is delighted to receive such a prominent award and would like to thank all the dedicated players who voted for The Lord of the Rings Online at this year's Golden Joystick Awards," commented David Solari, Vice President and General Manager of Codemasters Online.

"The nature of the award is particularly important to us because it's voted by the players and we feel extremely privileged to receive PC Game of the Year for The Lord of the Rings Online."

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