Most prestigious UK games industry accolades revealed; Ubisoft takes top two honours; Microsoft scores three; Red Dead Redemption, Amazon, Nintendo and EA also key winners. Must admit a few surprises in the PR awards!
Friday, April 8th – LONDON
The ninth annual MCV Industry Excellence Awards took place last night, with over 620 games industry professions representing 127 companies crammed into The Brewery, London to celebrate the biggest gaming achievements of the last 12 months.
Hosted by leading games industry publication MCV and presented by broadcaster Iain Lee, the event saw Ubisoft and Microsoft grab the biggest honours.
Microsoft won key industry prize Trade Marketing Team plus Best Use of Social Media (for the Fable III Kingmaker App) and New Games Brand (for Dance Central).
Ubisoft scored the big double: the overall Grand Prix, collected by CEO Yves Guillemot himself, and the MCV Retail Advisory Board’s Special Recognition prize for sales director Darren Bowen.
Nintendo (Marketing Team and Sales Team) and EA (Games Publisher and PR Team) also won two awards each. Other trade honours went to Rockstar Games (Game Campaign for Red Dead Redemption), ShopTo.net (Independent Retailer), Gem (High Street Distribution Team), Sega (Digital Distribution Team), and Amazon (General Retailer).
In total 14 different leading games industry claim 19 accolades that acknowledged expert work in the retail, digital distribution, marketing, distribution and publishing of video games in the UK.
“The diversity of winners illustrates the level of change going on in the games market right now. But there is clearly just as much innovation, energy and ambition as ever,” said Stuart Dinsey, MCV publisher and Intent Media managing director.
“We are delighted for every winner, of course, but particularly flattered that Ubisoft chairman, CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot flew in from Paris especially to pick up the Grand Prix on behalf of his brilliant team here in the UK.
“The MCV Awards demonstrate the strength and success of the UK games business and we’d like to thank everyone who participated across retail, distribution, media and publishing.”
The awards are voted for by a panel of over 70 games industry judges. A special journalist panel votes for the PR Team prize, while the MCV Retail Advisory Board selects their Special Recognition winner. The Grand Prix recipient is selected by the MCV editorial team, and recognises commercial and critical success plus the highest levels of support and efficiency at trade level.
Sponsors this year included: Nintendo, The Hut Group, OPM Recruitment, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Codemasters, Sega, Gamescom, Premier PR, We Dance, InComm, Mountain Dew Energy, Deus Ex, NCsoft and Battlefield 3.
THE WINNERS IN FULL
RETAIL AWARDS
Independent Retailer
ShopTo.Net
Star Store
HMV, Oxford Street
Digital Retail Innovation
Dead Rising 2 DLC (Capcom)
Specialist Retailer
GAME
General Retailer
Amazon
PR & MARKETING AWARDS
Peripherals & Accessories
Gioteck
Best Use of Social Media
Fable III Kingmaker App (Microsoft)
Game Campaign
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games)
New Games Brand
Dance Central (Microsoft)
Trade Marketing Team
Microsoft
Marketing Team
Nintendo
PR Team
Electronic Arts
PEOPLE & INDUSTRY AWARDS
Digital Distribution Team
Sega
High Street Distribution Team
Gem
Sales Triumph
F1 2010 (Codemasters)
Sales Team
Nintendo
Games Publisher
Electronic Arts
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
Retail Advisory Board: Special Recognition
Darren Bowen (Ubisoft)
Grand Prix
Ubisoft