Golden Joystick Awards 2010
This year's twelve most sought-after games for Christmas revealed.
Embargoed until 0001hrs Friday 29th October
29th October 2010 – The 12 most sought after video games for Xmas have today been revealed by a panel of the UK’s foremost video games experts.
Assembled to mark the 2010 Golden Joystick Awards, the culmination of the annual London Games Festival - a panel comprising editors and writers for leading games magazines including the influential Edge and GamesMaster magazines and websites CVG.co.uk, T3.com and TechRadar.com were tasked with predicting the games that will have Brits digging deep this Christmas.
The UK games industry is now worth over £4bn a year, with new releases routinely outperforming the most successful box office movies and music releases.
The hugely successful ‘Call of Duty’ first person shooter series leads the list of games predicted to top the festive wish list and fuel the family arguments in households across the land with its latest instalment ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’.
However, a strong following pack will also be challenging for the coveted Xmas Number One slot with recently released role playing game ‘Fallout New Vegas’ and hotly anticipated, UK-developed ‘Fable III’ set to press ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ all the way to the line.
The diversity of the games tipped for success illustrates the myriad choices facing Xmas gift buyers in what could be a bumper season for the video games industry. Football games, racing games, action role playing games and music video games are all represented in the top 12. Gamers and gift buyers will be spoilt for choice as the festive season also sees the launch of the revolutionary controller-free gaming and entertainment experience of Microsoft’s Kinect device.
The panel’s full list of Top 12 games for Xmas is;
1. Call of Duty: Black Ops
2. Fallout: New Vegas
3. Fable 3
4. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
5. DJ Hero 2
6. Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
7. Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
8. Gran Turismo 5
9. Rock Band 3
10. FIFA 11
11. Vanquish
12. Kirby’s Epic Yarn
James Binns, Publisher of Edge spokesperson for the Golden Joystick Awards said:
“2010 has been a vintage year for video gaming and that is borne out by the strength and breadth of our tips for best-seller status this Xmas. Our team has debated long into the night to create this rundown and whilst ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops’ may be the front runner for the Xmas Number One spot, it has some serious competition.”
Today also sees the winners announced in the 2010 Golden Joystick Awards. The world’s biggest video games awards event is being held in front of over 1,000 industry executives at a glittering ceremony in central London. The best video games of the past 12 months will be honoured following a public vote that garnered a record breaking 1.54 million votes.
###ENDS###
Note to editors: A panel of 40 games journalists working for Future Publishing’s market-leading video games magazines and websites. The company publishes ten monthly games magazines in the UK, including officially licensed titles for Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony. Future’s video games and technology websites reach over 15m unique users around the world each month.
Journalists were asked to nominate the games they were most looking forward to playing over Christmas 2010.
For more information about the Golden Joystick Awards 2010 please contact
Victoria Rose /Justin Crosby at Boom! Dialogue on 0207 520 0887
justin@boomdialogue.com victoria@boomdialogue.com
www.boomdialogue.com
For more information about Future UK please contact
Will Guyatt, Future UK, 01225 822517
About Future
Future plc is an international special-interest media group, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events. We hold market-leading positions in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include T3, Total Film, Classic Rock, Guitar World and Official Xbox Magazine.
Our websites include gamesradar.com , bikeradar.com , and techradar.com . Future sells more than 3 million magazines each month; we attract more than 20 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 27 annual live events. In addition, Future exports or syndicates publications to 90 countries, making us the UK's number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines.